The Gaming Room

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible.

I quit pokerroom.com - the site I started on, after about 3 months of mildly profitable play (x2.5 my inistial deposit, excluding a 27 dollar bonus spent on a book), and decided to chase bankroll building bonuses for a while. I checked out Scurvydogs online guide (recommended) for some ideas, and settled on the gaming room. You'll notice I haven't linked it.

The bonus structure is not bad. Quite good in comparison to most sites I've scanned. Up to 300 on a 20 dollar initial deposit, with a mximum amount earnable per limit. Wanna earn more...move up a limit. Above 1/2, theres no need to move up.

I'm sticking with 50/1 limit for the moment. Players are considerably tighter than pokerroom. Average players per flop run at around 35%, but play seems to loosen up slightly as evening comes on. The biggest pot I've seen in about 15 hours of play is 13.40. As a result, table texture is an intereesting mix of the amazingly tight - preflop raising is quite often rare - and aggressive, fairly fearless players who are happy to three bet bluff, and seem to come out ahead. Smart loose aggressives. The idiot to intelligent player ratio is comparatively low, thusfar. The games are tougher than the pokerroom norm, for instance, at this level.

Bluffing is quite often intelligent, with a willingness to let go, and well constructed in terms of reads and flop and turn texture. I've seen a lot of isolating reraises against the few non smart loose aggressives. You can tell I'm having problems with it. Chasing is considerably less of a problem, which is a pity, and I'm having to up my average game standard to break even. Which is not a bad thing. I'm playing unexcitedly ubertight, and selecting my bluffs carefully. Which is not working out, but I am getting my money in with the best of it. I'm happy enough with my play, and I'm pretty sure its the correct strategy.

Software wise, the site has some problems. Hand histories are stored on your hard drive, and available in .txt format only, and on request on a time as opposed to hand number basis. The lobby is badly organised, and infrequently updated. I've clocked at least a seven minute delay between updates on aregular basis. Table stats are displayed, but I'm guessing they are inaccurate also, re players per flop, and average pot size . It certainly seems that way when I check my own table stats against what I see at the table.

Session stats are not provided, but you can reset your statistical history (covering all sessions played) on a session by session basis. Showdowns display for about two seconds. Additionally, the dialog box scrolling at the right of the screen is useful for about 90 seconds. After that, it displays an unbroken slot of white space with the single last table action at ther top. The text scrolls up. Resetting it will buy another 90 seconds. Annoying.

All this adds up to a dearth of information while the game is in progress. And information is money. And for no good reason, I don't have enough of the stuff to play optimally. A frustrating experience, considering how hard I've worked at developing observation as part of my game.

All in all, the software is singularly annoying. And for no good reason.

So I reckon I'll finish up my bonus - I've no idea how far into I am, theres no way to check - and quit the site. Because of the software. Because the software is terrible. Because I have no interest in paying rake to play on a site which undermines my ability. Because I don't want to spend my Saturday morning bellowing obscenities at a cathode ray tube while trying to work out who won the last hand, and with what. Its far from an enjoyable experience.

Customer support takes a little time. I've had three dealings with them. Average 8 hour turnaround per enquiry. Too busy not working on their software to talk to me, I guess.

Because Belle Rock Gaming are lazy, lazy people.

Next stop, Paradise, I think.