Where to Play Cash Game Online Poker

Posted by icemonkey9 on May 30, 2010 in 100nl | 1 comment

There's been a lot of topics for the blog that's been swishing around in my head so you'll probably see some updates, especially since I am on vacation through Monday (yessss!). One was, where is a great place to be playing online poker these days. For those of you that are die-hards, you'll probably want to debate this and that's great I welcome that. If you are someone that doesn't really play online poker then this might be more educational. I'm going to take an Amercian perspective on this since that is where I am from, so sorry to the international types.

I think right now though everyone can pretty much agree the online games are getting terrible, even at small stakes. The regs are decent, the good players really good, and the fish are getting pretty rare. Your typical 100nl 6max table these days has 4 solid regulars (if you are fortunate semi-decent regs or regfish), 1 legit fish and you. Full Ring tables are saturated with 12/10 nits (about 4), two LAGish players (20/15), two randoms and you. Now you might say "hey those games are beatable!" and you would make a compelling argument that for the most part I would agree with. But the truth is that you would also agree with is that the games have never been worse and the edges never been thinner. I think at the microstakes like 25nl and below, you really have nothing to worry about, but at 100nl and above this is my firm belief.

I think game selection is a big deal, but of course nothing will substitute intelligence and skill at the table. I was curious to see what tables are running today at the four biggest sites that accept USA players. I was kinda surprised when I did my manual count:

Filters applied: Shallow tables excluded, only counted full tables...

100nl ($0.50-$1 Blinds) 6max Tables:

• PokerStars: 70
• Full Tilt Poker: 48
• CEREUS: 10
• Cake Poker: 4

100nl ($0.50-$1 Blinds) Full Ring Tables:

• PokerStars: 108
• Full Tilt Poker: 38
• CEREUS: 3
• Cake Poker: 3

I was kind of surprised to see that 6max tables are now the popular choice, I don't know why it never went in my head but we can see for the most part that is true, with the exception of full ring tables at PokerStars. I imagine a lot of SNE/SN grinders out there at Stars are plugging up the tables at that stake/format.

It really shows how terrible the choices are out there. Maybe I am a little cynical? Probably. But I think what I am getting at is that if you are planning to jump into the world of online poker you couldn't be coming into it at a worse time. If you are like me and were playing semi-serious before and were wondering what you might be able to do with it now, I think all you can do is simply study your butt off and get real good to keep beating the stakes you are used to beating. In terms of people hoping to actually move up in stakes, wow, that's definitely a tall order these days after 100nl. Again, I am not saying it's unbeatable, I'm just saying its absolutely harder than it has before. It's also scary to see regs who were winning consistently at 1knl ($5-$10 blinds) play in 400nl or even 200nl games because they need to make money. That has some of the 200nl regs moving down to 100nl, and well ... you see the pattern. At least, I've seen it with my two eyes, but hey, if you figure you can make it *now* in online poker, if things ever clear up in the USA and aboard to getting it legalized and a bunch of new fish show up (and are sustained) we'll all be looking really pretty!

So, the question is where you should be playing. That's a tough question...

PokerStars: It seems like this has the best regs out of any online site but at the same time, the most fish. There are a ton of 16+ or even 20+ mega-tabling grinders on here at the 100nl+ stakes because of the rewards.

Full Tilt: I don't know why people think Full Tilt regs are bad, I think they are pretty decent. I don't see quite the same number of mass multi-tables here (since 16 is the max) but you'll definitely find really good players playing the 100nl 6max tables.

CEREUS: The word is here that the FR regs and players at 100nl or even 200nl are actually quite bad, the only problem is that during peak hours there's only 3-6 tables running. That's just not a ton of traffic when you really think about it.

Cake Network: The Cake Network is supposedly filled with nits but I haven't been seeing it to quite that degree. There's definitely a shortage of traffic if you compare it to other sites and the software is really outdated ... the good news is that the beta (which I have) is pretty darn awesome, and maybe when it comes out the news will spread and people will be curious about the site. For now, the 100nl traffic is pretty shallow.

So that doesn't paint a real pretty picture but hey, I already admitted to being a little cynical. What spurred on this post was me playing live at Pechanga last night at the $1-$2 table (which WTF they only let you buy into for a max of $100 UGH!). The game basically played like 25nl or maybe even 10nl and within 20 hands I had an absolute dead on read on every player at the table. I left up but because my friend busted quick we had to go ... I am supremely confident that I could have run that table over if I stayed for 3+ hours.

So the main lesson here is: Live poker is LOL soft imo and if you want to really improve your game what you can do is play online and do training. That will make you a better player and you can win what you win. But, if you have the opportunity to play live regularly, this online play + training will make you just about the best player at any 1/2 or 2/5 table you play at - period.