Homeless
For many years, PKR was my home of poker. From time to time I might flirt with stints here and there on other sites but eventually, I would always return home to PKR. With the recent death of PKR, I find myself homeless.
The slow death of PKR has been a protracted and painful ordeal. Since Black Friday, national segregation of player pools and the Global Financial Crisis (remember when it was the innocently titled "Credit Crunch"?) player pools and disposable income shrank. Player numbers went down, guarantees went down and the community began to shrink. Much of this was outwith the control of those at PKR, and every other site, but the bigwigs at PKR just seemed to make poor decision after poor decision. While other sites have survived, evolved and even grown in recent years, PKR could not stop it's decline. Rather than focusing on PKR's unique selling point, what made it great and what made it unique, no not the 3D graphics but the community, PKR concentrated on streamlining the business. Yeah, ok, I understand, there's less money floating around, got to tighten up the belt a little but don't lose sight of what makes you special. I was probably more saddened by its steady decline than it's inevitable demise, I don't know anyone who didn't feel it was on the cards, so to speak.
Now I find myself without a place to play. Obviously, there are plenty of options, I have accounts for numerous sites but it's just not quite the same. It's all just clicking buttons on a screen. Ok, ok, so the objective is still the same, play the pokerz, win the moniez but for lack of better way of expressing it, there's no heart, it's soulless. I'm a recreational player, I work 9-5, and after dinner, I like to enjoy an evening of playing poker but as dumb as it sounds, I want to feel part of something too. This is my free time, this is my hobby, I want to enjoy it!
What I would like is deep stacked tournament (ideally PLO but will take a hold'em one if it fits the rest of the criteria), starting around 8pm UK time, finishing 1am-ish?
The slow death of PKR has been a protracted and painful ordeal. Since Black Friday, national segregation of player pools and the Global Financial Crisis (remember when it was the innocently titled "Credit Crunch"?) player pools and disposable income shrank. Player numbers went down, guarantees went down and the community began to shrink. Much of this was outwith the control of those at PKR, and every other site, but the bigwigs at PKR just seemed to make poor decision after poor decision. While other sites have survived, evolved and even grown in recent years, PKR could not stop it's decline. Rather than focusing on PKR's unique selling point, what made it great and what made it unique, no not the 3D graphics but the community, PKR concentrated on streamlining the business. Yeah, ok, I understand, there's less money floating around, got to tighten up the belt a little but don't lose sight of what makes you special. I was probably more saddened by its steady decline than it's inevitable demise, I don't know anyone who didn't feel it was on the cards, so to speak.
Now I find myself without a place to play. Obviously, there are plenty of options, I have accounts for numerous sites but it's just not quite the same. It's all just clicking buttons on a screen. Ok, ok, so the objective is still the same, play the pokerz, win the moniez but for lack of better way of expressing it, there's no heart, it's soulless. I'm a recreational player, I work 9-5, and after dinner, I like to enjoy an evening of playing poker but as dumb as it sounds, I want to feel part of something too. This is my free time, this is my hobby, I want to enjoy it!
What I would like is deep stacked tournament (ideally PLO but will take a hold'em one if it fits the rest of the criteria), starting around 8pm UK time, finishing 1am-ish?
So where will I enjoy playing most? As I see it, I have six choices, Pokerstars, PartyPoker, 888, the MPN network, the iPoker network and Unibet.
Pokerstars
A while back I wrote a blog about playing the Micromillions series, basic summary: lots of hours, zero difference, a very boring grind and epitomises my experience at Pokerstars as a low stakes tournament player.
PartyPoker
Partypoker was my first poker site ans as such I've always had a soft spot for it. I like the people involved, I want to like it, but something just doesn't click, it just doesn't grab me.
888
Not a fan of the software, the lobby and just the feel of the site, which feels kind of stupid to judge it on, but it doesn't endear me to 888 at all. I tried getting involved in the community forums but they don't take well to outsiders and it got a bit toxic, so I won't return to that.
MPN network
From my experience on PKR, I'm not fan of the tournament schedule, I stopped playing at PKR by the end, so there's nothing here for me.
iPoker network
No experience of this network or its card rooms, it has been recommended to me, but I can't help but thinking it'll be much the same as MPN.
Unibet
Reading the history of Unibet, they seemed to have zigged when PKR zagged, basically doing the opposite of PKR in recent years, left MPN network to go it alone, focused more on community, live events, more streaming, pros/ambassadors, podcasts etc. I think this might be the one!
Pokerstars have stepped since in and bought out the PKR players debts or something, I'm slightly confused because they don't appear to have bought anything other than the right to give players their money back, it does just seem like they're giving away money for nothing but good press, but perhaps that's a good thing. They've been the bad guys for a while recently, this makes them good guys to many people.
I don't think anyone wants to hear this, but as far as I can tell, no-one's money is really safe online. Despite numerous statements and assurances over the years that PKR player money was protected in separate pool, from what I can tell, ultimately ALL the assets (including player money) under PKR's control is under the administrators control, and it is at their discretion what the best distribution of the funds are, players are probably being at the back of the list. I wonder if that's part of the reason Pokerstars have swooped in and quickly removed the issue from the public attention.
This also coincides with a bit of a downswing, my volume is WAY down this year, so it's perhaps an overreaction to term it a downswing. I can't really be sure of that as I play less and less these days. For the first time in over a decade, I'm confronted by the prospect of this being a losing year. I am currently £72 down in 2017, that's nothing really, in the grand scheme of things, but I have taken some degree of pride in the fact that year on year, for over a decade I have been a winning player. Some years that might be four figures, some years might only be £100 profit, but it was a profit, consistent profit for over ten years. It doesn't make me a poker pro, not even an expert but it makes me a winner. And now, looks like I've turned into a loser. With nowhere to play, no real attachment to the game, I'm not sure I'm going to overcome that. Which makes me sad.
Right now on social media, there is a group of former PKR players arranging a tournament/mini-festival of poker to commemorate all the great memories we as a community of players have of PKR. Can you imagine that happening with any other site?
Pokerstars
A while back I wrote a blog about playing the Micromillions series, basic summary: lots of hours, zero difference, a very boring grind and epitomises my experience at Pokerstars as a low stakes tournament player.
PartyPoker
Partypoker was my first poker site ans as such I've always had a soft spot for it. I like the people involved, I want to like it, but something just doesn't click, it just doesn't grab me.
888
Not a fan of the software, the lobby and just the feel of the site, which feels kind of stupid to judge it on, but it doesn't endear me to 888 at all. I tried getting involved in the community forums but they don't take well to outsiders and it got a bit toxic, so I won't return to that.
MPN network
From my experience on PKR, I'm not fan of the tournament schedule, I stopped playing at PKR by the end, so there's nothing here for me.
iPoker network
No experience of this network or its card rooms, it has been recommended to me, but I can't help but thinking it'll be much the same as MPN.
Unibet
Reading the history of Unibet, they seemed to have zigged when PKR zagged, basically doing the opposite of PKR in recent years, left MPN network to go it alone, focused more on community, live events, more streaming, pros/ambassadors, podcasts etc. I think this might be the one!
Pokerstars have stepped since in and bought out the PKR players debts or something, I'm slightly confused because they don't appear to have bought anything other than the right to give players their money back, it does just seem like they're giving away money for nothing but good press, but perhaps that's a good thing. They've been the bad guys for a while recently, this makes them good guys to many people.
I don't think anyone wants to hear this, but as far as I can tell, no-one's money is really safe online. Despite numerous statements and assurances over the years that PKR player money was protected in separate pool, from what I can tell, ultimately ALL the assets (including player money) under PKR's control is under the administrators control, and it is at their discretion what the best distribution of the funds are, players are probably being at the back of the list. I wonder if that's part of the reason Pokerstars have swooped in and quickly removed the issue from the public attention.
This also coincides with a bit of a downswing, my volume is WAY down this year, so it's perhaps an overreaction to term it a downswing. I can't really be sure of that as I play less and less these days. For the first time in over a decade, I'm confronted by the prospect of this being a losing year. I am currently £72 down in 2017, that's nothing really, in the grand scheme of things, but I have taken some degree of pride in the fact that year on year, for over a decade I have been a winning player. Some years that might be four figures, some years might only be £100 profit, but it was a profit, consistent profit for over ten years. It doesn't make me a poker pro, not even an expert but it makes me a winner. And now, looks like I've turned into a loser. With nowhere to play, no real attachment to the game, I'm not sure I'm going to overcome that. Which makes me sad.
Right now on social media, there is a group of former PKR players arranging a tournament/mini-festival of poker to commemorate all the great memories we as a community of players have of PKR. Can you imagine that happening with any other site?
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