A bad end to the month, Betfair Blues.
Feb. 28th, 2005 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksThe good run at cards came to a temporary halt in the last week of February, with one particularly entertaining "bad beat". In fact I only ended £25 down on the week. Since £8 of that can be attributed to the falling value of my dollar holdings (making profits in two currencies is complicated when it comes to book reconciliation, I can tell you) I gues that I shouldn't be that unhappy. I'm still just shy of £400 up on the month, completing four months of nice wins. However, three losses in four on Party (one of them of just shy of $180) were the result of the standard godawful cards. Not bad cards, but good cards that get beaten, of flops that never materialize. I still made a profit on Betfair, but I've made a profit for nine of the last 10 weeks on Betfair (and the bad week was a loss of just £6). All of a sudden I have more than a grand in that account, without even doing that much. Given the precarious state of mickey-mouse currency of the decade, the US dollar, winnings in sterling are suddenly looking more attractive.
But even Betfair could hit me in the bad luck stakes. In a small multi-table tournament (MTT) on Saturday I had just got to the final table with 23% of the chips in play. Then the system crashed, and then I couldn't log back in. And neither, it appeared, could anyone else. People who were logged in could carry on. I still managed to come fourth in the tourney (for £38.40, or a profit of £35), but my "equity" in the tourney was about £48 more than this (with 23% of the chips, my expected return is 23% of the prize pool, in this case, £23% of £387).
Betfair and William Hill are notable in this instance of taking the line of "you made a profit, why are you upset?" so it took a little arm-twsting to get any response. The poker manager (who wisely did not himself come to the phone) seemed to be of the opinion that the sum I mentioned was an opening basis for negotiation, rather than a statement of mathematical fact. He offered to double my return to £38.40, which I accepted with somewhat bad grace, mainly on the grounds that Betfair had, after all, added £150 to the prize pool.
But unless Betfair sort out their database problems with host Cryptologic, the punters will desert in droves once the fish have all been eaten (there are signs of the cash games tightening up considerably) and the added prize money is eliminated. Betfair's rake is the highest around, and the only reason to play there is that the average standard of opposition is atrocious.
There's a 20% bonus on Party until tomorrow, but you have to play a lot of hands within a fairly short timeframe. I can chalk up 840 raked hands inside a week without much problem these days, but for the occasional player it must be difficult indeed.
But even Betfair could hit me in the bad luck stakes. In a small multi-table tournament (MTT) on Saturday I had just got to the final table with 23% of the chips in play. Then the system crashed, and then I couldn't log back in. And neither, it appeared, could anyone else. People who were logged in could carry on. I still managed to come fourth in the tourney (for £38.40, or a profit of £35), but my "equity" in the tourney was about £48 more than this (with 23% of the chips, my expected return is 23% of the prize pool, in this case, £23% of £387).
Betfair and William Hill are notable in this instance of taking the line of "you made a profit, why are you upset?" so it took a little arm-twsting to get any response. The poker manager (who wisely did not himself come to the phone) seemed to be of the opinion that the sum I mentioned was an opening basis for negotiation, rather than a statement of mathematical fact. He offered to double my return to £38.40, which I accepted with somewhat bad grace, mainly on the grounds that Betfair had, after all, added £150 to the prize pool.
But unless Betfair sort out their database problems with host Cryptologic, the punters will desert in droves once the fish have all been eaten (there are signs of the cash games tightening up considerably) and the added prize money is eliminated. Betfair's rake is the highest around, and the only reason to play there is that the average standard of opposition is atrocious.
There's a 20% bonus on Party until tomorrow, but you have to play a lot of hands within a fairly short timeframe. I can chalk up 840 raked hands inside a week without much problem these days, but for the occasional player it must be difficult indeed.
