Well today I took a Leap Of Faith and purchased a Butterfly Lab's Bitforce Single "SC" 40GH/s
Bitcoin Miner for $1,333.00. These units are not even ready for release yet, not even sure if they are even in production. They are supposed to start shipping them out around October, first come first serve basis. Not sure what my order number is but I think it's 6467. Hope I get it within a couple months. Im new to this Bitcoin Mining (not even sure I will be able to figure it out) but my hope's are to make a few Dollar's off it. So if there are any Bitcoin Miner's on this forum please fell free to comment on this whether good or bad. Hope this work's out for me, wish me luck!

Well I just went to a site that converts Euro's to US Dollars just to find out it's $25 less then it was before they converted it since the Euro keep's going down in value. I think I was doing better off when I wasn't thinking about it or checking on it. But now im starting to get upset with this whole ordeal. This site pretty much stole US player's money and is still operating as if nothing happened. Also I just logged on to the site to see how many player's there were and was shocked, there were 400 player's about normal for this site at this time of night. I really can't believe people are still playing on this site after what happened with US player's and how long it's taking with withdraw's. Are people really that stupid or desperate to keep playing on asite like this? Anywho, I sent Hercule's another e-mail expressing my consern's and well this is what they told me.

Thank you for contacting Customer Support, As you have been informed previously by the Risk& Fraud Department and my Manager unfortunately these are the three cashout methods we have been allowed to provide for our US members, we do hope other options will be found in the near future.I understand the frustration you must be feeling knowing that it is hard to cashout your funds that belong to you especially because it is not a large amount, but please be assured that many of our US players who have withdrawn their funds by the options provided to them, have received them, we have no intentions of keeping your funds.Thank you for your understanding, patience and kind cooperation.

They say they have no intention's of keeping my money but yet they only offered 3 non-US option's to withdraw. It would cost more to go that route then I have im my account. Really starting to get a headache over all this.

So about a month (Febuary) after my account was locked on Hercule's I finally receive an e-mail about my cashout request. Boy was it another zingger.

Hello matt,

Thank you for contacting us through Live Help regarding your funds in your account.
Please find below a copy of the email that was sent out last week, and I have attached the form for you to complete and return.
"As has been reported, certain funds maintained by one of our payment processors to be distributed to U.S. customers were seized by U.S. authorities in October 2011.
To our knowledge, the U.S. authorities might have seized these funds as the proceeds of illegal activity based on purported violations of certain U.S. laws, including operating an illegal money transmitting business, the Wire Act, and money laundering.
Based on these events and while we are reviewing the matter, we are no longer processing payments into the United States.
Please be advised that this seizure occurred in the United States and our subsequent decision to stop processing payments only affects U.S customers.
We had to suspend all American Player’s Accounts and stopped taking any American activity indefinitely.
We want to reassure you that your funds will be refunded in full and we are therefore providing you with a form to update your personal information, indicating one of the following non-American payment methods to settle your funds to.
•Moneybookers
Neteller•Bank Wire
Once we have received all the information and verify it we will confirm such by return email and indicate when payment was effected.We also want to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience this situation may have caused. kind regards So they offer me three non-US method's. Really? What good are the method's they offere? Well ill tell you, there not and they know it. So I e-mail them back and let them know that those options will not work for me (which they already knew) since im in the USA!!!!! Anyway I got a couple more e-mail's asking for screen shots of my account and what not and they assured me my money was safe and they were working on other method's to pay US players. Haven't heard a word from them since no matter how many e-mail's I send them. Since I don't have a huge bankroll stuck on there ($250) im not about to go to go to Canada to open up a bank account like a few other players had to do but they had enough to make it worth their while. They also added to their term's and condition's that after a certain period of time a player's account that is inactive will be charged a certain percent every month its inactive. If it was there before I never seen it. So here it is August and still no word from LGA, ELN, or Hercule's. Starting to think im not gonna get my money....lol. So if there are any ROW player's that play this network on this forum don't be suprised if you loose your money to these crook's. And if you do I wish you the best.

Well if your asking yourself what the heck is a Bitcoin here's a little bit about it.

Bitcoin is a decentralized electronic cash system that uses peer-to-peer networking, digital signatures and cryptographic proof to process online payments. Though distributed, the system enables users to conduct irreversible transactions without the need to trust any third-party individual or organization. By eliminating third-party involvement in a transaction, the system may achieve lower transaction costs by removing necessary dispute resolution services from the payment process. Bitcoin is also the name of an alternative, digital currency managed by the system.

Nodes broadcast transactions to the network, which records them in a public history, called the blockchain, after validating them with a proof-of-work system. Users make transactions with bitcoins, an alternative, digital currency that the network issues according to predetermined rules. Bitcoins do not have the backing of and do not represent any government-issued currency. It is the first of a new breed of cryptocurrencies that do not require a central authority.

The Bitcoin network came into existence on 3 January 2009 with the issuance of the first bitcoins. In the same month the creator, Satoshi Nakamoto (thought to be a pseudonym), released the original Bitcoin client as open-source software. Prior to the invention of Bitcoin, electronic commerce systems could not securely operate without relying on a central authority to prevent double-spending. Nakamoto sidestepped this requirement for Bitcoin by employing a proof-of-work approach in a peer-to-peer network to reach consensus between peers on the validity of transactions. Bitcoin is a relatively new project under active development. As such, its developers caution that users should treat it as experimental software.

Here's the interesting thing about these. Bitcoin's are mined with a computer, you can mine these at home if you have the right graphic's card or you can build yourself a minning rig. I really don't know to much about this but I sure am curious. One of the down side's of minning is the electricity it take's to mine them. But depending on where you live it can be profitable. And not to mention the price of the Bitcoin fluctuate's. Like when I won my first 10 bitcoin's they were only worth $4.50 each ($45.00 Total for all ten) right now as im typing this they are worth $11 each ($110.00 Total for all ten). So that can be a good thing or a bad thing. Anyway just thought I would share a little about these little wonder's. So if anyone read's this and would like to learn more about them just goggle Bitcoin and see if it don't go right over your head like it did mine......lol.

The saying is All Good Thing's Must Come To An End, ok, but never have I heard All Good Thing's Come To An End plus you get the shaft. The good thing was being able to play on Hercule's and making a few dollars. The bad thing was logging on to Hercule's back in January and getting a message saying my account has been locked, so im thinking I didnt do anything wrong. After a few attempts to long on and getting the same message I decide to e-mail support and ask them what's going on with my account. A couple hour's or so go by and I get this response.

Hello matt,


Thank you for contacting our Support.
As per the new Terms & Conditions introduced by ELG, residents in Malta, France and USA are not allowed to register an account, play or participate in the games and serviced offered by ELG.
For more details please visit our website: Integrity > Terms and Conditions
I am very sorry but I do not have any further information, if you have any questions, please contact the appropriate authority (all details can be found on the website under Terms and Conditions).

A few days go by and im able to log back on to find my account has been converted to euro's and I was charged a conversion fee, so after a few WTF's I go to the cashier to see about chashing out, no more Western Union option, a few more WTF's. So they converted my account to euros (which I don't see why since I can't play) and removed the option to withdraw with Western Union. Can this get any worse? Why yes it can!!

I send them another e-mail asking them about cashing out and I recieve another zingger.

Hello matt,


Thank you for contacting us.
We inform you that as per the new Terms & Conditions introduced by ELG, residents in Malta, France and USA are not allowed to register an account, play or participate in the games and services offered by ELG for real money. From now on, you can only participate in the practice chips games we offer.
For more details please visit our website: Integrity > Terms and Conditions.
Thank you for your understanding.

Understanding my azz, what does that response have to do with me cashing out? NOTHING!

Well time to find a new site. So as im looking around online I find a site called Hercule's Poker.
According to there ad they had the most freeroll's around I think it said. I join the site and first thing I notice is there's not much traffic on the site. I start looking around the site and notice that they have freeroll's running every hour I think it was. When I first started playing them there was $5 and $10 freerolls. Not bad since there was only 5 to 10 players in the begining. Built up a bankroll of about $60 playing them, then they stopped them. So on to the cash table's. Oh my, don't think Ive ever seen so many any two card shove monkeys in my life. Also getting 1 outted and 2 outted more time's then I can count got real frustrating, cash games can be brutal!!!! After a week went by they started up the freerolls again. This time they were freeroll jackpots were you had to win at least three in a row to make any money on them. Three in a row paid out a $100 I think, four in a row paid out $200 or something like that been so long can't remember the exact amounts but I do remember making 2 in a row a few times. those lasted a few weeks and they were over.

The new freeroll jackpot tourneys start. This time you have to play 2 different tourneys at the same time and place 1st in both to collect the jackpot. Each day that went by that nobody won both the jackpot would grow. After a few days or so the jackpot was at $580 I think it was and I thought to myself this is mine. Well it almost was, lol, placed 1st and 3rd then the next day somebody won it, oh well. So now the jackpot is reset and after a day or so its up to $250 told myself again this one is mine. Next thing you know im at both final tables again. To make a long story short I won them both and collected the jackpot, yaaaaaaaa. Couple days after that somebody else won both and that was the end of that. Bankroll $350, bye bye freerolls!!!!!!!!

$100, $200 and $300 GTD tourney time. Thats where I met a fellow member of this forum (HIPP). We played in those tourney's almost everday and we both did pretty good in those tourney id have to say. We also would talk about both of us making the final table, and sure enough it happened. Next thing you know its me and him heads-up. Then he starts folding his blinds to me and I asked him what the heck he was doing, he says once we get close to even in chips lets just go all in ok? I said you sure about this and he said yes, wouldn't ask you if I didn't mean it, lol, I said ok. Here we are both with about the same amount of chips and he says all in (can't remember the hands for the life of me) well I won, felt bad about it since he had such a chip lead on me to begin with. After the tourney I e-mail him and asked him if he wanted me to send him part of it back and he said nope you won it fare and square. Great guy he is. That was the best time in poker I ever had that day.

Well back in December of 2009 I found my self needing to find something to occupy my time to keep myself from, well, drinking. So there I was on an AOL game site and I see Texas Holdem Poker, and I think to myself, hey lets give this a try. Aside from the fact its more of a social site and like the Jerry Springer show in the lobbys, I loved the game. Played on the site for about a year until the drama got to be just to much. Can't say I learned a whole lot about the game on that site but I did build up quite a few chips (wish I could cash them out).

Then in December of 2010 I find out about this site called Poker Stars, LOVED IT. Started off playing in The Big Game tourneys, made it to the final where you got to submit a video in hpoe's of getting picked to be on the show. Didn't get picked to be on the show but oh well it was fun. So after that I decide to join PSO skill league, the donkaments of all donkaments. Often found myself wondering how the heck did these players pass the quiz in order to get into the league. So after a few weeks of that I decided to make a deposit. Started off balling on the penny tables, lol, and did fairly well the first months or so, built my roll to over $250. Then for some stupid reason I went on a little bender (drinking=busto) Ill never do that again. So after licking my wounds for a few weeks I decide lets try it again. The day I decide to go make a deposit is the day of all days, thats right, Black Friday. Well now what?