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The Platinum Poker Club

The Platinum Poker Club History

There were dozens of standalone Dobrosoft sites popping up in 2004. The Dobrosoft software company offered quick turnkey online poker sites to anyone with a five-figure down payment. The deal was that Dobrosoft would then take a royalty from the rake. The site would be in charge of payment processing and support.

Most of these Dobrosoft sites failed in the end. One of the biggest issues is that the operators were not vetted by the software provider. As soon as Dobrosoft got their $50,000, that was all they seemed to care about and a hand-off approach was used towards the operators.

The Platinum Poker Club is one of those tales. The company launched with no branding or advertising. The site operators did not seem to have any business plan. Players only found out about it from a thread at Two Plus Two. It did not even have an affiliate program when it launched. It also did not offer rakeback or much of a VIP program. There was little reason for players to choose the site over the dozen or more other Dobrosoft sites, much less the hundreds of other ones live at the time.

The site’s traffic was nearly zero. Only a few house players sat at shorthanded games. This made the Platinum Poker Club look like a ghost town. Management decided to find props, which are players that get paid by the site to help start games and keep shorthanded ones alive. These are common at small poker sites.

Platinum Poker Club contacted Bonus Whores to help find prop players. This was a poker bonus website that operated during the boom. Bonus Whores also operated Premier Poker Props as a side project. Premier Poker Props sent props to play at contracted sites and received a commission for those referrals. The company also managed props, ensuring there were enough players seated at tables at any given time.

This arrangement started in August 2004. It was not long before there were problems. Props were promised 100% rakeback for their work. Platinum Poker Club only paid 75% rakeback to players. Some never got paid at all.

Props started complaining to their boss, who was not getting paid anything for their service. The prop company contacted Platinum Poker Club but was ignored. This carried over into September. Props eventually quit working since they were either getting 25% less rakeback than promised or nothing at all. Premier Poker Props stopped referring props since it wasn’t getting paid anything for the service.

Premier Poker Props attempted to handle the issue privately. Platinum Poker Club ignored the inquiries and did not pay as promised. This caused Premier Poker Props to blacklist Platinum Poker Club at Bonus Whores. The amount owed was just a few hundred dollars, making the stiffing even more puzzling and showing how poorly capitalized they were; or perhaps that it was always just a scam site.

Some players had trouble receiving cashouts from the site. A handful complained to Dobrosoft. Those players were referred back to Platinum Poker Club as Dobrosoft stated that it was only a software provider.

There were not many players at Platinum Poker Club so the amount lost when it finally disappeared from the Internet in late 2004 is low. Players and the prop company probably lost less than $10,000. This was a common amount for the turnkey, no-brand Dobrosoft skins that came and went during the mid 2000’s.

Lessons Learned From Failure of The Platinum Poker Club

The Platinum Poker Club was one of many Dobrosoft turnkey sites that popped up during the poker boom.  Like many others, the operators were clueless and the site was not properly capitalized.  The Club was a standalone site with almost no traffic.  This is enough to tell players that there may be a problem.  The lesson learned is to avoid sites that have few or no players.

What The Platinum Poker Club Was Like

The Platinum Poker Club was a site with virtually no traffic.  It used Dobrosoft software.  It was smooth and bug-free.  Players could straddle and chop blinds.  This was the only platform that offered that in those days.  There were few games at the site and it lasted less than one year so there was little in the way of player experience.

The Winning Poker Network uses the same software The Platinum Poker Club did.  The two sites have no other relation.

Scandals Related to The Platinum Poker Club

The Platinum Poker Club had two scandals.  One is when it stiffed props out of pay. These props were referred to The Platinum Poker Club by BonusWhores.  The second scandal had to do with not paying players when the site closed.

The Dobrosoft platform used by The Platinum Poker Club had its own scandal in 2007.  That is when Futurebet got hold of it and created the Digital Gaming Network.  Futurebet ran off with all of the money on the site.  This included player funds, money owed to skins and the entire bad beat jackpot that was in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Player Impact

All players with money on The Platinum Poker Club lost it.  The amount was probably very small, perhaps less than $10,000.

Related Failed Sites

The Platinum Poker Club Timeline

• 2004
  The Platinum Poker Club launches.
• 2004
  The Platinum Poker Club enters prop player agreement with BonusWhores.
• 2004
  The Platinum Poker Club fails to pay BonusWhores and its players for services.
• 2004
  BonusWhores goes public with The Platinum Poker Club’s failure to pay.
• 2004
  The Platinum Poker Club closes and fails to play players.

The Platinum Poker Club FAQ