ACR Continues Investment in Software Upgrade
The Winning Poker Network (WPN), parent site of Americas Cardroom, originally wanted to upgrade its software to meet the needs of its growing popularity. Eventually, however, that intention turned into a something resembling more of a software replacement to make all of the necessary changes.
As it pertains to that upgrade/replacement process, it has been a rough year for Americas Cardroom (ACR). The times that the site has been down for maintenance seem to have increased, as have the number of crashes during major tournaments or busy sessions.
Keep in mind that players are always reimbursed for incidences that involve cancelled tournaments or other crashes. However, it leaves players with little confidence that ACR will improve.
Americas Cardroom wants to change that.
Long Road to Replacement
In May, WPN announced a multi-phase software upgrade in progress.
The poker client had been undergoing renovations for quite a long time, with its public beta version released in April of this year. After nearly a month of testing and working out the bugs, the company began rolling out its new product on May 20.
The plan was to roll out the upgraded features in multiple phases so as not to disrupt the poker action too much. WPN recommended its customers recall their login information and warned them about delays as the process got underway.
Players then faced delays in seeing cashier balances, missing VIP rewards program information, the need to re-register for tournaments, disappearing tournaments, and leaderboard outages. Everything from deposits to player transfers were affected during the first week or so of the upgrade.
Most assumed the process had been completed by the summer months.
That may have been true, but ACR knew that the upgrade wasn’t going to be enough. Serious site outages and maintenance requirements took ACR offline often in August.
Tournaments Galore
All of this took place as ACR prepared to kick off its latest edition of the High Five Series.
Many of the previous outages affected the massive Online Super Series (OSS) Cub3d, the three-part online poker series that offered 160 tournaments and more than $13 million in prize pool guarantees. ACR hoped it wouldn’t happen to High Five.
As it turned out, High Five went off fairly smoothly. The largest offering of the series to date offered the last of its 100-tournament series yesterday. The final numbers showed 1,293 entries and a prize pool of $543,060, well beyond the $420K guarantee.
Even so, there was a scheduled maintenance downtime during the High Five.
We will have some scheduled downtime for maintenance tomorrow, Wednesday September 25th from approximately 6:50 am – 8:00 am ET. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience. pic.twitter.com/hBaABHQRot
— ACR Poker (@ACR_POKER) September 24, 2019
Before that point, ACR knew that it needed to mend some fences with players who had been frustrated with all of the site problems. That led to the announcement of the Freebuy Super Series, a total of 114 tournaments that will be free to enter and guarantee at least $250K across the series to run October 16 to November 3.
Gameplay is currently running smoothly. To apologize for the technical difficulties over the last few days, we’re giving away $250,000 via a Freebuy Super Series this October. Thanks for your patience and loyalty. More on that by following this link: https://t.co/eukuEQ8tqP pic.twitter.com/0s8nPnDS9e
— ACR Poker (@ACR_POKER) August 29, 2019
First Phase of Rollout Complete
A few weeks ago, ACR revealed more about the recent upgrades and improvements. Moreover, the first phase of the overall poker software upgrade was complete.
According to the blog post about the software improvements, WPN knew that they would have to upgrade or replace the software as far back as 2015. But due to the cost and time requirements, it was going to take time.
Ultimately, WPN worked with a team of developers to move from their IGSoft platform to a proprietary platform of their own. Coding complications and other issues led to a two-year timeline that is just seeing the light of day this year. That was the upgrade started in May.
As of September, nearly five months after the start of the rollout, the new system is up and running. Players are now supposed to see improvements in these ways:
–More appealing platform with easier navigation
–Improved graphics
–Video game themes for lobby and tables
–Larger, more colorful poker chips
–New, better avatars
–Nameplates
–Faster gameplay
From now on, updates will reportedly happen more quickly, and improvements should be much easier to implement. This should minimize player inconveniences going forward.
“The good news is that these changes are just the tip of the iceberg,” the ACR post read. “Our intention is to constantly roll out improvements and new products month-over-month based on your feedback and suggestions.”
Players should see more improvements to graphics and the lobby soon, as well as better animations and the implementation of progressive knockout tournaments.
“Now that we’re stable and functional, the best is yet to come.”
Our software is bigger, stronger, and faster than ever before. Check out our enhanced tables, avatars, new lobby, cleaner graphical user interface, nameplates, and so much more. We're sure you'll love our new look and latest enhancements. #ACR #Poker #pokeronline #pokerlife pic.twitter.com/3VEdqXt76U
— ACR Poker (@ACR_POKER) September 10, 2019
