Monday, February 19, 2007

Cashing Out

I have finally been forced to cash out of a poker site.

I had been avoiding it like the plague.

My poker bankroll is just that. I never intended to spend any of it on anything but poker.

Ok, that's not exactly true. I have donated to good causes, bought some T-shirts and baby gifts using the player transfer feature on Full Tilt. But, I have never cashed out of a site without putting that money back onto another site.

On Friday, my Google Reader showed me an article that said that Tribeca was going to ban U.S. players. Oh great. Poker Host just moved to Tribeca in December and that was a HUGE improvement over their previous network. Tribeca was a profitable place for me.

I hit the Poker Host webpage and it wasn't very helpful so I called their customer service line. The woman was friendly and helpful and assured me that all would be well. Poker Host would be switching over to the Microgaming network in 2 weeks or less. While I was on the phone with her I Googled Microgaming. Turns out I had registered a couple of accounts with sites on that network.

I downloaded a site and tried to login. Rut Row. Turns out Microgaming has banned 11 U.S. states. You guessed it. Illinois is one of them.

I had no choice. I needed to cashout. PH was offering only two choices for cashouts: Western Union and somebody even more expensive. Gross. It cost me $60 in fees to process my withdrawal, AND, they were backed up (hmmm, can't imagine WHY!); my transaction may not go through until today or tomorrow. Hopefully I can run by WU today and pick up my check.

The next dilemna is this: do I try to deposit any/all of this onto another site?

Let's face it, FTP is full of tight aggressive players. Not really the kind of players that are giving their money away.

I was thinking that I might try Poker Stars. I played one private $ added freeroll over there ages ago. Never had real money on there. It might be worth a try.

Ok, say I do want to deposit to a site. How do I get money on?

I guess I can always save my money for Vegaspalooza. Nothing like donking your money off LIVE!

1 comment:

MacAnthony said...

Do you know any one on poker host? To get around situations like this, I and other players I know have been swapping money on 2 different sites to move money around with some european friends. I know a lot of tribeca players, but not sure if any of them play on poker host. To tell you the truth, I hadn't heard of the site until you mentioned it.