Should I move from Bovada to Carbon?

[AKpairdrawAK]

I lost $600 on bovada this week. Bovada would glitche on me when i get a good a good starting hand, i would be disconnected and by the time i got back my hand would be folded. I emailed then countless times and kept getting the run around. I'm over Bovada and on to Carbon.

 

[TeUnit]

i think you need to play them both

not many sites these days actually pay you, so keep all of them that do

 

[IPlay]

I lost $600 on bovada this week. Bovada would glitche on me when i get a good a good starting hand, i would be disconnected and by the time i got back my hand would be folded. I emailed then countless times and kept getting the run around. I'm over Bovada and on to Carbon.

The disconnects were a final straw for me too, I only lost a couple buy ins at the micros to it though, $600 is rough. Bovada support also posted on here that tournament buy ins will get refunded for that but not cash games.

 

[TimboJonez]

Carbon for sure, you can also get into the freeroll every week.

 

[AKpairdrawAK]

The disconnects were a final straw for me too, I only lost a couple buy ins at the micros to it though, $600 is rough. Bovada support also posted on here that tournament buy ins will get refunded for that but not cash games.

90% of was in tournaments. i played in alot of SnG hyper turbos and you know you get disconnected in those with A's or K's your dead after that. Then they give you the fine print BS and screw you

 

[seventhcereal]

bovada is not real poker. it's got good graphics and a lot of anon donkeys on there. I played a lot on bovada and did really well there but my strat got me crushed when I played on carbon. I had to readjust for carbon. The two sites play very differently.

 

[Mase31683]

I'm on Carbon, so yes. Also bring friends, and if you could email support about running HU tables that'd be awesome. Come to think of it I never got a response from them in regard to that.

 

[love that omaha]

I just switched to Carbon from Bovada. Too many players on Bovada take their whole time bank every decision, a lack of freerolls and variety of games were my primary reasons.

 

[REALITYPOKER]

I have found that the games at Bovada are very fishy with lots of potential for money to be made their, but after hearing all the negative comments about it on here kinda makes me hesitant to play there. I know that you have to use a very outdated HUD to get stats there and saving hand history's for review can be like jumping through too many hoops for my taste. I also would recommend play at any of the WPN skins (ACR,BCP,TRUE) if you chose not to play at Carbon. The support for PT4 and HM2 works great and you don't have to worry about playing readless against anonymous opponents.

 

[weldphaser]

i didn't read all the replies tbh, but i'm getting ready to switch to carbon,

biggest plus is basically your opponents are anonymous , and you can keep track of them in your dtatbase , which is huge to me if you wanna study your opp's

 

[BLACKSTACK]

I'm staying at bovada,I'm a mtt player and cant stand 3+ hours of re-entry, bovada has some 3+ hours late reg BUT no re-entry

 

[Karozi615]

Its honestly all about preference. A lot of players prefer the platform that Carbon offers. However, I think most of us realize that until legal online poker is available (as it is in NJ and NV) you shouldn't really over invest in either site.

You see all of us complaining about how it takes so long to get a check, but when online poker does go legal, you'll be able to go down to the cage and make deposits/withdrawals.

I really hope we have a second online poker boom, it is certainly possible.

Either way, my take is go with Bovada. Faster payouts and the players are consistently bad. I have seen some tilt driven mistakes on zone that literally make my head shake.

 

[billyboy313]

carbon is awful too , better off at ACR or BCP for payouts

 

[cjmoles]

I started playing poker seriously about 7 months ago and signed up at Bovada because it is by far the #1 recommended site to play on for USA players.

Now 7 months later, I feel like making the switch for a few reasons.

1. No real player perks to Bovada like rakeback or VIP programs. Not even freerolls besides the CC ones. I think I have seen Bovada host like 2 decent ones in the 7 months I have been a player. Only real perk is your initial deposit bonus.

2. Notes are only good for that sessions and it is rare that someone stays at the same table for more than 100 hands.

3. HUD is only good for your current session and like I said before, it is rare for someone to stay for more than 100 hands.

4. You can only play 4 tables at a time and since I mainly play full ring it makes it kind of slow.

5. Table selection is more difficult since you don't know who is sitting at that table before you join.

6. Can anyone let me know about the traffic on Carbon? On Bovada the only time there is traffic is in the evenings and since I work an always changing work schedule it makes getting hands in hard.

7. I feel like I am not learning much on Bovada anymore since you can't really use stats to exploit opponents and I feel like that is something I should start learning.

8. I just got PT4 and it made me realize how bad Bovada is for reviewing hands/sessions. I can't review hands and base them off villain tendencies and you have to wait 24 hours to review so the situations are not fresh in your memory and since Bovada's traffic is late evenings I usually have to wait 36/48 hours to review hands unless I want to do it late at night.

So again, it hinders me from really learning further/studying my own game(this should probably be #1)

9. STT seems like they are just to easy to collude in with the anonymous feature and I don't play them.

10. I can use my PT4 HUD on Carbon which will be more beneficial to my game in all aspects, reviewing tricky hands(you can save a hand right when it happens to review later) I will be able to better track/exploit villains much more efficiently.

The only positives I ever hear about Bovada is softer player pools and quick payouts which is nice but I really want to learn to become a better player and quick payouts do not matter so much because I do not make an income from poker and am just trying to learn as much as I can about the game while building a bankroll and moving up stakes.

CLIFFS?

So to sum it up I want to switch because of Bovadas evening only traffic, I also feel like I am not learning much at Bovada anymore because of anonymous feature which makes exploiting kind of pointless and it disables me from getting the most out of PT4 and hand review sessions, no real player perks.

Any Carbon players here that have switched or played on both? Is my thinking about Carbon wrong?

I play at both Bovada and Carbon. However, at this time, I would recommend playing at one of WPN's skins: America's Cardroom, Blackchip Poker or Poker Host (in that order). They are growing quick and they cater to the US market. They offer a wealth of promotions, the gameplay is soft, and they provide some really cool features, such as "Spin to Get in." The software isn't the very best but it is good. They put a large portion of their profits back into the site and they are HUD friendly and table manager compatible.

I would try WPN out before depositing at Bovada as long as Bovada remains so greedy with their promotions and non-transparent with their statistical data. There was a time when I endorsed Bovada (bodog) above all, but times have changed....they're too greedy and secretive which makes me suspicious of their integrity.

 

[XXPXXP]

did you compare the cash out speed between Bovada and Carbon?
the most advantage for Bovada is : it cash out speed is faster.

but Carbon beats bovada for it is multi tabling there...
4 tabling at Bovada is pointless, ESP @bovada, one hand cost much more time than @ carbon -- because the time bank is 30 seconds for each player not 10 second .

if thinking playing large number of hands means much to you, think switching to carbon is much better.

 

[A2345Razz]

Here is my take, and I will come right out and tell people I play Merge myself, so there is probably some small bias there ofc.

If you want to play 1-2 tables and don't care about tracking your play or using a HUD or MORE IMPORTANTLY LEARNING TO USE A HUD OR REVIEW YOUR hands, than Bovada is a good fit. You get soft competition, and if you just wanna play 1/2 tables of cash or one donkament at a time, I think it's probably the best or @#2 option out there.

They pay out fast , and have been in the industry for awhile.

The flip side of Bovada is Merge. Merge is good with both donkaments (great size/GTDs/Schedule) and also has very good cash liquidity up to 3/6 NLH and a decent amount of LHE (dont quote me, it's been awhile.). The best advantage Merge/Carbon has is software. THE MERGE SOFTWARE IS A JOY TO USE and as close to pokerstars/FTP level you are going to get. They also offer mobile play which has had rave reviews I hear. You can use a HUD and track your play, but EVERYONE AT MERGE has the option of playing with an inhouse HUD, so you can learn to use one free!!!

Ok, now for the one HUGE pitfall at Merge, and I won't pretty it up:

YOU WILL WAIT A LONG TIME FOR CASHOUTS AT MERGE, PERIOD.

I have withdrew 3 times....and only once was it within 4 weeks. That's the deal; its been known and it's been the deal for a long time. THEY ALWAYS CASHOUT, but it takes about 3/4 weeks longer on average to get it.

If you don't play for a living this is basically an inconvenience....

If you play for a living, I wouldn't play Merge primarily bc of this reason.


WPN, well, WPN was growing, but it's pretty much plateaued according to the pokerscout data I see. It is compatible with the big 2 HUDs, and you can multitable.

The biggest edge WPN has is it offers a rakeback program somewhere around 30%, I forgot.

The biggest drawbacks compared to say Merge would be less liquidity, a far INFERIOR MTT schedule (if you love MTTs, it's not even close, it's Merge all the way between those two) and the software at WPN is just LOLBAD.

Honestly the software is like tilting...bad. They do run a lot of like jackpot stuff....promotions, etc, but honestly it's mostly stuff that doesn't really add value imo. I could be wrong, but...that's my perception.

I'd say it's a good option if you NEED HUD availability and want to mass table / utilize rake back a ton.

Other than that, I don't think the other sites offer much in the domestic, grey market area US.

 

[donkcentralFF]

Americas cardroom WPN?

 

[limpnfold88]

I love the software on carbon, but it takes so long to cash out in the US, its almost not even worth playing on unless u dont mind waiting 2 months for your money

 

[okeedokalee]

Carbon ACR and BCP are all enjoyable sites and give you a fair run without the big hand v big hand and runner runner BS offered at the bigger sites.
You can actually play skillful poker at these smaller sites.PT4 runs good on all three sites.

 

[Jslab24]

i like Merges software and decent mtt lineup but slow cashout speeds at the moment. Can't stand Bovadas software or anonymous play but has great cashout speed. Pick ur poison.

 

[mango5Tnl]

I like carbon better software wise, and they have better mtts, but the payouts take so much longer that i wouldn't recommend it.

 

[seebass74]

change from bovada, they are a rip off. they are charging me extra on top of their fees. can't get anyone to listen.

 

[TempoShaman]

i am still currently on bovada due to my account getting locked on carbon, which I haven't gone to reopen yet due to it being too costly.

but honestly from playing both, bovada is nice for zone poker and some MTt's and maybe sng's, but carbon is a lot heavier competition imo... but MTT's on carbon OWN bovada so hard...and 6 man hypers on carbon straight up get me off. i love 6 man hypers. id say thats what i missed most next to the mtt's. cash games on carbon were always a struggle for me due to the amount of grinder status players.

also keep in mind both sites are operating many many many bot rings. this is fact. bovada it would be a lot easier for them to pull off but carbon has had cases of huge rings getting busted.. (not saying carbon or bovada own the bots, *but not saying they dont . )

 

[IPlay]

This thread gets viewed and bumped from time to tume and I figure I should update. I played in Carbon for a few months and would play on Bovada anytime over Carbon. While Bovada lacks tool if makes up for in fish and traffic 10 fold

 

[jsh169]

This thread gets viewed and bumped from time to tume and I figure I should update. I played in Carbon for a few months and would play on Bovada anytime over Carbon. While Bovada lacks tool if makes up for in fish and traffic 10 fold

Idk about that lol, but I won't add anything except Carbon cashouts take forever.