Test and review: CarbonPoker

There are two obvious (and very good) reasons to play on CarbonPoker:
1. The easiest players on internet. If you can't make it on CarbonPoker, you can't make it anywhere.
2. Their bonus-/VIP-systems award active players so much, it beats most of the rakeback deals.

(The review considers Texas Hold'em No Limit games only, if not otherwise mentioned.)

CarbonPoker is still, after years in business, relatively small site with only 4500-8000 players online. Even so the major sites in business can offer better and bigger tournaments, it is difficult to understand why more cash game players haven't found CarbonPoker? Especially when the players on all stake levels on CarbonPoker are bad, worse, poor, fishes, terrible, calling-stations... you name it. The worst and the easiest players in whole world have gathered around CarbonPoker's cash tables.

Usually you would think that the regulars would be good, (ok, there are few good ones as well), but not on Carbon; some of them who sit there every day are even worse than irregular visitors. Nowhere else I have met players who call huge bets on river with K-high. You would think that would be the world record? No. Next day other player called huge all in on river with 8-high! I think that tells quite a lot about the players there.

Naturally these sort of players eliminate some playing styles from your play. You can't bluff! Take this advise seriously. You will be called almost every time, especially on river.

Here is the list of hands needed (usually) to win all in bet on river:
$0.02/$0.04 Top pair.
$0.05/$0.10 Top pair with A kicker.
$0.10/$0.25 Two pairs, set or flush/straight.
$0.25/$0.50 Top pair with A kicker.
$0.50/$1.00 Top pair with A kicker.
$1/$2 Two pairs.
$2/$4 Top pair with A kicker.
$3/$6 Two pairs.

As you can see the players are extremely loose. Only the $0.10/$0.25 tables are tight. I have no idea why this stake level is the exception from all the other levels, but anyone going to CarbonPoker and playing on different levels will soon notice this fact.

Positive sides of CarbonPoker

- As mentioned above, the players in general are very loose. Calling stations and bluffers. Easy money.

- Fast buttons: 1/2 pot, 2/3 pot, 3/4 pot, pot, X2 bet, X4 bet and X8 bet are very useful. All in -button can be hidden.

- Hand descripton helps player to see immediately what he got. Especially useful feature in games like Omaha and Omaha H/L. 

- Very easy to write and read notes about other players.

- Bad Beat Jackpot. It works and most often it is huge.

- Mac-download available.

- USA players welcome.

- Fantastic VIP-system for active players. Lot's of extra money every week straight into player's account.

- Lot's of freerolls.

- CarbonPoker has good variety also other poker games than Texas Hold'em. They have Omaha, Stud, 5 Card Draw, Triple Draw, Badugi and mixed games. Those just weren't tested and reviewed in this review.

Negative sides of CarbonPoker

Why CarbonPoker still, after so tempting easy money available, is not one of the biggest sites? Some of the answers might be here:

- At the moment place is not for Sit & Go -players. The waiting times for Sit & Go to start is minutes, which can't compete with the biggest sites with their "less than minute to start" with almost any Sit & Go. (To make Sit & Gos more tempting and getting more players involved, why not to add extra 25% to payouts in all Sit & Gos? Would for sure attract players from everywhere and get that Sit & Go -side going for good. Free hint for all there in CarbonPoker.)

- The lobby and the system in general is heavy and slow. No matter if you use PC or Mac with the fastest internet connection available, it is slow. It takes too many seconds to open available table. And finally when it opens up, it again takes too many seconds to reserve available seat, which often is gone by then. That is very annoying after several attempts.

- CarbonPoker has great guaranteed tourneys all the time, but the guaranteed price money is small compared to larger sites. These guaranteed tourneys are fantastic for players who like buy ins from $1 to $60, but after that there isn't those "really big money" tourneys available. Missing those will for sure keep some players away.

- Withdraws takes days! That is awful, since in major sites withdraws takes just seconds or minutes.

CarbonPoker's support is terrible

Customer service sucks big time. When player contacts customer service, he must have reason to it. He assumes to get help with his problem and possibly some refund, if/when the problem is on site's end. However, CarbonPoker's customer service main policy seems to be "customer is always wrong".

Typical conversation with customer service's live-chat:
CS: "How may I help you?"
Me: "I was just in the middle of three different hands. I had quite a good amount of money on the game when your system tilted and all my money was gone. Can't get in."
CS: "Let me check this. Just a moment."
Me: "Ok."
CS: "Sir, I have checked this and our systems are running perfectly. The problem must be in your internet connection. Sorry."
Me: "Erhmm... now wait a moment. You are saying I lost my internet connection?! Ok, now tell me, if I don't have any internet connection, how in the h*** I am chatting here with you right now?! Here is little data for you... just tested and checked it. Downloading speed 8.90 Mbps and uploading speed 0.81 Mbps. All the other poker sites work well here, just tested while waited you. And here is some information where the problem is. (When the problem occurs CarbonPoker's platform is able to test and show where the problem is.) There you have it, and as you can see, it is in your end."
CS: "Ok Sir. You are correct. Yes, the problem is in our end."
Me: "Thank you for admitting this. Now... I lost some money there. Is there anything you can do?"
CS: "I'll check the hand numbers and forward this issue to right department. They will contact you with this matter."
Me: "Ok. Thank you."
Naturally I never got any mail, except one asking me which hands those were. The hand numbers were checked and listed with live chat customer service, who already forwarded them to the right department. I never got any refund or never heard from them later.

That was just one example. It wasn't even the worst. In fact, that gentleman in CS was the most willing to help and really worked there for me, when he tried to find out those hand numbers (the discussion was shortened from that part, since it last over an hour). Beside very usual start "customer is always wrong", which I wanted to show you with this example, he was really good, but unfortunately rare exception.

Others just lack knowledge of players, game itself, their own system... and intelligence to realize anything what might be out from their user's manual. I even lost over 600 notes of players, which were priceless, when one lady told me to uninstall and reinstall CarbonPoker software. I did so and lost all the notes. Contacted again: "What just happened?!" Answer from other CS: "Of yes, we had have some proxy problems lately. They should be fixed now in few hours." Whoah! This lady told me automatically to do that, uninstall and install their software, without warning me I would lost all my notes (lack of knowledge of their own system and lack of knowledge how important notes are to players) and without knowing they have problems with their proxy-servers (lack of knowledge of their own system and lack of will to find out what is wrong).

When something goes wrong and player loses money, because of poker-site is not working correctly, it is very important that customer service knows what they do. In CarbonPoker they don't. And customer is always wrong. And customer never get any refunds. All that can't be tolarated. So it is no wonder they lack some players, when for example Full Tilt have in similar situations refunded immediately exactly the amounts player have lost, when they had have problem in their system.

If I would be owner of CarbonPoker, I would without hesitation do like Donald Trump does. Say those famous words: "You are fired", to 80% of their customer service employees. Before they do so, and as long as they have these problems and not refunding players... it is no wonder that their online players will stay under 8000.

The results
(0 the minimum, 5 the maximum.)

Lobby: ***
Variety of games available: *****
Side games (blackjack, roulette etc): ****
Cash games: *****
Sit & Gos: **
Guaranteed tourneys: ****
Percentage of fishes and bad players: *****
Extra money & regular bonuses: *****
Customer service: -

Conclusion

Despite the fact that their system is heavy and slow, and the customer service is not customer service at all, CarbonPoker has that what is the most important to player: easy players. Lot's of easy players. The most easiest players on internet. It means easy money, and that should be the only thing that matters to any poker player. Highly recommended.

Is Full Tilt rigged?

"Full Tilt is rigged!" is one of the most popular shouts around Full Tilt tables and internet. Is it rigged? Or is it not? Naturally there won't ever be published proof about that subject to either way, but anyone can do their own research and investigation on their own.

As I wrote in one text some time ago earlier, I used to work for one poker-website. I did test, evaluate and rate different poker-sites. That ment a lot of playing in every poker-site tested, and in many different levels. Usually I played 6-12 months, 3-10 hours a day, per poker-site before my test-results were published.

What I faced while playing at Full Tilt, I played there over 18 months, was something else. It didn't compare to any other site I had tested before or after.

But since the poker-website, which I worked for, was one of the Full Tilt's affiliates, my results were never published. Ok well yes, the evaluation about how the platform works and what type of tourneys they have etc... naturally those were published. But what I found out at the side, they were not published. I don't have those results and details anymore, there was exact information hand by hand details and percentages which hands won and which not. Still, here is little summary of those things what I remember...

- In all other poker-sites I tested, I won many times the money I had deposited in, by playing tight aggressive. When I finished my 6-12 months testing period in poker-site, usually my bankroll was 10-50 times bigger compared to first day I stepped in. In Full Tilt I had to deposit again, again and again, and lost all the time. I never won by playing "wise" and good poker there, which worked well in the other poker-sites.

- I started to look more carefully, not only to my own hands but all the hands in general, how well the favorite hands hold against weaker hands, especially in preflop all ins. They didn't. At all. And this is something strange... it is the fact that the best hand doesn't always win. It makes sense. But at Full Tilt in preflop all ins, the favorite hand got beaten appr. 70%-80% of time (on one particular two weeks period) at those tables I was in. And the percentage should be somewhat opposite in long run!

- Especially vulnerable to bad beats were AK, AQ and KK hands against much weaker hands.

There is often repeated argument that it doesn't serve any purpose for poker-site to be rigged. I have no idea if Full Tilt is rigged or not, maybe I have just faced extremely long run of bad luck there day after day, but I do know that this argument is incorrect.

Huge majority of internet poker players are bad and small minority are good/excellent. And the more players play on poker-site, the more rake and money (profit) the poker-site will get. Very simple mathematics. If only the good players would win, the bad ones would get bored and stop playing. This would mean huge loss on income to poker-site. But if the bad ones would get very lucky repeatedly, they would be happy and would continue to play. This would mean huge winnings on income to poker-site, since the bad ones are the majority of all the players. So, saying "it doesn't serve any purpose to be rigged" is false statement. This we all know for sure, if (and probably) nothing else.

Interesting texts to read from elsewhere:

http://fulltiltrigged.info/

http://fulltiltpokerrigged.blogspot.com/2009/08/full-tilt-rigged-confirmed.html

Now. I don't play at Full Tilt at all anymore. But I would like you, if you play there, to start collect statistics (since I lost my own as explained in the beginning of this text) from preflop all ins. Not from hour or two, but from weeks and months. I would be very interested to see what the situation there is nowadays? And what are the percentages of stronger hand winning against weaker hand in preflop all ins? Would be great to collect information from many players, from many tables and from long run, just to get this thing straight and see how it is.

I'll might go back to Full Tilt the day when they put some Bad Beat bonuses there. That would be the first step to prove the site is not rigged.

Carbon Poker treats Brazilian players well with Boleto Bancario

Brazil has taken off as a hotbed for poker and poker players since 2006. So it is with a great deal of excitement that Carbon Poker have added Boleto Bancario to their cashiers. Boleto is one of the most popular online payment processors in the country of 190 million people.

Boleto allows Brazilian customers to move money online using their bank or by visiting any branch of their bank in Brazil with a payment slip they can print off from the Boleto Bancario website.  Boleto is currently used for one fifth of all online payment transfers in Brazil, and is growing by 100% a year.

Some other info:
Limits
Minimum: $10
Maximum: $3000

(O texto de seguimento foi traduzido usando o software da tradução. Pesaroso para erros possíveis.)

Brasil descolou como um viveiro para o póquer e os jogadores de póquer desde 2006. Assim é com muito excitamento que o Carbon Poker adicionou Boleto Bancario a seus caixas. Boleto é um dos processadores em linha os mais populares do pagamento no país de 190 milhão povos.

Boleto permite que os clientes brasileiros movam o dinheiro que usa em linha seu banco ou visitando toda a filial de seu banco em Brasil com um deslizamento do pagamento podem imprimir fora do Web site de Boleto Bancario. Boleto é usado atualmente para um quinto de todas as transferências em linha do pagamento em Brasil, e está crescendo em 100% um ano.

Alguma outra informação:
Limites 
Mínimo: $10
Máximo: $3000 

How long to stay in cash table?

How long player should stay in cash table? That is good question.

There are two extremes on disciplines about this subject, if Hit&Run players are left out from this calculation. (And they truly are left out.)

A) The tight way:
Chris Ferguson says that player should bring to table max 5% of his bankroll, and he should leave when he have doubled his stack. That is very strict and (probably) safe way to operate on cash tables. And if thinking about Ferguson's 5% rule it also makes sense, since when player have doubled his stack it is then 10%, which is way more than Ferguson's recommend 5% rule with bankroll management.

B) The loose way:
When Phil Ivey answered to this question, his opinion was totally opposite to Ferguson's. On Ivey's point of view player should stay as long as he can, many many many hours, if there is potential fish or fishes on table. Ivey thinks it is best to get the most out from these fishes whenever possible, and if it asks player to stay in same cash table for long hours, then player should stay and play.

The problem with A), leaving when doubled:
It doesn't take in to consideration that fact what Ivey talks about: it is not often when super bad players sit down, so when that joyful happening occurs, you shouldn't think about do you have 5%, 10% or 25% of your bankroll in table... you should only think about milking the money out from the fish. Yes, it is very safe way to leave immediately when you have doubled, but is it the most profitable? The momentum, and taking the best out of the momentum, is big part of playing profitable poker.

The problem with B), staying in many hours:
You get tired, and when you get tired you start to play worse. One legendary example of this is Patrik Antonius who played continuously over 24 hours (at least once) on the same tables and on one sitting. After few hours play, he was winning way over 1'000'000 dollars altogether. However, after this extremely long session, he ended up to lose way over 1'000'000 dollars from his bankroll.

Other problem is the fear factor of your big stack. I have noticed players tend to get very tight against me, when my stack is 3-6 times bigger than the second largest stack. It is obvious that other players don't want to take risk to lose all their stack against the largest stack in the table, therefore they aren't that loose anymore, which makes harder to get big pots.

C) The BEST way(?):
I think the best answer to question isn't that simple as Ivey or Ferguson suggests. Those short advices do not take in consideration all the things involved. Yes, it is safe to get out when you have doubled your stack. And yes, you should try to milk the fishes. Very understandable advices. But.

Think about
- other players
- your position (important!) in table, especially towards difficult player and the fish
- your physical condition
- your mental state

Now... if all these are in your favor (you dominate the table, your position is right after the most difficult and dangerous player and also after the fish, you feel well and sharp both physically and mentally) why to leave from the table? There is no reason to leave. You for sure should stay in, if the stars are really on your side this much!

And... when the things change (dangerous player sits down after you and start to take your pots, you start to feel tired and losing the sharpness of your concentration, the fishes leave the table etc), then you should leave from the table.

To put it simple:
- Play long hours in table, when you are able to play your best game and all the (or most) pieces in table are in your favor. Stay in, play and win!
- Play short time, when the most things are against you. Then you should at least change the table, if not call it for a day and end whole playing session.

Usually people play long hours when they are tired and out of focus, and it should be just the opposite. Long hours = when going strong. Short hours = when going bad. Use the momentum, if it is good. Understand when it isn't, and leave.