2. BODOG POKER, Site Discussion

[RiverCascade]

Please begin here. (Discussion prior to June '06, can be found here.)

[SPU_MAN]

Thought I would try to get some more poker books (though I probably won't finish reading all of them until my oldest daughter graduates from high school...she's currently 3 years old). Anyway, bodog was my next adventure.

I deposited $500 to get the 10% bonus. I heard that it clears fairly easily with SNG's so I went there first. It was pretty easy to find a lower buy-in tourney, ranging from $4-22, My bankroll, overall, supports the $50 buy-ins but they seemed to fill up very slowly. I was only able to play one $50 buy-in (which I was happy to win), of the 15 tournies I played. I became somewhat frustrated at the inability to get onto the $50 tables and played many of the lower buy-in sng's. It seemed to me that the buy-in didn't reflect better play as it increased. After a few hours of play I decided to take a little break and eat some dinner (pizza, of course...pepperoni).

I came back later to try some of the limit cash games. I only play 9-10 person tables and usually start out at a new site playing the $2/4 tables, though my bankroll supports a higher buy-in. The $2/4 tables were full and there was an opening at the $3/6 game so I jumped into that. According to the Main lobby, 43% of the players were seeing the flop...I thought that was kind of high for a $3/6 game, sounded to me more like a $.50/1 table. Well, I'm glad to report it was true...I haven't seen a juicier $3/6 game in a long, long time.

I doubled my initial buy-in of $300 in a little over 90 minutes (on one table). I usually see about 17-19% of the flops but with the amount of loose calls at the table it was about 24% for about 500 hands (I opened up another $3/6 table after the first hour of play). I can't recall seeing so many cold calls at one table in my life.

I ended up clearing the bonus at bodog as well as the book bonus in one night...15 SNG's at various buy-ins and a little over 500 hands played at the $3/6 tables. I ended up doubling my initial deposit...not too bad of a first impression at bodog...I'll be back...

I thought the site was a little bizarre at first but I quickly warmed up to it...had some problems getting onto some SNG's for some odd reason...kept telling me the table wasn't available even though it showed people registering for the tournaments...happened many times. I liked that you can see your cards after you fold them...supports why we should play the way we do.

Can "only" play three tables at one time and the money "available" is shown at the main lobby, not the total amount (in cashier and in play). You can see the players mucked cards if you click on previous hand (it shows up in Account and Preferences). I played between 9-12pm CST. Doesn't support PokerTracker but they give you plenty of space for notes...so use it...

Well, this has been my first review of a poker site and its probably slightly skewed by the fact that I had a very good session on my very first night playing at bodog...I hope this helps out at least one person out there.

[maddogmike]

I agree with SPU_MAN, although my bankroll is smaller than when I started. Besides being loose this sight is also aggressive. There is alot of raising preflop with less than stellar holdings. This takes some getting used to.

Also, I've learned to beware when the Turn card pairs a rag card from the flop. If there's 5 people seeing the flop to your AK, and 2 remain after the flop of Axx. One of the guys paired an x, and the other the paired the other x.

[RiverCascade]

I was all set to sign up when reading your glowing review, spu... then came to a screeching halt, "Doesn't support PokerTracker but they give you plenty of space for notes...so use it... "! Darn! Had this site on my mind to join becz I've heard some good things about the games, but surprised no one mentioned this. I refuse to play where I can't get the histories and u/l them to PT. I'd be playing at CD Poker, if this weren't the case. Obviously, not even by e-mail, eh? The 2 sites I bite the bullet on are wpex (the rakeback pays me to put up with this big inconvenience-- and they are working on getting them written directly to the puter), and Paradise, only when they have a bonus offer. Since I request the e-mailed histories every 5 minutes or so, it is definitely a pain,

Way to burst my bubble. Glad I found out before rather than after, though. Thanks.

[Serenity32]

I joined and deposited some money here, but there was never a table available at my level. Either .50-1 or 1/2. There was like only one table for each and about 5 people sitting there (I play full tables). I kept my money there for a bit and kept checking back but it was always like that. I must be missing something. I ended up taking my money back and going to Pacific.

[rfrankb4]

[RiverCascade]

[rfrankb4]

[RiverCascade]

Okay, thanks. (Right, you could have been more specific that you were staying on-topic, which I was jetting all over the place. ) You won't find me there until we can get hh's, even if it's by snail mail-- but I look forward to that time.

[kestrel]

Just started playing at Bodog. At first I hated it, then I loved it, and now I hate it again.

Firstly, the software is terrible, it looks awful the layout is bad.
I also could not see any games at 0.5/1 going at all, on a Sunday evening!

I then found sound games, and they sure were juicy. 60%-70% plrs/flop with average 8BB pots.
They seem to have a lot of regulars on there, who aren't very good.
Unfortunatley, all my big hands came to me when I was on a blind and pretty much every other player had already limped in. Nothing has stood up so far, which is a shame .

HOWEVER...just now I was playing at a 0.5/1 table, I was dealt AA. I raised, got called 4 times, re-raised, I capped, everyone else called .
Suddenly, the table dissappeared! My other table was still open, but this one just went.
I went back to the lobby, found the table, and started frantically clicking on it. Nothing happened! My name was still on there, there was still a tick next to the table name to say that I was playing there, but no table......Because the software was still showing me as connected, I don't think I received the disconnect protection.

So I'm not sure what happened. I have emailed CS, and I'll just have to see what they say.
I would say this reminds me of my experience playing PokerRoom's software on my mobile phone. I once got pocket-aces, and got cut off entering a tunnel.

EDIT:
Bodog CS have replied to me saying that all they could see is that I timed out of the hand, and was auto-folded. They never had come across a similar problem before.
Well they've refunded the $2 I put into the hand, and I am mildly impressed. I really didn't expect my pocket-rockets to hold up against 5 players, and I know most other Poker sites would do nothing in terms of refunds for a similar type of situation.

[jfletcher]

Does anyone have any comments about the MTTs at Bodog? That's the only reason I'm thinking of playing there.

Just looking around for different sites that might have favorable MTTs (either in terms of good structures or weak players).

[soccer_ma10]

2 of my buddies work here, good bonuses

[CroMagnon]

Bodog has the worst interface I have ever seen. Played one time there and have uninstalled that piece of crap. Way to hard to just see what was going on. Who was betting and how much, just terrible.

[pcarfan]

After having some real problems in withdrawing my own money from a couple of sites, I want to say something good with sites that treat their players right. Bodog was the easiest site to withdraw money. I like their simple graphics,....the settings allows you to show the bet in numerical amount (so, I don't understand what the previous poster is saying ???). Very nice site, plenty of fish in the low limits I played.

[rocketplayer]