Pacific Poker

So I broke down and signed up for the blogger tournament that's being held (hopefully) at Pacific Poker this Sunday. I was on the fence about playing before, but last Sunday wasn't a good time, plus I wanted to wait to take full advantage of the first deposit bonus. I also needed to sign up with Neteller, so yeah, I made various excuses not to play.

But I broke down with it being rescheduled, shuffled some funds around, signed up with Neteller, maxed out the initial deposit at Pacific for the full bonus, the whole nine yards.

First off, Neteller rocks. I'd been doing the IGM payment thing at Party and been happy, then signed up for Firepay (before I read assorted griping and bitching about Firepay). No real gripes about Firepay but Neteller seems a better long term solution, and they definitely have their act together, as far as account activation and customer service. Thumbs up to Neteller.

I'm not so enthusiastic about Pacific so far. I played some last night to get used to the interface and wasn't too impressed. I know the interface should be the last of a serious poker player's concerns, but geez, come on people. I sort of like the oddly-styled cards that most people hate, but the chip design and boxes for players drove me crazy. Not to mention the clunky chat system, if you can call it that. It's also sort of annoying how they force the one window navigation on you, as far as having to click buttons to leave tables, enter the lobby, go to cashier, all from one window.

On the bright side, as far as I can tell the bonus is applied immediately to your account, with no minimum hands to play. (Not sure about that, though, and will need to confim that, as I haven't tried to cash out so I might encounter some sort of warning when I do, as far as not playing enough hands.) I played a little .50/1, 1/2, and 2/4 and the games seemed muppet-rich. I ended up +$90 in about half an hour of play. Caught some pretty sweet cards, though, so that number is a little misleading. The .50/1 table was filled with absolutely horrible players, though.

Not sure what to do with my Omaha windfall from yesterday on Paradise. I think I may do the bonus whore route, like I planned, and hit all the Party skins, PokerRoom, and a few hours, grinding at the .50/1 tables. I'm going to keep some fun money at Paradise to play in tournaments but I think the best plan for the next few months is to bonus whore it up and grind, grind, grind.