Well, well….I thought I’d give the good ol’ bonus hunt another try today, after all I didn’t have all that much points to clear left at nine. So I try to fire it up and it only leaves me with the option to uninstall or cancel. Hmm…so I uninstall and nothing happens. Alrighty then…

I head to their site and download the new client…just to see that their POP system is gone. Hmm…that doesn’t look good…so I head over to PokerSavvy and the promotion is gone…hmm…I head to the forums and they’re still waiting for the referral-dude to get back to them about how they’re going to handle the switch…

Damn you nine! You better sort this crap out or I’ll go berserk on your arses that’s for sure!!!

Sidenote: This is the first bonus hunt that took an unexpected turn (and I don’t blame PokerSavvy one bit, it’s nine’s poor relationship management skills/customer information skills)…down over 70bucks and reward hangin in the balance…me not likey…

Didn’t get the chance to write about my results yesterday, so here it goes:

1. Bodog: Same ol’ same ol’…busted some donkey balls…still only up a little on 6 of 10 Ws

2. Nine: Won’t give me a break, not even the tiniest. Down a nice junk…yet again.

3. FullTilt: No joy either. The session had everything…from the two outer on the river to the runner runner goodness of straights and flushes, nice to see that my opponents were running extremely good…someone’s gotta be lucky…

Well, it was a bank holiday in germany today, so I had a little time for some poker. First of all I watched some of the WSOP 2006 coverage. Good stuff there, especially Dimitri telling CJ about how he would tighten up and all after spewing chips.

Then it was time for some poker of my own. Quick summary:

1. Nine: I’ll be damned, but once again, “cold-deck” after “cold-deck”…down a nice junk and still not in reach to clear the bonus. Sigh…

2. FullTilt: Busted some fish at the CAP SH tables…then thought it was a good idea to play some Razz and PLO8 SnGs…no g00t….still up for the night though…

3. Bodog: If you’re running not all that good and want to finish the night on a high note…fire up bodog…play some HU…won the first two…lost the third…

Time to catch some sleep now as I’ve got a grueling headache and I need to get up for work in 6 hours…so…night and night…and have fun at the Mook!

Well, it’s not just that I’m (still) running very bad on there, even after reloading in trying to finally grind out the last points for the PokerSavvy bonus, it’s the fact that there system just doesn’t make sense sometimes.

I log on to reload (via the client)…

So I hit the “Click here for direct deposit” button and it takes you to the nine website…I select neteller and fire the funds. I check in the poker client and the funds are not there and my sportsbook account still shows 0$. Weird. So I go back to the website and hit the account info page. It tells me that the money I just deposited is in the sportsbook wallet. Great, what a great direct deposit to poker, lol. So…I hit the cashier window in the poker client again and the sportsbook wallet is still showing 0$. Hmm…

So I fire up live-chat-support and ask the lady about what’s going on with two simple question:

1. Why is the direct deposit transferring the money into the sportsbook wallet?

2. Why is the poker client showing 0$ in the sportsbook wallet and why is it giving my an network error when I try to transfer (instead of an “insufficient funds” error – which should be the case if there were really 0$ in it)

She tells me to hold for “a moment”. Ten minutes later still no word, oh, I’ve been transferred. Now a lady from the poker department wants to help me. I try to explain to her again what my questions are. She asks me how I want to deposit. (?!) I tell her that I already deposited and that the direct deposit to the poker client didn’t work. (Pause). Well, she tells me that a direct deposit isn’t possible anymore because of the bullshit act. I tell her that that’s fine, but that this doesn’t solve my problem and that the bigger question is why the poker client hasn’t been updated to reflect that change?! There’s nothing telling you that on the website either, so two thumbs down for customer information.

After another “Please hold for a moment”, (10 minutes), I ask again, why they’re confusing their customers by not updating the software. She tells me that they aren’t confusing anyone. I go ahead and tell her that I’m confused and that I’m someone. *lol*

She repeats her answer and I’m fed up and tell her to go ahead and transfer my funds if that’s what she can do. She tells me to hold for a moment (5minutes). She goes ahead and pastes some lovely information for US players into the chat box (see below*). Now it’s not that I dislike getting information that should have been on the website in the first place, but I dislike being bored with stuff that doesn’t matter, especially after I told her that I didn’t care about the bullshit act as I was located in germany (not that she could have seen that by looking at my account anyway). She tells me that my account was upgraded. I ask myself what an “upgraded account” might be – maybe I’m a super-duper customer now as I’m not based in the US, hence bringin in some dough?!

Anyway, the funds are still not sitting in my account so I ask again if she has transferred the funds. (Pause). She tells me that the funds should be in my account. I check again. Nothing. I close the poker client and reopen it, nothing. Some minutes later the funds finally show up and I say bye as she pastes some “thanks for chatting, hopefully we were able to help you…” standard text into the chatbox.

Nice, I finally got my funds where I wanted them in the first place and it only took roughly 40 minutes to do so…w00h0000…..go nine, NOT. Man, my funds will be out of there the second I hit the points and got my bonus from PokerSavvy – that’s for sure.

Infos for US players she pasted into the chatbox:

Support: As a current member of the ActionPoker network (www.actionpoker.com), Nine.com Poker regrets to inform all of our U.S. poker players that, effective immediately, you will no longer be able to access real-money poker play in our poker room. You will be able to login to the poker room, play for free money and make withdrawals of any balance you may have on account. You will not, however, be able to make deposits or play for real-money.
Support: Yes. Nine.com players will be able to login to the poker room, play for free money and make withdrawals of any balance they may have on account. They will not, however, be able to make deposits or play for real-money. Nine agents will have to transfer the funds for you.
Support: [If from a non-banned MGS state*] As an alternative, we invite our U.S. real-money poker players to open an account with our sister company, VIP.com, by clicking on the following link: http://www.vip.com/?skin=poker&source=nnpkr. VIP.com Poker, a member of the Microgaming poker network, looks forward to providing Nine.com customers with access to safe and secure poker action.

Just as I was about to submit a lovely post about DADI9 and how the poker dealers/gods crapped on my head again, the server foobared and the post was gone 🙁

As I’m too lazy to retype everything again, here’s a wrap-up:

DADI9 tonight! Be there or be squared! …Unfortunately I’ll be squared as my new real-life commitment (internship) has me on a new schedule, which is more related to my actual timezone, so poker tourneys at 3 in the morning (which is 9pm ET) are out of the picture for the time being 🙁

Have fun, nontheless and don’t let the donkey…errrm…horse kick you 😉

Attention:

1. DADI9 moved to FullTilt, so don’t wonder that you can’t find it on PokerStars 😉

2. The password is pokertrust

I finished the original post with a rant about how the dealer/poker god crapped on my head again (set over set, set to straight, etc)…I hope to be reporting better news soonish, after all I can’t lose all those monsters in the long run 😉

…what else can I say?! Stacked some fools at the cash tables. Cool. Then in return got stacked by some chasing mofos who can’t even spell poker ( 😉 )…

I’m really doubting that I’ll be able to even finish the bonus on nine, so, I guess it’ll be either bust or getting the remaining 80 points with a next to nothing roll, as I don’t see myself putting any more money into this trash-can…

I’m not getting too deep into the tinfoil-hat stuff, but it’s just mind-boggling how often this crap (see the following hands of the night) happened to me over the last few weeks…and I can’t even really blame the donkeys for chasing – after all the money card hits with such a regularity that you can almost forget about odds and outs…this is just sick…
Hand #1: Jc8c, flop 6s7h9h, I lead out…two callers…turn 10c…bingo…I lead out, player to my left reraises, player to his left calls….I push…both players call and I’m shouting at the screen “no heart…one time!”…Qh hits on the river…damn you nine, damn you fucking chaser(s)….showdown…me: straight Q high, player to my left: Js8s, straight Q high…player to his left…4h5h…flush Q high…

Hand #2: This one pretty much had me laughing as I didn’t have much business to be in this hand in the first place, but still: what the heck? 6h2h on the button…three limpers…I call…blinds stay in…flop comes down 7hQcKs…checked around…I check…turn 10h…EP min-bets…one caller…I call…river Ah…EP bets…MP reraises…now I’m pretty sure that at least one of the donks has a higher flush, on the other hand one could have slowplayed broadway on the turn, the other a week ace or even KQ/AK/AQ/…so I call…showdown: me: 6h2h, EP: QhJh, MP: Kh10h…nice shuffle mofo!!!!
Hand #3, 4, 5: flopped set lost to rivered flush, turned top two lost to a rivered straight, turned straight lost to a rivered, ugly, four flush…

Current mood:

Well, what can I say, I’m not doing good in the nine promotion so far. I’m not even half way through the points and all the suckouts and the bad run in the other side games (especially guts) is really taking it’s toll – half the bankroll gone and half my nerves with it. It’s just making me sick how unlucky I get in some of those pots, especially in guts again…I’m holding the nut straight in a monster pot, someone has three of a kind…I’m holding the nut straight again in a monster pot, someone has a straight flush…this is so sick – even winning one of these pots would have brought me right back to life, but no such joy. Then I get stacked in the ring games by a chaser with one card to come and I call it a day over at nine. Maybe tomorrow will bring me some better luck.

Off to WPX I go to play some SnGs. Same game, same shit, same results. Chasing M*****fuckers catching every time. So I call it quits there too and head over to Full Tilt.

At least some went my way there as I was able to stack some people who just couldn’t let go of their TPTK/TPSK. A HORSE SnG to finish the session and I hit brick city in Razz, then Stud H/L and finally in Omaha to seal the deal.

So I’m done for the day, at least I had some fun watching the latest tuff_fish (party poker) monster “shows”…man, tony just keeps crackin me up – even when I’m running bad 🙂

…why? Because ” Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” (Murphy’s Law). Today was such a day, let me give a quick example:

Everytime I hold a flush in guts, someone will have a straight. Everytime I have a straight, someone will have three of a kind or even a straight flush. Everytime I’m involved in a huge pot, I will have no hand. That pretty much sums up the day at the guts tables on nine. What stood out even more was that four players were either a) the ultimate luckboxes or b) I don’t want to get out my tinfoil hat so I’m not going to say it, but it still makes you curious as to why these players hold the winning hand EVERY SINGLE TIME a big pot is decided (guts is a progressive game, for all those who aren’t familiar with it, here’s a quick wrapup: all players ante up, this seeds the initial pot, then every player is dealt 3 cards, you check the ranking of your hand (High Card, One Pair, Flush, Straight, Trips, Straight flush), then you decide if you’re in or if you’re out (fold). If you’re in and noone else is in, you win. If you’re in and you showdown the best hand you win. If you’re in and you don’t show the winning hand you must ante up the pot in the next hand (example: 10 players at the table, everybody antes .10, so the initial pot is $1, three players are in, one wins the $1, in the next hand the two losing players ante up ($1-rake), the others ante up .10, so the pot is something like just under $3, three players are in again, two lose one wins, two players ante up ($3-rake) the rest antes up .10, etc). So there can be some huge pots, even in the smallest limit (which is .10) and every friggin time a big pot came up (the biggest being well over $20) the same friggin players hold the winning hand, unreal. I forgot to ask them where the got the horseshoe and the matching buttplug to keep it in 😉

After that shit run on the guts tables I fired up the usual NL game and got my ass handed to me. AQ vs A4 no good, AK vs K2 no good, etc etc. So I said to myself: do you really want to keep burning money around here? Walk away! …and so I did.

I thought it would be a good way to get some steam off by playing a low limit SnG on bodog. In the beginning a calling station cost me half of my stack as he refused to laydown third pair and my draws didn’t get there. Then the two orbits of mayhem occured. I look down at 44 on the button. Two limpers. I decide to limp in too, if I flop something good, if not, I’m not commited. Flop comes down 44x…wheeeeeeee…I let one player hang himself and push in after the river, he was commited and his Aces up were no good. The very next hand I find myself one off the button with KK. The player who just lost to my Quads is now short and in the BB, so I pop it up and he reraises. Nice, I call and he shows AA. Hmm, damn it! Flop comes down Kxx…wheeee…turn and river are blank and I sit on a nice stack. We’re on the bubble now and I fold till I’m in the BB again, looking down at QQ…hmm…someone popped it up from the cutoff, so I want to see where I’m at and reraise, he instapushes…now I’m wondering if he’s really got a bigger pair or if he’s just trying to push me off an Ace. I call all-in and he shows 66…wheeeeee….wait, there’s a 6 on the flop…and I’m out on the bubble. Karma’s a bitch!!!!!!!!!

Hehe, I’m not sure about their official spelling, but I guess it’s 9poker, not that it mattered as both domains (.com) are connected. So, why am I even talking about that? Because I selected nine to be my next bonus hunt “victim”. After finishing bodog within such a short time (points still pending, I hope I’ll get them soonish) I was on the lookout for another good promotion. The nine promotion at PokerSavvy sounded good: the usual 50 deposit and you’ll need to get 250 Points with nine to get 700 points. Fair enough, so I got to it yesterday.

Quick review of my experience so far:

1. Signup was mostly painless, there were numerous inconsistencies and inconveniences though:

– the sign up is done via the secure part of their website, so far so good, the only thing they should explain to me is why I can use all letters, numbers and symbols on their website, but not in the poker client. I had the feeling that this was the reason I couldn’t login in the poker client. So I fired up Live Chat support and got the answer and the password changed right away. Fine, I still told the support guy to bitchslap the designers and that they should get this fixed…this is ridiculous..a simple character check in the sign up form shouldn’t be hard to implement *cough* 😉

– I deposited via the signup and once I was able to login I was facing the next problem: where’s my money? So I fire up the cashier, nothing, I fire up the FAQ, nothing, I fire up the account info, money there, but how to transfer it? Cashier, nothing. I fire up support yet again…aaaaah there’s another cashier, which is a symbol in the poker client. Error #1: I clicked on “deposit to poker” during signup, money still went to “normal” (sports betting) wallet. Error #2: Why would the “transfer funds from (other) wallet” be only a symbol, but the same functionality isn’t available via the cashier menu???

– The points you grind out are only updated once a day as far as I’ve seen so far…this sucks!

So after that little headshaking and laughing at the messy system I fired up some poker games and played for a while. As it was approaching early morning, yet again, I decided to quit though and so I pause my play until this afternoon. Impressions so far: the games are good, the sidegames (Chinese Poker, Guts, etc) are addictive, the traffic seems to be 98% from Canada (at least 90-99% of the players I’ve met so far were from Canada), the UI is not the best I’ve seen…I mean it’s pretty looking…

…but some features are just a big PITA, e.g. the raise function – the standard raise function is a min raise, so far so good, if you want to raise more though you don’t have a bar to pull right away, but you have to click on “raise other” first and then adjust the bar (or type in the amount) and then click the raise button…not really good.

So…so far I would rate the room with a two thumbs up for their quick and easy support (via live chat), two thumbs down for their inconsistent stuff all over the place, one thumb down for their poker client. Let’s see how long it’ll take for me to grind out the 250 Points…

On another note: Did you know that Matt from PokerSavvy added a nice little item to the shop? For every 450 points you can order a money transfer of 45$ to either paypal or Neteller. This really rocks! Now I don’t say that Gift Certificates are bad, but they’re limited in use (e.g. only for Amazon.com) and the other stuff is basically out of reach for international customers like me (shipping&handling is not worth it)…so instead of going a route like PP gift certificate -> PP acount -> withdrawal to Neteller, you can now go the direct way PokerSavvy -> Neteller/Paypal, this clearly puts PokerSavvy ahead of the competition, so I’ll probably focus my search on their partners once I’m done with nine.