The online poker world is demanding answers today, as poker affiliates and players are participating in an all out marketing blitz to expose an apparently rouge online poker site named CardSpike.com. Among the questions raised: Did Warren and Lou (the Professor) of the once popular PAP/CAP affiliate portals shelter this brand for weeks while the amount of rakeback and affiliate payment debt accrued, if so: why and for what reasons?

According to a recent Gaming911 article: “The two people [referring to CAP] who are behind the program claim that they do not own it [CardSpike.com], but are only managing the affiliate aspects of the company through effectivemedia.com which is related to Casino Affiliate Programs [CAP]”

While poker-prop.net is uncertain of CardSpike.com’s ownership, Casino Affiliate Programs’ roll in CardSpike likely fueled its rapid growth. On September 19, 2008, CardSpike launched on the Cake Poker Network and was immediately given All-In Program status by CAP’s sister site, pokeraffiliateprograms.com (PAP).

Here is the intro text of pokeraffiliateprograms.com’s All-in Program page:

“The programs listed below are the leaders in the industry. We have carefully reviewed their terms and conditions, outstanding player complaints, affiliate tracking software, and verified their integrity as operators. If you find there to be a problem with any of these programs, please contact us immediately”

At the time of the CardSpike launch, PAP was the dominate poker affiliate support network, and many of the industries most successful affiliates regularly populated their forums. Affiliates had no reason to distrust their recommendation. Even more appealing to affiliates was that long time CAP/PAP regular Greg Powell was CardSpike’s affiliate manager. Needless to say, affiliates flocked to CardSpike by dozens each eager to be the first to promote what appeared to be a highly promising brand.

Only 3 days after launching, it came to light on the PAP forums that CardSpike players were not being properly tracked to affiliates. While it’s not uncommon for start up affiliate programs to have wrinkles to iron out, this was far more severe. Over the coming days and months more and more problems related to both CardSpike’s affiliate program and player support were introduced. A full timeline of these are available on Poker Affiliate Bible’s: CardSpike Warning Page

In early November 2008 problems with CardSpike complaints began extending beyond just the realm of affiliate forums. During this month, players started speaking up on popular poker communities questioning when they were going to receive their rakeback payments. This situation was handled very poorly, and after pulling teeth the majority of players were paid, but outstanding complaints remain to this day (January 3, 2009).

By mid November the CardSpike situation was well known, and dozens of affiliates began reporting that they’ve never been paid their affiliate commission. CardSpike staff responded to these complaints on several occasions assuring all affiliates would be paid within a couple of days. Each time, the “couple of days” passed and as of January 3, 2008 many affiliates remain unpaid.

During mid to late November, many PAP members frustrated over unpaid affiliate commission began questioning CardSpike’s PAP All-in Program status. Around this time, Warren and Lou (the Professor) became far more active at PAP than they had ever been in the past. In the days leading up to November 26, 2008 a number of CardSpike posts were deleted, and this led to outrage as many forum posters expressed their discontent for the censorship taking place.

November 26 is what many former active members refer to as ban day. On this day, PAP management laid down the law as they banned many of their longest standing members, deleted many references to Cardspike problems and complaints including entire threads, while locking others. Coincidentally, the same night this all transpired Greg Powell was apparently fired as the manager of CardSpike.

Over the next month posts related to CardSpike were largely ignored while the new affiliate manager Peter took over the roll of giving affiliates empty promises and hope as to when they might be paid. Also during this time no less than 9 threads were deleted that either insinuated CardSpike was a scam, or spoke at all negatively about PAP or CAP.

On December 31, affiliates organized, and a few members of this “CardSpike warning coalition” bombarded popular poker forums with details about the CardSpike situation. Many of these posts also spoke negatively about CAP/PAP. This same day PAP removed CardSpike’s All-in Program status, but also banned at least two members, deleted no fewer than three anti CardSpike posts, and locked at least two Card Spike threads curving any future discussion on the matter.

It was recently made known and confirmed by Lou (TheProfessor) in a PAP post that one of the more vocal affiliates in this matter, was fronted his affiliate payment by Warren of CAP. As of January 3, 2009: Additional, and perhaps less vocal, affiliates have yet to be paid any commissions accrued for their promotion of CardSpike.

Tonight a lot of questions remain; will CardSpike affiliates ever be paid? Why did PAP recommend them for so long? Can CAP recover from the hit this has taken on their reputation? Will someone attempt to sue us for making this post?