LiveAce Suspends Operations

Online poker subscription site LiveAce announced today that it has suspended operations.  The site went offline on Thursday and posted a message to players on its website earlier today explaining the decision.  It blamed the decision on the inability to “generate revenue sufficient to cover our operating costs”.

The statement goes on to tell players that cash redemption requests will be accepted through March 1, 2014.  Unused memberships and chip packages will be refunded.  Chips that were never redeemed in auctions are not addressed in the statement.  It would appear that those chips are now worthless.

The site changed some policies in the past two weeks in an attempt to keep its doors open.  On December 6th, the site changed its policy on how basic members could receive additional chips.  These players that opted to not pay the monthly $19.99 membership fee could only reload chips once per week instead of the previous once per day.

The most controversial change of policy came on December 13th.  That was when the amount of cash paid to players through auctions dropped from $500 on weekdays and $1,000 on weekends to just $200 per day.  This policy change was instituted without any notice to players.

LiveAce was a unique subscription online poker room.  It allowed players to sell chips at auctions that were conducted by the site.  Players were then paid via check or Dwolla if they placed a winning bid.  Unlike other subscription sites that operate under sweepstakes laws, LiveAce operated cash games as its business model.

LiveAce launched in August with an advertising and media blitz but ultimately failed to draw enough players willing to pay the monthly subscription rate.  Players in 31 states plus the District of Columbia were accepted at the time the site closed.