888poker has been having a difficult time dealing with disconnection issues plaguing its players, but that doesn’t mean the site is giving in.
In addition to the recent add-on of a pause functionality designed to help the site ride out particularly difficult periods during tournaments, the poker room is also bumping up the guarantees for many of its weekly tournaments in order to entice players to continue playing through these issues.
The increased guarantees are being seen in a total of eight different events held throughout the week. The biggest of these tournaments is the Quarterback, which is jumping from a $25,000 to a $30,000 guarantee.
Several other weekly events are also seeing increases of various sizes. Three daily tournaments have been given a boost, with even the $1 Snap tournament going from a $500 guarantee to a $750 minimum prize pool.
Solutions Offered, But Disconnects Continue
According to Poker Industry Pro, an 888poker representative said that the company made the move in order to “mark the improved performance of some of our tournaments.” However, it doesn’t appear as though the disconnect issue is going away entirely anytime soon, despite 888’s efforts to address the problem.
The most notable effort that has been made recently was adding a pause tournament feature that the operator can use in order to put a tournament on hold. The idea is to implement this function when players are having severe connectivity issues, something that will allow a little more integrity and fairness in tournament results.
When the pause tournament feature is utilized, tournament clocks will stop, and no hands will be dealt. Once 888 officials believe the network is performing up to standards again, the tournament will be resumed directly from where it left off. In cases in which the situation fails to improve in a timely fashion, tournaments can still be cancelled, with players being compensated based on existing policies.
888’s Growth Bucks Industry Trends
The problems with disconnections have been an unfortunate blot on 888poker’s record. The site has been one of the few online poker rooms that has seen growth in recent years, allowing it to climb into a clear second position in PokerScout’s worldwide online poker traffic rankings. According to that site, 888poker has averaged 2,100 cash game players over the past seven days, trailing only PokerStars, which has averaged 14,500.
However, that growth has come with some severe growing pains. Players have long complained that the software has lagged behind its competitors, with the disconnection issues just being the latest example of this problem.
Some players have noted that while the pause tournament functionality is a nice touch for tournament players, it does absolutely nothing for cash game players, who can often be hurt even worse by untimely disconnects. The same official statement that announced the tournament pauses did say that the site is also working on improving connectivity in general, but it remains to be seen how long it will take before these problems are largely a thing of the past.
Recent reaction from players on the TwoPlusTwo forum has been mixed in terms of whether 888poker has made progress on the disconnection issue. While some players have said they’ve played for long periods of time without a disconnect, others have had major issues with the site, with at least one saying that the problems are especially prevalent when large freeroll tournaments are taking place.
