PokerRoom.com pays up

PokerRoom.com finally honored payments to winners of a $19,000 guaranteed prize pool tournament.

The funny thing is, they couldn't even do that right.

A few weeks ago, PokerRoom's tournament lobby promoted a $19,000 guaranteed tournament. Only about 250 players signed up and paid the $22 entry fee, creating a $13,000 overlay. Winners were paid according to the guarantee, but a few days later, funds were taken out of their accounts.

PokerRoom players who posted on the site's message board were understandably upset about the removal of funds from other players' accounts. Many questioned how safe their accounts were, and most wanted the funds returned along with an apology for the inappropriate actions.

Oskar Hornell, the founder of PokerRoom.com, broke the company's two-week silence when he posted on the message board on Jan. 3.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please put down your pitchforks and torches for a moment and hear me out," Hornell begins in his post.

He goes on to say that all the prize money that was removed from players' accounts had been returned. He explains that a software glitch caused the tournament to display a guarantee that was not accurate.

"Our staff discovered the error and attempted to correct it by removing the sum that wasn’t supposed to be there. At the time it must have seemed like the natural thing to do,"

Hornell then goes on to discredit those who were understandably upset by the situation.

"Personally speaking, however, I must say that I'm a little disappointed to see so many being eager to jump on the bandwagon of hate, without first investigating the facts or background of the situation," Hornell writes. "It seems that some people just want to read the things that support their already formed picture of 'the big, bad corporation ripping off the little guy'. But things aren't always that black and white in reality."

In my humble opinion, Mr. Hornell, it's pretty black and white. Someone made a mistake and some of your players got paid more than they were supposed to. That's your fault, not theirs. And you can't blame your customers for feeling like they aren't secure when you go into accounts and remove money.

Judging by the response to your post, I don't think you've managed to get anyone to put down any pitchforks and torches just yet.