Poker Forum

In my current personal situation, I realize that travelling to a far away destination to play poker on my own nickel simply isn't in the cards. The only way it is going to happen for me in the short term is if I somehow win a package.

Seeing all of the promotions going on at pokernews.com, I really think it is possible to do so if a person were to put their mind to it.

I personally don't really have a schedule where playing in all of the Freerolls is possible... so I've had to pick my spots.

Previous to this, The only room I had downloaded through pokernews.com was WingowsPoker. A cursory glance around these forums will tell you how poorly that went for everybody involved.

Within the past month, I decided to take another shot - this time with ChanPoker. The AussieMillions package looks very enticing, and given that the criteria to qualify for the Freeroll were more than just a deposit - my feeling was that the potential for value was massive.

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On the surface, ChanPoker is a good site. There is quite a bit of traffic because it shares a network with other online poker sites.

But the only real thing playing on the site is made me do was make me realize how spoiled I am playing at PokerStars (where I play 99% of the time).

Here is why:

- My computer isn't exactly a beast. Running more than 4 tables on ChanPoker slowed my computer to the point where some hands would be autofolded. On Stars, I can fire up 12 tables effortlessly.
- The Sit-n-goes take quite a while to fill up when compared to Stars
- The MTT Tournament lobbies on ChanPoker do not include a payout structure. They simply include a prize pool and the number of places to be paid. I couldn't believe this at first... I sent an email to support saying "I am an idiot. I can't find the payout structures for the tournaments I'm in anywhere. Please help." Their reply was that the strutures are not posted anywhere.

The kick in the pants:

I qualified for the freeroll, got my ticket and was ready to play on Saturday. In my time zone, the tournament started at noon. At about 10:30 on Saturday morning, I ran out to do some errands. I left the ChanPoker lobby open on my computer and took off. I returned home less than 10 minutes late for the freeroll and my ChanPoker session had timed out due to inactivity. No big deal I thought... I can just re-load. I was hoping I hadn't blinded off more than 30 chips.

But I fired up the program and to my dismay, I wasn't sent to my table and the tournament was no longer in the lobby. I contacted support but they were unable to help in the short timeframe required.

Unfortunately I was not able to play. I was certainly registered - my "tournament ticket" was used up.

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Please note:

This is not a post to slam ChanPoker or Pokernews. (In reality, I should have been ready for the tournament on time. It was wrong to assume I could show up late ... but again, I was basing my assumption on my experience at PokerStars).

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My experiences with pokernews.com has solidified this in my mind:

There is a reason that poker sites are offering massive incentives in exchange for people to try them out.

The pros and cons of trying a new site need to be weighed.

And the time / effort / hassle of trying a new site in order to be in a freeroll needs to be worth it when everything is factored in.

Will I try again? Who's to say... But last night I was back to my regular routine on Stars.

Unfortunately, I'm in the same boat as far as the ability to travel to play so I look to the freerolls for the the same reason. Having been playing online for awhile before I came to PokerNews, I had already downloaded most of the US friendly sites so those freerolls were of no use to me.

Having played on a multitude of sites, I can tell you this.....some site will log you off for inactivity, some won't. For tournaments (especially freerolls) some sites will simply blind you down (allowing you to show up late) while others will eliminate you from registration if you are not logged into the site 5-15 minutes prior to the start time (Duplicate Poker does this). Sounds like this is how ChanPoker does it.

As you said, this is not PokerNews's fault and not really even ChanPoker's. It stinks that you didn't get to play but make sure you check out the site's tendencies before you assume that they will operate like a site that you are used to.

Since ChanPoker is not currently US friendly, I can't give you any opinion on the site. But are you serious???? They don't list payouts on MTT's???? Even if or when ChanPoker opens to US players, I don't know if I could get over that.