So obviously when playing online connection disasters can happen. I've had the power go out in the middle of a tournament for an hour (actually this ended up being my only money finish in a >500 player event) but never had connection issues. Until last night.

Was playing some PLO8 at the $10 buy-in donkey table. Pot had gotten fairly big ~$17 with me and two others. Had A234 with a rainbow board of A2356. Yeah me, let's ship it in and see what the other two have. I hit the all in button to ship in the last $4, and I get "There is a problem with the bodog software, please try restarting the software client."

Expletives ensue. Click OK, click all in, same screen. Repeat x3. Shit!

I followed the instruction of the software, shut it down, and restarted on my other computer. Pot lost, no disconnect side pot, no nothing. Turns out one guy lost both sides and I would have split the high and low with the other. Out about $15. Contacted customer support, got the usual run around, they said that I folded the hand so no compensation was possible. I explained that I don't typically fold the nut low in PLO8 when getting 5:1 on my money. They did not care. They called the incident a "lag" which apparently does not activate the disconnection side pot thing.

My question is, what if this happens again? If there is no way to shut the software down without folding the hand, I guess the best thing to do is unplug the modem to trigger a disconnect and thereby the money already in the pot goes to showdown. Has anybody had a similar experience? I know it's against the rules to intentionally disconnect, but I don't know another way that I could have not lost this pot. Any ideas?

Modem? Are you on dial-up?

If so that is your problem.

Also I know most sites offer tables with all-in disconnect protection. I am pretty sure these tables allow you to disconnect and instead of folding your hand you are considered all in. I know stars offers this feature and labels tables that are not protected.

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"You will succeed far more by capitalizing on your opponents mistakes than you will by the greatness of your own play." --- I am not sure who said this but it is a great quote and piece of advice.


Colorado Players Click Here

I meant DSL modem. I'm not using the modem from War Games or anything.

Yeah, this stinks. I've had this happen before also. I think most people that play online have had it happen. I had it happen for a $1000 pot before and needless to say I was really pissed.

There are a few things I would recommend to anyone who takes playing online seriously, especially at higher stakes where one disconnect can cost you hundreds or even thousands

• Get the best connection possible for you area. High Speed Cable Modem, DSL, or FIOS (fiber optic from Verizon I believe). The small cost of opting for the best connection is easily covered by just one disconnect per month
• Redundancy - If you are playing high limits I would highly recommend having two Internet connections. For example you have your standard Broadband connection and an alternate connection method like dialup, Cell Phone Modem, or even another broadband connection. To use myself as an example. I buy the monthly internet plan on my cell phone (att). If I am playing I can "tether" my cell phone internet connection to my desktop using bluetooth. This provides my computer with two connections to the internet, so if one goes down the traffic can get routed through the other
• Have a dedicated computer that you use exclusively for playing poker. Super Clean Install, no garbage programs, basically nothing except the poker software you use and the internet connection. Don't surf the internet, web pages, etc. I realize this isn't practical for everyone but you can get a basic computer for a couple hundred dollars that will work extremely well for just playing poker. Setup the Exclusive Poker Box right next to your desktop and do your browsing, email, etc on you normal desktop.

Jason

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I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

I Live in an apartment so i tend to use my neighbors internet connection if mine goes out on me. Of course not everyone has this luxury

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Kickboyswoop

Good tips Karma.

__________________
"You will succeed far more by capitalizing on your opponents mistakes than you will by the greatness of your own play." --- I am not sure who said this but it is a great quote and piece of advice.


Colorado Players Click Here

That's tough when it causes you to lose money.

I've been lucky that I haven't disconnected all that much and when I did nothing bad happened. There was one disconnect that happened right after the flop. I was behind in the hand and when I reconnected I found out I won the hand. Nice surprise!

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~PokerDawg~
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