I guess online poker is not such a rosey world these days. Danny boy's personal site Full Contact Poker (of which I am a charter member) has announced it will merge (meaning basically cease to exist) with Pokerstars.

Danny boy himself is now a member of Team Pokerstars, whilst FCP will be a "training site"ie Danny boy's blog.

The demise of FCP as a live poker site is a shame, but I can't imagine there have been many players there since the UIGEA.

I decided to put $100 (or £51) into my Pokerstars account because I have a $50 bonus pending which expires in about 2 weeks.

I think its the first deposit bonus, which you get 6 months to release - I had 461 points and needed 499 to release the balls. It is incredible how much money I have lost trying to get this money (and bonuses in general).

This time I was down about $25 by the time I hit 499 points. Pokerstars balance $124.77.

Paradise has confirmed that my account is now held (from its point of view) in pounds sterling (although I see the numbers in dollars) and this is why my balance is going down in dollar terms - its static in pounds but the exchange rate is fluctuating.

I expect to lose more poker dollars this way as the dollar improves against the pound over the coming months (perhaps as much as 10% of the roll).

I think this is very unfair. I signed up to a dollar account. I didn't get the benefit of exchange rate improvements on my deposits when the exchange rate went up from 1.6 to 2 and so I don't see why I should lose poker dollars as the pound falls back.

Today the Paradise balance has fallen again to $948. So I have now lost $7 without playing (and in fact about $8.5 from the high point after the £1 credit they added to my account when I moaned).

PARADISE POKER SUCKS>