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NewbSaibot United States. Apr 04 2012 00:48. Posts 4946

I've been hearing talk for the last year about Bodog/Bovada and how incredibly fishy it is all the way up through midstakes, and figured surely they jest, else all reg's would be playing there. Supposedly Bovada went out of their way to make the software as uncomfortable for regs as possible so that they simply would refuse to play there. Being a single-table rec player I decided it's time to see what all the talk is about, and put some money on there through a ridiculous process of $100 deposits via some check card I had to get from a gas station.

I must say, the games do seem good. Hardly anybody is ever fullstacked, lots of limping and mind-boggling calls and otherwise total chicanery. This is all at NL200 mind you. And I can see why the regs will never play here, the software is simply the most painful thing you can ever imagine. For starters, the only way to top off is to do it manually after every hand, there is no auto-reload. Furthermore, you must topoff immediately following a fold, otherwise the game ignores your request and you will continue to sit there with $43 for the next hand.

If you stand up from a table you cant sit back down for 5 minutes, no matter what. This means you cant switch seats to gain position on a fish. You stand up, you're basically out. There are no waiting lists, so you can never tell which tables are the juicy one's. You cant even see full tables. The only tables in the lobby are tables with open seats.

Multi-tabling is rage inducing. The game does not do much to notify you in the way of active tables. There are no hotkeys for betting, everything must be done manually. The bet-slider and bet-sizer feel awful. The entire process of multi-tabling just feels gross.

Now you've probably heard about the new hand history feature, whereby you can see everyone's holecards, even without showdown after 24 hours. Aside from the fishpool, this is one of the more fascinating features. The HH's are stored on bovada's server and accessed through a search tool, like browsing PTR to see a hand on someone. It's been very interesting going through yesterday's sessions trying to learn the bluffing frequencies of fish, their true limping ranges, what an UTG minraise means, etc. Since most fish all have a similar playstyle there's plenty to study here.

For instance, I find even the worst players arent really stealing your blind that much. Limping ranges are always trash. Calling ranges are trash, preflop and postflop. Stuff most of you already know. But it's still good to have it reinforced since sometimes we convince ourselves to play -EV because you just cant quite ever be sure if you never see their hand. I find myself playing a much more relaxed game now that I have reviewed 100 hands or so where I just had to know what someone had, and feel much better now about making the correct folds and not getting too spewy.

Do I recommend Bovada? Absolutely for any thinking recreational player, no matter how bad you are. Do I recommend it for grinders? It's hard not to since it's free money, but I can never imagine any grinder putting up with this interface. You thought merge skins were annoying? You've never seen anything like this. I'm sure anyone who plays 12+ tables can make up the difference in EV on Stars vs Bovada's 4-table cap.

0 votes

bye now

SugoGosu Korea (South). Apr 04 2012 01:22. Posts 1793

How are deposit / withdrawl speeds?

Say this outloud! Why was six afraid of seven?......Because Seven Eight Nine

Acckerman United States. Apr 04 2012 03:00. Posts 725

this sounds awful for anyone

NewbSaibot United States. Apr 04 2012 18:00. Posts 4946

On April 04 2012 00:22 SugoGosu wrote:
How are deposit / withdrawl speeds?

Deposit was quick on Bovada's end, you just have to jump through hoops to do it. My only option was to get a special debit card called a NetSpend card which I had to google to find at a local gas station in my city. The card has low deposit caps so that you are forced into paying additional fee's to get more money on it. By the time I was done I think I spent something like $30 in fee's to get a bankroll on bovada.

bye now

TheTrees United States. Apr 04 2012 20:35. Posts 1592

What part of FL do you live?

NewbSaibot United States. Apr 04 2012 21:29. Posts 4946

I live in SC, not FL

bye now