While in Deutschland, I logged into both PokerStars and FullTilt, and, as expected, neither site would let me play for real money over there.And speaking of PokerStars, I was able to "cash out" my account yesterday with just a few keystrokes and mouse clicks. They claim the check for the full amount of my account is now in the mail. Seemed pretty easy to do, and a number of 2+2 people have claimed they've already received their money.
In contrast, Full Tilt Poker is still mucking about, claiming they're going to return funds... but so far, no dice. I suspect they will eventually get something figured out, but for now this is just another reminder of how poor FTP's support team is in comparison to PokerStars.
I am playing on Carbon Poker a little these days. My overall enthusiasm for poker has waned a bit since Black Friday, but I am still getting in an average of about 100 hands per day of 5/10-cent 6max. I'm finding the games to be pretty soft on Carbon, but there aren't a lot of tables to choose from. Ergo, I'm making money, but it's at a sloooooow pace. I am getting 35% rakeback on the site, however, so that has helped grow the bankroll a bit (something like 50-cents per day so far for me; not a lot, but it helps).
I'm not thrilled with the interface. Worse, I've experienced some occasional software issues playing on the site. For example, a few weeks ago I got felted in a set over set hand. No biggie, I thought, that's poker. I had the "auto rebuy" option selected, and expected my stack to be automatically topped up. Until this hand, the rebuyer had worked flawlessly. Unfortunately on this hand, however, it glitched and alerted me that I had to wait one more hand to rebuy. OF COURSE in the meantime, I had AA against another player's KK on the very next new hand. I was able to get an entire 3-cent stack into the middle and double up to 6-cents. Sigh. Or should I say: ARGHGHGHGH? This would have been a $20 pot if the damn software had re-bought as it was supposed to. ARGHGHGHG!!
Hopefully with time, Carbon will improve their interface and fix these types of bugs. I have no illusions that Carbon will ever be as big as 'Stars or 'Tilt, but the site is growing moderately as more and more disenfranchised US players (read: poker addicts) look for alternate venues to get their felt fix.
Oh, one more thing before I go: if you do plan on getting an account on Carbon (or any other of the related Merge Network sites), I'd suggest doing so now. I have read that at the end of May, Merge is going to stop rakeback programs altogether for new players, and will convert to a far less lucrative "VIP" points program, a'la PokerStars. Get your rakeback signed up for now if you're at all thinking about playing on Merge/Carbon.
All-in for now...
-Bug
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