Written by Sadonna | Friday, May 6th, 2011

Since the domain seizure of Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Absolute Poker back in April, the Merge Gaming Network has soared to the top of the poker player rankings no doubt thanks to US players signing up. The network has such poker rooms as Carbon Poker and Lock Poker on their network and draw in players due to the fact that they offer a nice rakeback compensation program. Players are able to get a nice percentage of cash back due to the reward programs at Merge Gaming Network sites but all of that is about to change this June.

News recently leaked out that Merge will be stopping their rakeback program beginning June 1^st for US players. Now the program that drew so many players in is now no longer to be offered. Merge was not planning on releasing their information until they figured out exactly what they were going to do but the news leaked none the less.

Merge  has stated that all players who have signed up and do sign up before June 1^st will still have access to the program as they will be grandfathered in. the majority of information on the subject is unknown as an official announcement has not been issued by Merge Gaming. So any information gathered now is strictly speculation.

Many are wondering what exactly the leak means. Will players lose their rakeback percentage they already receive or will they be able to retain it. Players are also wondering what tier level they will be grandfathered in if they sign up now or closer to June. This information is unknown and has players questioning the possibility to continue playing at the poker rooms on the network.

Players will most likely still get the rewards they received even after the program shuts down in the US. An example of the rakeback program can be seen at Carbon Poker. Carbon Poker has a nice VIP rewards program which is a tiered offering. There are five tiers: Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and Ether. Each tier requires a certain number of VIP points to be earned each month to maintain that level and each tier offers a specific percentage of cash back.

The Earth tier offers six percent while Wind and Fire offer 7.5 and 10 respectively. Water offers fifteen percent and Ether, the highest level offers thirty five percent in cash back rebates. Now players are wondering if this percentage will change if they are members of the program or if they sign up now and get started.

As you can see, even though rakeback is gone in a sense, with the the VIP program in place it’s almost like it never will have really left….

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