Good to hear you found a solution. I guess we disagree on some things, but I appreciate Bovada for putting out a product that I enjoy.

Just to illustrate my point about Bovada having a "lack of competition."

Look at the thread at the top of the WPN forum right next to this one...."Downtime/Disconnect/Lag issues"....people having problems right on cue.

It just never ends. That's not competition.

I just played for an hour in a WPN tournament that lagged from the beginning. I talked to online support while I was playing. I had plenty of time to make decisions at the table.

I was telling the guy in real time what was going on, including every hand taking more than two minutes (with five at our table.) He replied that all of the tables had been paused for five minutes. I told him that someone had made a bet about 30 seconds ago, and he repeated that all of the tables were paused.

I told him that if only some tables were paused that's not a level playing field and the tournament needed to be canceled.

He said my opinion would be considered. It was finally canceled about 15 minutes later, so I don't know if what I told him mattered or not.

I've been seeing complaints in the Bovada thread tonight, too.

? this is a matter of logic, not data.

i'm not talking about poker skill in general. you made the assertion that bovada's policy of anonymity is good for regs because something something something about fish having less information about regs so they can't identify sharks. i'm pointing out that this statement is demonstrably false bc people that are better at poker are obv. more likely to be able to use additional information to their advantage.

ofc, bovada's policy of anonymity may indeed make the games better for regs overall (by attracting more fishy players bc they like anonymity for w/e reason), but that's a different matter. and the games being better for regs bc of worse player pool doesn't make the games worse for fish, it makes the games better for e1.

you were doing good and had my attention when you were posting about WPN's tourney policies, but you're also just making a bunch of wild assertions and blowing hot air.

leakychips, what is the point of your existence? you dislike stars,bovada and everything in between. are you one of the donators that cant figure out why your losing? all the anger doesnt make sense.

Yeah, but this statement is clearly false because it's a fact that HUDs lead players to make incorrect decisions all the time. And, therefore they present no advantage at all. I personally believe that HUDs put a player at a disadvantage by providing misleading information.

I personally believe that anonymity scares fish away and hurts the game overall. There would be more players on Bovada, and bigger prize pools in MTT's without anonymity. Sorry, but it's true. Anonymity scares away fish who are already paranoid about rigging and house bots stealing money from them. Anonymity only fuels this paranoia and scares players away. It's absolutely horrible for the game.

Everything you've claimed (and everything Bovada and Stars have claimed) about anonymity and HUDs is groundless assertion without a shred of data to back it up. That's a fact.

I don't like piss poor decisions based on groundless assertions costing me money and having a negative impact on my profitability in online poker by scaring players away and causing growth in online poker to remain stagnant. I like to maximize my profitability...unlike you.

I agree completely. I played an ACR tournament recently during which players were unable to open the tournament lobby. Not having that information meant that I had no idea of what my tournament situation was. I didn't know how many players were still in the tournament. I wouldn't know when I was close to the money, or have any information about any other bubbles. My table could be the final table and I wouldn't even know. I played for an hour, hoping that it would get fixed, then bailed.

The more information you have, the better it is for you.

That doesn't apply when the source of the advantage is the result of a technical difficulty. Plus, other players may have been able to see the lobby without a HUD. Not to mention....nobody is stopping you from obtaining a HUD.

jesus christ

does leakychips = mx210? (someone out there will know what i'm talking about)

And about the bolded, you can't just say it's true when you can't prove it.

Also the vast majority disagree with you, so you should really prove it if you care to. Because nobody else, including Bovada seems to think the same thing as you. But why is this in this thread anyway? Can we end this discussion here?

Just because you win here and there and have a cash out, I highly doubt you're up high in the green. People who have made pure profit off gambling is a teeny tiny percentage of all gamblers. Sorry to break this to you but its true. Even the "winners" eventually lose all their winnings unless they're the 2015 Buddha of discipline and bankroll mgmt

Are you serious?

I'm not the one making a claim. You're claiming that anonymity attracts fish. Bovada never provided proof for that claim. Where as I have 10+ years of documented success in online poker with the existence of HUDs and screennames. What more proof do you need that HUDs don't deter players from playing? Popularity of online poker didn't start to decrease until anonymity came into the picture and Pokerstars ruined their MTT schedule.

UIGEA kicked out the biggest site from the USA in 2006...Party Poker. Players then transferred over to Pokerstars...making that the biggest site and the popularity of online poker continued to flourish. So, what is the difference between what happened in 2006 and what happened on Black Friday in 2011???????

The difference is that biggest alternative to Pokerstars was a site that used a system of anonymity that the majority of players dislike (fish and regs alike) and have responded by not playing poker any more.

Well, the vast majority of internet poker players lose money playing poker. So, you'll have to excuse me if I take pride in not being included in the "vast majority."

If you had actual data to back up anything claimed by you and Bovada there wouldn't be any room for disagreement. The reason we're in a position of conflict is due to the fact that what you're claiming is nothing more than a myth created by a company that bases their entire business model on that myth.

Pokerstars is an incompetent company that ruined online MTT poker by eliminating an MTT schedule that everyone loved in 2009-2010. This caused interest in poker to decline and they don't realize it. Instead of acknowledging the flaws in their business decisions and correcting them....they're now pointing their finger at the most skilled online poker players (their BEST CUSTOMERS) and saying, "It's your fault."

I've never seen anything so unprofessional in my life.

I don't gamble. I play poker.

I've been winning since 2003 when I started playing on Paradise Poker.

Why bother discussing/debating with someone posting like this?

Did you miss the part where that was a response to his claim?

No and It doesn't matter.

I guess you forgot about the success of online poker on Pokerstars leading up to Black Friday, then?

Ya know...the massive success that took place, dwarfing current models, with the existence of screennames and HUDs?

Why the hell would you even ask for proof? Were you not paying attention the past 15 years?

What do you people honestly believe would happen if Pokerstars were available in all 50 states tomorrow? Do you think they would stay on Bovada? Seriously? Bovada would dwindle into the irrelevant piece of trash that it is if Pokerstars came back and every single one of you knows it.

Lol at acting like the tournament schedule change was the reason for pokers decline and playing it off as if there weren't many other bigger factors.

Well, I'm not entirely referring to the decline of popularity in poker. Mainly the reasoning of Pokerstars higher ups who claim that $20 depositors are losing their deposits "40% faster" than they were before. They're claiming this is a huge factor in the decline of popularity. They're claiming HUDs are responsible for this fact.

I disagree with that assessment. I believe the reason these people are losing deposits faster is due to the fact that big MTT's in the microstakes range have severely decreased and vanished from the site. Causing these small depositors to lose their money quickly in cash games as opposed to losing it slowly in MTT's.

Takes a while for a fish to lose in an MTT. Takes a hand to lose it all in cash games. 2009-2010 a $20 depositor could play 3 MTTs with one $20 deposit. This was more time consuming for those players.

Hahaha I thought the same thing. Online poker was around for YEARS before the first site introduced sync breaks. loooooooooool


Edit: I do agree there's no reason not to have sync breaks, just found the declaration they've always existed loltastic

First of all I don't even know how to respond to something so ludicrous, but I repeat, and this is what I'd like you to answer - this is not the right place for this discussion so can you end it?

What's "ludicrous" (and hypocritical) is making a claim about anonymity being more popular than screennames and then demanding proof when someone presents a conflicting opinion. Especially, given the documented history of online poker. Which, proves my claim.

Yes, it is.

This is a WPN tournament discussion thread. WPN bases their model on Pokerstars' MTT model and is a competitor of Bovada. It's absolutely an appropriate place for this discussion.

Though, it appears the discussion has ended...as none of the endorsers of the anonymity MYTH have any evidence to present. Nor have any of them even attempted to address a single point I've made. Probably due to the fact that they're wrong. There is no arguing against the truth.

95% sure leakychips = mx210, a troll that used to post ten times a day in the bovada thread and was banned a month or so ago

Can we please just get ONE NL daily themed "special" mtt around 4-7pm EST. Change the buyin/format every day and give it different names. Can just keep it simple and call it The Monday Big, Tuesday Big etc etc. Buyins from 11rebuy to 160 freezout. Just slap a 20kish guarantee on it everyday and watch it thrive. Every single network has some sort of special daily mtt.

Also please consider changing some of the later night torunaments from 15 minute levels to 12.

Another point-. Please consider adding a decent rebuy daily tournament. 11-33 with a 5k+ guarantee every night around 4-7pm.