"main reason I left, can't disable access to the casino".

That used to be the case, but not any more. You can "exclude" if you so wish from the Casino ("Sky Vegas") but retain full access to the Poker Site now. This has been the case for about 18 months.

Please remember, though, that if you exclude yourself for a set period, you cannot reverse it, under any circumstances, no matter what mitigation you offer. It's a one way button.

So, can we expect to see you back now?

Downloadable Client & Browser version the same? Yup, the Browser Version remains extremely popular with a large % of the player base, so they both need to be pretty much the same.

The Download, of course, works much better, & much faster.

A new development is now on the Site (but not released for general use yet, it's in final stages of testing & certification) will see the Lobby performance & speed massively enhanced, like chalk & cheese compared to now. It will benefit both the Download & Browser Version, & I expect it to go Live within the week.

Action at 200NL? Note it is in £ sterling, not $. I think you'll find there is much more action at those Levels these days, especially during the Evenings (UK time). Not hundreds of Tables, 'Stars stylee, but a good selection, & every single evening.

Look forward to seeing you on the Site. I'll be playing a few Tourneys there this Evening, pop in & say Hi if you are around.

May I ask what your Sky Poker Screen-name is, please?

Several Posts mentioned The "Experts", namely, & in particular, Kara Scott ("like"), & Norman Pace ("comedian"). Let's ignore "lol-pro" for the purposes of this.

The front-of-camera Team - "Talent" as it is known, ugh -operate in pairs, one "Presenter" (pro Broadcaster), & one "analyst", sometimes colloquially known as the "expert".

Kara was a Presenter. In fact, I worked with Kara on her first TV Poker Show, "Poker Night Live", then with her at Sky Poker, then she went onwards & ever upwards, first to 'Stars, then, & still now, to Party Poker. Good luck her, she deserves all the success she can achieve. She could not even play the game when she started on Poker Night Live, now she has a very competent game, judging by her WSOP record. I believe she left Sky Poker about 3 years ago.

Norman could both "Present" & Analyse", but he was employed as a Presenter, & I was in the co-pilot's seat for the majority of his Shows. He's not Mr T Dwan, but he is wholly competent as a player, & has a few decent Live cashes on his CV. Given that the Show was, at the time, built wholly around poker newbies, I think Norman ticked the boxes fully, though I agree, it's a subjective thing, & if you think a comedian on a Poker Channel is lol, there's not much I can say to dissuade you. Anyway, it matters not, Norman went back to Theatre work some three years ago, I think, & he is very successful at that, so I'll be surprised to see him back with us.

The whole thrust of "Analysts" (or, if you prefer, "Experts") has changed in the last 3 months on the Shows. I'm assuming you are UK-based, so will know who these guys are, but recent Guest "Experts" include.....

James Keys - runner-up, Aussie Millions, Jan this year.

Neil "Bad Beat" Channing, CV as long as your arm. He is the "Expert Guest" this Thursday. (Tomorrow, Ch 865, 2000 - 2400).

Julian Thew - Double GUKPT, & EPT Winner, was on this month, & booked again for next month.

Plus - all in the last 2 months - Sam Trickett, Nik Persaud, John Tabatabai, Paul Jackson (was VERY well-received), Ian Frazer, da e da. All have been invited to return. Carlo Citrone, a previous Analyst on the Channel, has been booked, too, & I'm awaiting confirmation from Jeff Kimber.

OK, it's not exactly Dwan & Ivey, but for a UK Poker Channel, to have a selection like that, 3 nights per week, on 4 hour Live TV Shows, fielding questions all night via e-Mail & 'phone, & giving as-played Hand Analysis, is not so dusty, is it? I gotta say, I've not seen any 24/7 Poker Channel on TV which can better that.

The Poker Show transmitted & produced by Sky Poker has changed enormously, & I can defend it, & it's "Experts" (see above) all day & all night. "lol-pro" excepted, of course, & I agree, he's bloody hopeless. Into each life, a little rain must fall, eh? And given his age, I would not worry too much about him, he'll be in his retirement home soon.

Several questions about "site security", & "4 digit codes".

Sorry, not meaning to be difficult, but you've whooshed me there, can you explain it better, please?

The system requires TWO codes to be entered.....

1) 9 or 10 digit alpha-numeric "USER ID". This should not be your screen-alias!. If it is, you should change it.

2) 4 digit numeric PIN code.

How is that less secure than any other Online Gaming Site?

Sky Poker have their own Forum, or "Comnmunity" as they call it, & like any other Poker Fora, if the tinsiest thing goes wrong, the players are never shy at "mentiioning it", loud, clear, & often. It's what poker players do best.

In the 2 years that Forum has been in existence, I've never once seen any issues as to security matters, money inappropriately taken from Accounts, not once. You'd think it might have raised interest if it happened, surely? I don't believe it ever has.

The average balance in Sky Poker is also a tad lower than on the Majors. Six figure deposit balances there are fairly rare, 7 figures unheard of, at a guess.

Good husbandry, too, if large balances are retained, would be sensible, the site is Neteller/PayPal/Moneybookers friendly.

Not ticking "Remember Me" & logging off, ditto, ditto.

Can you explain what the problem is, specifically, please?

That's it for now, things to do, power naps to be napped.

I'll respond to the rest soonest.

Have a good day.

PS - "Team Trousers" will get his own day, so many questions in that one, but to be fair, all constructive, all good.

Hasn't that ship long sailed?

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

Rubs on 2+2.

I feel I almost belong now.

I may even chance my arm with a few "epic's", "sick", "puke river spot", "one time", & checkboxes soon.

We'll leave triple range merging until later.

Hi Tikay,

Thanks for the reply.

I'm coming to the conclusion that SKY Poker's security isn't as flawed as I suspected, but is instead is just very confusing.

Most people choose a username that is easily memorable.

TKPoker
Bookish
HappyChap

They then choose (if they are smart) a long password with lots of numbers and punctuation in:

PKRp@sswrd1234
My_scrt_wrd4pkrz2win££$$


You have removed the password entirely and replaced it with a 4-digit number (clearly less secure) but moved the security to the user-name which rather than being

TKPoker

Should be

T1K@Y_Pl@y1nng_4TW


I was unaware of the subtlety of using your login name as the secure part of the process.

What I really miss at Sky was the Monday Night Bounty Hunter with 10 quid buy-in that used to be televised.

There are a lot of players that don't want to pay a 33 quid buy-in just to have a chance to be featured on channel 865. The monday nights used to be good fun and attracted a lot of viewers.

The other reason I stopped playing was the HH issue. I got the idea that I was being royally screwed on my preflop all-ins, but unlike with other sites I was not able to generate any graphs to investigate it. I also experienced/witnessed some pretty nasty instances of abuse but when I reported them the customer service people didn't seem to take them seriously.

Unfortunatly you have all missed the boat for Sky. Recently the games have become a lot tougher.

These days its one fish per table at 100 nl to 300nl. (no higher games get going). Most of 2010 and previous years there where four fish per table at these stakes.

Whilst you guys where chasing rakeback deals and playing with your hem, I was stacking more fish than captains birdseye.

Games are still profitable but its not the same, plenty of regs on site now.

This site is a real winner. But then all online poker is the same.

??

Tried this site, regretted wasting my time. Software is shocking. You cant even choose a default preferred seat. They do some weird thing with the bet amount getting added to the total pot before the round of bets is over. Multitabling is a nightmare. There is not hud support. My table kept crashing.
CS is a joke, complete joke.
Worst of all, traffic is shocking, my tables seemed to be full of regs who played 24 hours a day some how.

Glad I found this thread, would like to try a smaller site, looks like Sky might not be it at the moment unfortunately but interesting nonetheless. Would like to try a UK based site at least.


Well, on the surface, for reasons that are hopefully pretty obvious, that sounds less secure to me.

Perhaps I'm just misunderstanding something. Doesn't matter anyway if it works I guess, and there are (hopefully) other safeguards in place to guard against hacked accounts and the like...


Also, too much time spent responding to the the "lol pro" comment (LOL) IMO. Literally everyone who has appeared on or is ever gonna appear on that channel is gonna be a "lol pro" by 2+2 standards, and I'm sure noone expects any different. Everyone you mentioned, a bunch of live tourney donks and some presenters turned players, is a "lol pro"... except maybe Neil Channing who is cool.

Doesn't matter in the slightest, the show does the job for it's target audience I'm sure, and probably most of the lol-pros are more successful than most of 2+2, but their lol-pro status shouldn't come as any surprise.

Ok just played on the site for 4 weeks, stay away, im not one usually to bash sites but wow this site is bad,

Pros

- Slightly weaker opponents but nothing to think you can suddenly crush, still plenty of solid reg on the site playing 6 tables


Cons

-Software is terrible, i dont mean cake poker terrible i mean something that wouldn't be classed good 6 years ago, play more than 4 tables and there is a terrible lag, often what happens is you are giving a hand but with the lag you cant see it (all the time you are being times down with no time bank) eventually when the action catches up you have 2 to 3 second left to act. Also there wasn't one session in my weeks that didnt result in my being "sat out" for no reason, seems to happen when you have just won a pot and are in the big blind next, even thou you have the "post Big blind" ticked

-i only stayed for so long to clear my bonus then i find out it has to be in 30 days lol, there not even high enough stakes to clear the bonus at that time (well maybe if you really grinded the 1-2 tables) even then you wont get more than 6 table at that limit running at any time

-No Hud support (thou i can also understand there stance on this)

- for some reason my withdrawals got rejected 4 times i went to support they told me it was on my ewallet side the problem, it obv wasn't as i could make transactions with the same ewallet and my pokerstars account, eventually a week later i got the all clear after i talked to a manger

-No time bank

-No auto top up for cash games

-notes randomly disappear on opponents

-The cash for point is shocking, if works out at about 9% Rakeback


Save yourself the hassle and stay away.

Could someone form sky clear something up for me, there was never a date on when you had to clear the bonus when i signed up i also got my points in £5 for every 75 pts i cleared however this has stop and you have introduced a ties sytesm found here

https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poke...player-rewards


and also made it that you have to clear the points in 30 days, how and why does this effect me when i signed up for a different promotion? it seem you moved the goal post to suite yourself.

Continuing with the drive to host credible Guests on Skypoker.com's TV Channel (Channel 865), tonight's special studio guest is Richard Ashby, who seems to straddle the line between Live & Online Poker almost as successfully as anyone I know.

He plays pretty scary limits at Online Omaha, for some years now, has a WSOP bangle to his name in Stud, & has won a few bob down the years. Even surviving in poker as long as he has is pretty rare. I'd rate him north of your average LolPro.

Any questions for him, please e-Mail the Show, at "skyopen@bskyb.com"

The Show will be hosted by James Hartigan, familiar to many for his EPT & ESPN commentary. The Analyst is a some doddery old bloke who's been round the block once too often.

In addition to firing questions at Richard Ashby all evening, the show will follow tonight's £15,000 Guaranteed Bounty Hunter (£33 Entry).

The Tourney, & the 4 hour Live Show, both start at 8pm.

I hope a few of you join us, & send in some interesting questions, 2+2 stylee.

I'm watching, lol. This home game story is pretty lol.

Starting at 8pm on Thursday, & every Thursday thereafter (except the last Thursday of the month, when the £220 Skysports DS will still run) there will be a new weekly £110 Tourney called "Sky Roller".

5,000 starting chips, & 15 minute blinds, the Tourney has a £5,000 Guarantee.

A new structure has been devised, much more balanced than the old £220 structure, which some said was a bit fast.

It neds 50 to hit the Guarantee, but I am pretty sure that it will attract a good deal more.

Any questions, fire away.

The structure is as below.

1 15.00 / 30.00 15
2 20.00 / 40.00 15
3 30.00 / 60.00 15
4 40.00 / 80.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
5 50.00 / 100.00 15
6 75.00 / 150.00 15
7 100.00 / 200.00 15
8 125.00 / 250.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
9 150.00 / 300.00 15
10 200.00 / 400.00 15
11 250.00 / 500.00 15
12 300.00 / 600.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
13 400.00 / 800.00 15
14 500.00 / 1000.00 15
15 600.00 / 1200.00 15
16 800.00 / 1600.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
17 1000.00 / 2000.00 15
18 1250.00 / 2500.00 15
19 1500.00 / 3000.00 15
20 2000.00 / 4000.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
21 2500.00 / 5000.00 15
22 3000.00 / 6000.00 15
23 4000.00 / 8000.00 15
24 5000.00 / 10000.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
25 6000.00 / 12000.00 15
26 7000.00 / 14000.00 15
27 8000.00 / 16000.00 15
28 10000.00 / 20000.00 -

Daily satellites (excpt Wednesday) are as follows......

Sky Roller Satellites

Friday – Wednesday @ 12:45, 15:45, 18:45, 19:00, 19:15

£5.20

1 in 5 win a seat to the Semi Final at 8.45pm that night

3000 chips

5 minute blinds

Sky Roller Daily Semi-Finals

Friday – Wednesday @ 8.45pm

£24

1 in 5 win a seat to the next Thursday’s £5,000 Sky Roller event

2000 chips

10 min blinds

please make the software a little more in tune with the Modern age ? Then maybe more players will play.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Sunday's Show on Channel 865 has special Guest Sam Razafi, the Show will be hosted by Rich Orford, with tikay in the co-pilot's seat.

Please e-mail in any questions you have for Sam to skyopen@bskyb.com

....or as one wag wrote, "hey there Mr Thew Sky......

Julian Thew Signs for Sky Poker

Sky Poker today announced that it has signed UK Poker Professional Julian Thew. The Nottingham based pro said “I’m delighted and excited to be asked to join Sky Poker and really look forward to representing them at various live tournaments and playing in their many online events, including the brand new Sky Roller”. He added, “Sky Poker is a well-respected and trusted company with a great community of players who I’ll certainly be getting to know more”.

Thew is one of the UK’s most successful ever players having double GUKPT success as well as winning the European Poker Tour Baden event in 2007 taking home $947,806. He also has many major event wins and final table appearances to his name. Most recently, Julian won the DTD Monte Carlo Event beating a field of 291 and taking home the £60,000 first prize.

Thew will be playing alongside Sky Poker’s recently formed ‘Team Sky Poker’, a group of players who qualified to represent Sky Poker at major UK tournaments by playing events online at skypoker.com. He will be appearing at Sky Poker Tour events across the country and playing at skypoker.com under his familiar alias of ‘yoyo’ – a name he was given by his fellow pros because of the way his chipstack goes up and down like a yo-yo, usually up!

Julian will be making regular appearances on Sky Poker’s TV channel (Sky Channel 865) alongside its regular team of presenters and analysts including Tony ‘Tikay’ Kendall. Tikay said “I’ve known Julian for many years now and I’m genuinely thrilled about him joining the team. It’s a great opportunity for Sky Poker players to learn from and play with one of the most talented players the UK has ever seen. He’s very well loved and respected in the poker community and will be a fantastic ambassador for Sky Poker”.

A full diary of events that Thew will be representing Sky Poker at will be announced soon. He will be playing the 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in July.

Effective today, Tuesday 19th April, you can qualify into the £1,070 GUKPT Walsall via skypoker.com.

Satellites run daily (except Wednesday) & the Qualifying Final will be on Saturday of this week.

Satellites start at £5.20, the daily Semi is £24, and direct buy ins to Saturday's Final cost £110.

It's all going off today at Sky Poker.

Could just be the UK's softest satellites......

Quite a few changes at Sky Poker, but tonight's regular £15,000 Guaranteed Bounty Hunter remains as was. It begins at 8pm, with Live coverage on Channel 865 fom 9pm, & on Sky Sports 4 from 11pm until the very end.

£33 entry tag, with satellites & feeders all afternoon.

The Live Show will have analysis by Redmond Lee, who ran 21st in last years WSOP Main Event, & plays most of his poker at Sky Poker as "lolufold".

Also on tonight's show, we take a phone-call from the doyen of UK Poker Journos, Barry Carter (he of PokerNews.com) to discuss the DoJ thing.

Should be lively!

Also tonight, is the first ever £110 entry "Sky Roller", 5,000 starting chips & a well balanced structure. The Guarantee is £5,000, but only 28 runners so far, with 5 hours to go. Overlay is possible......

Here's the structure. Too fast? Say it ain't so......

15.00 / 30.00 15
2 20.00 / 40.00 15
3 30.00 / 60.00 15
4 40.00 / 80.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
5 50.00 / 100.00 15
6 75.00 / 150.00 15
7 100.00 / 200.00 15
8 125.00 / 250.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
9 150.00 / 300.00 15
10 200.00 / 400.00 15
11 250.00 / 500.00 15
12 300.00 / 600.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
13 400.00 / 800.00 15
14 500.00 / 1000.00 15
15 600.00 / 1200.00 15
16 800.00 / 1600.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
17 1000.00 / 2000.00 15
18 1250.00 / 2500.00 15
19 1500.00 / 3000.00 15
20 2000.00 / 4000.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
21 2500.00 / 5000.00 15
22 3000.00 / 6000.00 15
23 4000.00 / 8000.00 15
24 5000.00 / 10000.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
25 6000.00 / 12000.00 15
26 7000.00 / 14000.00 15
27 8000.00 / 16000.00 15
28 10000.00 / 20000.00

Channel 865 & Sky Sports 4 will be carrying Updates throughout tonight's Show, & once the Bounty Hunter ends, we'll try & cover the Sky Roller non-stop.

Should be a tidy tourney.

Don't forget, Sky Poker operate in ££££'s, not $$$'s. Real money, in every sense.

GUKPT Satellites are now offered on Skypoker.com, too, with a Final this Saturday for next week's £1,070 GUKPT Walsall.

Satellites start at £5.20, there is a daily £24 Semi-Final, with the Final this Saturday, direct buy-ins to which cost £110. One Seat is guaranteed.

Team Sky Poker expect to have 7 or 8 runners in the Walsall GUKPT.

This Sunday sees the fourth of our five Viva Las Vegas Finals on Sky Poker, too, with only the May Final to follow.

The package is £10,000 (sterling) & Sky Poker expect to take up to 10 players to Las Vegas this July, including new signing Julian Thew, who will host our Team.

Daily feeders & satellites, the Semi Final is 5pm Sunday, with the April Final at 9pm this Sunday.

The structure for the Final has been slowed down dramatically, & now reads like this.....

15.00 / 30.00 15
2 20.00 / 40.00 15
3 30.00 / 60.00 15
4 40.00 / 80.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
5 50.00 / 100.00 15
6 75.00 / 150.00 15
7 100.00 / 200.00 15
8 125.00 / 250.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
9 150.00 / 300.00 15
10 200.00 / 400.00 15
11 250.00 / 500.00 15
12 300.00 / 600.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
13 400.00 / 800.00 15
14 500.00 / 1000.00 15
15 600.00 / 1200.00 15
16 800.00 / 1600.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
17 1000.00 / 2000.00 15
18 1250.00 / 2500.00 15
19 1500.00 / 3000.00 15
20 2000.00 / 4000.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
21 2500.00 / 5000.00 15
22 3000.00 / 6000.00 15
23 4000.00 / 8000.00 15
24 5000.00 / 10000.00 15
- 5 Minutes Break -
25 6000.00 / 12000.00 15
26 7000.00 / 14000.00 15
27 8000.00 / 16000.00 15
28 10000.00 / 20000.00

Tonight sees the debut of Anna Fowler on Sky Poker, Channel 865, covering the "Bounty Hunter" Show.

Seems a pleasant enough chap, from what I've seen.

Anyone knows what are the best bonus code available? I'm rather interested in the sign up bonus aka free money, but i wonder if there's any catch to it? Not a lot of information about this poker site on the web too. Anyone cashed out from there before? I don't want to waste my time even with free money if i can't cash out. I use Moneybookers btw.

*sniff sniff*

smells like spam