Had an interesting couple of days poker at Bodog, Inter and Poker4ever.
Inter saw my last hand on a £25 NL table as follows:
Holding 6d 7d on the BB, all players call and I check to see a flop of 3h 4d 5s and make a 'double pot size' bet. One caller, then one raises to 3 x my original bet. Yum Yum, I foolishly think. I reraise him another 3 x the pot, and he moves all in with other guy folding. I have the nut str8, the flop is a rainbow so no flush draw is on, maybe he flopped a set?
Nope. He turns over Ah 2h and has hit the lower end of the str8. I see a 'doubling up' here, surely? The turn is a heart, followed by another on the river, and he now has a flush. Kind of sums up my last 2 months at Inter, so I cleared out my remaining 20 or so $ and hit the 'un-install' button.
It got me thinking about how your luck is at various sites, obviously me and Inter are never going to have a beautiful love affair, more like an Elizabeth Taylor / Richard Burton type thing, where we occasionally have good moments together, but in the long run, it ain't gonna last. But it's strange how at other sites luck seems to even itself out a little more regularly. I've played at Poker Room for almost 2 years, and whilst I have had some dark times there, I've always come out of it. Doesn't look so at Inter, so I'll move on. CD Poker is the same, and I've had some 100$ losing days, but fortunately, more 100$ winning days. So common sense tells me I should be playing more at these 2 sites?
Bodog Poker is proving fruitful in it's first 3 days, my initial 100$ outlay is now 145$, and I am half way to clearing my extra 100$ bonus, so hopefully I can maintain this run for the next week and clear my bonus whilst still showing a profit. Then it will be decision time to stay, or move to another site and work towards a bonus there.
I actually like this site as well. Not just because I'm winning, but I'll come to that in a minute. I like the layout of the site, the graphics are good, and I especially like the 'wide screen' option, which is great if you are only playing one table, and can be made back to normal size if 2-tabling.
There's lots of information on the screen without having to go looking in the lobby as well as all the usual effects (notes, stats, chat etc).
Competition seems to be fairly soft, although I am only playing at the 10$ and 25$ buy-in NL tables. Flops seen is regularly in the 60-80% region, so juicy pickings to be had. There seem to be plenty of tables available at tese levels, so good volume of fish too! One session especially saw me take 30$ from 2 players alone, who just did not want to fold pocket pairs, irrelevant of the 3 overcards on the table, or the obvious flush/str8 draws. So I'll hang around these tables till I've hopefully built up my bankroll and move up.
Tried a couple of 'beginner' SNG's and one normal 5$ one, but got nowhere here, the beginner one's saw almost every 'all-in' I did attract at least one caller, and player with Q4 called twice (yes, they were sooted!).
Anyone wants to join, you get a 10% bonus instantly (not sure on the limit here) and again on any reloads, as well as a further 100% bonus on first deposits. I have to make 300 Bodog points before I can get at my 100$ bonus, and I am at 124 points after 3 days play, so assuming that I carry on at the same rate, I should hit this bonus within the next 7 days. If I can manage to maintain my current run, I could have turned 100$ to 250$ (maybe more) inside 7 days and could be on to a serious plan here. Not bad eh, but I don't want to speak to soon!
Also, I've opened a Neteller Account, as this is much easier to transfer money and receive money quicker (
Acorn - got my Inter money inside 24 hours!) and also keep a better track of winnings etc.
Finally, thanks to
Rosie's advice, opened up an account at Poker4ever, after the Rottie told me about the standard of competiton. Also opened up with 100$ here, though the bonus is only 40$ - but easier to clear.
Not a great start with 4 flopped 2 pairs losing to a set each time, and then my AQ raise of 10 x bb with one caller, saw a flop og Q 5 2, and he called my all-in and turned over 52. Not great now, but good for the future as surely that can only happen so often!
Managed to claw back some of my losses, but am about 40$ down here. Need that bonus PDQ!
The only downside to this site is the very low traffic, even at limit games there is hardly anyone there, so sometimes you'll have to wait. Also, the file to download is a massive 65mb, compared to 12mb with Poker Room and Inter, 25mb at CD Poker, so check your space!
OK, enough for now, good luck at the tables, and can't wait for Rosie to post a picture of herself wearing the 'Rottie' T Shirt that we sent her for her birthday. Apparantly it's a great fit (well, if you're a bloke!!) and I think it's the least she can do to show her gratitude.
Ciao.
