[Closed] Feedback on the PokerStrategy.com Bonus and Promotions Policy

My question is simple: do you not state at your site that you will bank $50 starting capital if a member who passes the quiz successfully registers at one of the offered poker sites through Pokerstrategy.com?

I quote: "Become a successful poker player
with PokerStrategy
The best poker education – for free!
Pass our quiz to get $50+$100 free starting capital! From beginner to professional – with our strategies!"

I tried, passed the quiz, registered at Betfair Poker and they told me that there will be no $50 bonus coming from you.

Am I the biggest sucker in the world or is there another explanation?

Thanks!

Hey DusanStanar,

you can get your $50 bankroll on a choice of poker rooms - you're linked to that choice upon succeeding the quiz.

Here's the link:
http://www.pokerstrategy.com/quiz/platform/

Betfair Poker sadly isn't among these sites, mainly because Betfair is - compared to PokerStars, PartyPoker etc. - not well suited to start your career with $50.

Our choice of $50 beginner rooms is based on:
- offering the right beginner limits
- offering enough beginner limit tables

plus of course is there an extensive process that needs to be set up - which can take quite some time.

But it's better today than in 2007, when we had only PartyPoker as a choice

Lutz

okay, I read the thread posted above... finally soem good explanation because hwen I was counting (well, not me but my son ♦ ) that how it is possible for u to have money for those promotions, startign capitals etc u were BE
now I understand it, I think for example 2+2 should be gracefull for PS
when they dont like SSckers well, they can play SH or learn to play poker (when u cant beat SSS u cant rally play ...)

Reposne to ur repsons eabove() : U state that

---
Our choice of $50 beginner rooms is based on:
- offering the right beginner limits
- offering enough beginner limit tables
---
but lets take Pacific as example, do they really have enough begginers table? and are they right? SnG arent surely good, CG are easy but what if somebody wnat to play SnG there? or FL FL they cant ven play there, I would recomend to post smth in Guide to Choosing platform

(Quote)
Click here for an example of why it is bad to have affiliates and skins compete over bonus systems and rakeback on a network.
(quote/)
That link there isnt working

Anyway.... Keep up the good work

I am more and more convinced that your site is fraudulent.

So, if Betfair isn't accepting your bonuses, why is it on the list at your site?

I also tried Titan, where they "sadly" do not accept players from my country although they conveniently have it in their list of countries when I was opening my account.

Lastly, I registered at Everest and when I tried both of those bonus codes you provided, it sais at Everest that my account was not eligible.

Can u PLEASE NAME ONE POKER SITE WHERE YOUR BONUS IS ELIGIBLE?

Originally posted by DusanStanar
I am more and more convinced that your site is fraudulent.

So, if Betfair isn't accepting your bonuses, why is it on the list at your site?

I also tried Titan, where they "sadly" do not accept players from my country although they conveniently have it in their list of countries when I was opening my account.

Lastly, I registered at Everest and when I tried both of those bonus codes you provided, it sais at Everest that my account was not eligible.

Can u PLEASE NAME ONE POKER SITE WHERE YOUR BONUS IS ELIGIBLE?

Hi DusanStanar,

You've raised several points there so forgive me if i miss any and I'm sure a Head Admin will not doubt be able to confirm or add to this shortly. I will try to cover some of the issues you've raised however as an experienced/long time member of this forum to provide you with some reassurances at least.

Firstly, sorry that you have experienced problems and for the inconvenience caused. Problems are rare, unfortunate and we of course appreciate your frustration.

PokerStrategy

PokerStrategy isn't fraudulent, it is a highly respected company across the whole industry and is rapidly growing due to it's success both in business terms and from customer/member satisfaction. The last figures I heard were that it has over 2.5 million members, although of course not all currently active at once.
The following Business Model link will provide you will details of how PokerStrategy can afford to invest in free starting capital and the education of poker players:

• Business Model

Residence/Legislation issues

Are you by any chance a U.S. resident? If not, then please ignore the following bit, however if you a U.S. resident unfortunately PokerStrategy are not able to offer you membership due to the current legal framework in the U.S. Full details are provided in the following link and there is a checkbox on the initial PokerStrategy registration page that requires you to confirm that you are not a U.S. resident, before being able to take the quiz/proceed further.

• US Residents please read

Poker platforms operating countries

Each poker platform has it's own list of countries that it operates in and will restrict residents of certain nations due to various legal or logistical reasons.
Obviously these are determined by each respective poker platform and are outside of PokerStrategy's control, however each partner site is chosen partly based on their ability to provide as large as possible geographical spread.

Poker Platforms available to you specifically

Whilst PokerStrategy have many partner platforms, they may not all be available to you due to the reasons stated above.

The link that Head Admin Xantos provided (and provided again below for convenience) will show exactly which ones are available specifically to yourself:

• http://www.pokerstrategy.com/quiz/platform/

If this only indicates Betfair or others you have already tried, please contact PokerStrategy's customer support team who will be happy to assist you. You can contact them via our ticketing system as follows:

• Support Ticketing System

Once again, we're sorry to hear that you have experienced problems and hope that we are able to help you resolve them quickly.

Best regards,

Bart

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Thanks for the reply Bart!

On the link to platforms you provided I tried Cake poker, registered after having followed the instructions spot on with th PS150 code, and when I got to creating real money account the page stops after PHONE NUMBER, there isn't an OK button visible and I couldn't enlarge the page. Still, I hit the Tab and Enter and seem to have created real money account successfully cause it appeared in the Cake lobby.

However, when I came back to your entry form page, the field where I am supposed to type my screen name is locked???? So I got back to your main page, found Cake poker, went to the instruction page where the nickname field was unlocked so I typed my nick name only to find out that this time the code printed above was not PS150 like it said on your link aboeve but PSVIP. Will my bonus finally be banked or not?

Mind you, I'm thirty eight years old, have been using PCs for more than 20 years and have registered account at FullTilt, Party Poker Poker Stars and nowhere have I experienced such a roll of hastle.

Regards,

Dusan

Hello my friend,

The code you used (PS150) is correct for new members, this should provide you with the starting capital.
The other code (PSVIP) is solely a first deposit bonus code for existing members and wouldn't provide the starting capital, so rest assured you filled in the correct one.

In light of the problems you've encountered and not being able to record your Cake player name in the relevent field, I would still recommend that you contact the PokerStrategy customer support team confirming your details, cake player name etc.

• Support Ticketing System

It's also possible that they will require some ID proof (perfectly standard and nothing to worry about), after which, hopefully, you will be up and running with the starting capital in your account.

If there is any remaining issue, support(#) will be able to advise you further.

Once again, we appreciate your perserverence and look forward to seeing you active across the forum and at the poker tables very soon.

Good luck and best regards,

Bart

Note: (#) For security and safety of your personal data reasons, Moderators do not have access to your details, hence support are better positioned to be able to assist.

Hey I'm 37 years old and signed up for Cake and got my $50 no problem and have been cruising for the last few days on it. So maybe don't be so quick to cry fraudulent. Lots of people on here in the forums are testament to the bonuses they've received, so use some common sense. Maybe you're making a mistake somewhere in the process. I got my money OK!

This is my last try.

Here's my e-mail to Cake Poker:

"Hi there!

Thank's for the welcome!
I was expecting $50 bonus from Pokerstrategy.com where I was awarded the sum after I had passed the poker skills quiz and I was reffered to your site by Pokerstrategy.com . When I created my account on Cake Poker I typed the PS150 bonus code but my account still hasn't been credited.
Any idea what's going on?

Many thanks and best regards,

Dusan Stanar"

And here's their reply:

"Hello Dusan,

Thank you for your email. After reviewing your account we can confirm that it is linked to our Affiliate partner Pokerstrategy.

This affiliate regularly sends us a list of players who are on their site. The player’s account is examined and if everything is in order, the corresponding bonus will be applied to their account.

Once the account has been approved from by the affiliate, it will also be assessed by our Security department to make sure all contractual conditions for the player have been met.

Normally this process takes 9 business days. However, it can take longer due to administration on the affiliate side, on these delays on the affiliate side we do not receive further information from them on individual cases.

For more information on the current status of your bonus. Please contact the affiliate in question for further information.

Please let us know how we can be of further assistance.
Kind Regards,
Mischa
CakePoker Support."

So it looks that everything comes down to Pokerstrategy: first to validate and backup my account and to transfer the money.

We'll see what'll happen.

Thank you all for the replies.

Yesterday I e-mailed Cake Poker:
__________________________

"From: dusan stanar
Received: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:32:14 GMT
To: CakePoker Support <support@cakepoker.com>
Subject: My account

Dear Mischa!

10 days ago I made an enquiry about my 50$ bonus from your affiliate partner Pokerstrategy. Any news about that?
I would appreciate if you could look into it and get back to me with some news.

Sincerely,

Dusan Stanar"
__________________

Here's their reply:
___________________
"CakePoker Support to me
show details 18:35 (6 hours ago)

Hello Dusan,
Thank you for your email.
We still have not heard back from them about getting this credited to your account. I would therefore recommend contacting Poker Strategy themselves to see what the delay is.
Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
Kind Regards,
Geri.
Cake Poker."
__________________

So, I hereby ask you what's going on? Other members said I shouldn't be to hasty with my conclusions so I was patient for ten days.

Is there a problem and am I finally going to get the bonus or will I have to contact consumer protection law firm and file a complaint?

Many thanks for your time and looking forward to your prompt reply.

Hi Dunsun

Have you contacted PokerStrategy support yet as Bart advised you a couple of times to do?

The link is on the home page under the main tab line as "Customer Support". Hopefully clicking on this link will take you there directly (not 100% sure it will work as it is linked independently for each user).

I've only used it once ever but they'll be able to provide assistance.

I'm not sure what you hope the consumer law office might do for you, but if you choose that route best of luck. Otherwise a bit of patience and a lot of study and you'll get good use out of your $50 which you (and every other elegible person passing the quiz) recieves.

Best of luck.

Thanks for the reply. I haven't contacted the c. support as I thought some of them read these topics but I'll certainlly try!

Regards!

Just sent copies of my posts to support but there's some kind of a ticket system so God knows whether my enquiry will get through.

GL.. generally the forums aren't followed by the back office support staff hence the need to use the ticketing system.

They were a bit slow on the one occassion I used them (two/three working days) but they are best placed to help. It's definitely worth persevering with, if a little frustrating for you at the moment.

And here's their reply:

"Hello Dusan,

Thank you for your email. After reviewing your account we can confirm that it is linked to our Affiliate partner Pokerstrategy.

This affiliate regularly sends us a list of players who are on their site. The player’s account is examined and if everything is in order, the corresponding bonus will be applied to their account.

Once the account has been approved from by the affiliate, it will also be assessed by our Security department to make sure all contractual conditions for the player have been met.

Normally this process takes 9 business days. However, it can take longer due to administration on the affiliate side, on these delays on the affiliate side we do not receive further information from them on individual cases.

For more information on the current status of your bonus. Please contact the affiliate in question for further information.

Please let us know how we can be of further assistance.
Kind Regards,
Mischa
CakePoker Support."

So it looks that everything comes down to Pokerstrategy: first to validate and backup my account and to transfer the money.

We'll see what'll happen.

Thank you all for the replies.

Hey, I think they just copy and paste the same answer to everyone. I also received same answer couple of days ago.

Hello Vaibhav,

Thank you for your email. After reviewing your account we can confirm that it is linked to our Affiliate partner PokerStrategy. This affiliate regularly sends us a list of players who are on their site. The player’s account is examined and if everything is in order, the corresponding bonus will be applied to their account.

Once the account has been approved from by the affiliate, it will also be assessed by our Security department to make sure all contractual conditions for the player have been met.

Normally this process takes 9 business days. However, it can take longer due to administration on the affiliate side, on these delays on the affiliate side we do not receive further information from them on individual cases.

For more information on the current status of your bonus. Please contact the affiliate in question for further information.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Kind Regards,

Randy

CakePoker Support

I sent a ticket and poker strategy told me that they already sent my account to be funded. Yesterday I sent mail to Cake poker and they told me that they have not received any information about my account from Poker strategy.
I definitely know there is nothing wrong with Poker strategy. Lots of my mates got their bonuses without any problem so I assume there is some problem with Cake poker.

Regards,
Vaibhv

Originally posted by DusanStanar
This is my last try.

Here's my e-mail to Cake Poker:

"Hi there!

Thank's for the welcome!
I was expecting $50 bonus from Pokerstrategy.com where I was awarded the sum after I had passed the poker skills quiz and I was reffered to your site by Pokerstrategy.com . When I created my account on Cake Poker I typed the PS150 bonus code but my account still hasn't been credited.
Any idea what's going on?

Many thanks and best regards,

Dusan Stanar"

And here's their reply:

"Hello Dusan,

Thank you for your email. After reviewing your account we can confirm that it is linked to our Affiliate partner Pokerstrategy.

This affiliate regularly sends us a list of players who are on their site. The player’s account is examined and if everything is in order, the corresponding bonus will be applied to their account.

Once the account has been approved from by the affiliate, it will also be assessed by our Security department to make sure all contractual conditions for the player have been met.

Normally this process takes 9 business days. However, it can take longer due to administration on the affiliate side, on these delays on the affiliate side we do not receive further information from them on individual cases.

For more information on the current status of your bonus. Please contact the affiliate in question for further information.

Please let us know how we can be of further assistance.
Kind Regards,
Mischa
CakePoker Support."

So it looks that everything comes down to Pokerstrategy: first to validate and backup my account and to transfer the money.

We'll see what'll happen.

Thank you all for the replies.

Hi Dusan,

Regarding your Problem with the Free $50 Bonus.

1. Normally the process of transferring the Free $50 Bonus takes 24 h. So the Info from the Cake Poker CS was a bit wrong.

2. In Case your Bonus is still missing, please be so kind and contact our PokerStrategy.com CS.

Best Regards,
Tomassio

I wrote to both Pokerstrategy support and Cake Poker and after a few more days I finally received the $50 as promised.

Guess all it took was a bit of reminding and enquiring.

Thank you all for the posts and for those with similar problems I reckon you just have to try speeding up the proces and be persistant and patient.

Now, at Cake poker the software doesn't even let me play $2 sit&go cause of my inexperience, probably due to the whole scheme with the quiz and all. It suggests lower buyins.

As for the cash game I was only alowed to sit at $0.05/0.10 for the same reason.

Anyone knows how long will these constraints last?

Hello DusanStanar

As described in our download guide there is a bankroll management in place (which as you know from the articles is the most important part of longterm success in poker): http://www.pokerstrategy.com/quiz/platform/17

Here are the details:

Bankroll Protection: Playing with bankroll management

In order to protect your starting capital, you will only be able to sit down at Cake Poker tables which you should be playing at, according to our bankroll management. The bankroll protection will be active:
a) as long as your Cake Poker bankroll is under $300 (or it drops under $300 again) or
b) until you have collected 2,000 Frequent Player Points (FPP) at Cake Poker or
c) until you have made your own first deposit.

As you see you have 3 options for removing the bankroll management

Good luck at the tables.

Best regards
SoyCD

Hi Xantos, I was refered to you from the french community to talk to you directly about my concerns about the "invite friend" program.

Currently, titan poker offers up to 215$ per person refered via their "invite friend" program (granting that the refferer play on titan and can use the pending bonuses in extra of the cash).

I do not want to ask about bonifying the 100$ offered pokerstrategy, as I understand that pokerstrategy gets less rake from reffered players than the room itself.

My concerns are about the needed rake to get all the benefits from the "invite friend" program. 5000 strategy points represents 1250$ rake up to 2500$ rake.
On titan poker, the needed rake is "200 titan points", wich is 11.75$ for a sng player.

The problem, is that 1250$~2500$ represent from a hundred up to two hundred times more rake. The vast majority of referred players won't make that much rake but would do easily the 11.75$ rake.

Again, I am not asking for more money from the referred program (even less would do) If the amount of rake needed by referred players could be cut by, say as an exemple, 4. That way the amount of rake needed would drop to "only" 25~50 times more than the other "invite friend" program.

Working on marketing new players is almost a waste of time for refferers granting that referred players would need to rake from 100 up to 200 more rake with the pokerstrategy "invite friend" program.

Thank you very much and please forgive me for my bad english