There is currently no ban.

I really wish this site was larger. The software is great, the payouts are great, and the rep on this forum is great. The security seems to be improving and it’s one of the only places I trust the RNG. It just seems to be stuck at a certain number of players as far as poker goes. I would love if I could put all of my volume here in the future

Step 1. Remove the anonymous cash game lobby.
Step 2. Add higher stakes.
Step 3. Provide consistent and reliable rakeback.
Step 4. Advertise the site more and on platforms where you can get more eyeballs.
Step 5. Allow players to stream the games again for free advertising.
Step 6. All of the above results in more traffic.
Step 7. ???
Step 8. Profit

Quite obvious but still smart suggestions!

Agree with all of the above. A rewards program brings business even though they see it as a profit loss. A real shame this place gets overlooked. Could be a major player in the poker space if they wanted

You pretty much nailed it. I play mostly on ACR because of rakeback and the fact that you can find a game at any time of day. The only reason I play on BetOnline at all is that the mobile platform isn't blocked on my work computer, but "playing" is a stretch. I'm mostly just punting on 10NL fast fold simply out of boredom.

Some of this will had more reg style players and decrease rec players. You're basically describing ACR.

#1 The anonymous cash game lobby is best for the recreational players and the overall ecosystem. The bum hunting is still bad. Most of the regs still just break tables if there is not a rec. Some of the recs catch on to that predatory behavior and do not like to play. I do wish there was a traffic increase, but I believe a lot of that is to blame on regs who refuse to start tables and just bum-hunt. Removing the anonymous lobby would only increase predatory behavior.

Same thing with rakeback, it's only going to bring more reg style players. Playing a softer pool is going to do much more for your winrate than rakeback.

I do agree streamed should be allowed and would generate more incoming players.

Overall, I think they are doing a pretty good job. It's my favorite site as a USA player.

does BOL allow Russian signups?

MCAChiTown has always had great insight particularly with regard to cash games.

-I do have concerns with offering rakeback across the board, as it will entice regs moreso than fish. I would be in favor of offering rakeback in cash games, post NL50/100 as most are already regs.
-Advertising is really something BOL is missing, they could drive in all sort of fresh players to the site. Most regs could care less about rakeback if they simply had more fish to make money off of.
-Going along with my last comment, I believe BOL has made a mistake marketing its promotions towards regs. I think nearly all promos should be geared to drawing recs to the site. Regs, again, can make their money off the fish.
-Not only should players be able to stream games BOL is missing a great marketing opportunity by not working with streamers to draw players to the site. The twitch community has a lot of loyal viewers who love to play in homegames which spills over to traffic in regular mtts and cash games. The great thing about most of these viewers is they aren't very good. Regs would feast on them.

It was my favorite too. I played here consistently for several years and preferred it to any of my other options despite years of dealing with bots/game integrity issues, more ROW regs than at the majority of my other options and them stealing thousands of dollars worth of player rewards points while telling us that new uses would be coming for several months until they just stopped addressing it.

The enjoyment factor of the games fell off of a cliff for me when they introduced the anonymous lobby. I tried to put up with it for the first few months. I took a break around the end of the year for the holidays and haven't had much of a desire to play here since. The games just became a loathsome game of never-ending musical chairs and peek-a-boo.

There were plenty of recreational players regularly in the games prior to the anon lobby being implemented. If anything the traffic got worse at a time when it should have been picking up and seemed to be picking up prior to that decision.

Regardless of whether the lobby is anonymous or not, fully anonymous without the ability to pick your seat or even in a live casino, the game will be predatory at anything besides the lowest stakes. It is and always has been part of the game. There are plenty of recs who even understand this.

I've seen nothing to suggest that an anon lobby results in a healthier ecosystem.

If you enjoy anonymous poker you have Bovada/Ignition. If you enjoy a terrible anonymous lobby you have ACR/WPN. Why take something that was very good and well-liked here and make it much worse?

IMO BOL/Chico had at least 2 factors that made it superior to ACR/WPN prior to the anon lobby.
1. The security team which cleaned up the games on this network.
2. The software.

If anything their lobby decisions move them closer to ACR/WPN by copying one of their worst aspects without giving the rakeback.

You blame regs for not starting more tables, but what incentives do they have? Most regs are not interested in battling other regs short-handed in high rake environments when edges are small or nonexistent without incentives to do so.

I've always said that the majority of rewards and bonus money should be aimed at getting more recreational players to the tables, but I also think it would be nice to see the regs who consistently pay the most in rake getting some consistent compensation. Even some kind of tiered system between 5-20% would be better than nothing.


Thanks for the compliment, Men!

I agree with a lot of what you said as well.

I see where you're coming from, those arguments make sense.

Well, after the new update, you can't see player names until you post a blind. Compared to being able to see them as soon as a seat opens. We will see if this helps the peek-a-boo, which I agree is annoying.

Points 1 and 2 sums it all up. I hear the same from many many players.

I'll also add a third, the people I deal with as far as support goes are head and shoulders above the competition. Dave on down.

Does betonline take extra rake on boards that are run out 2-3x?

Are BBJ only valid on the first board if a hand is run multiple times?

Aids aids aids aids.

Would offer something more constructive but not like you give a ****.

So yeh
Aids.

It's just going to make it worse. They simply post the blind, see the game is no good and leave when it comes back around to them. Tables get blocked, games stall and action decreases overall. It sucks.

Not much to say other than it's been the same for the past 2 years. When was the last time an update actually brought something creative or positive? Just copying other garbage sites and making regs mald while I notice zero change in the environment department

One thing they’ve refused to fix over the years is the payouts for mtts. Some of the min cashes for mtts are within a few dollars of the buyin. Plus they’ll have a middle payout that pays 1 cent more than the previous place. I haven’t really looked into it cause I’m currently playing but they must be paying too much of the field. The total disregard to fix something that is broken bugs me

just want to say im going to 100% treat this lobby like wpn. I was one of the biggest table starters at 1k but its entirely pointless now. I will fully bumhunt and u will not receive any extra rake.

Hope others treat it the same because table starters shouldnt be punished with table lobby aids and being grimmed all over the place. Tables only run because of table starters, recs wouldnt join, and u just **** those guys over for short term gain hoping they battle a tiny bit more with 0 incentive.

changing to anon was awful but it was at least managable by the bumhunters being able to instantly click out once they dont see a rec. but i may aswell join it to reduce table count + stopped being grimmed.

or ill probably just leave and get on ggpoker

thx for the huge amount of lag today and costing me 600$ by timing out. appreciate a lot

]

Few mtts I hit fold like 10 times but it would use my time bank as if I never hit fold. Everyone at my table was complaining

Yep lag was insane today for about 40-60min span (around peak time i believe). Cost me quite some as well.

Dear bol,
can u focus on fixing ur servers, instead of copying poor sites lobbies and whatever else everybody is doing, like a monkey.

Thank you.

Well I spoke too soon about the software being great. On the downloaded client on a Mac the bounties don’t update at the table when a player gets knocked out. Their bounty stays at the original amount from the start of the tournament. Plus you can’t see them in the lobby at all. I switched to the browser platform and it updates at the table but you still can’t see them in the lobby. That with the lag last night means this software update was an absolute failure. The unregulated market for US players continues to disappoint. It really is mind blowing. I have a windows laptop but use my IMac desktop when playing on multiple sites. Guess that’s not going to work moving forward

Also experiencing a ton of lag on BOL today and yesterday. Unplayable unfortunately.

I have a gambling problem. Need to be banned from this site forever, but "apparently" there is no such thing. I've lost hundreds of dollars on this site and need to stop. Please make my ban forever. How do I do this? Please PM me.

If you only lost hundreds you are not a true addict. But if this isn't a troll post, contact their CS and they'll close the account for you. Took couple of minutes to close mine via live chat