New Site, Same Emptyman

"Skills" game? My shiny metal ass.

The Bodog blogger poker tournament? Now that's a different story.

In my second attempt, I actually lasted long enough to see some decent cards in the Tuesday Bodog. A card rack, you say? Well maybe just a bit.

This is just a sampling. I had AA at least 2 other times, and KK, AA consecutively, and QQ, KK consecutively. Jamming along with some great tunes from BDR, I took advantage of this to push some crappier hands as well, and built a decent stack. Phase 1, complete.

Now, time to win some races...





Phase 2, complete. Down to heads up with DrizztDj, I had a substantial chip lead, over 3:1. Win one more race out of the next 2 and I'm gold. Ha! Caught him shoving 64 hearts...oh man, a flush.

From there, it was a war. And I have to say, I won the battles. Then, he won the race. Then I won most of the battles. Then he won the race.

And honestly, that's when I gave up and shoved bottom pair. And we all know how that turned out.



Congrats to Drizz on a well-played tourney. And, thanks to the T$500 added by Bodog, 1st and 2nd were a lot closer in money than in a standard payout structure. Sure, I love to get the win there, but 2nd is still lucrative. Which brings me to my next topic, the Bodog experience.

When choosing a poker site, the three things most important to me (in order) are:

The poker
The software (features)
The software (usability, interface)

So, since I know many of you have yet to try it out, let me take these one at a time.

The Poker

From my limited experience, Bodog appears to place a premium on splashing money around. And as a poker player, I can appreciate the crap out of that. I don't want a bunch of fancy rewards points, bonuses that are cleared by paying rakes (Bodog gives a 10% initial deposit bonus, CASH), or fancy freeroll tourneys. Don't get me wrong, they have all these things TOO. But adding $500 to our blogger tourney each week, adding $25K to their first big series Main Event, now we're talking. "I like money..." (if you haven't seen Idiocracy, just do it already)

Also, a fat WSOP Main Event package. That's mine though, so don't get your hopes up.

The tournaments are plentiful, and the cash tables are as well. Unfortunately for me, no HORSE yet. Also, unfortunately for me, nobody plays Stud H/L or Limit Omaha H/L. So, while I got my instant bonus, I may not be able to clear my additional 100% bonus unless I feel like playing some cash Holdem. 5 card stud is a welcome new game, although I don't really have a feel for it yet, I think I may enjoy it a lot in the near future.



The Software

I. The Features

Pretty much everything is there. The hand histories, while kept in a separate, text window, do show cards and suits, and list complete action for the hand, not the last action for each player. It is also searchable by time and type, which surpasses any of the other sites I play on. Full Tilt for example loses the pretty history when I move to a new table. On Bodog, I was just now (18 hours later, the next day) able to search through the hands from last nights tourney.

Deposit and Withdrawal are again pretty standard. It's missing my one current favorite, ePassporte, but I was able to use eWalletExpress successfully. There was a bit of a waiting period while my eW deposit cleared, but once that was done I was playing instantly.

The biggest thumbs up for me is the customer service. They are...let's say aggressively helpful. And when dealing with this kind of stuff, that's the exact service I choose. The less time I have to spend doing maintenance, the more time I spend playing poker. For instance, when my first deposit failed, they sent me an email with suggestions, and a phone number, ASKING me to call and get help if I required it. When I DID require it, not being on the "blogger list" for the blogger tourney, I made a call, was on hold for 15 seconds tops, and it was resolved immediately, in time for me to play the tourney that same day.

In contrast, when I unsuccessfully tried to register for a tourney on Absolute Poker yesterday, I was only able to send an email. I also knew there was NO CHANCE IN HELL that I get a response in any reasonable time at all, certainly not in the 60 minutes left to register before the tourney. In fact, I would be lucky if the response actually answered my question at all, since all customer support there seems to know how to do is copy and paste form answers. I did get a response from them (24 hours later) and yup, they didn't answer my question at all. I think the head of AP Customer Support is a random number generator.

But seriously, back to Bodog. I get the impression they actually care about their players, actually want them to be happy and use the software successfully. Thanks.

II. The Interface

I'm a software guy, so I'm particular about this type of thing. And, it's exactly what you would expect from a new piece of software. Medium learning curve, generally functional but missing some flourishes that would really make it sparkle. To be fair, it doesn't have the years of maturity of Full Tilt, and I'm optimistic that they will upgrade some of these things. But right now, on my list,

Resizable windows. PLEASE! I have a big gorgeous monitor with 38 bazillion pixels, but I can't make the window bigger to use more than 1/4 of my screen. That would be fine, but many of the sub-windows can't show 100% of the info, and are even sharing with other features. More window functionality in general.

A generally better arrangement of information. Hand histories could be prettier, but also more convenient. When someone shows down but mucks a losing hand, I really like using the 1 second in between hands to look at their cards. It's just not convenient enough to do on a regular basis. Also, 1 big tourney leaderboard in the game window would be WAY better than individual tables, and big/small stacks for each table.

Improved notes. Easier to get to, easier to view. Color coding like FT. I'm big on keeping info on players, and it needs to be easy so that it doesn't distract from my playing. Enough said.

To sum up, the software is promising but still a bit lacking. But, it's new, and from their commitment to excellence (hint, hint), I expect them to continue to improve the user experience. Again, to contrast, Absolute Poker has been around for YEARS, and still has serious deficiencies. (don't EVEN get me started) I will be hanging around Bodog more and more as I start to look for favorite tourneys to play in, and I hope you'll all join me so we can play something besides Holdem.


Now, on to the Mookie, and my seat in the TOC. As a 2-time winner, I feel supremely confident about tonight. I suggest folding to all of my raises.