Don't Play Poker Online While People Are Shooting At Your DSL

from the no,-seriously dept

I think we have a winner, already, for most bizarre story of the month. Yesterday, Broadband Reports had a random story about DSL service going down in New Mexico due to “random gunfire”, which seems odd enough. However, the impact of that loss of DSL was beyond what many could imagine. That’s because one local resident, just as the random gunfire erupted, happened to be playing poker online, and just happened to have pocket aces (the best hand) in the middle of a round with a lot of money at stake. He claims that just as the DSL service went down (yes, remember, due to random gunfire), he clicked to go “all in.” However, service dropped, and by the time it came back, the game was over. Apparently, the system folded his pocket aces, since he wasn’t responding — but when the service came back, it remembered the “all in” click — dumping all his money in on a hand where he had nothing. The guy, needless to say, is a bit pissed off. He wants to blame someone, but Qwest, the DSL provider isn’t taking responsibility (can you believe them?). The online poker site also said too bad. Obviously, he’s going after the wrong people. The person to blame is the “random” shooter who took out DSL in New Mexico. So, remember kids, when trying to raise tuition money or seed funding while playing poker online, it’s best to do so on a connection you know is secure where there’s no random gunfire shooting out DSL lines… or, maybe go wireless, since that’s much tougher to take out with a gunfire.


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Comments on “Don't Play Poker Online While People Are Shooting At Your DSL”

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33 Comments
Mike (profile) says:

Re: Re: The obvious target to sue...

I work for qwest dsl and there was no dslam down due to being hit by gun fire. load of bullshit.

Well, most of us agree with you that it’s likely to be a load of bullshit, but if you do work for Qwest, you might want to inform “Qwest spokesman Vince Hancock” as he’s the one quoted in the article as saying that service was down as a result of random gun fire.

poker player says:

No way

The guy is either full of shite or is playing at a really shady poker site. Any decent poker site handles this situation the same …. When a player in a hand loses his connection mid-hand, he is treated as “all in” and his hand is live for what currently is in the pot. Since this player was actually all in for all his chips, the situation is much simplified: he is eligible to win the pot whether or not he has a connection to the site.

What probably happened was that he went all in, was called by one or more players, and lost the hand. I am 99% sure that is what actually happened. No good poker site would register an all in bet and then forfeit a player’s interest in the pot for disconnecting. The big sites, Pokerstars, Party, Pacific, Paradise, Bodog, UB, Pokerroom, Full Tilt, etc, all have all in protection unless you abuse it.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: No way

But that simply doesn’t happen with any of the main online holdem sites. If he clicked ‘All In’ (as was stated in the original post), then he made the final decision himself, and even if he lost connection, the server had received this request to go all in.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have lost all the money to an all in bet and his hand would have just been folded for not responding in time.

And if the poker site had a policy to put people all in when they lose their connection, they warn you of this BEFORE you join the table. It’s all in plain site with warnings to let you know. If he ignored this, it’s, once again, his own fault.

But more likely, all that happened was he was beat. He just didn’t get to see the bad beat with his own eyes and therefore I am sure it was rather frustrating to regain a connection and see that he lost everything.

Even if he hadn’t lost the connection, he would have still been all in on pocket aces and lost.

I’m not understanding why there is confusion with this. He simply didn’t understand what was happening at the time and was upset about losing his money. But it was his own bad decision making that did it.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: No way

And if the poker site had a policy to put people all in when they lose their connection, they warn you of this BEFORE you join the table. It’s all in plain site with warnings to let you know.

An all-in-on-disconnect policy actually just treats you as if you were all-in: any bets after that point go to a side pot, and you can win whatever was in the pot when you disconnected if you end up with the best hand. Whatever money you had at the table that you didn’t bet doesn’t get automatically bet for you; it ends up in your account if you don’t come back.

Eric Blade (user link) says:

Re: No way

Nope, sorry, that’s not how it goes. Most places do NOT give “all-in” protection, anymore.

Apparently you didn’t read the article, though, as you’d know that he likely supposedly was at pre-flop, and probably didn’t have any money in, and even then sites that do have all-in protection would fold the hand if you disconnected, and didn’t come back within a min or two.

There’s no site that would forfeit after it took the all-in request (except for when poker.com was broken after their last major upgrade, but that’s fixed).

I do agree more with your theory on what -actually- happened. There’s no way the client would save the “All In” click and transmit it when the connection is back up. It probably went through, then he got disconnected, and came back after losing. Either that or he just sat there and clicked the button the whole time 😀

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: Wait a min!

The Bush administration also seems to think it is Constitutional to torture “enemy combatants” and detain suspects indefinitely without charging them. I wouldnt put much stock into what they seem to think.

Specifically regarding online poker, it is probably legal for two reasons:

1. Most laws dealing with gambling are so illegal casinos don’t spring up and take bets without a license.

2. Poker is not like other casino games… it is more like chess or a sport, on which it is perfectly legal to make a private bet.

3. The most important reason. All of the “action” takes place on foreign servers in the islands and in Canada or the UK where online poker is legal to operate. Therefore the action is on their side of “the pond” and in their jurisdiction.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: Wait a min!

Actually some random reporter for the LA Times seems to say it’s illegal to PLAY. The actual law is that it is illegal to run an online casino in the US, and the laws are not currently CLEAR on the individual play.

I live in an area of the US where I can drive 15 minutes and LEGALLY gamble at a real casino. Plus there are all the arguments of holdem not being a casino game. You play the players with skill to win and not the odds nearly as much as typical casino games.

Making “sidebets” while playing holdem with people is no different to me than, say, betting $20 bucks on who wins the Superbowl. You research and determine who you think is the best using your own sources and following the players’ abilities and then you place a wager on it. I don’t see the government cracking down on these types of bets.

As far as I’m concerned, when I play online, I am playing ONLY the people sitting at my table and the money exchanged is a PRIVATE bet just as betting on a sporting event with friends is PRIVATE. The online programs are just a place to meet people who enjoy the same entertainment as me. Kind of like logging onto Yahoo to play some chess. If I wanted, I could place a private bet on who wins the chess games. This is MY DECISION and it’s MY MONEY.

What’s with all the control issues in the world these days? If something doesn’t affect or hurt people, what gives them the right to rain on everyone else’s parade?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: On-Line Poker for Money is Illegal in the Unit

For choosing to spend his money in a way that harms nobody but himself when losing? Or just because of some stupid ass article that even STATES that the laws are not clear enough to prosecute individual poker players?

You’re an idiot and NO he doesn’t deserve “time in the slammer” for law related reasons AS WELL AS for MORAL reasons?

Where the hell do you get off deciding someone who has done nothing to harm others be put in prison? You fucking Nazi. Keep you lame ass comments to yourself TROLL, no one cares.

haggie says:

No Subject Given

In most states, it is illegal to play any card game where there is a rake so online gambling would be illegal. Most states also put dollar limits even on unraked pots. Your Wednesday night home game is illegal because the “house” is not taking a rake and the pot is usually under a couple hundred bucks.

Always cracks me up when people convince themselves that they are doing something legal when they damn well know it isn’t. That doesn’t stop me from downloading, gambling, speeding, or making rolling right turns but I’m not stupid enough to delude myself that is “legal”.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: No Subject Given

Grow up. No need to start flame wars with name calling. Are you 12?

I was proving a point and I AM correct when I say the law is unclear on a national level. Some states say it’s illegal, some say it’s not, and some simply don’t care.

Even the random (most likely unreliable) website you posted proves my point. Why don’t you actually try reading it.

And what makes you think you can trust some random .com website with the address “http://www.gambling-law-us.com/State-Laws/” Do you also get your credit report from “http://www.get-your-free-credit-report-here-this-isnt-a-ploy-to-steal-your-personal-info-i-promise.com”?

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