I can't believe I finally got my second friggin' Carbon check.  I requested it 6/20, approved 7/26, and received today.  I guess there was a very small part of me that was thinking I was never going to see the money again.  I have no idea why I would think that, since they told me 4-6 weeks, and it's been... 4-6 weeks.  Shocker.  But it just goes to show you what reading 2+2 regularly will do to you.  So now I've had SIX successful Merge cashouts in the last 2.5 months (all near the max).  A SEVENTH is allegedly "approved" and "on the way."  If you're nimble you can make post-BF your new BFf.  (later post)  Apparently, they have these gift cards now for transactions under $1,000 and these take less than 2 weeks.  I have no idea - just something I heard.

But in these weird times, having any kind of poker money in limbo doesn't feel good.  Especially since most of us have money still on FT that now looks like is under 35 cents on the dollar.  Ouch.  I had previously told you guys in my Post BF Money Management Tips not to play more on a skin than you can cash out (i.e.  if you can only cash out $2,500 every 6 weeks, stop playing once your bankroll reached your base bankroll + $2,500).  You should then play on another site or skin.  What's the point of building up a massive bankroll when you can't cash out?  And maybe this will give the skins even more incentive to improve communications and processing times.

On a related note, I helped another person cash out of Carbon Poker.  It was someone who signed up through me, so I felt a responsibility to cash him out of his original deposit with NO vig.  At the time, the RakeTheRake's Carbon Poker Monster race was the best value out there for US players, so that's why I became an affiliate.  Now that Merge has scaled back its promotions, the waters are a little murkier.  I would definitely recommend a DIFFERENT skin now (later post).

But I'm glad I got a bunch of you to sign up for Merge rakeback accounts (even if it was on Carbon) before they took that away.  The rewards on Merge (on any skin) look like they are going to suck unless you put in a moderate amount of volume (over $1,000 a month in rake).  Thanks to that new rakeback account you opened before deadline (you listened to me, right?), you can play as little as you want and still get your 35% (plus a $10K rake race). And it cost you nothing to get that FREE OPTION FOR LIFE!  (Well, you may need some minimal amount of play to keep the  account open, but whatever).

I'm not going to lead you guys wrong...  well, most of the time.  Eh hem.