Poker site bells & whistles

Just thought I'd start a thread to see what people like about the different sites they play on.

I'll kick it off by saying that I think Bodog has the best sound effects, love those whooshing cards and the chip noises on raises, re-raises and all-ins.

On Carbon Poker I think the emoticons are a great extra.

And on FTP I like my avatar (the frog, of course) and the re-raise sound.

Pretty non-plussed about many of the other sites. Stars has nothing to write home about and microgaming sites feel like an arcade game.

I turn all that emoticon crap off on all the sites I can, especially Full Tilt Poker.
I turn off FTP avatars cause they're really annoying ....

I turn off avatars and keep the table, even the final table, at Midnight on FT. All that is distracting and I play poorly enough already.

I play at both Bodog and Full-Tilt. I turn off everything on both.
I can't stand avatars, card & chip sounds, and animation.

Furthermore, chat and emoticons can be used as a tell by a good player.

I tried Carbon for about five minutes until it bogged down the old frankenstein PC that I use for online games.

If you want life-like action, emotions, and sound, go play at a B&M casino.

At CelebPoker it shows the odds during all-in showdows. (Like on TV.) Haven't seen that anywhere else.

And while I haven't played any of them yet, there are a couple of full 3D poker sites, with videogame-like graphics, including a first person view, if you want. I think PKR.com is supposed to be the best.

for me it's all about the stats - and I like Pokerstars stats & hand histories. All the other stuff is fluff, don't see how that make your game any better

The most annoying feature for m was any of the iPoker sites (such as Titan), with the dealer/player voices. "Call." "Call." "All-in." That was the first thing to go. Doesn't matter now since I can't play there.

I hate all the sounds also , I hate the fact that you can't find a player on bodog or transfer money to another player , I like the call,fold, raise buttons with the pot and all in buttons there , hate pokerstars buttons.

I like fact the that all the ring games and sngs aren't turbo ,like pokerstars seem to be . (99% )

I like the avatars at full tilt too.

I think my two favorite features at Full Tilt are "Find A Player" and the ability to reposition the table so your seat is where you like it ("Put Me Here").

Started playing Ultimate Bet recently and haven't found anything I like about the interface so far.

If you like pretty stuff, PKR is head and shoulders above the rest. There is no contest.

Of course, the American members can`t play there, which is a downer.

Personally, I don`t much care about appearances and am a lot more concerned with traffic and game availability and with tournament structure.

Is it just me, or does Full Tilt not have a buddies list? If it's got one I can't seem to find it... and if it doesn't, I guess it'd be nice if it did.

I like the player notes function there though

I like FT function of telling you what your hole cards were. I can't remember for more than a few seconds. Uh... what was I talking about?

About the greatest feature I ever saw was in the World Series of Poker game on X-Box - that left all the folded upcards in stud games visible. No more memorising, yay!

Agreed!!! i like mine basic, nothing fancy, just the cards & chips will do me ... although it would be nice when you hover over a players name, to see where they are from.

OK, I want to add one more, the final table graphics at Full Tilt. Wasn't even aware this existed until this week where I hit my first 2 ft's there. I know it might be a bit corny for some but it made me feel real good about getting there.

Some of you guys seem pretty gloomy, just out there grinding it out with no thrills, huh. Sure you need to concentrate on player actions and such but are you are aware that concentrating too much for prolonged periods of time will eventually lead you to make even worse decisions? I reckon you need some distractions to stay relaxed and 'properly' focused. Also, if you are playing TAG and folding 80% of your hands what are you gonna do the rest of the time?

I agree. The first couple of times I saw it, I thought it was a pretty cool idea.

I dunno about that as such, but I do know that you'll have a hard time playing live if you need a completely distraction-free environment to play your best game