Ugarte's Poker Grovel #39, or Starting SmallBetween sweating Nixma at the Brooklyn poker room, my forays into PL Omaha after the A.M. tournament and my generally decent play at NL tournaments, I thought that I could stand to use a little more NL ring in my life.
This morning’s tale is what happens when things go right. This afternoon will be about when they go wrong.
Before I get to my play, a word about the interface at Bugsy’s Club, and why it is the best around.
(1) There are no avatars - each seat has a “brass” plate with the player’s name and chip count. A rollover with the mouse tells you where they are from - city, state and country. (The avatars on Party just take up space. The avatars at True are infuriating. I actually prefer the picture frame at Stars, but Stars has plenty of negatives to make up for the innovation of the picture frame. Most places don’t list state or country, so if you are playing against friends that live in Tulsa and a Tulsa suburb you have no way of knowing.)
(2) The text window on the side is large enough that you can read the betting history on an entire hand for most hands. (Stars and Party have such small text boxes that they are useless. It is like reading a P-Touch.)
(3) The text window lists the cards that people were holding at showdown. (If you want to review a hand, particularly to see what kinds of kickers a guy will call a bet with, it helps to have all of the information in front of you. IIRC, Stars and Party just say what the player’s hand was, not the cards he was holding, unless you order the hand history.)
(4) Below the table is a permanent selection of betting options, and really all of the options you need: A text bar to type in a bet, eight check-boxes (fold, check, check/fold, call, raise, bet pot, all-in) and three buttons that go live when the action is on you (fold, call, raise whatever is typed in). It is simple and efficient. (Sliders suck. Even worse is having the buttons change on you. I’ve acted against my will on Stars and Party when I was trying to preselect a move and the buttons changed in front of me because the action before me was too fast.)
To recap: On one, unchanging screen, you have an easy to read table without annoying avatars, all the hand information you could want and easily navigable buttons. Not to mention the fast preflop dealing, tension-maintaining pace of all-ins and preservation of cards up at showdown to let players read the board. Everyone else is primitive by comparison.
The problem with Bugsy’s, as Grubby recently wrote*, is that there aren’t enough players and the ones online are usually students at the well-regarded (and affiliated) Poker School Online. On the other hand, I love that interface ... and what kind of real player is playing .05/.10 no limit?
Yep, I decided to make my stand in the smallest game they were spreading. And the answer to my question: not very good ones. Bugsy’s allows you to buy in for up to $50 in the microblind game, but I constantly saw people buying in for less than $5. They are fishy enough that they clearly don’t understand the importance of stack size. Just play tight and the table is easy. In two short sessions my deposit went from $23 to $53 and I don’t think I lost a showdown. That streak can’t last, but it is indicative. Be warned, however, the fine print when you sign up tells you that you have to play a lot of poker before you can withdraw without penalty as Grubby found out.*
I don’t have hands to report from these sessions, since I wasn’t taking notes, but I can tell you that people were calling substantial preflop raises and then substantial postflop raises with middle pair on a ten-high board. My premium hands were getting paid off EVERY TIME - they weren’t even calling with draws.
I’m going to stick around this room for a while.
*To find the Grubster’s comments, scroll down to Wednesday, August 25 and past the web coupons he is passing out. He must have the only blog in creation that doesn’t allow you to link to individual entries.
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