Poker Stars

I finally started looking at Poker Stars to take my business. They are compatible with Sharkscope HUD, Poker Tracker 3 HUD, and are obviously open to U.S. players. The only thing they don't have is rakeback, but their VIP program apparently compensates for that. I'm not sure if rakeback is a better deal or not yet, but I estimated that I could make an extra $225/month in bonus cash through their VIP program playing at my previous volume.

I reactivated my account on there and made an initial deposit via e-check....this deposit option is AWESOME....they basically just withdraw the dough straight out of your real bank account so I didn't have to jump through any hoops to get it there....real nice. I made the max deposit I could at the time ($100) and will probably deposit the rest incrementally after they finish verifying my bank account. I should have it all in there by the middle of February, at which point I will be ready to smash the tables!!!

Anybody know how well their e-check cashout option works?

Pokerstars also has these interesting SNGs called "Double or Nothing". The name is self-explanatory....10 players pony up the buy-in, and play until there are 5 people left, and they split the prize pool. The $5 games (haha bankroll nit even though my actual bankroll is much higher than the artificial $100) are so soft. People still try to play for first in those early, and bust out chasing stupid draws, but play super tight on the bubble. Such awful strategy.

Real easy to steal from the nits on bubble to keep yourself alive while they get grinded down. The turbos are a good structure, with blinds going up every 5 minutes and an ante at the 50-100 level. So many bad players don't take ante into consideration, and that is especially costly when there are 6-8 players left contributing dead money to the pot. The turbo DON games also have a real light rake (I think it is $0.20 at the $5 level, compared to $0.50 for the normal games) which will make a huge difference. I'm definitely looking forwarded to getting the rest of my roll on there and playing more of these.

Atlantic City Thursday!!!! oh fuck yes....i can already smell the cigarettes, sewage, and italians!!! peace bitches