Online Poker Room critiques

[dj11]

Intent here is to provide a critique of any site any of us play. Hopefully a perfect online poker Room could be built from these critiques.

NOT a critique of the players there, or your bad luck, or bad beats. Rather a critique of the comfort level, or sitting experience at a online table.

I'll admit up front I may not have found some of the options or features at any of the sites I mention.

For instance, I tend to not play much at PokerStars for 2 reasons, no detachable chat, and I just haven't found a table skin I like, and there is something about the shape of the table that is wrong. Add to that that chat is disabled when anyone is all in, and there are too many things that i dislike there. I still play there cause , well, it's pokerstars.

I should probably add here that I am a fan of the Full Tilt experience. Still I would add that I would like to see the chat options found below.

At UB, there are too many long delays. And no sizeable screens. But they do have that nifty fold and show option.

Bodog for me is very uncomfortable. I consider the graphics there to be just short of gawdawful. Sizeability is a joke. And chat is less than friendly.


To me, any site should have sizeable tables, and detachable chat. I would like to see more sites with fold and show buttons, and something Paradise has, an ability to see who is on the rail.

Poker is amongst other things, a social game, and social tables are more pleasant for me. So a few chat options could enhance the social aspects of the game;
-The ability to choose what color chat is over dealer info. Not just the Silent, normal, everything options.
-The ability to pick specific dealer info to highlight. I like knowing what I folded. Helps me analyze my play.

I can imagine a day not to distant, when each site will offer something akin to Poker Tracker along with a bigger rake, or higher tourney fee. Maybe live sound and even webcams.

I am a bit suprised that no room I have found has added a sound option for the background casino room. Chips clinking, players roaring, and sighing, and an occasional crowd roar and cheer.

These are a few of my likes or dislikes.

 

[Alaskana]

UB was the first site I played and I still like their table layout better than any other site. It's nice that the hand info is in the same window that the chat is in. You can tell what the chat is for each hand. There's also an option to change chat font colors and background colors. I also like the tournament info window right next to the chat window that tells the names of the top three players and your position in the tournament. Resizing to miniview takes away some of that info but it makes it easier to keep track of the action on more than one table. Ultimate Buddy is also nice if you want to find friends on UB. That's the good.
I would prefer to have the stats available at a glance like on bodog. There is a button to see your game stats but it pops up in a new window and resets every time you move to a different table. I'd like to track my play for the whole tournament.

Bodog is my preferred site for types of tournaments. real money freerolls (it's funny that UB just added a $50 freeroll and Bodog has been running $500, $1000 and $1500 freerolls), no alternates list, and low entry no limit tournaments. The table graphics could be better but at least it doesn't waste space with a dealer rack like some other sites do. I had never had to use the four color deck until I started playing at Bodog but find that it really helps to distinguish the different suits. Bodog also has the best customer service of all the sites I've visited. Sending an email to support while in the middle of a tournament isn't as easy for me as making a phone call. Communicating over the phone is so much easier than trying to type it out while playing.

Full tilt has cute avatars, and that's about all the good I can say about that site. Customer service nearly nonexistent.

Absolute has nice table skins that you can download.

Pokerstars....hmmm...kind of blah. It's just there.

Just my opinion. Nice thread. I hope more people respond.

 

[aliengenius]

One annoying thing about Bodog: in a tournament players sorted by current rank shows only the eliminated players rank. Those still in seem to be in some random order, no number by the names, and not ranked according to chip count.

Also, the chat is "separate", so you kind of have to be paying attention to know if comments like "nh" in the chat box are regarding the last hand played, or one played a half hour ago.

 

[IrishDave]

Of all the sites I've played, I do like the fold & show from UB as well as the table layout there as well. Fulltilt has never done anything for me and I just never had any success there. Pokerstars is just so-so but thats where everyone plays. Bodog is just plain ugly and has a lot of delays and just feels wierd. I currently play almost exclusively at Absolute and it really requires patience and discipline as it's full of donks and calling stations. As far as the interface goes, it's clean and works.

One benefit of sticking with a single site is you start to get to know the folks that play tour type of games. I play SNGs at the 10-40 level and I actually search the tables for donks I've noted before I sit down...

 

[tigertight]

fulltillt+bodog= good sites !