More Different Than I Thought

The tournaments at Cake are going to take some getting used to. First of all, not all types of tournaments are available at all buyins. The regular speed SnG's are available at $1 and $4 buyins, but everything in between are turbos or bounty tournamnets. I tried a $2.50 turbo SnG, but I really don't like the turbo setting. The blinds go up fast and antes kick in quick; I only got to play 2 or 3 hands before I was in shove-or-fold mode. I would prefer to play a super-turbo and be in that mode from the beginning!

I think I will stick to the smaller buyin regular tournaments for now, as well as cash games (I can't imagine how the cash games will be much different than Full Tilt's). My BR will grow slower, but I'm more interested in being comfortable and having fun than "making money." I'm not a professional, after all. Mixing in some MTT's will give me a chance to make some BR jumps as well. Those 30-man SnG's look interesting...

Small Adjustments

Cake Poker will take some getting used to. Not only is the look different, but some of the game features are slightly changed. 5nl is actually 4nl there (I adjusted my "playing at" limits to reflect this), and the SnG's have different amounts of players (single tables have 10 players as opposed to 9, small MTT SnG's have 30 instead of 45).

These are small changes - I should be able to adjust to them quickly. I still think that Full Tilt is much better, and I would probably go back there in a second if FT should open up to US players again.

I still haven't started playing yet, but I plan on playing either tonight or tomorrow.

Not Quite a Piece of Cake

Well, I tried my hardest to sign up at Carbon Poker, but the website was having issues. So, instead, I signed up at another Merge skin site - RPM Poker. Got my new account, everything finally works, I go to make my deposit and get my rakeback account...

Sorry, Merge gaming cannot accept deposits from residents in your state.

WTF?!?!?!?

It was hard enough finding a site to accept money from U.S. players, now I have to worry about specific states?

So that idea went out the window, and I wandered over to Cake Poker. Cake accepted my deposit and my rakeback account is set up, so I guess Cake will be my temporary home until Full Tilt gets back in business for U.S. players. I'm looking to get started playing again soon... I miss it!!!

Deadline 5/31

Well, looks like my decision has been made for me, in a way. I've been toying around with playing at Carbon Poker, and I like the way the site plays. I'm comfortable with the interface, and - although it's still not as nice as Full Tilt - I can definitely get used to it over time. So I think I'm going to move my money there and play at Carbon Poker for the time being (until Full Tilt gets its stuff straightened out).

However...

If I want to get rakeback at Carbon Poker - which, of course, I do - I need to make a deposit NOW. Carbon Poker is no longer offering rakeback to new player deposits after May 31, probably due to the influx of U.S. players flocking to the site. So the plan is to withdraw my funds from Full Tilt, hope that it gets into my bank account in time, and deposit it at Carbon. Even if it doesn't ge from Full Tilt to my bank in time, I have a big enough cushion to "loan" myself the money until the withdraw gets processed.

I just hope I can make the deposit. I've heard people having issues with depositing, but other people have had no problems. I guess I will find out soon enough!