Dear Players,

We do like to make things fun here at PrizeClub and as many of you who have written into Support know, I (Miss TD) run everything for you. As it does take valuable time to write these newsletters, and we don't get very good read rate on them, I thought I would start rewarding all the loyal players we have who DO read these mailouts. Somewhere within this newsletter you will see the words "the password is: xxxxxx" with a 6 character password in place which will allow you to enter the $100 I Read The Newsletter Freeroll. The tournament will play on Sunday at 3pm AEST. Good luck! And don't be a spoilsport and give other people the password! (Really, why dilute your chances?)

This week's newsletter features:

• Anzac Weekend Wrap Up
• Bank Deposit Payments Made
• January-March Prizes
• Get To Know Us
• PrizeClub.com.au Feature Article

ANZAC WEEKEND WRAP UP

Epic win! We hope you had a wonderful long weekend and we're sending out a huge thank you to everyone who registered and played in the Anzac Day tournaments.

We had our biggest tournament EVER in the $200 Anzac Day 2504 Freeroll with 792 players participating. The $100 Anzac Biscuit Freeroll was also a success with 384 players, I think our second biggest number for a freeroll.

We hope you enjoyed these special tournaments and if you have any feedback about them please do not hesitate to send us an email to support@prizeclub.com.au.

Congratulations to purplebp2 who took out the $100 game and xxstevex for an epic 5 hour, 46 minute and 50 second win over famous face and second place Kiwiau in the $200 tournament. It was a good day for purplebp2 who also finished 5th in that game.

BANK DEPOSIT PAYMENTS MADE

Thank you to all the players who responded to our mailout regarding bank deposit payments. Due to the volume of these emails we were unable to reply to every player, however we did receive your details and have added them to the payout roster.

The players who have already sent their details through have had payments for January to March paid. We have a batch pending from anyone who sent their details through from the last 10 days.

So far we've paid out a whopping $2500 through bank deposits and we've been able to process most payments within 72 hours. If you would like to check if we've made a payment to you simply email support@prizeclub.com.au.

If you would like any current or future cash prizes sent to you via PayPal, please contact support@prizeclub.com.au with your poker screen name and PayPal address.

JANUARY-MARCH PRIZES

After delays caused by the bank and still by PayPal, we are finally able to make payouts for the January to March period. Currently we are processing the bank deposits and will do these are you send in your details (note: April will not be paid until the month is over). Next week the prize packs will be sent out and any remaining cheque/cash payments will also be processed.

We know there have been delays since launch in payouts and we're hoping this new system resolves many of those. It is easier and faster to complete payouts electronically, so please send through your details for bank deposit or PayPal. The password is: 426GWA

If you have any queries or concerns about prizes, please email support@prizeclub.com.au.

STAFF PROFILE: Catherine

• Poker Room: All
• Location: Brisbane, Queensland
• Joined PrizeClub: June 2007
• Poker Experience: Player for 6 years; worked in poker industry for just as long. Have travelled around Australia to various poker rooms (I love Melbourne and always go to the Aussie Millions) and went to Vegas in 2006 to catch a glimpse of the WSOP and it's stars.
• Obsession: The custom designer poker table my brother and I built for me - pink felt and pink under lighting!

PrizeClub.com.au Responsibilities

• Tournament Director
• Support
• Marketing
• Payouts
• Anything that comes my way - it's me and only me!

I love my job and I want to create the best possible Aussie online poker for our players. As we're a bit restricted at the moment we can't do all the things we have planned just yet, but we're (PrizeClub's owner and I) working very hard to bring new and exciting things to our network.

FEATURE ARTICLE - SIT OUTS

Sitting Out In Tournaments

Sit outs, phantom players, inactive players, whatever you want to call them, is the most complained about issue. This problem is a tricky one, as there are several factors that influence the governance of it.

1) It's not actually against the rules of poker to sit out for an entire game. It's bad etiquette, and therefore a player's own responsibility to not do this. Even in a live game, you can't be ejected for sitting out, whether you are physically present or not (unless they have a pre-stated casino rule).

2) The problem with online poker is that it's very hard to detect sits out vs players who aren't even online and don't intend to be. The software is designed to run real money games as well, and both the real and play money environments must work in the same way. As such, we can't just eject players from a game if they have registered because in the other real money environment, this would cause massive issues. The software can't detect who has accidentally knocked their plug out of the wall, who's sitting there desperately trying to connect their dial up, who's gone out to have a beer at the pub and forgotten about the tournament, who's just sat out to go get lunch, etc.

You'll notice sit outs more on a small network like ours because they don't get booted out as quickly. I know it's frustrating and makes for a really boring game when there are tons of sit outs, but unfortunately there isn't really anything we can do from our end. While it's possible to implement things like a "Take Seat" button to make sure players are actually there at the beginning of a tournament, again we run into issues with real money players missing high stakes games because their dog rips the modem out of the wall right when it asks you to take your seat, etc. While it sounds like an extreme example, on larger networks there would be tons of complaints and this opens up a whole can of worms to do with refunds, legitimate disconnections, etc etc, and it's just not possible to support this.

"Proper" poker players would never register for a tournament then sit out. They know it's bad etiquette and wouldn't do it. Unfortunately, we run free poker sites, and this isn't the best breeding ground for players who are well trained in 'casino' style poker etiquette.

Next week's newsletter: Other news!

Good luck at the tables!

-Catherine

Tournament Director