Funny what bad variance and deviations from BR management- 7 buy-ins to 2 $11 deep stacks- can do to the best laid of plans. Just reflecting...

Gotta drop the buy ins to ship da moneyz these days. lolmergaments

I don't really agree with the general consensus on the forums that the best Merge regs just mass rebuy until they win the tournament and that's what ruins the tournies. Sure there are a few regs that have success doing that, but a lot of them are just spewing money around. Soooo this will be my last comment about that because I think it's pretty hilarious and I don't really mind it.

just no.....to all of it....no. annnd....no.

he is one of the good regs. lol at making an absolute judgemnt on his skill over a couple week sample size.

Anyone else notice that the last update got rid of the total # of players on the site at that exact time + cash and tourney players totals?

I was wondering about the traffic and realized you can't even keep tabs on Merge's totals anymore. I think this site is on the way out and everyone should cash out most of their BR. Thoughts?

I am strictly playing on Carbon for small stakes MTTs and fear I should plan ahead before something bad happens.

I wouldn't assume that DiamondDixie isn't a very good player. I believe that she is in fact an excellant player. I keep pretty much out of the tournament debates because I don't play many tournaments and really don't know what anyone is talking about. The point that DD is making is that the combined changes are making it more difficult for good players. She was selected by Carbon as a player who was to try to help improve the tournaments prior to the subforum vanishing; so I wouldn't brush off her complaints as just someone who simply can't play.

My point was that reentries favor the very best players. I wasn't calling Dixie bad. She's a good player, but no where near one of the best. Nothing wrong with that, it's how the world works.

It only makes sense an average reg loses more when the best players have an advantage by being able to take every small edge to increase their stack. You can't compete with that because eventually the better player gets a stack and outplays you. How do you expect a casual/avg reg to compete w/ a better player who can and will reenter as many times as it takes?

Could you knock Phil Ivey out of a tournament if he had 1 entry? Sure you could. How about if he could reenter an unlimited # of times for 4 hours? My guess is that gives him a HUGE advantage.

I'm not saying everyone winning right now is dropping multiple reentries to do so. However, the majority are. Look at the lobbies, they don't lie.

Anyone who thinks the best of the best don't have a ridiculously huge advantage in an unlimited reentry tournament is being naïve.

My judgment is from years of playing with her. And again, I'm not saying she is bad, I'm saying she is an average regular. Her coming here and saying "70% of my losses are on Merge" reinforces how much of a disadvantage an average player has playing tournaments structured like this.

This happened like a month ago. Fwiw, most sites don't show the number of players on. You can keep track of cash game totals on pokerscout.

Quick question, if i deposit $200 on Carbon with the new reload bonus, can i deposit $300 later in the month using the same reload bonus code? It says 100% up to $500 so can i break that up into two deposits or if I use it once that's it?

Read the T&C on the bonus


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Kahn

Sorry if this is the wrong thread but how long are your checks taking on carbon for you guys?

Cashier Thread


For November, avg checks were 18.62 days.


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Kahn

It's on purpose too apparently:

"Yes, this is correct. A change was made in the last release to hide in progress and finished SNGs in the lobby."

Wow, reading through the last few pages of this thread definitely makes me not want to drop any money on Merge. I was leaning towards Merge since HH's can be tracked in the free database software and apparently Bovada can't be. Is there any real reason to deposit on here these days? I'm primarily a MTT guy but I'm wanting to learn cash as well. Micro-to-low stakes, that is.

At least we get rewards (kinda).

Yes, I'm getting off Merge and going to Bovada. I've been through the Lock mess and Merge is starting to remind me of the early stages of that. Payouts getting slower, not as many players in tourneys anymore.

I like that Bovada has a lot of tourneys and a lot of players in them.

While payouts aren't as expedient as the past couple of months (still at a hair over 3 weeks right now for checks on average from those reporting this month), added strain of the holidays and increasing sportsbook activity might have more to do with that then any perceived liquidity issues.

As far as the other things (namely the MTT schedule) - yeah...fair point there. No one really seems to understand what they've been doing with that. They had a pretty big success with Poker Maximus in the summer and seemed primed to launch a big MTT schedule afterwards. But it never materialized, and subsequently, dropping tourneys on the day of and selectively changing GTD amounts isn't going to bring in more players.

Bovada is just smooth as silk with their tournaments. Hardly any overlays, promotions that work...pretty much automatic.

Merge pays you. Everything else they fail to do well.

I think most of the negative Merge/Carbon talk is overblown. The thing that is the biggest problem is uncapped rake at microstakes coupled with bad rewards. However, the other sites have the same and even more problems. Carbon has EXCELLENT software which is saying something since I played hundreds of thousands of hands on PokerStars and don't have any problem with Carbon.

The cash games at Carbon right now are pretty good imo. You won't have any problem grinding from $4NL to $25NL FR or 6max. From $50NL onward, it gets a little scarce but if you mix in FR AND 6max, you'll probably be ok there, too. They seemed to dry up last May. I don't know if they will again or if that was a one time thing because of getting rid of rakeback.

I've said this before in another thread, but I see serious drawbacks to Bovada. #1 Anonymous poker is NOT poker. You play there and you will be developing a very specific skill not applicable to any other online or live room. You'll basically just play ABC poker waiting for donks to push allin light pre-flop or post-flop. Forget about table dynamics, reads, and all the things that make poker poker. I'm sure people have made and will continue to make money on that site, but there's lots of ways to make money in life. I play poker to make money at poker. What's going on at Bovada isn't poker imo. And, online poker is coming back to America, so you want to make sure you've kept up your skills so you can cash in when the time comes.

#2 Good luck catching cheaters @ Bovada. I'm not saying cheating is going on there or will go on there, but I'm saying that it'll be next to impossible to detect due to lack of hand tracking and accountability. PLUS Bovada has already been involved in some shady dealings in the past and in the recent past with offices being raided. I just wouldn't want anything significant on their site.

Carbon has good software, good games, and good cashouts. The only big drawback is the rake. We DO need to keep hammering that point home to anyone who will listen - especially the lack of a cap on microstakes games.

That's a little more comforting at least. I'm starting to wonder if I'm just going to have to try all of them, Bovada and Merge and WPN at some point to decide on my own. It seems they all have huge downpoints.

I would recommend doing that, I still find lots of value in merge . But most US grinders are playing some combination of merge WPN and bovada. Value hunt the best games on each site ... Profit... EZ GAME

LOL, I wish it was that easy for me. In reality, I'm still a pretty bad player who has run well this year on SWC. I've got lots and LOTS of learning to do still and I think I need to start tracking myself to see my leaks and see what I'm doing right/wrong. Maybe I'll reach the EZ GAME stage soon, I certainly hope so.

If you play micro stakes Merge is fine as far as volume goes, but the rake is ridic. The software is obviously far and away better than anything else US players can play. Even with all the complaints I've personally made, I wouldn't tell someone in your position not to play here.

I'd also suggest you play at Bovada though. I hate that site, but it has 5x the traffic in cash games and a much better tournament schedule. Pay outs are faster as well. The only drawback is being anonymous. I personally dislike this very much, but it is what it is. Cheating can be detected, not to say it doesn't go on though. That happens no matter where you play. You can download your hand histories within 24 hours and see both you and your opponents hole cards. Bovada knows who is who so you can report obvious cheating. As far as it not being poker, that's pretty dumb. What do you think you are doing when you play live? Unless you play the same small room all the time it is the exact same thing as Bovada. You sit down at a table with people you've never seen before, you play and develop reads, they leave and someone else sits. I'd actually say Bovada is closer to real poker than any other online poker is.

It's all preference though. Figure out what you are more worried about as a player and choose a site accordingly. They all have positives and negatives and like someone else said, you're better off playing a combination of a few sites. As long as you don't play on the Revolution network you'll be fine.

Thanks for the awesome replies guys. I'm thinking I will start will Bovada, reason being I honestly still need a LOT of work at just ABC poker and the skills that come with it. I think I will then add in Merge at some point if I'm having success and want to keep building on it. Both those sites work in Freepokerdb for tracking purposes and that suits me well there (assuming I can figure out how to use that program.) Maybe one day soon I'll be a legit grinder as well.

I could be wrong, but I'm not so sure that freepokerdb works for Bovada, assuming that you are referring to live tracking. Holdem Indicator works though.