Playing after black Friday

In an effort to play poker again, I checked out all the websites I found that were listed on all the different poker websites and blogs.  If I saw a site listed at many places, and had lots of different advertisements, then I gambled, downloaded the software, created an account, and tried it out.  I have been running malware and virus software since downloading and installing the various software, and so far I have not had any detections of any kind.  Of course any software download and installed comes with risk, but for me, I have not had any trouble.  Below is a list of the sites that I have tried over the last few weeks, and my feelings about them:

Bovada - http://poker.bovada.lv/

I didn’t have any trouble installing and using this software. There seems to be some good free-roll tournaments, but I have been unable to sign up for any of them. I have tried numerous times, but always receive an error. Even though the free-rolls look good, I’ve been unable to partake. If you have better luck, this could be a great place to try and build a bankroll.

Lock Poker - http://lockpoker.eu/

Carbon Poker - http://www.carbonpoker.ag/

Poker Host - http://www.pokerhost.com/

These sites are all part of the Merge gaming network, and other than the different names, the software seems exactly that same.  I like the software, and there seems to be a lot of different options available.  The free-rolls are a bit ridiculous, however.  Not only do the free-rolls mostly offer tickets to other free-rolls, paying real cash to only the top 4 places, there are only a few free-rolls every day.  Also, these different sites do not allow more than one client connection at a time.

Cake Poker - http://cakepoker.eu

This was another site that seemed promising.  The software download and installed fine, and I didn’t have any trouble creating an account.  The free-rolls are also a little silly, with the winners earning tickets to other free-rolls, but those offer prizes over $100.00, so it could be worth it.  However, I had the same problem with this site that I had with Bovada, and wasn’t actually able to register for any free-rolls.  Multiple attempts just returned a server error.  I don’t know if it was a bug, but I moved on.

America’s Card Room - http://www.americascardroom.eu/

This site had some promising looking free-roll tournaments, and after creating an account, installing the software, I was ready to play.  However, the next day, I couldn’t get the software to work.  Clicking on the program launched something, but nothing ever happened.  I uninstalled and reinstalled the software multiple times, but I could never even get a window to pop up again.  If you could get this one to work, then it really looked promising, but I didn’t have any luck.

Bet Online - http://www.betonline.com/

I almost didn’t even try this one, and at first is wasn’t on my list, but after having all the problems I described above, I did more searching and added this site to the list.  So far this one has been the most promising.  I was able to create an account and download the software.  There is a free-roll every hour, and they all pay out real money, not just a ticket into some other tournament.  Also, this is one of the few sites I’ve seen that have $0.01/0.02 cash games, which is good when you win only a small amount.  There are also tournaments for as little as $0.05 or $0.10, which is just what you want when trying to build a bankroll from nothing.

I have been playing on Bet Online, recording my stats, and trying to find a strategy that will win me some free money so I can build another bankroll from nothing, which is always been fun for me.  The only other site I play on is Lock Poker.  The other ones have too many problems. Perhaps you might have better luck.

Next time I will post my initial strategy for wining some money in these free-rolls, and will present my current stats (I’m not doing that well so far), but that’s poker :-)

Ciao,

ZenToad