Ever notice how much fun it is when you have your fingers on the wrong keys and all those strange symbols and words come out of nowhere? That must be ‘speaking in tongues’ on the keyboard…”I was totally cognizant, awake and yet something spoke, through me…”

*****

I’ve spent some time playing on Empire Poker lately and since online play is as important as B&M play, this post is a must for me. No, I’m not winner. I just can’t figure out how to make Q-Q or K-K hold up against runner-runner…but that’s not the point of this post.

Many times the conversation has come up, whether it’s in a poker game and I’m dealing/playing, or with friends in general conversation, “How can you play online? They cheat!!!!”

My first thought is that cheating is possible in any platform and you will always find people that try to find a shortcut to relieve you of your money…AKA, cheating. I believe that the higher the limit, the more likely you are to find people trying to bend the rules in their favor. Friends getting together, sharing hand information and bankrolls, to separate you from your hard earned $$$$, in lower limit is just not worth it.

I also believe that most, if not all, online poker rooms have set up certain ‘safety locks’ that can be tracked through software and back office programs to assist them in stopping cheating. After all, the online poker room makes so much money so fast, once the servers, technicians, and software is glitch free, why would they try to cheat you? They want you to come back. They want you to be happy.
So if you believe that someone is in collusion with another player, you definitely need to let the online poker room know, 1) the game name you are playing in, 2) the hand #’s in question, 3) the names of the people you think are colluding. Silence does not solve the problem. Running to your friend and saying, “I got cheated!” does not help clean up the game. You can also request hands that you’ve played from the online poker room and see the play of the hands in text format.

When you play online, you look at double or even triple the # of hands per hour that you would look at in a B&M room. The swings are going to be huge. If you play two games at the same time, consider the fact that you might look at over 120 hands per hour. That’s a hell-u-va lot of hands. Before you cry wolf, think about it…but if you’re convinced, let someone know that can check it out for you…like customer service.

Empire has a variety of specials for players, all you have to do is visit their website to find out what they are. Also, if you tell a friend, you have a better opportunity to ‘Win the Race’ cash prizes.
Empire also has instant ‘floor man’ access when you are in a game. Any questions or problems, ask the floor man. I did just that. I got Nevin. He was helpful and courteous in his response.

Food for thought: Just because you log onto a site and they have 70,000 people playing, it doesn’t mean they have the best customer service or the best possible game play. The # 1 priority should be ease of game play and buy-ins and cash outs, customer service and bonuses for being a player. That’s why I’m at Empire.

*******

It’s interesting to hear the different opinions as I move from table to table. One night last week, when I moved into a $4-$8 Holdem game, they were talking about Andy. They said he was playing Doyle B. in a $100,000-$200,000 game. I laughed. I could see Doyle sitting in a $1,000-$2,000 Mixed Game with a full field and Andy playing Howard heads-up.

I didn’t even bother trying to explain it to them…they were damned excited about it as they speculated and visited, meanwhile arming themselves with buckets of chips that they dumped into the middle of the table. The Chip Wars were on.

*****

I was part of this project. Sweet!
Howard Lederer’s ‘Secrets of No Limit Holdem’