This weekend, I will be applying some security updates and correcting some issues on the site with profiles.  There will be some downtime while that’s being done.

Yes, this is the first update in over a year.

Today I’m launching the new poker tables which will fix chat.  These are not the final design for the new tables, as I’m working on something that better fits with the Poker Underworld theme, however these tables do fix the chat issue, and they offer quite a few upgrades over the old tables.

You can try them out now by changing the dropdown on the lobby to say New Tables instead of Classic Tables.  If you have any issues, you can easily switch back to the classic tables.  One unfortunate negative with these new tables is that your avatars are now being stretched.  To fix this, I suggest that you upload your avatars again so that they look nicer.

Once the new tables are ready, I will send out a Poker Underworld newsletter for the first time, inviting old players back and announcing the new changes.  Included with these changes will be a balance reset, and the start of the Poker Underworld hall of fame and a monthly prize.

I appreciate your patience, for those who have stuck around.  Poker Underworld is now approaching its 4 year anniversary.  It is a site that does not make money, but was built out of a love of going all in.

Update: I am working on the issue with the missing avatars.

Update 2: Most avatars have now been restored, although in some cases you may have been restored to an older avatar.  Please upload new avatars if you are having issues.

Ryan

Today I was able to get the newest poker upgrade installed.  There were issues that delayed this by a couple of weeks.  The new upgrade allows me to launch new tables, which unfortunately I can’t launch today due to some issues getting the avatars to work properly.

We’ve created a number of different tables and settings, which we’re working out the bugs with now.  This upgrade also fixes the chat issue, but we need the new tables finished before we can upload them.

Here’s a screenshot of one of the tables, although this isn’t the exact design I’m going to be launching with.  More updates to follow.

A new update is coming this weekend that fixes the chat issue (for everyone).  The best part is we’re getting new carpets!

If you want to read a good post, check COCOTHECLOWN’s comment to the previous blog entry.  It’s got great insight into how PokerUnderworld looks for new players coming in, and for the type of competition we have going on right now.

Balances on PokerUnderworld got uncontrollably high when the SnG tournaments paid out 150% of the wagers.  With each tourney, the amount of chips in the system climbed higher and higher.  Typically, the only new chips that should come into play are the chips of new players.  A very small rake it taken from the pots right now, and it has always been capped very low as well.  As the core group of players have grown larger balances, they have left the smaller tables and go where they can win the most chips.  This is understandable, however in order for a new player to be able to compete against PokerUnderworld’s best, they have a huge uphill battle to climb to get enough chips to compete, and without help, it’s pretty much impossible for them.  For that reason, PokerUnderworld isn’t growing.

Most of you know that I want to reset chips each month, move your balance to a lifetime total so that I can build a Hall of Fame, and keep the competition high by forcing players to start even (or possibly with a bonus to the top 100) each month – the reloads are always there if you mess up after all.  There has always been so much backlash against this, that I’ve been too concerned about destroying what community we already have to make the changes.  This change would make each month important – a new month long competition with monthly champions, and a chance for even new players to be near the top if they are good players.

On a technical level, massive balances and huge stakes tables are just tough for the server to handle.  At some point, it just gets hard to even read the balances, and the numbers get very big to store.

Monthly competitions allow us to compete for prizes – imagine an optional entry free (using the Poker Points) that would give you a chance to split a monthly pot.  Not all players would have to buy into it, but the ones that wanted to could actually win something.

I’d love to see everyone starting at the low tables, and racing to get to the high stakes ones each month.  It would also be possible to have Hall of Fame tables that allow you to play with your lifetime balance, so that you can still play high stakes when you want to take a break from the monthly competition.

Anyways, I’m putting this out there again to see your comments.  I know that I should have made this change years ago when I first called for it.  It’s the type of change that you don’t realize you’re going to like until you try it.

I have just completed upgrading the poker tables.  This upgrade contains quite a few upgrades and changes which I’ll be adding to the website.  It should immediately fix the issue with being able to “stuff” chat, however it still appears to have an issue with the scrollbar in Flash 10 which I am working on fixing.

Please respond in the comments if you notice anything strange or any errors.

I have also updated the August leaderboard, and made some small repairs to the profile pages.  Please have a look.

I am currently updating the Poker Underworld tables, and installing bug fixes.  Poker Underworld may be down for up to 1 hour.

UPDATE: I apologize, as the upgrade did not go successfully.  We will be trying the upgrade again tonite from 12:00AM-1:00AMET.  Once the upgrade is successful, I will reschedule the chat session.

UPDATE 2: All I’m going to say is if somebody on the site is claiming to work for PokerUnderworld, or that they own PokerUnderworld, they are not being truthful.  Don’t listen to them, and move on.  I only come online as thenotself and it’s very rarely.  Nobody else on the site is affiliated.

I am ready to release some upgrades to the PokerUnderworld tables which will solve some long running issues.  I will be installing these upgrades this evening between 12:00AM-1:00AM ET.  During that time the Poker tables will be offline.

1. “Blocking” chat – this should be fixed in the upgrade.  People won’t be able to stall chat anymore.
2. Sitting out – I’ll be limiting the number of hands a user can sit out for before they lose their seat at the table.  I’ll start with 5 hands.

As you’ve probably noticed, I added a $2,500,000 NL table and a $5,000,000 NL table yesterday.  I see that everyone is on those tables now, and even the $1,000,000 NL tables are empty.

Contrary to rumours, there is no plan to reset bankrolls right now here, however, the bankrolls do create a few problems.  A big one is that new players find it far too challenging to build up to the levels of people who have been here for over a year.  This makes PokerUnderworld too much of an “old boys” (sorry for the term ladies) club.  The original concept of PokerUnderworld was that players would level up as they build their bankrolls, but since most new players join and find all of the low stakes tables EMPTY, they leave.  A monthly balance reset would help solve this, because every month you’d start at the low stakes tables and work your way up to the high stakes.  For that reason, I want you guys to think about monthly balance resets again, with a lifetime leaderboard.  You won’t lose your chips each month, they’ll just be added to your lifetime score.  Think about it.

PokerUnderworld isn’t a profit making website, so it’s been hard to devote time to keeping it up the way I should.  I’ve committed myself to spending time improving the game this month.  I’m interested in having a group chat with any players that are interested so we can all talk together about how to make changes that will make the game more exciting.  If you’re interested, I will create a private chat and give out the password here on the blog.

Originally, PokerUnderworld would do monthly resets, and let you use your lifetime bankroll to buy virtual prizes to show off on your profiles.  This is pretty cool because you can decide what you’d spend your huge fortunes on if you really did earn all of this cash.  The prizes would be on your profiles and listed next to your name in the poker rooms.  Think about it.

As for tourney credits, I didn’t finish this plan, but I’m willing to try again.  The idea here would be that you could buy or earn tourney credits which would get you into weekly multitable tournaments.  Each tournament would have 3-5 cash prizes depending on how many people entered.  This would also allow PokerUnderworld to make some money that would help pay for moderators, upgrades, and bigger prizes.

Respond in the comments if you’d be interested in having a group chat this Saturday, August 7th at 12:00PM ET.

Looking at the December leaderboards, it’s nice to see that the bankrolls aren’t ballooning out of control anymore. We’ve got 2 1,000,000 chip tables now, so the stakes are high and leaders will to take some risks to keep growing their totals. Nice.

I have fixed up the 1,000,000 SnG because I raised the chips to 10k, but I left the bets as if the chips were at 1k. I raised everything, but not quite 10x, so the game will be a little slower than the other tables, but not by much.

Now, on the subject of “all in” and “no fold” tables – I can now force calls on timeouts instead of folds. I like the idea of having a separate balance for this type of game, but I can’t make that work right now. I’m open to bringing back those types of tables (without the huge tourney payouts though) and seeing if this new setting ends the fighting. Post your comments here, but I might set up a “no fold” and an “all in” this weekend to see how it goes.

Starting this month, Poker Underworld will no longer seed the jackpots in the SnG tournaments by an extra 80%. This is the same as the change I made at the beginning of November, and then rolled back. Unfortunately, rolling back on the change was a mistake as November was a bad month for fighting and complaints.

I’ve just upgraded security on the tables which should help with players playing multiple accounts at once.

I’ve been clear in the past – I’m not getting involved in sorting out disputes. Everyone has a right to play here. In a real game, if the people you were playing with were annoying or rude, you’d leave and go to another table – so I’d rather work on giving you that ability. No matter what changes I make, somebody will find a way to annoy you.

Most complaints of “cheating” are because of the “no fold” tables. I cannot technically force people not to fold when they time out. That means forcing a true game of “no fold” is not possible, so let’s stop playing it. If, in the future, I can force calls on timeouts, then we can try this type of game again. In normal Poker, the best players win.

I have to apologize about the Champion of Poker Underworld tournaments. I’ve had a few problems getting the interface to work properly and getting the tables to merge properly on multi-table tournaments. That, combined with a busy November means I’m a month late now on delivering. I had planned not to make any further changes to Poker Underworld until the tournaments were ready, but I can’t wait any longer.

UPDATE: I just found a way to force players to call instead of folding when they time out. This means it probably would be possible to force a true “no fold, all in” table. I’m not sure if I want to bring it back, so please put your comments on this below.