Unimpressed with Phoenician

fortyoz

Dormant account
Joined
Apr 30, 2004
Location
Moravia, Costa Rica
Played Phoenician for the first time yesterday, deposited a total of $2500.00 via neteller, received a total of $300.00 in bonuses...... 12% .. pretty lame, could have gotten that anywhere that I already have an account. ( even after I asked for extra comps.. )

I haven't played blackjack for a while ( except GP ) but I gave it a shot there because I don't really like the video poker they have, made bets between $25.00-$500.00 .. it pretty much killed me on all the bets above $100.00, could have just been bad luck but I did not have a good time there, the support staff were unfriendly as well.

First time playing RTG, don't think i'll go back unless they find someway to make it up.

Funny, I used to host Nostalgia before the buyout and sent them like half the players they have :)

I Was enticed by the instant withdrawals, but i'll stick with the same day payouts @ global player.

Do I have too high of expectations ? Similar experiences anyone?
 
My first couple deposits were small 100,100,200,500,500 and so on.. they gave me the bonuses according to whats posted on their site for the first deposit + a 50% for one of my $500 deposits, but all the other places i play usually go beyond that when you make larger deposits, especially via neteller, these guys didn't seem to care to keep me as a customer.

They didn't do anything _wrong_ .. i'm just not happy with their customer service at all.

I played quite heavily and ended up with.. $6 in 'comp' cash.. pretty sad.
 
fortyoz said:
My first couple deposits were small 100,100,200,500,500 and so on.. they gave me the bonuses according to whats posted on their site for the first deposit + a 50% for one of my $500 deposits, but all the other places i play usually go beyond that when you make larger deposits, especially via neteller, these guys didn't seem to care to keep me as a customer.

They didn't do anything _wrong_ .. i'm just not happy with their customer service at all.

I played quite heavily and ended up with.. $6 in 'comp' cash.. pretty sad.

Phoenician has the best customer service by far. They are friendly, prompt and concerned with getting any problems taken care of. What exactly do you consider as unfriendly? What did they say and what was your concern with them? Im sure Dean would be interested to know who was unfriendly to you.
 
Ok, unfriendly. maybe not, indifferent, cold. Usually casinos work harder to get my play and keep it. I've read about good experiences there, just mine was not.

Most people here hate grand banks / black widow and that group with a passion and are probably correct.. but for me, they are prompt, nice.. keep me happy, go out of their way to do things, along with global player, cooks..

So who knows. Just felt like venting.
 
I haven't played blackjack for a while ( except GP ) but I gave it a shot there because I don't really like the video poker they have, made bets between $25.00-$500.00 .. it pretty much killed me on all the bets above $100.00, could have just been bad luck but I did not have a good time there.

I played at Phoenician and Nostalgia the past few days and feel pretty ambivalent about them both as well. I'm a smaller player, (5-10 blackjack, .25 video poker). I made several deposits to these two for a total of around 500, and not once was I over more than 15 dollars (of my $100 deposit, not of the 500). If I made a larger bet than usual, it gave me a double/split hand against a 5, I'd double/split, draw bad, he'd have a 5 under and draw good. Again, maybe just bad luck....but I felt pretty manipulated when it was all said and done, like maybe their blackjack and vp were designed to take advantage of proper strategy.

I might try them again next month, perhaps mid-month when they are less concerned about final montly results...but I dunno.
 
Mugwump said:
If I made a larger bet than usual, it gave me a double/split hand against a 5...

If this were a guarenteed game trend you could buy Vegas eventually - except RTG would go under long before. You'd simply bet $1 - $500 - $1 - $500 over and over. Each $500 (increased from $1) would receive a double, giving you a 20% edge over the house. In fact, if a 5 were guarenteed it'd be more than 20%.

So I question the hypothesis.
 
I absolutely agree with you, except the crap that I kept drawing after I doubled/split (and the crap the dealer kept pulling) caused me to question whether I actually had that 20% advantage. Again...just bad luck perhaps ($500 worth on 5/10 hands over 5 sessions), but I felt like I was being jerked around and that is never a comfortable feeling when playing online.
 
I agree with Mugwump that even though I trust many casinos a lot i don't feel 100% comfortable when playing online.For big stakes I always visit landbased casinos.I can't really bet 500 on black and watching a fake ball on my screen :eek2: .The ability to see and hear the real ball spining around and around and around.........BLACK!!!! :thumbsup: and then start screaming asking for drinks,talking with people around etc. I can't have that online :oops:
 
gfkostas said:
I agree with Mugwump that even though I trust many casinos a lot i don't feel 100% comfortable when playing online.For big stakes I always visit landbased casinos.I can't really bet 500 on black and watching a fake ball on my screen :eek2: .The ability to see and hear the real ball spining around and around and around.........BLACK!!!! :thumbsup: and then start screaming asking for drinks,talking with people around etc. I can't have that online :oops:

So true. On land based (or riverboat) casino's I really enjoy playing craps, its a lot of fun with all the cheering and excitement that can build up around a table. Online, the game falls completely flat.

As far as not feeling comfortable online, I really wish there was a place where I could feel 100% comfortable. After playing Crypto, RTG, and MG, and reading these forums, I'm not sure there's any software out there that you can trust to play an honest, random game. I really wish a mole would come out for these companies some day, and tell us whether or not these packages do indeed have a 'switch' programmed into them, or some other means of allowing casino managers to rig results. So far I've only seen two publicized examples of rigging (video poker at gamemaster, blackjack at wizard of odds (I think)) But it is beginning to seem to me that this is commonplace, and even worse, players seem to accept it.
 
I've been made a happy player by Dean, but still can't beat that blackjack, woo it kicked my a**, dealing always pulling 21 with 3-6 laugh.

I've always been pondering starting to program a casino suite, with the gaming guts code available for inspection for all. Would probably be too huge an undertaking right now for me, but perhaps just starting with a blackjack game, i'm sure many would sign up knowing 100% they are getting a fair game. Not sure how to verify to the user that the casino is running that exact version of the code, perhaps some type of checksum that lets them see a certain library ( blackjack innards ) compiled is the exact same size as the source shown to them.
 
Just quick look through the logs, from my first night of play.

Out of the 45 times the dealer had a '6' showing, I lost 30 times.

Out of the 42 times the dealer had a '5' showing, I lost 25 times.

Fun !
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Meister Ratings

Back
Top