[News update: Trying out Novibet poker]
In an attempt to find smaller tours, and easy players to play against, I tried Novibet Poker (
www.novibet.gr). Novibet is primarily a sports betting and casino site, but they also offer poker games.
Novibet is an established GameTech company operating in Europe (Greece, Ireland, Italy, Cyprus, Finland), the Americas (Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Canada), and New Zealand, with tech hubs in Greece and Malta and over 900 employees across countries.
Apparently, they are part of the iPoker poker network. Hand2Note could recognize the interface, and the Hand history is stored in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Novibet Poker\data\<Poker username>\History\Data - mine was in C:\Users\simon\AppData\Local\Novibet Poker\data\Tilted9043\History\Data
First impressions
The first thing to say is, the Novibet client interface is very different from Pokerstars, and felt alien to me. It was when I used it that I realised how much used to Pokerstars I am.
General observations
- The client contains an in-built HUD, which shows VPIP, AF, 3BET and some more stats. However, these may be only for the current tournament, ie it probably doesn't save a history of them for you.
Good things
- The graphics are ok.
- The breaks happen at the same time as Pokerstars, which is convenient if you multi-site between the two sites.
Problems
- The first time I deposited, my balance was not updated immediately afterwards. I shut down the client and restart it, and then it was updated.
- At first I couldn't find where on the play screen you see your rank in the tournament. It turns out it is right at the bottom.
- It doesn't show the countries of the players in the game, like Pokerstars does.
- The time for next break is hidden in the lobby, under the tab "Stats"
The first tours I played were a €3 Micro warm up, a €0.50 Rebuy Turbo, and a €1 Micro Hunter (PKO). All happened to be 6-max, so not much fun for me, as I haven't been playing 6-maxes and I am not used to them. I played impatiently, and busted out of those realtively quickly.
I then signed up for a €5 Micro HIghroller, to which I lasted a little longer than the first 3 tours, but still ended up busting out before ITM, and that was the end of my exploration at Novibet.