What do you guys think of Bovada?

This is the site I am playing on, and I went looking for reviews about 2 weeks after I set up my account to find that more than half of them are negative.

Couple of them are complaining about losing big hands, as if the system cheated them, I like to give the poker company the benefit of the doubt though that the poker player is complaining because he had a "bad beat".

A couple of them complain that their payments take more than the 20 business days promised by the company, and one even complained that the check was fake.

I really hope my deposits from my credit card aren't meaningless on this website, but its one of the few poker sites that takes US players. Did I pick a good company to be playing poker on?

any other opinions? I see the thread has a lot of views but not many replies.

Should I be playing on a different website?

Every single site sucks if you're playing from the USA. It's a gamble to deposit because you might not win and if you do win are you confident you'll withdraw safely and quickly? The checks I got so far this year from Bovada and Cake are shady. The only games I play in 2012 are private games for fun. I have less than 400 bucks on each site I play on which are winnings only from cardschat games and some weird thing on Cake where a cardschat ticket worked for some other freeroll. I got burned for over 5 figures from fulltilt, ub and ap combined and most recently got burned for a few hundo I had on Luvin Poker, everleaf skin. By the end of 2012 I'll be saying the same about cake, bovada, blackchip, carbon etc. Luckily I haven't deposited on any site, but the time and effort involved makes me sick. I used to plan things around the online play and was stupidly concerned about daily points after qualifying for black card status on fulltilt lol. what a joke that was. Too bad I didn't put all that ftp time into pokerstars since that balance was paid out soon after black friday.

Anyway Jimmy, play the cardschat game Mondays on Bovada. That's somewhat fun given the fact you don't know who the f u're playing against. I withdrew a couple months ago down to 40 bucks and now have over 300 just from those games (also got a bonus for complaining about slower than advertised 15 business day payout).

JoeShowdown said:

Every single site sucks if you're playing from the USA. It's a gamble to deposit because you might not win and if you do win are you confident you'll withdraw safely and quickly? The checks I got so far this year from Bovada and Cake are shady. The only games I play in 2012 are private games for fun. I have less than 400 bucks on each site I play on which are winnings only from cardschat games and some weird thing on Cake where a cardschat ticket worked for some other freeroll. I got burned for over 5 figures from fulltilt, ub and ap combined and most recently got burned for a few hundo I had on Luvin Poker, everleaf skin. By the end of 2012 I'll be saying the same about cake, bovada, blackchip, carbon etc. Luckily I haven't deposited on any site, but the time and effort involved makes me sick. I used to plan things around the online play and was stupidly concerned about daily points after qualifying for black card status on fulltilt lol. what a joke that was. Too bad I didn't put all that ftp time into pokerstars since that balance was paid out soon after black friday.

Anyway Jimmy, play the cardschat game Mondays on Bovada. That's somewhat fun given the fact you don't know who the f u're playing against. I withdrew a couple months ago down to 40 bucks and now have over 300 just from those games (also got a bonus for complaining about slower than advertised 15 business day payout).

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Ditto, absolutely concur.

I play on Bovada because I like their micro buy-in tournament structures (12-15 minute blind levels) and the anonymous table feature. I also like the super fishy micro cash tables...

Their cash outs do work they just take a really, really, really long time. I plan to cash out once I hit $2,500; too risky keeping any significant money on a poker site until legislation.

I don't care for it much looks like there are few freerolls and the whole can't choose a seat thing bugs me. I know it seems small but it is frustrating.

JimmyS1985 said:

This is the site I am playing on, and I went looking for reviews about 2 weeks after I set up my account to find that more than half of them are negative.

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Jimmy, there's a 'search' feature here on Cardschat. Before searching around on the internet for reviews, try doing a search on Cardschat to find threads that are relevant to the info. you're looking for. ie. Bovada a.k.a. bodog (name changed for US site to Bovada but is same tables as Bodog for ROW players).
Many of Bodog's regulars were very unhappy with Bodog's update to where they changed to 'anonymous tables' & know of many players who stopped playing on the site as a result (myself included although I didn't play on there that much anyways).
Here's one thread on Cardschat where you'll find 282 replies > Bodog launches new software. Pretty sure that even some (all?) CC admin. stopped playing on that site. If you read thru some of the responses on the thread you'll be able to see for yourself & also will find alot of good discussion about why they've chosen to stop playing on there. Some members actually like playing on Bodog/Bovada but they are few & far between & seem to fail to see the potential for collusion on there now amongst other things.

In my opinion it's a bastardized version of poker. They've ruined the part I like most about the game (player reads, exploiting player's tendancies & weaknesses, etc.). Perhaps the most novice player might like it or ones who've played for awhile but who basically suck & have not much ability beyond attempting to play their own 2cards, thinking with level-1 thinking (ie. "I gots the Ace.... I callzz").

Similiarly to JoeShowdown, I only play the Cardschat game on there (& if I'm lucky enough to win the $100k ticket, I'll play that too).

Aside from just hating the anonymous aspect, I think the new software is just the shits. Bodog's software was bad enough before the big changes but now is far, far worse.

fwiw, alot of those sites that give reviews of pokersites (where people can add in their own comments about the site) are overrun with fishy noobs who'll complain about the sites bein' rigged' Not sure why they even leave those comments up on those sites (ie. PokerScout... only worthwhile info. on that site is 'player traffic' on the different sites/networks & lets you know what network a pokersite is on. The rest of the reviews on there are just ridiculously useless).

Here's the thread on CC I was making reference to >
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/poker-rooms-10/

(This is my opinion):

PROS:

-Good Micro Buy-in Tournament Structures
-Extremely Fishy Micro Cash Games
-Reliable, albiet slow, cashouts
-Support phone number and good email response time

CONS:

-No Medium+ Stakes action
-No stat-tracking or note-taking
-software BLOWS...
1. 5 minute sit-out time if you disconnect from a cash table
2. No Preferred Seat
3. 4 tables max, excluding MTTs. i.e. I can play a $2.20 DS, $1.10 NLHE, and a $4.40 Beginner but can only play 4 cash / 4 STT or any combo of the two that add up to four.

Well it has been a few months since I have been there, when Bovada rolled out, I could not stay connected and just didn't bother. I did get one of the "we miss you here's 20 bucks to play sngs" the other day. I am now up t o $45.
I am on the fence about the anonymous thing, in sngs it is not so bad, but I am sure I won't like it when I get over to the cash tables.
I am bummed there is no preferred seating, that is going to be an adjustment.
The one thing I can never complain about is their customer service, it always has been great.

I don't play poker for money....I play it for fun, so might have a different view..turned $55 into 1700 in a month at bovada...in about 30-40 hrs of play so pretty happy with the site as far as competition goes seems pretty fishy...Some ppl above said it hard to make reads...but have been making great reads...I think ppl because of the randomness don't hide there bet tells as well. I like the site although the withdrawls are awfully slow took me 6 weeks to get a check. All in all pretty content with the site unil I'm aloud back on pstars...then I'ma drop Bovada like a hot potatoe.

Its not very good..I have trouble with the screen freezing during play...can't pick your seat..I hate anonymous players, its nice to be able to identify bad players and follow them around the site, the only thing good about it is they can't look up your stats. Its mainly a gambling site so poker is not its focas..its a side thing for them so they really have no interest in keeping poker players happy. Merge is a better site but as soon as PS comes back thats where I'll be...Pokerstars was king as far as I'm concerned.

This was my favorite site, but being in NY I have no way of depositing. Considering what's left in the "land of the free" you could do alot worse than Bovada.

I would not recommend Bovada to an enemy, 1. dont deposit money on their site, until they have fixed their payout issues which are getting worst. 2. I would withdraw any money I have on this site as soon as possible. 3. Grrr... I'm so upset with this site that I could spit... Business Day 30+ and no check and no tracking number.. the last time I got a payout from them in Feb 2012 it showed up in the mailbox (not courier) after 15 days. Before then, when they were still called Bodog, had no issue.. check came by fed x or other carrier on time, no problem. But as of right now, unless your deparate to play and don't mind not recieving a payout within resonible amout of time, go for it

KMMonkeyA said:

I would not recommend Bovada to an enemy, 1. dont deposit money on their site, until they have fixed their payout issues which are getting worst. 2. I would withdraw any money I have on this site as soon as possible. 3. Grrr... I'm so upset with this site that I could spit... Business Day 30+ and no check and no tracking number.. the last time I got a payout from them in Feb 2012 it showed up in the mailbox (not courier) after 15 days. Before then, when they were still called Bodog, had no issue.. check came by fed x or other carrier on time, no problem. But as of right now, unless your deparate to play and don't mind not recieving a payout within resonible amout of time, go for it

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Can't speak to Bovada. Never played there. But, as far as pay-out times I doubt that you'll find anyone paying-out in anything less than 30 days (talking about US players/sites). Often it will be significantly longer than this regardless of where you play these days.

JoeShowdown said:

Every single site sucks if you're playing from the USA. It's a gamble to deposit because you might not win and if you do win are you confident you'll withdraw safely and quickly? The checks I got so far this year from Bovada and Cake are shady. The only games I play in 2012 are private games for fun. I have less than 400 bucks on each site I play on which are winnings only from cardschat games and some weird thing on Cake where a cardschat ticket worked for some other freeroll. I got burned for over 5 figures from fulltilt, ub and ap combined and most recently got burned for a few hundo I had on Luvin Poker, everleaf skin. By the end of 2012 I'll be saying the same about cake, bovada, blackchip, carbon etc. Luckily I haven't deposited on any site, but the time and effort involved makes me sick. I used to plan things around the online play and was stupidly concerned about daily points after qualifying for black card status on fulltilt lol. what a joke that was. Too bad I didn't put all that ftp time into pokerstars since that balance was paid out soon after black friday.

Anyway Jimmy, play the cardschat game Mondays on Bovada. That's somewhat fun given the fact you don't know who the f u're playing against. I withdrew a couple months ago down to 40 bucks and now have over 300 just from those games (also got a bonus for complaining about slower than advertised 15 business day payout).

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I do not agree with the contention that every site currently available to US players suck. There are still multiple sites out there that offer great customer service, good payouts, and good soft games. You just have to know where to look. The effort involved to deposit has increased, but how hard is it to drive down the road to your nearest pharmacy and make a cash transfer where the site reimburses you for the fees? Still not that bad.
As for Bovada itself, they are still a company built on Casino and Sportsbook action with poker as an afterthought. The anonymous tables make the site a great place for recreational players, if you are more serious about your poker then there are better sites out there.

Bovada, like bodog in the past has never been a site that offers a variety to all players.