Why online poker sucks ass now
Once upon a time online poker was fun to play, profitable, loaded with bonuses and calling stations.
I hadn't played online in months. Work made me too busy. But I did play the occasional hand in live poker. I did fine. I had a nice run of cards. But idiot politicians of Ontario forced me to drive an hour and change just to play. So i decided to get back to online a bit. I tried Pokerstars.
I couldn't believe the Ultra-tight/tight-aggressive play of Most players. Impossible to win money consistently. You just bet and steal small money from the blinds. Then you steal and get re-raised and move out of the way. You just need to get lucky and have a good hand against another good hand. But you could be in the wrong side of this so easily.
Just tight aggressive and tight-rock shit right now.
And where the fuck are the bonuses? Pokersourceonline hasn't added a new room in like forever. The last bonus offer I got, months ago from PKR required hours of play. There aren't many good bonuses right now. Paying a lot and easy to clear.
I hadn't played online in months. Work made me too busy. But I did play the occasional hand in live poker. I did fine. I had a nice run of cards. But idiot politicians of Ontario forced me to drive an hour and change just to play. So i decided to get back to online a bit. I tried Pokerstars.
I couldn't believe the Ultra-tight/tight-aggressive play of Most players. Impossible to win money consistently. You just bet and steal small money from the blinds. Then you steal and get re-raised and move out of the way. You just need to get lucky and have a good hand against another good hand. But you could be in the wrong side of this so easily.
Just tight aggressive and tight-rock shit right now.
And where the fuck are the bonuses? Pokersourceonline hasn't added a new room in like forever. The last bonus offer I got, months ago from PKR required hours of play. There aren't many good bonuses right now. Paying a lot and easy to clear.
Comments
what stake are you playing?
1) try to learn a few thing about poker
2) pokerstar does not have any bonus for small players ($50 is nothing)
go to FTP, signup with Rakeback. plus $600 bonus.
or ongame with 8x bonus, ipoker with point to cash bonus....etc
Cleared a $75 bonus on Tigergaming, playing $25, $50 and $100 max, plus cashing in two tourneys and ran my account from ~$200 to $521.
Clearing a $700 bonus on Pokerroom while playing $5/10 limit and a few tourneys and ran my account from ~$1000 to $1404.
Clearing a $240 bonus on Pokerstars, started from $0 because of the Thieves situation, played some freerolls and then sat with $22 at $.5/1 limit and ran it to $73.91 in an hour and a bit.
Bottom line, fish are everywhere, doesn't matter what game, what site and what limit. Bonuses to be had as well.
so you lose $300+ or more at 5/10 limit? ^^
"Clearing" as in, NOT CLEARED YET.
"Cleared" as in, I have the money now.
I've dropped $300 in a day of 3/6 and 5/10 limit at least a few times. Very easy. But also easy to finish up this amount too. Variance baby...plus I play bad.
It's really easy to lose more than 100 big blinds in limit.
Online is much tighter today than in the past.
2004: I could beat 3/6NL online by just being tight.
2008: .25/.50NL online plays much tighter than 2/5NL live
The easy bonuses were much more common when a ton of new players and money was being added to the industry, and the laws did not restrict the easy transfer of funds in the US like they do now.
Lots of sites started and offered good bonuses to lure customers. Some lasted and grew like Full Tilt while many others came and went or merged with others as the industry's growth slowed.
That, plus the fact that more and more people were "bonus whoring" led to tighter restrictions in the ease of making the "free money."
Does that mean there is no value out there? Hardly, but you have to do more research and plan your play accordingly. For tournament players, the Cryptologic rooms offer some insane rewards for your MPP (player points) while you clear monthly bonus (with rakeback). Party Poker has some very interesting promotions as well that give a huge amount of rakeback once you learn how their system works (1 hour on the phone with "the guy who knows it and can answer anything" finally helped me get it).
I am sure there are other great values out there as well, but it is not in the easy form of here is $100 for playing 500 raked hands of .05/.10 NL on Party.
Also, if you think the poker industry has gotten tighter (it has conventionally, but with research there are actually better opportunities these days), consider the online casino industry, which was probably one of the best kept secrets for years.
4 years ago it was easy to clear $2,000+ a month in very easy, small bonuses. Some were even as low as wager 2x.
2-3 years ago it was still easy to clear $1,000-1500 a month
Last year it was down to maybe $500 a month.
Now it is a couple hundred dollars a month if that (more for me as I get a ton of Party +EV casino bonuses each month).
Natural progression of an industry when growth slows and the focus has to be on established customers more. That is why you see all sorts of VIP programs that were not around a few years ago to retain customers.
...I know of many players playing exclusively online for a living -- perhaps adjust your game or find different games to play online
I'd love some specific examples of using bonuses to pump up a bit...since I've really no experience, if someone wouldn't mind getting into detail a bit.