Frequently Asked Questions

If you are new to Vinagames or wish to learn about Vinagames, be sure to check the instruction for new users and the general instruction web pages first.

I'm new to Vinagames. Could you help me started?

There is a special page to help new users. Please read http://www.vinagames.com/newtovina.php.

I have created an account, but I still can't login. Why?

You need to validate your account first. You should receive an email telling you how to validate your account immediately after you create your account. Please make sure that your email is valid and current. For certain email service, you may have to wait a few hours for the email to arrive even though our server sends you the email immediately.

I created an account but I do not use it for a long time. Why can't I use it now? How long can I leave my account unused?

If you create an account but do not activate it within 7 days, the account will be removed. For an account that has already been activated, if you do not play for 4 months, its scores will be reset back to that of a new account, and if you do not login for 6 months, the account will be removed. Once removed, an account would be available for other people to create.

Why don't I receive my activation code after I create an account?

Make sure your email address is usable. We receive a lot of bounced mails because the email is misspelled, the email is invalid, or the email storage space is full, etc. You may want to send yourself an email to check whether your email is ok.

I lost my password, how do I retrieve it?

You can ask our server to send you the password here.

I try to retrieve my password and receive an error message that my email address is not on file. Why?

Your email is NOT in our database. You may have given us a different email address when you registered your account.

My email is no longer valid. How do I update it?

If you still have your password, you can use this link to update your account. Make sure you login first before clicking on that link.

I didn't receive the activation code because my email account had problem. How do I change my account or change my email?

If your email account didn't work at the time you registered, you wouldn't be able to receive the activation code via email. If the email is working again, you can use the forget password link to request the activation code again. If the email account you entered is invalid, you have to login first, then modify your account and enter your new email there. You'll receive the activation code again after that.

I lost my password, and my email is no longer valid. How do I use my account?

You cannot use your account without either password or email. There is no way to authenticate yourself with the server. If you still want to play at vinagames, you will have to create for yourself a new account.

How do I change my password?

After you login, click on the Modify link from the left menu.

Can I change my account name?

No, the account name cannot be changed.

How many accounts am I allowed to have? What restrictions do I need to observe if I have more than one accounts?

Vinagames Terms of Service requires that each account is used by one and only one person. However, Vinagames do allow a person to have more than one accounts.

Vinagames recommends that you have one or at most a few accounts at Vinagames. If you wish to have more than 5 accounts, please email us to ask for permission first. In the unlikely case that any of your accounts is terminated because you violate Vinagames Terms of Service, you are required to let us know all your accounts and stop using all of your accounts at once.

If you have more than one account, please understand that you are not allowed to play with yourself, and you are not allowed to donate/transfer money between your accounts. In fact, you are not allowed to play with people in the same internet domain or to donate/receive money from people in the same domain.

What is a minor account, and what is COPPA?

US federal law, through Children Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires websites to obtain approval from parents before they can collect information such as email from minors (under 13 years of age). If you are under 13 years of age, or claim to be under 13 years of age, please do not register. Vinagames currently cannot accomodate minors. For more information, please check our Term of Services.

I couldn't login. There is a message saying "Connection failed". What's wrong?

You probably have a firewall on yourside. You may want to select the 2nd check box (firewall support) on the login form so that the client attempt to connect to the server via port 23, which many firewalls don't block. If you still can't login try to select 3nd checkbox, or 2nd and 3rd boxes together. If you are not sure whether your browser is old, you should also check the 1st box.

I couldn't login. The program doesn't work.

This may be because your browser is old. For performance gain, vinagames.com uses some advanced features only available in new browsers. If you are using an old browser, or if you are not sure whether your browser is old, click on the 1st check box (old browser support) on the login form. You may also want to check the 2nd check box (firewall support) if you suspect you are behind a firewall.

The server said my IP is banned. Why?

From time to time, operators in the club have to ban people. Most ban last 60 minutes. Some last a day or more. As IP is a shared resource, especially for people using dial up accounts, someone in your domain, probably unknown to you, are behaving badly at the server. Please try again a few hours later.

I got banned, could you unban me?

If you are banned, please wait for your ban to expire. The server will unban you automatically.

My account is suspended for no reason. Why?

You probably don't know the reason.

Even though we reserve the right to delete any account for any or no reason at all, operators at the site are always very careful when deleting accounts. Please try not to use offensive words or phrase in your account name. Sometimes, this is purely accidental. Do not mess up the normal operation of the club, say by cheating, exploit server bug, or hacking/attacking the site, or create too many accounts. Also, do not ever let someone to know your password, and do not use someone else account. There are cases when people have no clue why their accounts are deleted, only to find out that their seemingly innocent friends used their accounts and did bad things at the site, hacking and cheating for example. The server only knows bad IP address and accounts seen from those addresses.

In general, if your account is suspended, you are NOT welcome at this site.

I keep getting "reconnected". Why?

Your connection is probably bad. If the connection from the client on your computer is terminated without proper notification from the server, the client will repeatedly attempt to connect back to the server.

There are potentially many potential reasons for poor connection. You are adviced to ask someone who knows to take a look at your computer. A few common scenarios are:

• Your ISP may be poor (say when you use dial up)
• Your ISP is good, but you are downloading something
• Your ISP is good (say if you have broadband), but some worm/virus uses all your available bandwidth. (make sure your antivirus is up-to-date, or if you don't have one, consider getting a free one from http://www.avg.com/us-en/download.
• Some routers on the way from your ISP to server are down.

I keep getting kick out. This happens to me many times. Why?

You can only login once. If by mistake, you login twice, one of the two connections will be dropped. Please do NOT share your account with anyone else. If you give your account to a friend, they can login with your nick while you are playing, and this may cause nasty problem for you.

The game screen got frozen. I waited for about 2-3 minutes but nothing happened. After that I got sent to the lobby. What happened?

Your network was down temporarily. The server disconnected you without being able to send you any message. Once your network is up again, the client reconnect to the server.

I would like to transfer game money from one game to another. Is it possible?

Server keeps a separate amount for each of the games. You cannot transfer money between different games.

How do I transfer money to my friend?

You can donate your money to your friend in most cases. Use
/donate friend_name amount_of_money
Ex. /donate bob 100000
Donation is an option, and server places many limitations on when and how much you could donate. There is no guarantee that you could use this feature.

What can I use Lottery money for?

If you are lucky, you can get a lot of lottery money in your account. Once having more than $500k in lottery, you can transfer the amount above that threshold to any account of your choice. For example, to transfer $10000 to Bigtwo, first go to Bigtwo room, then type
/LTAKE 10000
Please note that once you transfer your money out of your lottery account, there is no way for you to transfer it back into your lottery account.

How do I block messages from someone who annoys me?

Internet is a diversified environment, where different people have different standard and different expectation. If someone annoys you, or verbally abuse you, you can block all message from that person, using:
  /ignore screenname
  e.x. /ignore badguy
If you want to report to operators, type a message and press F6. Operators may not be available at all time.

How do I make my table private?

You can only make a table private if you are the owner of the table, i.e. you open the table yourself. If you are the owner type:
  /private enter_key
  /private my_secret_key
to make the table private. If you want someone to enter your private table, ask that person to type:
  /join table enter_key
  /join 12 my_secret_key

How do I eject someone out of my table?

You can only eject someone out of your table if you own the table, and the person you want to eject is not playing on your table. Type:
  /eject someone
  e.x. /eject bad_guy
to eject someone from your table.

Why did I lose $$$$ when I got disconnected or failed to play?

The server often waits for you to play. Often time, either due to your negligent or due to network delay, the server does not see your playing in a reasonable period of time. The server has to force you out of the game so that the remaining players can continue.
The server considers that you lose, and award the money to the winner of the game.
If you are still connected but fail to play, an additional penalty (equal to the money given to 1 player) is taken by the server. If you are disconnected, the server won't penalize. If you have long network delay, the server may not know that you are disconnected in reasonable time and will consider you are still connected while you are not. As a rule of thumb, do not play when you have slow network. You may lose money, and other players may be annoyed because you play too slowly.

How does server deal the the card hands?

All cards are dealt randomly. Each valid set of cards is equally likely to be dealt to any players.

Can I use the game money for anything?

You can use the game money to play game, of course. Lack of it often means that you cannot play in higher bet tables or to join tournaments. Besides that, not much else. You cannot use it to exchange for anything of real value or bluenicks. Vinagames is not a gambling site.