The sudden shut down of RPM Poker, a Merge Gaming Network skin, caused a great deal of concern in the online poker gaming community.
Although players could access their RPM accounts on Thursday and Friday, they could sense that rpmpoker.eu was not functioning as usual. A few players also received an email from customer care, informing them that “RPM Poker is no longer operating.”
On Friday afternoon, RPM Poker’s client services manager, sent an email that said:
RPM Poker is an active partner of Merge Gaming Network and the site is fully operational. I am sure the agent that provided this information was confused with another closed site such as Feltstars and BluffRoom.
However, the client services manager was just trying to repair the damage caused by a customer care representative who had released the information too early.
On Friday evening, RMP Poker began functioning as usual and published the following announcement on its website:
RPM Poker has been purchased by a third party. Your funds are safe and you will be playing poker shortly. If you have another account on the Merge network, please advice support@mergegaming.eu and we will have your RPM Poker balance moved there. If not, please choose a Merge preferred partner and follow the steps outlined in the link below: http://www.mergegaming.com/preferred-partners.html
The announcement was signed
“Merge Gaming.”
Merge Gaming’s preferred partners are PlayersOnly.ag, Sportsbook.ag, and CarbonPoker.ag.
The above-mentioned announcement was the only communication from Merge Network and RMP Poker. The online poker room did not release any official statement explaining its sudden shut down or its purchase by third party.
RMP Poker members on Two Plus Two have posted that their RMP Poker funds and rakeback deals have been successfully transferred to other skins on the Merge Network. However, VIP points are yet to be transferred.
Merge Gaming Network has been facing a number of problems in 2011 – 12. In June 2011, the network stopped accepting new US poker players as it lacked the facilities to deal with the heavy flow of US players migrating from Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, UB.com, and Absolute Poker after the federal crackdown of April 2011. However, it started accepting US players from some states in October. In May 2012, Lock Poker broke away from Merge, acquired Cake Poker Network, and renamed it as Revolution Gaming. In September 2012, Anthony Taylor, CEO for Merge Gaming Network, resigned; and FeltStars and Bluff Room left the network in October.
