Online Poker - Playing Exclusively at One Site?

Sorry if this has been covered before. I should have probably done a search first, but oh well.

I was wondering what you guys thought about picking just one online site and playing only there. PokerStars, for example, is where I play the vast majority of my hands now since cashing out my Full Tilt Account. In my opinion, I think that it might be better to stick to one site as opposed to trying to split your time in three, but I was just curious to know if I was missing something.

Well if you play exclusively at PokerStars you will be able to move up to Silver star, Gold Star or whatever a lot easier.

If you play exclusively at Full Tilt and have rakeback you'll get more if you just play there. Splitting the hands between the two doesn't make too much sense.

I think a lot of the consideration needs to be put into how long you have played online. If you are new to the experience I would suggest playing one site. However, if you have been doing this successfully for some time, then I would think branching out would be a good thing. That is just my $0.02 though.

If you are a cash game player, it probably makes sense to do most of your playing at one site. Most sites have some sort of rewards scheme for regular players.

These loyalty schemes are rarely of much benefit to MTT players, however. Therefore, if you are a tourney player, you might as well go where the action is. For example, I have four regular tourneys in which I play most weeks, and they are on four different sites.

Thanks for the input guys. That helps a lot.

As for my situation, I've been playing on PokerStars for over a year, and I play almost exclusively low-mid stakes SNGs. I find it very lucrative, and for my style of play I am able to find some regular success. I have noticed that the FFPs and FTPs aren't of much use aside from the occasional satellite entry....

I played almost exclusively on BoDog for a while, but I've started branching out lately. The way I see it is, if you focus on one poker room for the high dollar tournaments, you can play micro-stakes at the others and work on your game without putting large amounts of money on the line. It's also easier to multi-table big tournaments if you're on more than one poker room, since you're more likely to find two (or three) for similar stakes that start close together.

I am new to online play myself and I am not "hip" to the trends that most people do. I know multi tabling for cash games is a very popular tactic to maximize the amount of hands you see, but is playing in multiple tournaments at once as popular? I can't bring myself to do this, I like to put all of my attention into one tournament at a time.

Most MTT players play fewer tables than cash players do, seldom more than 2 or 3 tourneys at a time. Once you get deep into a tourney and the blinds are high, there is no longer any margin for error, and the focus required on each table is greater than for a ring game.

so in conclusion , depending on your purpose for playing and games played , you may indeed be missing something . but it is we cc members missing the most , your money at the 4 or 5 other sites hope to see you at our many buy in games w/money added and played at many different sites

Good responses

I think the real answer depends on your comfort level and preferences and can be a different answer for many people.

Each site has its own patterns and types of play for both ring games, MTTs, and SNGs. It can be a difficult learning curve for some to play multiple sites, while some pick it up right away and enjoy the variety.

For many, they have gotten so good at the one site where they "fit", it wouldnt make sense to branch out if you are killing the site (except to experiment). Others wouldnt know what to do with themselves if they didnt play 7 different sites.

I think you have to experiment to see what style suits your play best

Good Luck with it

Can't really say but i my opinion Egon was right. It all depends on what you're looking for.
In regard to my own experience (18 months online playing), i consider that i needed to learn the game the quicker it could be done, and was to play mostly in MTT. That's why i choose to play on several sites, to learn from different players style and meeting different environments and nationalities.
Now, i'm still learning and don't seems to fit to well to cash games, so i keep on play on many rooms.
The good thing is that i can play forums games almost everywhere as i belong to many of the top rooms.
If i was a cash game player, i guess i would have to choose only one room, for my BR to grow up quicker.

I have taken the view that more sites is better because of all the promotions each site offers, but I dont tend to play enough to reach vip levels on sites, so guess there's no disadvantage there

Thanks guys for the input! It's much appreciated. I have decided that, for now, I am going to play pretty much exclusively on PokerStars. They seem to have the most tables, SNGs, and tournament variety for my personal taste.

Anyways, thanks again!

sorry to hear it but you gotta do what you gotta do good luck