Review: vcpoker.com
I believe that the 'vc' stands for Victor Chandler, (could they have picked a odder name?) Anyway, I've felt complelled to write a review for the site, as I've been playing there for about a week and have really enjoyed the experience. This seeems also like a great site for beginners to flock to as there are real money games available at no cost!
I like trying new sites, and I saw this site listed on one of the freeroll listing services. It's a site based in the UK and I have no idea who or what Victor Chandler is. I logged on and realized that the "freerolls" need action points to play in they, so I was about ready to leave the site.
Just before I logged off, I nocited that a side bar mentioned free 10 cent tournaments, so I stuck around and took a look at the games they had to offer. To say they have micro-limit games is overstating the fact.
At the lowest end of the spetrum is a 9 player SnG with a prize pool of $0.10 (Yep.. that means 1st is 5 cents, second is 3 cents and third is 2 cents.) The best part is, is that these cost nothing to play! So, I sat down and tried three games, placing first twice and built my bankroll up to a monstrous 10 cents.
The other SnG's rise from there and they're all at natural intervals. For example, the next highest SnG's are...
$0.04 + $0.01 (plus $0.04 cents added)
$0.10 + $0.01
$0.25 + $0.02
etc, etc... all the way up to (I believe)
$50 + $5
The neat part is, is that once you start playing at $0.04 and above, you start earning "Action Points" (think frequent player points) for entries into the free roll. In fact, after my first night, I had accumulated 11 Action points and used 10 of them to enter a 177 person $10 Freeroll. (With a massive first prive of $2.40!)
The funniest part of all this is that the games get fairly serious once you hit the $0.25 level. The reason, I believe, is that anyone with real money won't touch it, which means the only people playing are the ones that have built a bankroll up from nothing, so play at these tables I find roughly similar to Party's $10+$1 once you hit 5-6 players left.
Now, if the game interface sucks, then there's no use playing, but I was surprised to find that I'm beginning to prefer this site's UI and format of tournament over pretty much everyone else.
The structure of SnGs; you start with T2,000 and the blinds are 20-40, 30-60, 50-100, 75-150, 100-200, 150-300, etc., Even better.. the blinds raises at fixed times (once everyone 8 minutes) and not every fixed number of hands. This extends the times for tournaments, but the extra chips and fixed intervals, I feel, really favours the better players.
As for betting once you're playing, there are the start "pre-select options"; fold, check-fold, check-raise, etc., but when if comes your turn you not only have a slide bar (for No-Limit), but you also have buttons which say 2x,4x,8x,16x,max for quickly choosing raise amounts... I can't say how much I love this feature!!
Other things that I like... the cards are a great size (slightly bigger than other sites.) The speed of deals is fantastic, and showdowns have a great speed. (There's a bit of a pause, letting you take in everyone's hole cards, then the board is dealt one card at a time).
All in all, I really enjoy the experience of the site and recommend it to anyone (esp. those unwilling to fund account with real money). (As an aside, I don't work for the site)
My bankroll on the site has risen to $0.51 and I'm hoping to make it to $1.00 so I can play the 5cent/10cent limit tables! the only thing I don't have experience with is withdrawls, so I can't comment on that.
I'm not sure if there's a referrer thing on the site, but feel free to tell'em Zithal sent ya.
If you get on, feel free to post under here updates to your bankroll. Who can make it the furthest, starting with nothing?!
Favorite hand of the evening:
I get dealt 9:club: 5:club: in the big blind and am allowed to limp in to see a board of 9
5:diamond: 9:spade: . I check, get one person calling and another raising. I call everything and the turn brings a K:club: , the same two people raise it up and we're eventually in a 4-way all in situation. All three people had overpairs to the flop the river is a blank and I quadruple-up!
I like trying new sites, and I saw this site listed on one of the freeroll listing services. It's a site based in the UK and I have no idea who or what Victor Chandler is. I logged on and realized that the "freerolls" need action points to play in they, so I was about ready to leave the site.
Just before I logged off, I nocited that a side bar mentioned free 10 cent tournaments, so I stuck around and took a look at the games they had to offer. To say they have micro-limit games is overstating the fact.
At the lowest end of the spetrum is a 9 player SnG with a prize pool of $0.10 (Yep.. that means 1st is 5 cents, second is 3 cents and third is 2 cents.) The best part is, is that these cost nothing to play! So, I sat down and tried three games, placing first twice and built my bankroll up to a monstrous 10 cents.
The other SnG's rise from there and they're all at natural intervals. For example, the next highest SnG's are...
$0.04 + $0.01 (plus $0.04 cents added)
$0.10 + $0.01
$0.25 + $0.02
etc, etc... all the way up to (I believe)
$50 + $5
The neat part is, is that once you start playing at $0.04 and above, you start earning "Action Points" (think frequent player points) for entries into the free roll. In fact, after my first night, I had accumulated 11 Action points and used 10 of them to enter a 177 person $10 Freeroll. (With a massive first prive of $2.40!)
The funniest part of all this is that the games get fairly serious once you hit the $0.25 level. The reason, I believe, is that anyone with real money won't touch it, which means the only people playing are the ones that have built a bankroll up from nothing, so play at these tables I find roughly similar to Party's $10+$1 once you hit 5-6 players left.
Now, if the game interface sucks, then there's no use playing, but I was surprised to find that I'm beginning to prefer this site's UI and format of tournament over pretty much everyone else.
The structure of SnGs; you start with T2,000 and the blinds are 20-40, 30-60, 50-100, 75-150, 100-200, 150-300, etc., Even better.. the blinds raises at fixed times (once everyone 8 minutes) and not every fixed number of hands. This extends the times for tournaments, but the extra chips and fixed intervals, I feel, really favours the better players.
As for betting once you're playing, there are the start "pre-select options"; fold, check-fold, check-raise, etc., but when if comes your turn you not only have a slide bar (for No-Limit), but you also have buttons which say 2x,4x,8x,16x,max for quickly choosing raise amounts... I can't say how much I love this feature!!
Other things that I like... the cards are a great size (slightly bigger than other sites.) The speed of deals is fantastic, and showdowns have a great speed. (There's a bit of a pause, letting you take in everyone's hole cards, then the board is dealt one card at a time).
All in all, I really enjoy the experience of the site and recommend it to anyone (esp. those unwilling to fund account with real money). (As an aside, I don't work for the site)
My bankroll on the site has risen to $0.51 and I'm hoping to make it to $1.00 so I can play the 5cent/10cent limit tables! the only thing I don't have experience with is withdrawls, so I can't comment on that.
I'm not sure if there's a referrer thing on the site, but feel free to tell'em Zithal sent ya.
If you get on, feel free to post under here updates to your bankroll. Who can make it the furthest, starting with nothing?!
Favorite hand of the evening:
I get dealt 9:club: 5:club: in the big blind and am allowed to limp in to see a board of 9
5:diamond: 9:spade: . I check, get one person calling and another raising. I call everything and the turn brings a K:club: , the same two people raise it up and we're eventually in a 4-way all in situation. All three people had overpairs to the flop the river is a blank and I quadruple-up!
Comments
I'm thinking my next online stop may be: http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/ check out the name power backing that site! Anyone gets a chance to try it before me, be sure to let me know!
From FulltiltPoker.com
Some of the best players in the world have joined Team Full Tilt Poker. With 21 WSOP bracelets between them, they know good poker when they see it. See who you'd like to match wits with, then join them at the tables and see how you stack up.
Still liking the site, though I do notice slowdown on my machine if I have more than one table open at a time.
I think I may have to cash out soon and by myself a pop!
As an additional update, the 10cent giveaway tournaments have been taken off (with the promise that they'll be returning) and, in it's place is a $2 guaranteed multi-table Turbo tournament running every half hour. The top 27 positions are paid and the capacity is limited to ~162 players. The blinds raise every 3 minutes, so it's largely a crapshoot.
I tried my first one last night and got dealt bad cards all night. I doubled up on my one and only good hand to go up to ~3900 chips, and had all other hands that I played miss the flop.
The blinds passed me at the 800-1600 level, and I lost both to put me at 1500 chips.
I was able to hang on with 1500 chips remaining, until the blinds hit 1600-3200 at which point I finally lost on a big blind where my T4o fell victim to KK and I was out in 25th place.
The payout was an astounding $0.02!!
I played a few more (very) low money tournaments, got some good wins and the bank roll raised to just over $2.
I logged on a couple nights ago and saw that a $0.50+0.05 was almost full, so I decided to try my *biggest* VC tournament to date. I took a second and a first and got my total winngs to about $3.60!
Feeling even more daring today I saw that a $1.00+0.10 tables was almost full and decided to risk almost a third of my bankroll on this one tournament. Of course, I missed the money.
Once I got booted out I saw another 1+0.10 starting up and like any other good player on tilt, immediately sat down. I also lost this one and pissed away 2/3rds of my bankroll in no time at alll.
I took a break, collected my thoughts and went back to playing 0.25N tournaments. I got a first place win and used that momentum to place in the money in two more 0.50NL tournaments. With these wins my bankroll was at about $3.25 and I felt good to get back to close where I was.
I then popped over to Party and absolutely hated the experience. The fact that the blinds raise over a set number of hands means the tournament turns into a crapshoot by about the 100/200 level. I busted out in 4th and went into a period of self-doubt worthy of all_aces. I decided to head back to the world of microlimit poker.
Needing a break from the tournaments I threw $2 into a 5c/10c limit games and, on the second hand got dealt AKh which heald up after a lot of betting. With the half hour I got an incredible runs of cards with another AKo holding up, top pair, top kicker, holding up (amazing in low-limit events) and an Ace-high flush that got me a great pot.
So, I'm pleased to announce that my current bank-roll at VC poker is now up to $7.45 with 100 action points. Huzzah!!
My next plateau is to break $10 and collect 500 Action Points to play in a $250 guaranteed tournament. I think I'll try cashing some money out once I hit the $50 level just to see if it's possible. (Since I haven't desposited anything)
I'm enjoying these reports, Zithal, please keep 'em coming!
Regards,
all_aces
...is the best way to describe my lastest run of tournaments and ring games on vcpoker. The only reasonable explanation is that the software saw me making too much money and decided to hit me with bad beats galore.
In the last exciting episode, I was up to $7.45 and already making plans to buy a winter home in Florida with my winnings. With the new bankroll I decided to hit the $1 + $0.10 tournaments to see how I'd fare there.
The first one I busted out on the bubble (4th) when I lost a coin flip AK v. 99. The second tournament I busted out in 4th again when KK lost to 64o. Argh!
So, being a tad nervous, I decided to head back to the game that won me a mint earlier, 5c/10c limit. I put $2 on the table and promtly lost it in a half hour. Nothing held up. AK fell down, QQ's fell down (after hitting top set on the flop), and everything missed. My final $0.65s lost to a hand which I'm reporting as my favorite hand below.
So, things we're bad. After a great run of cards the previous day, I was now down $4.20 for the session, leaving me with $3.25 in the bankroll.
So, looking for something new to do, I saw that a Turbo $1 + 5c NL MTT was starting up with a guaranteed pot of $150. It was a long shot, but I was hoping the bad beats of the past few hands were behind me and I decided to try my luck. 127 players sat down and took their shot at the prize. Here's my tournament report...
1ST HAND (3rd of the tournament) : LEVEL 1 : 20/40 : 2000 in chips. Average stack ~2000 chips.
I get dealt AKh on the SB and we get lots of calls leading up to the button that moves all-in. I smelled a steal attempt so I decided to call (putting me all in too; possibly a bad move, but in a Turbo tournament you need to move fast on good hands and I felt my read of the button was correct). UTG+1 also called all in, and for a moment, I got nervous.
The button turned over 63c and I cheered, applauding my elite poker reading skillz. UTG+1 turned over 47o and I laughed heartily. 6000 would give me the overall chip lead and I'd be able to start pushing people around with it. I could taste first place and all the money and glory that would come with it.
Then the flop came 6 9 2. Then nothing came on the turn and the river and I was busted out in 104th place. My bank roll was now at $2.20
It was time to head back to my bread and butter; SnG tournament play. A smarter move would have been to not play and give up for the day, but that would have required me not being on tilt. Three 50c+5c tournaments later and I finished 4th, 4th, and 9th. the recognition that I may have been ever so slightly on tilt was beginning to sink in. (Which was a good thing, considering my bankroll was now at a meager $0.70)
I finally left for the day, came back the following, and prompted got 4th place in a 25c+2 NL STT. Oh the gods were hating me with smite-beams turned on full!
I sat back and thought about my play over the past two days and started to replay key hands in the game.s I tried to compare it with how I had been playing up until this point to find where the problems were. I discovered a few holes that I had introduced into the game and told my self I'd play a 10c+1c with more focus and thought.
BAM! First place. I played another. BAM! First place. I played a few more and with my bankroll starting at the dangerous level of $0.43, I clawed my way thought 10c tournaments playing good poker, always placing 1st or second and (finally) building my bankroll up to $1.66 where I decided to end the day.
Riding my wave I headed over to Party to play a $10 SnG and got 2nd for $30.
Into the journal went my learned lessons, and now it's back to clawing my way back to the bankroll I had earlier. My plans to break the bank at vcpoker were not defeated.. only delayed.
End of report total : $1.66 / 120 Action points.
Favorite hand : I got the worse of this, but it's honestly what every player dreams of...
VCpoker 5c/10c limit game. $0.65 cent left.
In the BB I get dealt KK, lots of calls around to me and I raise to 10c. All fold to the button who raises to 15c. SB calls, I cap, everyone calls.
Flop comes 775. Checked to me and I bet 5c. putting everyone on overcards/over pairs due to all the betting in the round. (I convince myseld that I have the best hand.) Button raises, SB calls, I re-raise, button caps and the pot it at a mammoth $1.40. I'm putting the button on QQ or JJ and I have no read on the SB who continually calls. I'm worried that he hit a 7 or a 5, but I'm pretty pot committed at this point.
I see a King fall on the turn and I desperately try to convince the site that it would be a good idea for me to withdrawl the rest of my money, but no dice. It's checked to me, I bet 10c, Button raises, I re-raise all in, SB continues to call, and it's down to two players with me sitting with Kings full of sevens.
The river comes blank and betting is capped on the river. Button turns over QQ!! Sadly, the SB had been expertly slow playing us, had not raised a single time, and turned over 77 for Quad seven. I congradulated SB for the way he played the hand and left the table with no money. (Truthfully, I think the big worry sign should have been the fact that the SB was willing to call down two agressive raisers both pre and post flop; the very definition of slowplaying)
The part that I find hilarious is that you are sweating playing $0.50 STT and $1 MTT but have no problem throwin down a 10 spot at party..
It's been a couple months since my last check-in with my VC experiment, so I thought I'd send out a update -- cause I have nothing better to talk about today.
Two months ago, I had a bad run which reduced a promising bankroll of seven and a half bucks down to almost nothing, concluding with a minor reprieve back to $1.66
I continued playing for a bit, but lost interest as I felt it was time to increase my real bankroll on Party. For awhile, I was riding high and doing great and, truthfully, not feeling the need to ever go back to VC. That changed one evening which I'll call "the worst night of poker - so far". In it, I chased losses, played like an idiot and lost 2/3rd's of my entire bankroll in one sitting.
I think every player needs this kind of wake-up call every so often. The next day, when I woke, I felt like I had this huge hangover.. it was rough. So, to release some tension, I went over to VC and played like a complete moron, venting all my poker agression with every hand I played.
Needless to say, it's didn't take me too long to burn through most of my $1.66 bankroll and, when the smoke cleared, I was down to a meager $0.09. After a few days going into a poker boycott, my head finally cleared and it was time to jump back into the frey.
I lowered my limits on Party and, I really felt it took a while to get back into the swing of things and it was a real fight to keep the bankroll even. Luckily, before a mid-August vacation, I posted a few good wins and headed for the great outdoors, feeling a little better.
When I came back, I decided to give VC another chance and so now I'm alternating between increasing my real bankroll and continuing the VC experiment. (On a side note, my Party bankroll is slowly recovering)
What I like about VC's micro-limit tournaments is that you get exposed to a wide range of players, abilities and styles, and I feel that I'm slowly learning how to recognize each and how to deal with them. I've played games that have gone on for an hour and a half, battling every step of the way to make the money, while others have lasted less than a half hour and I've stepped briefly away from my computer to find myself "in the money" when I get back.
Best of all, I'm getting a lot of heads-up experience, an area of my game I consider very weak. A good 75% of the time I make it to head up in the lowest limit games and, by that point, your often facing an opponent who's playing for the same reasons you are.
And, I'm improving, I've gone from blowing 10 to 1 chip leads to coming back from them. I'm not great, but I'm learning some good lessons; play conservative to start, take everything you've learned about your opponent up until that point and see if there are any changes in your opponents play heads up. Most importantly, begin training your opponent on how you play certain situations, then turn the tables when it hurts the most.
Starting with 9 cents, I devised a new plan to control the bankroll and increase it. Basically the rule is simple; I can play in a 9 player SnG if I have, at least, 5x the buy-in my bankroll. (ie. In order to play the $0.10+0.01 games, I need $0.55 there)
So far, it's been working, a win last night as pushed me up to $1.40 (with 190 Action Points) and I'm about to hit the $0.25+0.02 tables.
I've also been using my Action Points to play in MTT's (currently $5 MTT's for a 2 AP buy-in). My last two tournaments have been really good. I've finished 8th and 9th from a starting field of ~220 players. Of course, seeing a $0.10 payout for two hours work seems a tad silly... but I'm having fun.
Oh yeah, I should also mention that the free $0.10 prize pool SnG's are back, but are of a limit format, rather that No-Limit. I'm guessing they did this to decreaes the rate at which they were giving away money and preventing the freebies turning into a all-in fest in the first five hands.
End of Report Total: $1.40 (190 Action points)