It has been quite a while since my last update, so I’m pleased to be able to write about some new features that will be coming to Poker Underworld in May.

As always, I like to write about changes first in the blog, to get an idea of how you feel about them.  These changes address the 3 major issues I’ve been trying to improve since Poker Underworld launched 1 year ago.

Point Totals Are Ridiculous!

I hoped to fix this last summer, but unfortunately I let many of the comments in the forums discourage me from making any major changes.  Back then we had balances of 1 million points - today 11 billion.

I’m really happy to see so many top players that have been here for over 6 months, and I want to maintain the leaderboard as it is.  While I was tempted to do a full points reset, instead I am planning to “reverse split” the points at 10,000:1, so for every 10,000 points you have now, you’ll have 1 point.  This will reduce the site leader back to 1 million points, which is still high, but manageable.  Anybody with less than 10,000 points will be reset back to 2,000.

SnG Tournaments Should Be About Skill

I will also be reducing the prizes in the SnG tournaments to 60-30-10, 80-20, and 100 (Winner Take All) instead of 100-50-30.  Originally, I set the SnG this way to make it more attractive, but it is directly responsible for the huge balances, and has taken the seriousness out of the game.

These changes will immediately bring the points totals down to more realistic levels, and hopefully make the games more serious.  Poker Underworld was meant to be a place to learn poker, and play for reputation.  Unfortunately, with outrageous balances, and easy SnG prizes, there is little skill being shown at Poker Underworld anymore.

At Long Last, Poker Underworld Will Give Away Prizes

My goal has always been to give away prizes, but this has been difficult to do legally, and financially, while still remaining a free website.  While Poker Underworld does run advertising, there is not enough money to afford to give away prizes.

Finally, we will begin to offer daily freerolls for small, real money prizes.  You will be able to enter these freerolls by completing various free advertising offers on Poker Underworld.  You will receive credits for these offers which will get you entry into the tournaments.  Runner-up prizes will be free entries into future tournaments.

I am currently building the tournaments, and hope to have them ready in the beginning of May.  There will be a new leaderboard to display tournament winners, and we will also offer a satellite tournament each week for the winners of each day’s tournament.

Thank You For Being Loyal Poker Underworld Players

Because these updates have taken a lot of work, it has taken a long time to get to them.  Thank you for playing here, and please send your feedback on these changes if you have suggestions that help accomplish our 3 goals.