Who plays regularly at Carbon

I have just been approved for Rakeback at Carbon so over the next few days or so I plan to make a deposit there. I have a few questions.

Is the "upto600" initial bonus easy to clear? I don't see how long I have to clear it anywhere on their site.

Is getting to Earth level in the rewards program easy and what games should I play to get there.

I Look forward to seeing my fellow CC players there.

lol Carbon makes me sad... You only have to wait 3 months for a payout by check. I think the whole Merge network is going down eventually.

I love the graphics & will participate in our freerolls there, but I wouldn't deposit anything there! It takes too long to withdraw any money from there! I think it goes 'via Santa Claus'...you may get yours in time for Christmas! GL!

I haven't tried to withdraw yet. Dunno how long it'll take... though from what others have said, it could take a long time. In terms of clearing the bonus. I think you need 750 pts to clear $10 and you need to have contributed to a pot in order to get points (unlike FT and PS, where all you need is to be dealt a hand). The players are softer than either FT or PS though. I mean the flop seen percentage is above 60% for every table I"ve played on. Some of them will call any bet with bottom pair, crap kicker.

Just to add, I checked out the withdrawal options at carbon. It looks like the only free withdrawal option is via check.

Check is how I would go and it says 15 days. I will have to think about it some more. The Rakeback is what has me so interested since i can;t get it anywhere else.

Anybody got to the next level in VIP Carbon? lol you need to get 5000 points??
Those guys at carbon are sick in their ****ing head.
I wouldn't even deposit $1 on carbon.

I looked it over some more and it appears that getting to Earth requires that you pay $500 in rake and tourney fess. For a person playing $5 SnGs that is 2000 SnGs. Does seem extensive. I am thinking I would never make it to this level. Have I done this right?

yeah carbon is pretty ridiculous about gaining VIP status. its seriously about as bad as getting a payout from them. if in doubt, give it a month or so, and see. you will be amazed(disappointed).

I was really only excited about Carbon since they are the first site to offer me Rake back but if there are this many complaints from CC members about them I am thinking I should stay away.

^-------- This lol

If you're looking for a new site just so you can have rakeback, I would suggest Cake or one of its skins other than Doyle's. You'll get 33% rakeback, but it's actually better (in my opinion) than the 35% at Carbon because they use a different method for calculating rakeback. You can also get into a monthly $5000 freeroll with certain affiliates at Cake.

As far as the points, it seems to me that they are ridiculously hard to earn. I don't play at Carbon, but I have been playing on the same network at PlayAces since PlayersOnly switched last month. I used my points that they converted from the old site to build a small bankroll and have been playing 10NL, 25NL, and a tiny bit of 50NL for the last month or so. It's taken that long just to earn 500 points on their site. I'm only 1/10th of the way to making their first VIP level. Also, if you have rakeback you only earn 65% of the points that you would earn without it. You take a 35% hit on your point totals.

Nope, there is a $15 fee to get paid by check. An f-ing $15 processing fee??? Are they serious?

I have to look more into cake. Do they charge to withdraw by check. Do they have active PLO and PLO8 SnGs there?

Not sure about the PLO and PLO8 SnGs, but it should be mentioned that there is a $500 minimum to withdraw by check. They've been asked many times to lower this, but haven't budged.

My big complaint with merge is that the blinds go up way too fast in tournaments, making them into donkfests. You are forced to play bad hands to keep from being blinded out. My fav sites are UB and AP, if u don't already have accounts on both, go to rakeback.com for a 30% deal. I have it with AP. A really good thing is that the bad beat JP gets large and when it hits all tables of the same type get a share.

And no the recent security flap does not bother me.

More and more I am finding reasons why all of my money should be over at PS. Thanks for all of the replies keep em coming good and bad.

I think they have backgammon.

High Stakes Chinese Checkers too

I rarely play on Carbon so I can't really give you any decent advice about the site, however I do know that it is the favourite site of others I've spoken to about it. (namely microstakes SNG players who were not making any profit playing SNGs on Fulltilt & Pokerstars but are making a decent profit playing them on Carbon).
I've played some micro buyin STT/SNG (the bounty ones), found them fun to play recreationally, and YES the players 'generally' are pretty weak. It was fun & felt like it would be quite profitable for a micro SNG player who has some experience with the game.

I agree with LeanAndMean above with their comment about the structure in MTTs being way too fast. However, they're not all like this - - I've played some MTTs on Carbon that had structure similiar to Fulltilt/Pokerstars (not sure why 'most' of the priv. tourneys use the fast structure MTT??).

OP, I wouldn't make a judgement call on just a small handful of members comments. I think you'll hear from some others who will tell you that Carbon is actually their favourite site to play on. I also don't believe that the merge network will be going away anytime soon.
I've actually been considering playing a bit more on there. Their micro buyin 'guar.' MTTs are about the only ones around that have a decent amount of overlay in them.

Win a CC freeroll on there, play a few games & go from there. Affords you with an oppurtunity to see whether or not you like it.
(I've played less than 50games on Carbon & have more in my roll there then on sites I've played in excess of 1,000 games).

I will do exactly this. I tried to get in on the FR today but got screwed up about what time it started.

Since I have been approved for RB there it only makes sense to give it a try.

I was kinda forced over with the players only merger and really wish they stayed at cake. Software is nice but the play is so much slower. If ur not playing 50nl don't even bother looking at the rewards program, especially if you have rakeback. Haven't cashed out yet but I heard it was slow.

I like Carbon. It's pretty fishy. I've withdrawn by check (a while ago, though) and it wasn't too slow. But I use eWalletXpress now instead because that only takes a couple days usually.

i have withdrawn from carbon with e-wallet express a couple times, and it usually takes about a week.

Thanks for the feedback. How much does e-wallet express charge for a transaction?

The game is much softer at carbon. Percentage of newbies definitely higher here. People will call ya down with bottom pair of deuces.

Just play ABC poker here and you’ll be fine. Don’t try stealing unless the blinds have proven capable of folding preflop. Besides, you won’t get a chance to open raise with position very often anyhow. Player to flop percentage is well over 50% on every table at micro stakes.

Carbon is a good site for a tournament player. The guarantee tournaments often have overlay and they have synchronised breaks, so can be conveniently mixed in with games from (for example) Full Tilt.

There is no difficulty about withdrawing unless you are an American and are compelled by your local legislation to use dumbass methods. I have withdrawn electronically from Carbon (and from other Merge skins) many times with no problem at all.

Thanks for the feedback. I may still be considering Carbon. Not sure If I can deposit there (USA) but I may give it a shot.