BINGO! Umm, I mean poker???

A while back I wrote my initial article on the ClubWPT poker site. I have since noticed quite a few visitors on my blog landing on this particular blog and thought it might not be a bad idea to write a follow-up article with a bit more information for anyone interested. I’ve recently begun spending some more time there (for about 6 months or so, I stopped playing online poker completely) and figured people could use some more information than my original post provided.

One thing that appears to have changed is that the people at ClubWPT must have gotten a bit of static from members about the tournaments that “used” to require rather substantial TP (Tournament Point) buy-ins. I say this because I no longer see any tournament scheduled that has a buy-in of more than 500 TPs today. This, of course, invalidates some of what I said in my original article and, in my humble opinion, just plain sucks.

“Why on Earth would anybody be upset about being able to play the big games with a smaller risk?” you might ask. Well I’ll tell ya – it greatly reduces the skill-level of the players involved in the better tournaments by turning what used to be a source of protection against donkeys for the larger games into a blatant invitation. Not only that, but – since everyone is guaranteed no less than 500 TPs at the beginning of each day – turns the satellite tournaments that can be played for seats to these tournaments into moot wastes of time.

As a case in point, I’m scheduled to play a tournament this evening called the WPT Bellagio Super Final tournament. The winner of this tournament will be “off to Las Vegas, NV in April, 2009, to play at the Bellagio in a Super Satellite tournament” along with “$1,380 in cash for travel and spending” – which makes me wonder if the air-fare and hotel are even included – and you’ll be able to “join a top Poker Professional at dinner to discuss strategy and tips for playing in the Big Event.” Of course the “Big Event” here is merely a $2,620 buy-in Super Satellite to the $25,500 buy-in 2009 WPT World Championship which isn’t bad, but it’s not really what they appear to be selling it as…

The thing that irks me a bit about this is that I won a seat in this tourney. I played a satellite with, if memory serves me correctly, a bit over 800 players that awarded a seat in this game to the top 10 finishers (I placed 3rd). I was hoping that ClubWPT would get this correct and only let those that qualified through the rather large number of satellites they ran to play; but no – after finding the tournament listed, I noticed that anybody willing to drop 500 TPs as a buy-in was welcome to join. This of course translates to ANYBODY! Placing in the satellite was just a waste of time… There are currently (some six hours before the tournament starts) 1816 people entered and this number is sure to grow.

That’s just the way it is there. Sure, tournaments do exist that have decent payouts; unfortunately it inevitably ends up being nothing more than a long-shot played against hundreds or thousands of BINGO players and skill becomes secondary at best. I’m just wondering why they wouldn’t create a club environment where skill was rewarded as opposed to the “anyone’s welcome” lottery that they’re currently running. Having the large buy-ins for the big games was a good start however they’ve done away with that.

One other bet that I have most definitely lost was the original comment I made on their user interface. There have been several “updates” made to it since my original article; unfortunately it still sucks! As a matter of fact, I’m a bit confused as to what these “updates” were even for – seems like the same old crappy interface to me. Perhaps I expect too much in a fee-based, online poker club? I wonder how much bank they’re getting from the members as very little of it seems to be going toward improving the membership experience.

But I guess it is what it is. Just don’t go and fool yourself into thinking that this “club” is going to allow you to play against skilled poker players for fabulous prizes because it won’t. And if you’ve ever played any of those “play money” online tournaments, you should know exactly what I’m talking about. What you’re going to get at ClubWPT is the opportunity to sharpen your skills at playing tables filled with donkeys. Unfortunately if you ever get the chance to play in the “real” big games – the high-stakes games played throughout the world in the various real-life casinos – the donkeys will be rather noticeably absent. If you’re a fan of BINGO then ClubWPT is most definitely for you; if you want to play poker though, I believe you’re much better off heading to a casino.

bis später,

Coriolis