Saturday, December 17, 2005
Screw The Software, Follow The Money
That's not a reference to my future career options ... or is it ... anyway, I was collating some information (doing some sums for the non-geeky) this morning and while I already knew about this trend, it was quite amusingly illustrated by today's results. I will keep some of the numbers back so as to get it quietly / not steal my end-of-year thunder :
Online Tournaments on Betfair/Cryptologic 2005 :
Played quite a few, Net $ lots, average net per tournament $185
Online Tournaments everywhere else 2005 :
Played 216, Net $7.47, average net per tournament 3 US cents
In fact it's not that bad because
a) rounding to the nearest cent costs me 1/6 of my earn, it's actually 3.46 US cents and
b) I left out a $1600 freeroll win on Blue Square because that would spoil the fun. Freerolls excluded :-)
You don't need to be an expert data analyst to conclude that I ought to play a bit more on Cryptologic and a bit less everywhere else. This is despite the fact that the software is poor. Not quite the worst (I have a particular aversion to Microgaming) but prone to server crashes, jerky with other rooms open (Blue Square in particular seems to interfere) and, most annoyingly, you have to go on to the Web for the cashier. Fortunately cashing out is no problem, in fact Betfair goes straight to switch card which is great.
I would love to play more on Pokerstars. The software is head and shoulders better than the rest, and so is the customer support. Bottom line though is the tournaments are the least soft (I can't bring myself to say toughest) on the net. Cryptologic's high antes and swathes of rank bad players mean that it's the must-play tournament site IMO, at least for me (the high antes suit my style). And according to results as well as opinion.
Betfair's upcoming split from Cryptologic should be interesting, hopefully it will lead to more choice and more added money all round. I hope they keep the ante structure but we'll have to wait and see. People do whinge about software (see Betfair forum) but the bottom line is as long as it basically works, grit your teeth and follow the money.
Online Tournaments on Betfair/Cryptologic 2005 :
Played quite a few, Net $ lots, average net per tournament $185
Online Tournaments everywhere else 2005 :
Played 216, Net $7.47, average net per tournament 3 US cents
In fact it's not that bad because
a) rounding to the nearest cent costs me 1/6 of my earn, it's actually 3.46 US cents and
b) I left out a $1600 freeroll win on Blue Square because that would spoil the fun. Freerolls excluded :-)
You don't need to be an expert data analyst to conclude that I ought to play a bit more on Cryptologic and a bit less everywhere else. This is despite the fact that the software is poor. Not quite the worst (I have a particular aversion to Microgaming) but prone to server crashes, jerky with other rooms open (Blue Square in particular seems to interfere) and, most annoyingly, you have to go on to the Web for the cashier. Fortunately cashing out is no problem, in fact Betfair goes straight to switch card which is great.
I would love to play more on Pokerstars. The software is head and shoulders better than the rest, and so is the customer support. Bottom line though is the tournaments are the least soft (I can't bring myself to say toughest) on the net. Cryptologic's high antes and swathes of rank bad players mean that it's the must-play tournament site IMO, at least for me (the high antes suit my style). And according to results as well as opinion.
Betfair's upcoming split from Cryptologic should be interesting, hopefully it will lead to more choice and more added money all round. I hope they keep the ante structure but we'll have to wait and see. People do whinge about software (see Betfair forum) but the bottom line is as long as it basically works, grit your teeth and follow the money.
# posted by Andy_Ward @ 11:27 AM 
