diff --git a/src/main/java/de/diddiz/LogBlock/Consumer.java b/src/main/java/de/diddiz/LogBlock/Consumer.java
index 48d8ff2..e1fb205 100644
--- a/src/main/java/de/diddiz/LogBlock/Consumer.java
+++ b/src/main/java/de/diddiz/LogBlock/Consumer.java
@@ -336,7 +336,8 @@ public class Consumer extends TimerTask
 				continue;
 			for (final String player : r.getPlayers())
 				if (!playerIds.containsKey(player) && !insertedPlayers.contains(player)) {
-					writer.println("INSERT IGNORE INTO `lb-players` (playername) VALUES ('" + player + "');");
+					// Odd query contruction is to work around innodb auto increment behaviour - bug #492
+					writer.println("INSERT IGNORE INTO `lb-players` (playername) SELECT '" + player + "' FROM `lb-players` WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT NULL FROM `lb-players` WHERE playername = '" + player + "') LIMIT 1;");
 					insertedPlayers.add(player);
 				}
 			for (final String insert : r.getInserts())
@@ -365,7 +366,8 @@ public class Consumer extends TimerTask
 	}
 
 	private boolean addPlayer(Statement state, String playerName) throws SQLException {
-		state.execute("INSERT IGNORE INTO `lb-players` (playername) VALUES ('" + playerName + "')");
+		// Odd query contruction is to work around innodb auto increment behaviour - bug #492
+		state.execute("INSERT IGNORE INTO `lb-players` (playername) SELECT '" + playerName + "' FROM `lb-players` WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT NULL FROM `lb-players` WHERE playername = '" + playerName + "') LIMIT 1;");
 		final ResultSet rs = state.executeQuery("SELECT playerid FROM `lb-players` WHERE playername = '" + playerName + "'");
 		if (rs.next())
 			playerIds.put(playerName, rs.getInt(1));
diff --git a/src/main/java/de/diddiz/LogBlock/Updater.java b/src/main/java/de/diddiz/LogBlock/Updater.java
index 8de1123..6d35c79 100644
--- a/src/main/java/de/diddiz/LogBlock/Updater.java
+++ b/src/main/java/de/diddiz/LogBlock/Updater.java
@@ -246,6 +246,10 @@ class Updater
 		final DatabaseMetaData dbm = conn.getMetaData();
 		conn.setAutoCommit(true);
 		createTable(dbm, state, "lb-players", "(playerid INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, playername varchar(32) NOT NULL, firstlogin DATETIME NOT NULL, lastlogin DATETIME NOT NULL, onlinetime INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL, ip varchar(255) NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (playerid), UNIQUE (playername))");
+		// Players table must not be empty or inserts won't work - bug #492
+		final ResultSet rs = state.executeQuery("SELECT NULL FROM `lb-players` LIMIT 1;");
+		if (!rs.next())
+			state.execute("INSERT IGNORE INTO `lb-players` (playername) VALUES ('dummy_record')");
 		if (isLogging(Logging.CHAT))
 			createTable(dbm, state, "lb-chat", "(id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, date DATETIME NOT NULL, playerid INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL, message VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (id), KEY playerid (playerid), FULLTEXT message (message)) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET utf8");
 		for (final WorldConfig wcfg : getLoggedWorlds()) {