Disappointing is about the only way to put it. I’ve now completed my required hands at Golden Riviera and have received my $50 bonus – but it came a cost. Here is a summary of the last couple of days…

As mentioned in my previous blog, I stated playing on Tuesday night and lost $22. Not the result I was looking for but figured I would right the ship and come back the next day with my head in the game and at least not lose anymore.

Well that didn’t happen, on Wednesday I logged in to play and hopefully get through to 250 raked hands to complete my bonus requirements. I did manage to make it through the 250 hands but it cost me even more money. In the end I lost approx $43.

After this debacle I reflected on the experience and came up with the following ‘reasons’ for the big loss …

• I didn’t play very good poker
• I was too focused on clearing my bonus rather than enjoying play [and this is a big one for me]
• I did get beat quite a few times by people sticking around without much and hitting the ‘only’ card they could on the river to make their hands. I know, these are the people you want to play against because more often then not they won’t hit the card. But still frustrating non the less

With my BR at GR sitting at $7 (still waiting for the $50 bonus to be put into my account) I decided to play a freeroll at GR last night. The qualifications to get in to the tourney is playing 100 raked hands in the last 24hrs – got that!!! In the end I was on auto fold for half the tourney but managed to get online and play the last little bit. I finished in 75th place which was good enough for a $3 payout.

I got up this morning and had a look at my GR account and sure enough my $50 bonus was in my account along with my tourney winnings … so BR is at $60. The next step is to cash-out, which I did this morning. The process at GR seems a bit more drawn out then at Party so we’ll see how long it takes to get my money – they suggest 5 working days. Which if this is true is way too long. (more comments on GR below)

I know, in the end I’m up $10 so shouldn’t be too disappointed. But I am because I found that I didn’t enjoy the experience and was not playing for the right reasons. So, with that leaning experience behind me - next up will likely be Paradise Poker with a 25% match bonus and by signing up through Poker Source Online I will also get enough PSO points to buy Poker Tracker. All good news, my challenge now is to go to Paradise with my head in the right place and enjoy the game.

It may take a few days to get my money from GR so I’ll have a few days to wait for my full BR and I’ll likely keep busy by playing a bit more at Party.

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Now that I’m starting to move around to other sites, I though I would provide a review of the sites.

Party Poker

This was the first site real site I went to (not including my free play at ESPN, although the expectations I have from playing there did take a while to overcome) and took a bit of getting used to. Although, after a few hours and a bit of customization of the interface it became easy to use and I felt pretty comfortable. There didn’t seem to be too many bugs with the software and it was reasonably easy to navigate.

The deposit and cash out process was easy and quick. The deposit although done through PSO was very quick (as you would expect) and when I cashed out my $50 it was in my Neteller account in 12 hours or less. Both I think are good benchmarks for the future.

While I was playing at Party they released a major upgrade. Aside from the initial attempt to install / upgrade (I seem to have problems with this and had to reboot my computer for the install to work properly), the new version seems to work fine. A key new feature is the ability to resize the poker room windows so you can view more than one on your screen at once – nice for multi-tabling.

So, overall I would rate Party Poker as very good (this rating may change once I get to more sites!!!)

Golden Riviera

The setup and install seemed to be OK but it did take me a few hours before I could actually logon – which puzzled me. Once logged in I poked around and it took me a bit of time to figure out the interface … it didn’t have the straightforward feel I would like. (now this could just be me!!!) My first deposit was quick and smooth, as you would expect.

The poker room interface seems a bit busy and the placement of the action buttons leaves a bit to be desired. One of the features is the colour changing when a player is out of hand … makes it nice and easy to see who is left. Overall it was OK but not as good as Party.

Now that I’ve cashed out and the guideline suggests 5 working days I’m a bit soured. If this is in fact how long it takes I would rate the site poorly just for that. One of the apparent reasons for this is that they hold your withdrawal for 48 hours in case you want to reverse it … what is up with that, if I want to reverse I will just redeposit the money – that’s instantaneous. Give me a break, 5 working days.

I’ll come back and update this review once the withdrawal is complete and let you know really how long it took.

So, overall I would rate this site as average or even below average – mostly for the withdrawal process.