So here’s my take on Global poker. To give you some perspective on me, I’ve been playing poker for 10 years and although it’s not my primary business, I have, at times, relied on it to make rent as a month or two grinding at Commerce has always come through. Currently I play 5-5 NL and have been loving the 5-5-10 PLO hosted by 2+2 and Live at the Bike legend limon.
Unfortunately I broke my leg in a surfing accident and I’m off the feet for 2 months. I was jonesin for poker, but I’ve gotten brunt by Stars and FD, like many of you and I’m always apprehensive. I tried Bovada a few years back; won a tourney and received cash outs, but with a Mac, their software crashing was too frustrating to continue.
CUT TO:
I’m chilling on my couch, nursing my leg, sedated on top pharmaceuticals, wasting my life on FB and this add for Global Poker shows up, so I go and have a gander at their site. I quickly blow through the 2 dollar advance they give and after a bit of deliberation I decide to make a deposit of 50 bucks. I play the sit and goes, do well and run it up, then I try the 6 max PLO, a game I love and run like **** and run it down. The action is so sick that I wonder if dudes are working together, but it could be just bad luck; bad streaks are the nature of the game. I make a small withdraw to test the system and it comes back in 4 days after sending a bill and a copy of my license.
Once I get the withdrawal back from Global I decide to make a bigger deposit as I want to play closer to my normal game. The biggest games on there are 2-4 NL and 1-2 PLO, although I’ve seen a couple of 10-20 games go.
I run well and build it up and its time to make another withdraw, but this time they tell me I can’t withdraw because there is another user from my ip address using the site. My wife started an account and has only played with her free 2 dollar gift. She’s just learning the game and was bored as I spent so much time grinding on there. We have never played at the same table. It’s troubling that they are holding up my money because she is also a user. You would think they would at least check to see if that user had played at same table as me before holding my up my cash out and essentially accusing us of collusion. Red flag number one. Still waiting on the cash out.
Red flag # 2: I’m playing in a juicy 2-4 game and I have very detailed notes on my competitors. Suddenly as I’m being sent yet another pot, the site crashes. I get back on a few mins later and people start reconnecting to the table, but the money is gone. ****, ****ed again by online poker, I think to myself. Another player tells me to click the seat and sure enough my money shows up, but I have no idea if that last pot appeared in my account. The cards start flying once I click the seat, but my notes have disappeared (For me the notes are everything and I’ve never lost them on FT or Stars). I quickly pick up AK and even though I’m ready to bail, I’m not just gonna fold it so I open and get 2 callers, typical to the action before the crash. Flop Ks Kc 2s. Sweet! I bet pretty big, there was no sense slowplaying before the crash, and I get a caller who has position on me. 4s on turn and I check and Villain makes a small bet. Hate the flush card, but I call. Blank on river and I check again only to have Villian insta pot, around 150 bucks now. ****, I wish I had my notes, but I make the tight fold and get off the table with my profits. An hour later I go back to the account to see what’s up and my notes have magically appeared. The dude is still sitting and my note on him is literally: DONK, MAKES POT BLUFF ON RIVER. ****! That sucks.
I write customer service saying, hey, I should get something here. Notes are a huge part of my game and they write back that they don’t see it that way, that the notes are not guaranteed and that I made the decision to fold. I think it’s lame that they don’t offer anything, but I’m not gonna lose sleep over it.
This recent delay on the cash out is a bit more troubling and I hope it’s resolved soon. Regulated to my couch I grinded hard this weekend and made in line with what I would consider a good week rate, live.
All and All I think the site has some good stuff going on. The action is fast. So fast, in fact, that you really have to be paying attention or you will get timed out. This keeps the games moving at lightning speed.
There are some technical glitches that are troubling. When you go all in sometimes it leaves a few cents in, so you’re really not all in and it gives the other guy a chance to raise you and if you misclick or get bounced you could lose a huge pot. The tourneys are tiny, like hardly worth the time, unless you’re just learning and they don’t have antes, just blinds, in a turbo setting, which in itself isn’t that bad, just different.
The cash games are good, pretty typical of online and I do think Global is attracting a Facebook general poker player pool, which is nice, but with the technical glitches and the issues with payout and with the entire pay system going through Paypal, which takes 2.9% of your cash-out, Global doesn’t offer checks, I’m hesitant to recommend the site to friends who take poker seriously.
If it resolves the cash out issues and fixes the technical glitches it has some potential though and if you happen to break your leg, like me, it might not a bad way to get in the poker fix. IF the cash out comes!