Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Zynga Poker may be Rigged

Monday, February 6th, 2012

One of the most-discussed topics among online poker players right now is how much Zynga would benefit if they were to enter the internet poker world. Currently, they run free social networking games such as Zynga Poker for Facebook, which could change if the United States chooses to regulate the online gaming market.

And just recently, Zynga admitted that they’d be willing to explore the option of real money poker games as they told the website AllThingsD.com, “We know from listening to our players that there’s an interest in the real money gambling market. We’re in active conversations with potential partners to better understand and explore this new opportunity.”

This is certainly exciting news to those who enjoy playing Zynga Poker already. However, one thing that’s not exciting is how a former Zynga engineer appeared on Reddit.com to discuss how the free poker site is rigged. The former Zynga worker’s thread opened with the following:

I worked at Zynga for 8 months, I can tell you all about the Good Stuff (yes, there is good stuff going on in there!), and the nasty-douchey stuff (yes, there is extremely CREEPY stuff going on in there!)

I can tell you about Zynga’s mangled code base. I can tell you all about Brogrammers. Ask me anything. Seriously.

Going by the name “mercenary-games,” the poster discussed the poker games specifically by mentioning:

so theres millions of people playing poker.

An instance of a poker table takes up a significant amount of data. shuffling the deck for millions of poker tables would rape the server.

Instead, have “pre packaged” scenarios… roll them and randomize which scenario comes us. Cheaper.

Obviously these are not the allegations you want to hear about a publicly traded company that’s considering offering real money poker services. Hopefully, if Zynga Poker does come out with real money play in the future, they clean up this kind of stuff. Otherwise, you can expect to find a lot of empty real money poker tables here.

 

 

 

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Zynga Poker Real Money Games a Possiblity

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

As a poker provider for the world’s leading social networking site – Facebook -Zynga Poker is a very valuable commodity. In fact, Zynga is offering a $1 billion initial public offering to investors next week, which could push their overall value from $10 billion to between $15 and $20 billion. And just imagine how large Zynga’s valuation could climb if US poker legalization happens in 2011 as many people are expecting.

As it stands now, Zynga Poker is merely a giant waste of money since they sell people fake chips. And you can spend up to $100 a day just to play free poker against other Facebook junkies.  In short, this site is a safe-haven for those who are too scared to play in real money games – never mind the irony that people are paying for a service that’s usually free. But if online poker is legalized in the US, Zynga Poker could become a dominant force in the internet poker world.

Currently, there are 30 million Zynga Poker users, which is almost 10 million more than PokerStars. And if poker becomes totally legal, it would be very interesting to see how many of Zynga’s users would convert over to real money play. Even better is that this site could become the biggest fish pool in the world! Just imagine all of the social network fiends without poker skills running around Zynga spilling money every step of the way. Can you say pre-2002?

Of course, the biggest piece to this puzzle is Zynga making a serious effort to pursue real money games if/probably when internet poker is legal in the US. As of now, the site claims that they aren’t interested, but it’s a good bet that they’ll at least consider the possibility when it comes time.

 

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Victory Poker Closed – Failed to Diversify

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Few poker sites in recent years have made the splash that Victory Poker has in its short existence. Victory aggressively marketed their room, they had a solid rakeback deal, and they signed an impressive roster of pro players that included Andrew Robl and Antonio Esfandiari. Not coincidentally, these two pros gained Victory even more exposure when they appeared on High Stakes Poker wearing the Victory Poker patches. But even with everything that Victory did right, they failed in one key aspect – diversification.

The site was too centered on the American market, and once the events of Black Friday hit, their player base died fast. Plus their impending move from the Cake network to the CEREUS network was cut short by Black Friday.

And while it’s possible that Victory could have survived longer, CEO Dan Fleyshman had enough and was burnt out. Fleyshman dropped the bombshell on the poker world through his Facebook page by writing “The brand will continue doing strategy, news (and) videos as an affiliate site. I will be focusing much more on my upcoming charity, consulting other companies and helping with Victory marketing.”

As far as I can remember, this is the first time that a major poker room like Victory has made the decision to transform into a poker affiliate site. And while it’s not exactly a success transforming into an affiliate, it will be interesting to see how the room does in this capacity.

In regards to the Victory Poker pros, there is no word on what will happen to Esfandiari or Robl; I’m sure that they’ll find a sponsor somewhere though. And if you’re wondering about the Victory players, all accounts, Gold Chips, and other bonuses will be transferred to Cake Poker in June.

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Zynga Poker is a Waste of Money

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

People seem to be meshing the terms “wasting money” and “wasting time” together these days with Zynga Poker. After all, it was reported last month that Zynga is worth $9 billion, which is mind-boggling considering the fact that Zynga gives online poker players no chance to win real money.

But since the company is doing so well, there must be enough stupid people out there willing to pay for chips, and not get any money in return. Even if someone was too scared or nervous to play in real money games, there are sites that don’t cost any money to play, and are just as entertaining.

It’s hard to imagine how someone can justify paying thousands of dollars for fake chips, knowing there is no chance of making any kind of profit off of the chips. They might as well be throwing their cash in the trash! Those who continue to play are probably missing the part of the brain that contains logic because no one in their right mind would pay for fake chips after realizing there’s online casinos offering free poker services.

These idiots paying for chips aren’t even bettering their poker playing skills because the real players are playing real money poker and not hiding behind fake games. If I’m going to waste money, I’m going to waste it by buying real chips, not imaginary ones. Of course, poker isn’t the only game draining people‘s wallets on Facebook. There are dozens of games that require your credit card number, and it is baffling to think about a person paying an online networking site money to play a game.

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