Opinions/experience with online poker rooms

[pokeraddict]

Since so little is mentioned about online poker rooms I figured id start a thread with my opinions. I had a bad experience with Popular Poker that brought this out. I won a freeroll there, played in live tables with morons and won some. Meeting their requirements they then told me I would have to make a deposit to cash out (this isnt anywhere in their T&C but it was a freeroll so i did it.) I made the deposit being promised a 25% bonus, played the 100 raked hands, cashed out no problem but they never gave me the bonus. I emailed support and cashier CC's 4 times, after threatening to post here they finally responded with "our email has been down do whatever you have to do" no mention of the bonus im still owed and not put in my account. They have 10 freerolls a day but be careful doing business with them. Not responding to emails and then basically not caring and still not giving promised bonus is a crap way of doing business.

After this bad experience I figure I would show good rooms since I play or have played in so many.

Lately I've been playing at bigbetpoker.com They have splash pots, high hands for each game they offer every day up to $300 depending on game and limit givin in cash, nor promo $$. Freerolls up to $1000, beat the manager heads up contest for #1 point player. The big one also, right now bad beat jackpot is $25,000. Cash out was 24 hours

I also play at Victorias Poker, a mac compatible site, they have freerolls and loose games. As far as i know its the only mac compatible site. Cash out here has been 12-24 hours

My favorite big poker room is Party Poker, their software and server could use an upgrade, there is nothing more irritating then the lobby saying 5 seats available for tourney and getting to table and they are in 3rd hand. Other then that there is always action, lots of sit and gos, which I love, and of course party poker millions. Empire poker ties into same software. I dont play there as much as I used to because their deposit options make it difficult for me. Cash out here has been a disappointing 4-6 days. I feel sure their payout dept is swamped.

Another great sit an go site is pokerstars, although I dont play there much, their deposit options as well limit me.

Now to ones I dont like.

Americas card room and fabulous use same software, they recently had a change in mgt. A few days before change they sent me promo offer, 30% redeposit bonus. I took them up on their offer. The email went on to say they had free $50 night for 200 hands 4 nights a week (they had done this for a long time) $200 and $800 sports pools and a full explnation of their promo buck system. Less then a week later they pulled all their promos they advertised on their email. After that I placed in a freeroll and i couldnt play with the money right away like i always could, they wanted me to deposit. That would make this a bonus roll then, not a freeroll. An email giving my opinion of their email to the manager sending a mean email i got banned, which I dont care cause I wont play there since i feel like their email was a scam to advertise all the promos they always offered just to pull them a few days later.

One last one, I know there has been alot of talk about paradise but I'm convinced something fishy is going on. Robots or something, ive never seen so many people hit runner runner into rags they never should have flopped then when you say nh or where are you from they leave or dont talk. So many people in other poker rooms share the same belief about paradise.

I know this is a long post but it seems poker is ignored here. I've never played in the poker rooms Casinomeister ads for so i have no opinion.



(Message edited by Pokeraddict on September 17, 2003)

[linda7]

Hi Pokeraddict:

I share your theory with regard to Paradise Poker. The cards people caught on 6th and 7th St.
were amazing (I like stud). Also, NL hold'em many times I would lose to the turn and the river.
I have heard of lots of collusion there too.

I like partypoker and pokerstars, the sit and go's are great. Each of these sites allow for a "late registration" (up until 5 mins after tourney has started, that is why you sometimes see them on the 3rd or 4th hand when you enter).
Planet Poker is good too. Good games, tourneys and fast payout.

I am off to The Borgata in Atlantic City tonight to play their Stud tourney tomorrow (Thurs) and NL (Fri).

Keep your fingers crossed that Hurricane Isabel does not cause too much flooding since I can only do the doggie paddle...lol.

Stay safe everyone, and will post when I return.

(((hugs))))
Linda

[jpm]

Good luck Linda!! Did you win a satellite or are you buying in directly?

[pokeraddict]

Linda,
Just mentioning paradise at a table of another poker room will generate the discussision of the suspicions of what goes on there. Hundreds in other poker rooms agree with me. I've played ppoker for half my life and online for 3 years and ive NEVER seen anything like what goes on there. Noone is lucky enough to flop 34o miss flop and still call and hit runner runner staights over and over. Twice there i deposited $100 to play 1/2 or 2/4 and played tight and never won a hand each deposit.

[linda7]

JPM...thanks for the good wishes!!!! Tomorrow's stud tourney and Friday's NL tourney are $500 buy-ins...then on Sat it starts their $5000 NL tourney, I won a seat for that one. Again, ty so much for wishing me well and you know I wish you many many Royals. (((hugs)))

Pokeraddict...I find that if I mention Paradise at another poker site the same thing happens. People do not speak very kindly about it. I wish you many winning hands at the site of your choice.

Stay safe everyone...watch out for the heavy winds that they predict Hurricane Isabel will be causing. God Bless.

[jetset]

This is a great topic for discussion, as the poker sector seems to be moving up at a healthy clip and there are serious dollars being spent on advertising and promotions like the recent Hendon Mob signing by Prima.

Pokeraddict, what do you think of the Poker Pulse.com site as an information resource on relative site rankings and performance?

As an experienced player do you favour the tournament strategies apparently being adopted by the leaders in the business; are you in favour of the network concept to build choice and action?

How do you think that technologies can be improved to better suit the player? I have been told that Texas Hold 'Em is the favourite of most players - is that your experience? Do you know anything about the Australian "Manila" game?

How would you prioritise your requirements for a good online poker experience?

I would certainly like to learn a lot more about this fascinating area of online gambling.

[murder1]

Visit me at www.casino-rebates.com I have lots of Poker Sites. We Just had one Poker Room run a successful commercial on TV. And its was a nice success. They have recruited lots of New Players

[pokeraddict]

Jetset,

I dont find pokerpulse all that useful, its nice to see how paradise is losing so much market share.

As for netorking, I assume you mean like partypoker and empire poker using same software, I think it is a good idea, especially since I think so many people prefer big poker rooms. I actually prefer them smaller unless I'm in the mood for a sit and go since most smaller poker rooms have trouble getting those together. The reason I prefer smaller rooms is because there are so many total idiots that play that it is hard to track then in large rooms. In a smaller room its easier to track their play. I'm big on stats, tracking others flop %, what they flopped from earliy position, checking hand histories for what they chased. Large rooms make my notes useless since its not likely ill run into that same player again.

As far as technology I feel like the #1 issue these poker rooms have is they all crash, from the smallest to the biggest. I've played on partypoker where it went down for hours, just as every small one i play at has. The only room ive ever played at that didnt go out for some period of time is bigbetpoker.com Crashing is #1 issue to me, whether its their server or software issue on the server it sucks. Costa Rican rooms like to blame it on the internet there.

As for experience, the #1 to me is the software although it is not 100% important to me. I feel like paradise has the best software but i dont trust them, I feel like party poker has terrible software but i like the players and all the tourneys and for being so large their support even gets a B or so. Loose games are just as important, ,thats one thing about party poker's software, no flop % stats for tables in lobby.

It's late here where i am so my brain is fried so if I missed a question ask again and ill check posts later. BEDTIME!

[jetset]

Hey, thanks pokeraddict - this is giving me a valuable perspective from another angle on this sector and I appreciate your input.

I haven't been able to find a better place than Poker Pulse for market information, but I'm definitely open to suggestions if you think there is a more useful alternative?

From what you say, a facility within the software that would assist in recording and analysing play in a statistical sense would be appealing to experienced players?

Party Poker is, I understand owned by the iGlobal software people who were quite sharp to recognise the possibilities of the poker room market early on. Given their casino s/w performance I'm not altogether surprised to hear that there are at times hassles with it. You would think that with the money they are clearly raking in they would be doing some improvement development. Maybe they are and it hasn't filtered through yet.

I was told that poker players like fast play in their software, too - would you agree with that?

Please post any other thoughts should they occur to you - I find this relatively new area of online gambling very interesting and would like to improve my knowledge on it.

[pokeraddict]

I left out one of the obvious big things in a poker room I like. The promos! As in my first post I wrote about all of bigbetpokers promos. I win a high hand every other day for $50-$100 because there are 5 winners a day in each if their 5 games. They also have a 100% match on first deposit up to $30 so I made a $30 deposit and started winning right away. Fast games a certainly big in my book too. At party poker they have 6 max tables, I prefer those because they are full of players that want a fast game. Most softwares offer an animation off option as well. Yes I agree with the fact that Party Poker needs to upgrade, they certainly have no excuse with all the money they rake. If Party had software that was as nice as paradise they would be #1 without a close second place IMO.