U.S. Players, Bet Online: Pros/Cons

LizRang

LizRang

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I've been scouring the online poker sites for something I really like and tried Bet Online last night for the first time.

The poker interface is very basic but it does do what it needs to.

The traffic is AMAZING compared to the other sites, I'm guessing because of their other sports/horse racing/casino betting options and the fact that $25-100 freerolls were starting every few hours (with 500-1000 registrants).

I dinked around in a few freerolls and liked them. They go pretty quickly, I think the time banks may be shorter.

Sit and Go's seem to have good traffic but I don't have any money in the site yet to actually see how quickly they register. Looking this morning though, and Sunday mornings seem to be a deader time on sites ... they have 5 sit n gos with 3 or more people registered with stakes ranging from $0.05 - $33.

The other thing that I really like about this site is they have the sit and go's I like which are lower stakes 6-person NOT turbo :).

So, anyway, I'm getting all excited I may have found a site I liked :). (I started out playing on Lock last year. It's so silly that I'm sad to leave a site that doesn't pay, but I made friends there and have grown attached to many of the players that frequent the site.)

Here are the other sites I've checked out:

Carbon Poker: Seems like a good site but they don't have my favorite sit and go's, lower stakes are 10-player or turbo

Bovado: Can't do the anonymous thing, I just can't. It drives me bonkers. I may as well be playing against a computer.

juicy stakes: Traffic is slow, the interface isn't great, there are conflicting reports on payouts (though supposedly with an ownership change they are back in the game) and the payout fees are crazy to me.

I've also played on Black Chip, Full Flush & I wanted to compare Full Flush & Poker Host but the way they have it set up where you can only be on one and not the other it's a pain.

SO - I think I am going to deposit on Bet Online.

Does anyone else have input/feedback on Bet Online's pros and cons (or any other sites you think I should check out) from a U.S. Player perspective?

Thank you thank you thank you for any opinions/input/experiences!
 
rifflemao

rifflemao

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Bovado: Can't do the anonymous thing, I just can't. It drives me bonkers. I may as well be playing against a computer.

Hi Liz, I can't offer any input on BetOnline (haven't played there), but now I'm curious and may check it out!

Regarding Bovada, you should consider playing the CC\Bovada freerolls after joining the Freeroll Club. One thing that's really cool is you can see all the cards in the hand histories, so it's a good way to critique and improve or just find out if you made a good fold every now and then. I usually find a ton of mistakes in how I play there, and have had no problems cashing out (although I've only done it once).

Ok, I'm done preaching. :) Will be curious to know how it goes with BetOnline.
 
LizRang

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Regarding Bovada, you should consider playing the CC\Bovada freerolls after joining the Freeroll Club. One thing that's really cool is you can see all the cards in the hand histories, so it's a good way to critique and improve or just find out if you made a good fold every now and then. I usually find a ton of mistakes in how I play there, and have had no problems cashing out (although I've only done it once).

Hey Riffle - Thank you for the tip, that's a really valuable one!! I will def. do that after I get into the freeroll club.

One of the things I do like about Carbon, that I forgot to post is they have the free HUD you can use and sometimes I will play games on there just to get stats.

I'll let you know how it goes on Bet Online!
 
rifflemao

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I'll let you know how it goes on Bet Online!

Well I just had a V8 moment... :stupido2: Just now noticed the Bet Online Banner here, then checked the CC review which has it at #1. Gonna test drive it tonight. :driver:
 
BearPlay

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Between Full Flush and Bet Online (same software), I definitely prefer Full Flush.

True, tables are soft at both rooms, and true, the traffic is much higher at BOL, but along with that comes a much donkier field.

The tables are soft enough at Full Flush to where I have built a nice roll without having to rip my fur off.

The other advantage is that you sign up for Full Flush via CC's link, you can play in the weekly (Monday) private freeroll with us.

Agree completely with riffle about joining the CC freeroll club; it's the best deal on the planet.

Wish you the best ;)
 
LizRang

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Thanks Bear! I can't wait to join Freeroll, I'm working on it! :).

I might end up eventually on both. Full Flush has the games I like, too. Just not the traffic. We'll see how it goes on Bet Online.

Personally I think it's super cool that BO (what a horrible way to abbreviate it hee hee) has so many different games and they register so fast I feel like a kid in a candy store :).

In case anyone is interested, I'll add a few other things on BO that stuck out to me. They don't really matter, they're just different.
1) If you play a double or nothing you still play all the way to first
2) They track dollars and cents in the chip stacks lol

And I'm not 100% sure positive because I don't usually time down, but I think I saw myself get folded instead of checked on a hand. I have to doublecheck that!
 
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I still play BetOnline once in a while due to the money they put into my account all the time. I think they put 20 and gems to play in the 10k sunday this week. I cashed out from there a few times over 2 years ago all with pretty good service throughout the process, but now that I have said all that lol I wouldn't deposit and play there now.
Heres my list of pro and cons for you hope it helps

Pros: easy cashier depart as far as withdrawl and deposit, lots of cash tables to play against with soft comp, tons of freerolls daily, pretty secure site ( not worried about them stealing money from you )

Cons: the biggest con by far in my opinion is the rewards program. You get something called pop points I can't tell you the rate you receive them but they are pretty hard to use once you have them lol. Next you have the low amount of tourney and sng play if you are a tourney or sng player and not cash then don't come to BOL. to get live chat through BOL you have to have a min of 250 in account, and it will tell you that if you try to access it through the client a way to cheat that though is to go to cashier and click live chat it will allow you to get through and you can pick one of the many departments to talk with.

These are some of my opinions on what I think about BOL I left some stuff out as I have more opinions than time, but I hope it helps you out
 
JPoling

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Only con I have from betonline. Played their years ago. Built up small bankroll from freerolls was nothing big just couple hundred. At the time was unemployed so had all day to just grind. I went to live chat cause was curious on how to withdraw money. They basically told me to get ****ed on the free money i won. That I dont get any of it without depositing and playing the money i deposited. At first I was appaled. We will let you win free money but not cash it out. I mean if it was a significant amount i clearly would of deposited. But when only talking about 100-200. I just went and blew it at higher stakes since i figure wasnt withdrawing any unless i turned it into atleast 1K
 
Debi

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Only con I have from betonline. Played their years ago. Built up small bankroll from freerolls was nothing big just couple hundred. At the time was unemployed so had all day to just grind. I went to live chat cause was curious on how to withdraw money. They basically told me to get ****ed on the free money i won. That I dont get any of it without depositing and playing the money i deposited. At first I was appaled. We will let you win free money but not cash it out. I mean if it was a significant amount i clearly would of deposited. But when only talking about 100-200. I just went and blew it at higher stakes since i figure wasnt withdrawing any unless i turned it into atleast 1K

That is a very common policy at most poker sites.
 
JPoling

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wanted to come back and say also another pro on there is PLENTY of freerolls. on that site actually playing some right now
 
Carl Trooper

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I have played Bet Online in the past and was not happy at all. The interface is ugly, and the traffic is slow, and the guarantees and games are very low.

I agree, anonymous at Bovada does make me angry sometimes, but you aren't going to get a 162$ tourney with a 25-30k first place every sunday on ANY USA site. The nightly 35k is bigger than most special tourneys the other sites run once a week!

Like others have mentioned, I would def try to get into the freeroll club atleast. Every thursday there is a CC game with Bovada, $100 added for a $5 tourney, and my favorite.... $5 with a 100k seat added! Last week 19 entrants.... Amazing value.

I thought in the past I was hearing issues with cashing out as well with BOL.

Anyways, good luck!
 
punctual

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Only con I have from betonline. Played their years ago. Built up small bankroll from freerolls was nothing big just couple hundred. At the time was unemployed so had all day to just grind. I went to live chat cause was curious on how to withdraw money. They basically told me to get ****ed on the free money i won. That I dont get any of it without depositing and playing the money i deposited. At first I was appaled. We will let you win free money but not cash it out. I mean if it was a significant amount i clearly would of deposited. But when only talking about 100-200. I just went and blew it at higher stakes since i figure wasnt withdrawing any unless i turned it into atleast 1K

This is something I have been trying to warn CC members about. I don't think there is a problem cashing out unless you signed up with a promotion (i.e. depost $x and get $x free). So if you sign up without a promotion cashouts are pretty straightforward. When they do cash you out, they allow 1 free cashout by check per month which is a nice option compared to the other sites that charge anywhere from $50 to $100 just to print your name on a damn check....

I never cashed out there so I do not know for sure but I've read good things about cashouts IF AND ONLY IF you never signed up for free $$$ promos. If you DO sign up for a free money promo with them, then expect to have to roll that money over in poker play (usually an insane number of hands) AND expect to be required to place a sports bet. The sports bet thing is what kept me away from betonline.ag for a very long time because to me that just seemed SHADY: why require poker players to place a sports bet before cashing out their funds?

And by the way, I've won some money on there and tried playing their cash games. Well, their cash games are intimately tied to their blackjack games. Which is to say, there is a window that pops up showing both blackjack and the poker cash games and there is no way to disable the blackjack from popping up. To me, this is also very shady.

In any case, good luck
 
punctual

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That is a very common policy at most poker sites.

I have cashed out $450 I made just in freerolls from Black Chip Poker back in November 2013; i never depostied a dime of my own money. The cashout was completely free (they offer one free cashout per month) and took about three weeks from the time I requested the cashout to the time I had the money in my bank account.

Needless to say, I was very much impressed!

I've looked into cashing out smaller amounts at other poker sites like intertops and carbon but it just didnt' make sense to cash out $100 and pay a $50 fee. So the issue with the other poker sites was more about the fee than about me being required to generate a certain amount of rake before being allowed to cash out. Now I never got any free money from these poker sites: i just earned the free money by playing in their freerolls. If you take free money from a site (i.e deposit $50 and they give you $100) I think it is a whole new ball game: there are restrictions before cashout is allowed.

I should repeat this though: if you sign up with a promotional code at BETONLINE.AG for free $x for depositing $y, your whole account becomes subject to the "rollover" rule AND you are required to place a sports bet before cashing out. However, if you sign up without a "free cash" promo, cashouts are smooth with no sports bet requirement....this is what I have read online and also confirmed with LIVE CHAT representatives at BETONLINE.AG
 
punctual

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And I'm not 100% sure positive because I don't usually time down, but I think I saw myself get folded instead of checked on a hand. I have to doublecheck that!

OH the time constraints on betonline.ag can be BRUTAL. And you are right, they do not CHECK you, they FOLD you.

so it is hard to play more than one tournament at a time on BETONLINE.AG. You have to sit there and focus 100% on your table; they don't give you any extra time or anything. Pretty crazy IMHO but i guess it weeds out players who are not paying attention.

But the worst thing is when my computer is on a lag and I see the damn site just folded my pocket AA or some other good hand. Things like that can really piss me off actually...lol
 
frankace12

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OH the time constraints on betonline.ag can be BRUTAL. And you are right, they do not CHECK you, they FOLD you.

so it is hard to play more than one tournament at a time on BETONLINE.AG. You have to sit there and focus 100% on your table; they don't give you any extra time or anything. Pretty crazy IMHO but i guess it weeds out players who are not paying attention.

But the worst thing is when my computer is on a lag and I see the damn site just folded my pocket AA or some other good hand. Things like that can really piss me off actually...lol
who told you that aa is a good hand they loose 50 % of the times
 
LizRang

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The interface is ugly, and the traffic is slow, and the guarantees and games are very low.

For what it's worth, maybe it changed since you were last on. The interface is certainly a bit ugly but they have a 20K scheduled for 6/7 and lots of other larger tournaments and a SNG - at least at smaller stakes, only takes about 10 minutes to register at any time of day I've tried (and I see the ones for around $25 registering quickly as well but I don't play that high yet usually :) ).

I'll add on that I've asked them about 3 questions since I started on there and even though Chat Help is intended for those with a $250 balance and up, the email support immediately sends you back a ticket # for reference and each question I have sent has been answered within less than 24 hours.

Every payout report I've seen has been good. They do have rules on their promos but they spell them out pretty clearly. I guess I will just have to wait a while, play more, and see what comes of it after I've been on a while. :)

A lot of people commented the sports betting/casino is shady. I don't think it's shady - I think that is their mainstream & the poker was an add-on and that's why their poker is a bit goofy. That's just a guess, though.
 
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