same thing was happening with me when i was using my visa debit card to deposit, called my bank and they said that they charge an additional foreign exchange/international fee when I use my debit card, they said if I used my credit card instead I wouldn't be charged, next time I used my Credit Card and lone behold, no extra charge. Def not Bovada charging, cause it goes thru as a seperate charge on my statement, and my bank confirmed it was them not the merchant.

Is there any other way of loading money on to your net spend card than going to a cvs/Walgreens? I saw today that they do bank transfers but can take 1-5 business days?

Unable to get to the poker site, or to bovada.lv, for about an hour. Anyone else?

i can log in, but have now been booted off twice. by booted off i mean, it just closes out and says there was an error.

Paypal but it also takes a few days.

I don't see any empty tables in that screenshot? If it's anything like SnGs, there will always be one empty table. If someone joins an empty one, then another one will be created a few seconds later. You could theoretically have any number of tables with just a single person sitting in (though any given person can only be on 4 at a time).

All the idiots on this site screaming how soft the games were for the last couple years have have helped make it so that Bovada is another reg infested site just like all the rest.

Rock garden

Maybe a little ... Or the fact that it's just been the biggest US Site for a while plus the fact that payouts are extremely fast and they have the best structure for tourneys .... Yeh it's all of that

You guys are such babies, how about you just learn how to play winning poker instead of complaining about how there isn't free money

Anyway, the "regulars" are you guys keep referring to are pretty terrible, unless your talking about 400NL+

edit: anyway, that is clearly not what is going on. I typed why but it was really long so I erased it. I'm sure other posters will come in and explain to you why your wrong. I have said, and continue to say, "bring em on". Bring on more regs! If they aren't on here already then I def want to play w them.

The idea that 2p2 publicity regarding Bovada was the prime reason that it became "reg infested" is pretty ridiculous. But my main point here is that the site isn't reg infested whatsoever. As Gemaco said, study your chosen games more and refine your skills instead of complaining. Your opposition, for the most part, really aren't as tough as you're saying they are. Excuses are just easier.

The player pool has gotten tougher. This means less winnings for EVERYONE across the board, not just the weaker regs you guys are talking about.

It isn't difficult to empathize with players that are complaining about the player pool becoming too tough for them to beat. The complainers may not be winning anymore, but even the winners are winning less. And it's not just about laziness or excuses. The player pool is continually evolving towards an unbeatable game. At some point, you won't be able to "refine your skills" enough to beat it for a livable wage.

I agree that complaining isn't helpful, but you can let the rants remind you that we are all headed there eventually. Plan accordingly.

I agree about 2pl2, I really doubt this thread has that much influence on how good the games are. Anyone who reads 2pl2 is already well aware that bodog/bovada exists and that sports betting sites that cater to Americans tend to be a little better.

long term: There has always been a flow to the games though. They go through periods of being really good, periods of being really bad, and in-between. For example don't expect a nice summer July day to have rockin games, but if half the east coast is snowing for weeks on end you better be playing.

Short term: the games change fast, sometimes I can't find a table with a VPIP over 22% but within an hour they are all over 30% or vice versa. I have also noticed a few patterns but I can't tell if they are real or just in my mind but like for instance the games are super super good right before a big game but then just instantly die when it starts, especially w NFL but prob still w this march madness.

I do think it's possible the player pool may have gotten tougher over the last 6 months or so. Still willing to chalk it up to variance at this point (and I'm sure a good portion of it is), but I've played probably about 1,300 SnGs over the last 2 months (after taking a break for a few months), and my winrate is definitely way down than it was 6-24 months ago.

I completely disagree with almost everything you said

In a completely semi-unrelated topic I just saw a guy Twitch streaming right now short stacking the mid stakes games. Apparently he is a professional short stacker who wrote a "best selling" book on it. Now a twitch guy teaching people to profitably short stack the mid stakes games is way more concerning to me then a 2pl2 thread.

edit: LOL never mind it's an e-book and it only costs $8. Not worried anymore

edit 2: I'm going to link it because it is HILARIOUS. One of his main strategies is NEVER RELOAD, just grind it down and get in the few big blinds. I'm not a short stacker, and never will be, but something about that doesn't seem right. Guy just got in 4 flips, won all 4, and is talking about how easy this strategy is. Ya, love to hear him say that when he losses all 4 in a row.

http://www.twitch.tv/automaticpoker

There is no doubt that you are better than you were in 2011. Experience and practice naturally lead to improvement, and you have had a relatively large amount of practice in the last 4 years. So yes, if you could go back and play those games with your current game, you would have a higher winrate than you did then.

If you haven't noticed significant change in your winrate, its because you have improved enough (through hard work and practice) to compensate for it. But this can't continue indefinitely because there is a limit to how much an opponent can lose. And as they get better, the amount they can lose to your superior play gets smaller.

You said that you accept that someday the games will be too tough for you. All I was saying is that, knowing this, I can empathize with players who have reached that point today. And, knowing that will be you *someday*, you should make sure you have a plan for it. As opposed to the idea that, if you work hard enough, you will ALWAYS be able to improve your winrate.

OK fair enough, I can definitely empathize with someone who is struggling. We have all been there, and will all probably be there again.

I don't disagree that they games will get tough to a point where they are unbeatable (at least for a high enough win rate that I can grind them and expect to make a non marginal amount of money), but I'm just saying that that point will very likely be quite a ways off, and that letting yourself get into this "woe is me" hole will do so much more harm to your game than just improving constantly and playing as best you possibly can. People have certainly gotten better, and will continue to do so, but it isn't this apocalypse scenario that people are making it out to be.

Again, many individuals are making livings grinding their respective games on Stars, here in 2015, so you should certainly be able to do so here on Bovada, and if you can't, that should instill within you a powerful urge to improve until you're crushing.

didn't quite get enough to run the heads up plo8 event

too aggressive with the guarantee!

Maybe we need to add another suit? I vote for Gold Stars.

Just curious but why does every other poker/casino/sportsbook site not charge or at least will cover many deposit fees while Bovada just could careless about that even if it costs them new signups?

Bovada covers the fee for first-time depositors. Or at least, they did as of a year or two ago.

Perhaps because if you're serious about poker (cash, SNGs or MTTs) you will have asked other poker players what is a really good site to play on if in the U.S. They will respond by recommending Bovada a very large percentage of the time. Bovada knows this; they know their traffic is too good to be passed up by serious poker players and that their reputation for fast payouts will get all the sports bettors too. Hence they know you will pay the fee and so they charge it. Inferior sites will have lots of "freebies" and promos to get you to sign up because they have to since their poker rooms suck.

Does anyone know if I use cash transfer to deposit if I can do it online instead of having to go to the store?