Pacific Poker - September 19, 2005

I had a pretty successful weekend. Won a couple tourneys and moved up to the $30 SNGs. I took advantage of a sign up bonus for Pacific Poker on Saturday. I know an affiliate to the site who will give you $75 for signing up and playing one raked hand. So I decided to test my SSH Lee Jones experience on the .50/1.00 limit tables. Result = I lost 10-15 bucks when a guy hit his three outer on the river (AK vs A2). I felt pretty good about the way I played though, so I might have to play some more limit in the future. After that I played a couple $30 SNGs there so I could wager enough at the site to clear an additional deposit bonus. Wow. I was amazed at how bad the players were. Granted, I have limited experience at the site, but I thought the players were even worse than at Party Poker. However, I don't think the players are bad enough to make up for the awful software.

I wasn't that impressed. You can only play one table at a time. You can't see hand histories automatically. The site won't connect with PokerTracker. When you bet, it doesn't show you the $ amount that you wagered, just the chips, so it is difficult to see how much another person bet. Finally, when you reach a show down, it doesn't flip up the other players cards and it doesn't slowly show the turn or river card. In a flip second it just shows the cards and pushes the chips one way.

Overall, I'm glad I signed up though. I deposited $100 and played one raked hand which gave me $75 from the affiliate. Plus I got a 25% deposit bonus on the $100 from the site, so I will get an additional $25. I just need to wager $500 (20 x the bonus amount) to clear the $25. That seems like a lot, but if I play 5-6 $30 tourneys there a week, I can have it cleared in 3 weeks.