The Winning Poker Network (WPN) has notified its players of downtime scheduled for the morning hours of December 1, the first of four scheduled downtime periods for regular maintenance and software upgrades that will occur in the coming months. WPN sent notification of Wednesday's planned three-hour interruption of services -- from 6 am to 9 am ET -- in an email to the network's players on Tuesday.
The Winning Poker Network is the parent network to Americas Cardroom (ACR) and several other smaller online rooms. The network has offered advance notice of such planned interruption on a regular basis since February of 2020, in a dedicated thread on the WPN user forum.
Squid Game avatar and table theme being added
The WPN often features avatars that are takes on popular pop-culture characters, and the rise of Netflix's "Squid Game" series has made it ripe for addition to WPN's avatar and table-theme choices. Squid Game is part of the upcoming software update, which includes additions or improvements in at least six different areas:
- Player notes update. More colors and improved interface
- Day 2 lobby prize structure displays tournament starting stack
- Synced breaks for multi table SNGs
- Staking Lobby Rows Change with Settings
- Comic TableTheme
- Squid Game Avatar and Squid Game Table Theme
Three more scheduled maintenance periods have already been announced. They will occur between mid-December and early March of 2022, and they will cover numerous planned enhancements while also addressing several minor bugs and user requests. Per WPN's latest forum post, these fixes will be addressed:
Dec 22, 2021 - Downtime (6am to 8am ET)
- Main Event Streaming final table with 30-minute table
- Responsible Gaming: Ban Games & Game Restrictions
- Server Updates
Jan 26, 2022 - Downtime (6am to 8am ET)
- Blitz poker and cyclones have the option of playing with fewer than a full table of players. (Players are asked if they are willing to play short-handed.)
- Custom MTT type font colors
- MTT Stats Improvements on the table
- Dark client theme is the default theme
- Increased security to protect screen names
- More time available to choose to show your hand.
Mar 3rd, 2022 - Downtime (6am to 8am ET)
- Final-table deal making
- Suspenseful music and animation options for when you move all in
Future improvements also announced by WPN and ACR but yet to be slotted into a specific upgrade include a settings homepage with links to options, improved chat, improved table-management tools, a late-registration countdown, and an animated congratulations message for winning tournaments.
Wednesday's upgrade will be the 34th planned downtime period for WPN since the start of 2020, illustrating the frequency of the network's continuing network maintenance and upgrades. WPN also maintains a Trello-based "WPN Public Roadmap" where the network's users can check changes and improvements made throughout the network's offerings.
Featured image source: Winning Poker Network