Zen Entertainment is probably the leader of the online poker sites that you will find sponsored by brick and mortar casinos. HustlerCasino.com uses the Zen technology.
After Cafrino.com stopped running its free-to-play money tournaments, I started to play on the Zen Entertainment tournaments through Hustler Casino.
Unfortunately, Zen has its own set of problems. Just a couple of minutes ago I was playing a $100 tournament and a $50 tournament when their servers crashed. I was knocked off both tourneys and when I tried to rejoin I received a screen message that acknowledged the server problems and I will be notified about a replacement tournament.
Unfortunately for me, the $50 tournament had been in action for some time, and I would hate to have to start over in a new tournament without the advantage I had when the servers crashed.
In the case of the $100 tournament it had just started so no harm done.
This is not the first problem I had with Zen. Two nights ago a software problem prevented me from betting. When I clicked on the various bet buttons nothing happened and eventually I was "time out" of the hands. In one tournament where this happened I was heads-up at the final table with pocket aces and tried desperately to go all-in. I couldn't do anything and was automatically folded.
After I complained to Zen they deposited into my account "free chips" for future entries but could not award me the win, obviously.
So what's the lesson here? Playing online is more of a gamble than playing in a live casino with a real dealer and real cards and real chips and real betting action. There are too many risks playing online -- with technical and computer and Internet problems probably as "deadly" to your play as what the other players might have as their hole cards.
I've said this before and I will say it again: I will never play in an online site for real money that comes out of my pocket. The risks don't justify even a dollar of real money played online.
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