Bad Poker

So you've climbed the mountain, scraped and bruised, in search of the ultimate answer. You've searched 10,000 blogs in search of the ONE. Where is the mighty mind of poker Utopia? Where is the Oracle of the Blessed Flop? Where is the one person who has a clear unbiased mind?

Here it is baybee....and Otis can't give you what you want. In fact, I believe he's on the next mountain over, screaming something about a deposit bonus on another site.

THE ULTIMATE QUESTION

Not to go all Douglas Adams on you here, but we should start with the question first. When I was a college sophomore I changed my major to Philosophy. I figured there was no better way to earn a college degree while freeing up as many as 23 1/2 hours a day for non-school diversions. I remember sitting in the very first class, the introduction to Classical Philosophy with my buddy Clancy. Our question : "What are the damn questions?"

Anyhoo

We can debate till Otis grows hair about which poker site is the best place to play. Most blogs have a favorite. Many of them reinforce the belief with a bit of affiliate whoring. (I refuse to believe that this influences their feelings) Turth is : there are a lot of very decent sites where you can and will win money with little or no aggrevation. Truth is : once we've discovered the dozens of sites that are all acceptably good the next decision..which is best...is just plain aesthetic preference right?

So perhaps the better question is : "Which site is worst?"

Friends, I know the answer. It ain't pretty.

Now there are those of you who will yell Pacific. The software IS lousy.
There are some who will say Poker Stars. You know this isn't true but you say it because it makes Otis mad. Because mad-Otis IS funny, I give partial credit for this answer. I've played on sites where the money is slow and difficult to retrieve. I've played on sites where the players are so bad, slot macheines would be more strategic. BUT ONLY ONE SITE CAN REALLY BE THE WORST!

It actually pains me a bit to say it. Many of you show up at a home game with THIER card protector. They showed up at the last blogger convo in Vegas. They seemed so DAMN polite. But, folks, its all a sham because

CHECK N RAISE POKER IS THE WORST SITE ON THE INTERNET!!!

I hate it. I won't be back. Lets not go endlessly on about the buggy software. Its all browser based so there is nothing to download. That's a plus in my book. But the software collapses in nearly every ring game. Almost daily I, or an opponent at my table, will see all buttons "dissappear" in the middle of a hand. That means with money on the table post-flop time runs out without the option of checking betting or folding. The software folds you automatically. I've lost money that way. The site host says "They're working on it." They've been working on it for months. It ain't fixed.

And that's if you find a game. You almost certainly WILL NOT. At any given time there are, at most, about a dozen players there. They're all playing nickel and dime NL. On some nights they do get 5 or 6 players together for a 2/4 limit game, but its hardly worth a deposit for the 6 day waiting period there. They do offer sit-n-go tourneys but there's never enough players. They do offer scheduled tourneys but they have a minimum of 9 players and they never get that many. But look at it this way...play NL there for a day or 2 and your could win a phone call and a nice cup of coffee.

AND HERE'S THE PART THE REAAAAALY PISSED ME OFF!

The other stuff is really typical of a struggling site. I'm sure they'd LIKE to have more players. That isn't their fault. But they DO have control over their online behavior and for THIS there is no excuse.

You may have seen my post below. Its a link to a story I did on BadBlood and online poker. It's from the company website with a text version of the story attached.

Well. Our friends at THE WORST SITE ON THE INTERNET stole that text story comlete with actual BADBLOOD quotes..actually attributed to him...and posted it on their site as "Poker News". They didn't like to my station. They didn't credit my station. Instead the posted this byline : "By : STAFF".

That's right a-holes....MY STAFF! Not your's.

I wrote an e-mail on the feedback page and very politely asked them to either remove the article or give it a proper credit. They ignored my request. Two days later I sent a second e-mail, again with a polite tone, but with somewhat more direct language. This was also ignored. Now, frankly, I was more upset about them ignoring my e-mails that I was about the damn story.

Today I used the "Page Host" function from a table to try and get a response. I was told there was nothing he could do. Folks, stealing copy from a TV station without credit is AGAINST THE LAW! But, I digress.

Here's the damn bottom line ( I curse here to indicate my growing furor even as I type ) :

Don't EVER deposit money at CHECK N RAISE poker. You will lose it the moment the site collapses. The site will collapse because with the current structure and poplarity of the site they can't possibly be making money.

Also, they are bastards. That counts for something.

| G-Rob's Thoughts