It’s every professional poker player’s nightmare – you are onto a winning streak and have all the other players in the game figured out until… the screen goes black.
Your heart stops and your mind races. What the hell happened? Was it something I did? And, more importantly, did it save my hard earned poker chips?
Whilst site crashes are extremely rare, due to the high level of maintenance and care that goes into looking after them, sometimes the unthinkable does happen.
Having a computer error can be completely devastating to any poker player, but especially one that was doing very well in that particular game. To be kicked out can completely ruin your groove, throw your confidence and change your state of mind.
In fact it can be so off putting, even to the poker experts, that shockingly some players have been accused of employing this tactic in the form of viruses or programs. An interesting, if despicable, way to play and if the person in question is caught then it can be a very serious allegation. If it turns out to indeed be true, of course.
For poker professionals who want to earn a lot of money by playing online poker, computer crashes and virus scares can be more than annoying – they can ruin the whole day’s work and lose players unthinkable amounts of money.
When browsing great sites like PKR.com ready to find live poker, it is good to have peace of mind. It may be a given that once you accept play into a tournament, if the computer crashes through no fault of your own, it may mean game over for that particular tourney.
However, you should not worry about your cash – it will all be there when your computer finally decides to work again.
If the problem is your internet connection, reputable websites like PKR will keep track of your IP address and log you back on when your network problem is resolved – for anything else, like a reboot, virus or crash, I’m afraid the connection is lost completely.
This means that you will end up getting removed from the game, with little chance of returning to it. Any fantastic potential hands that you had, or in-game cash on the table, will most likely be lost.
One of the biggest and most important factors about online poker is making sure that you have a high quality internet connection, along with a working computer that does not have a tendency to freeze or crash. Making sure your system, game card and drivers are all up to date is also helpful when it comes to preventing issues whilst playing online poker.
Also make sure you keep up to date with all the patches and upgrades that are released on whatever platform you are using – whether it is Java, Flash or another system.
If the worst does happen, try to contact someone from the website as soon as you can. If it is a reputable website like PKR, they should have a dedicated customer support team that will be able to help you in any way they can. This team will investigate the problem and aim to get you an answer.
Have you got any horror stories about times that your computer crashed on a great flop? Or is that game security one of the things that keeps you returning to PKR? Let us know in the comments.
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