Okay so I thought I would update you a little on the challenge. I decided to download Cake and try it on there as well as Carbon (Merge Network). Well after a frustrating series of attempts it seems my PC is convinced Cake is a virus and keeps deleting it, so no dice there. That's okay though I was playing around with it on my brother's PC a little on Sunday and I wasn't all that excited about it, so no loss to me as far as I am concerned. That being said I am confining my challenge to Carbon Poker which is a skin for the Merge Network (includes Lock Poker and I am not sure which others). For those not familiar with the idea, the skinning works exactly like Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet did, different software/interface slightly all the same games. This improves the player pool overall. So first off I like the Carbon software. The note/icon labeling system is pretty nice, makes it quick to label other players so you can get back to playing. Suffice it to say I have really only been using one label, but I like it thus far. There are some irritations with it, the chat/tourney info/blind level, time remaining are all huge when you open them on the table and are a bit inconvienent. I am not sure I am a fan of the fact that it tracks what hand you have made. I am not sure if this is only in the freeroll/play money side or if they do this at the real money tables (as I haven't gotten that far yet). If they do it is a pain in the ass, if not then no harm no foul. Overall I think the SW is pretty good. I haven't delved too much into the Tourney offering. I took a quick sweep and they seem to have a bunch of PLO and NLHE tourneys (especially small and micro's) which is exciting for me. That being said so far I like Carbon and will continue to play the challenge there. I'll update more as I get into more of the real money games, but for now I'm just Freerolling!
Challenge Update:
There are 3 Freerolls that I can play on the weekends and 2 during the week. The three are a Limit HORSE, PLO and NLHE with the PLO and NLHE playing in the evenings. The structures aren't the greatest, 7min levels with 1k starting stacks so it is a turbo and they are capped at 5k runners with 24 paying so you need to run very deep to get anywhere. The NLHE is the only one that gets 5k runners in it and I have to say that the level of play is somewhere between terrible and horrendous. I've been sitting at tables where players are shoving 74s for 50bb. It is overall very exploitable play so I am encouraged that I will only be in the freerolls for a fairly short period of time. As far as the PLO side, while I have some ability at the game I can't say I am an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but even I know that the play there is subpar. It seems to be dominated by NLHE players so you see a lot of weaknesses that Halowax was talking about in his opening vid (a lot of people overplaying pairs, playing uncoordinated hands, etc…). The Limit HORSE is sort of a weird one for me. I can play Omaha, HE and Stud. I am weak at the Hi/Low games and terrible at the Low's, but I am smart enough to know that it is a limit tourney and I can fold through the games I am terrible in unless I start with a monster so that works okay overall. So finish wise, I have played 5 and am finishing inside the top 250 in all of them (was pretty shocked in the HORSE to say the least). I am working on getting my feet wet again as I have been off the dedicated tourney play for a little while and I am adjusting to all of the crazy play. I am looking forward to getting out of the Freeroll world. If the play here is indicitive of the play everywhere else on the site, this is going to be a lucrative challenge 🙂 That's all for now so this is the Gman signing out!