Pokerstars freeze after first hand played

[RubbishCards]

Has anyone else experienced this problem on Pokerstars? This happens 100% of the time for me and has done for the last couple of weeks, including the most recent software upgrade.

The first time I play a hand after connecting, the Pokerstars software just freezes for about 20 seconds. This does not happen in observed games, I have to join the game and pay an ante or blind. At the end of that hand, I get the freeze. If it is a high speed ring game, this means I will ALWAYS time out at the start of the second hand.

Once it happens, it doesn't happen again as long as I leave the Stars program running. Next time I start up, it will happen again, 100%.

It happens on play money tables too, so now when I start up Stars, the first thing I do after connecting is sit at a play money stud table, pay the ante, wait until the end of the hand, let it freeze and time me out on the next hand, and leave the table. Everything works fine after that.

I tried emailing support but I got a form response about how my internet pipes must be clogged by horses. This is nothing to do with a lost connection, the software still responds when the connection is down, and gives an animating progress bar etc. In this case the software is completely unresponsive, during the freeze the window doesn't redraw if you switch to a different task and back again.

So is it just me? [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]