Turbo SNG Payouts at Cake Poker / 33 % Rakeback

While doing some investigation of other online poker sites, I discovered Cake Poker pays the top 4 finishers in their 10-player sngs. I’m also able to get 33% rakeback at Cake Poker. I was only getting 25% rakeback on Bodog. I created a Cake Poker account last Friday and looked into their deposit/withdrawal options.

EwalletXpress appeared to be the best option. They’re U.S. player friendly and cash outs are estimated to take 24-48 hours according to Cake Poker’s cashier. It took 4 business days for ewalletXpress to receive the initial deposit from my checking account. I also received a 100% deposit bonus from Cake Poker (up to $500 max) on my initial deposit which I’ll have to work through. Cake Poker accepts Visa/MC if you want to start playing immediately. But, I haven’t tried that method so I can’t say if there are any limitations.

A few of things I took into consideration before opening my account were player traffic, the speed/reliability of their software client and the quality of play at their site.

PokerScout ranked player traffic on Cake Poker in 10th ahead of Absolute Poker, Bodog, Doyle’s Room, Pacific Poker and several others. Although they’re still well behind PokerStars and Full Tilt, this was encouraging.

Cake Poker is part of the sportsbook.com network which also includes SportsBook.com Poker, Players Only and BetUS players in addition to several sports book players. With all these sports book sites funneling players into their poker room, I’m led to believe the general game selection will be +EV.

The software client is fast, easy to navigate, tables are resizable, automatically stores HH’s and reminds me of Party Poker’s client (snapshot below). I haven’t experienced any lag time or disconnects during the few short sessions I’ve played. BTW, the average pot size at this 200 NL (1/2) table was $47 with 42% (avg) of the table seeing the flop. LOL



Cake’s single table turbo (10-Player) SNG's pay the top 4 finishers. Here are some examples of their payout structure.

Buy-in / 1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th
$46+4 / $207 / $115 / $80.50 / $57.50
$25+2 / $115 / $62 / $43 / $30
$18.40+1.60 / $82.80 / $46 / $32.20 / $23
$9.20+.80 / $41.50 / $23 / $16 / $11.50

Cake Poker is the only site (network) I’m aware of that pays 40% of the field in a single table SNG instead of the standard 30-33% payout structure.

I’m going to play small sample size of SNG’s to determine if this is where I should restart the SNG Challenge.

SNG Challenge put on hold

The SNG Challenge is on hold while i figure out if/where I should resume it.

GG Bodonkey

due to unfortunate recent developments, the Bodonkey has run it's course.



much thanks to all who participated and especially the people behind the scenes who made the series such a huge success.

SNG Challenge results after week 2

I’ve played a total of 153 sngs thru 14 days averaging 14.4 sngs a day over the last two weeks. But, I’ve only played 9 sngs total over the last two weekends. This is really cutting into my profit. It’s probably the best time to play but, I chose to spend time away from the virtual felt (i.e. sng hell).

That's gonna have to change.

I played more $35’s this week, 46 compared to 24 the previous week whereas I played less $17’s, 38 compared to 45. This has helped my net profit. My ROI% is 24.1 in the $35’s and a pathetic 9% in the $17’s for an average ROI% of 18.4% overall.

My SNG total profits are $721 after two weeks. $590 of that came from playing the $35’s.

Overall Summary:



A few things need to happen for me to improve on these numbers. I need to bump my ITM% higher. It’s currently at 62.1% but, I don’t think it should be lower than 70%. Also, I need to turn more of my 4-5th place finishes into top 3 finishes and turn more 2-3rd place finishes into 1st place finishes. I have more 3rd place finishes than any other. While that’s definitely better than having more 5-6th place finishes, I need to improve.

Lastly, the single biggest bottleneck is the availability of $35’s. Currently, Bodog only has one $35 Beginner SNG open for registration at a time. I have to wait until that’s full to register for another and each one takes about 15-20 minutes to fill during peak playing hours sometimes longer. This is really the only reason I still play the $17’s. They fill up faster and there are two open and available for registration at a time.

I submitted a request to Bodog to allow more than one $35 to be available for registration. But, they turned me down.

Bodog has made $343 in rake just from my buy-ins during this challenge. That could easily double or even triple if more $35’s were available for registration.

I still have six weeks to go and just need to focus on finishing higher and playing as many as possible.

Quick SNG Challenge update

Here are some numbers after 121 sng's. I'm still well behind the pace i need to be to meet the challenge. but, i'm playing more $35's than $17's now so that should help. instead of starting each session with two $17's and one $35, i register for a $35 and a $17 then register for another $35 when the first one fills. it's very cumbersome though 'cause i can't register for two $35's right away. this is time consuming. it takes about 15-20 mins for each $35 to fill. after 11pm PST, they rarely fill at all. so, i've been playing more in the a.m but, traffic is light.

A reader (pocket8's) stopped by one of my tables yesterday to wish me luck on the challenge. it helped, i finished 3rd in that one. I need lots of good mojo.

worst call ever ?

this hand came up during the 2nd level of a $17 SNG.

Bodog History for Hand #1334585483
Hold'em No Limit (15.00/30.00) - 2008-08-16 12:41:26
Table 'Beginner ++ Tournament III' Seat #10 is the button
--- DEALING POCKETS
smokkee is dealt [Js,8d]
muthermuck: raises 30.00 to 60.00
mcjsn: folds
corys7: folds
coyote49: folds
rush2619: folds
bonniee: folds
littleblindgirl: folds
rlooby: folds
smokkee: folds
2hi2care: raises 105.00 to 165.00
muthermuck: calls 105.00 (calls)

--- DEALING FLOP [Tc,Qc,5s]
2hi2care: bets 150.00
muthermuck: calls 150.00 (calls again)

--- DEALING TURN [8c]
2hi2care: bets 250.00
muthermuck: calls 250.00 (beginning to see a pattern here?)

--- DEALING RIVER [Qd]
2hi2care: bets 975.00
muthermuck: goes all in 975.00

2hi2care: mucks [Ac Kc]
muthermuck: mucks [Jh Ks] (?????)
2hi2care: wins main pot(3,095.00) with a Flush

this guy calls off the rest of his stack with K-high on the river. maybe he thought there was a 6th street or 4 cards to a straight would be enough.

redonkulous

Cruisin’ along at almost 40% ROI after Day 6

Here were my stats after Tuesday (Day 6 of the SNG Challenge):



I was very happy with my ROI and ITM numbers, but the hourly rate was pretty bad. This was due to playing mostly $17.60 sng’s thru the first 6 days. I ran through thirty-nine (39) $17.60’s and fifteen (15) $35’s during that time. When I took a closer look at my results, I found I only missed the top 5 spots 3 times out of those 15 $35’s. In comparison, I missed the money payouts 13 of the 39 $17.60’s I played during that same time.

So, I decided to play more $35’s today to try and get my hourly rate up as well as my total SNG profits.

Well, that didn’t work out as I’d hoped.

During the first 6 days, I saw my fair share of bad beats and coolers but today was horrific. I played nine (9) $35’s and only cashed in two, one 2nd place finish and a 5th place finish. In the last two $35’s I played, I went out on the bubble AJs < A8 in a blind vs blind battle and 10th five minutes into another with AA < QQ. I was aipf both times. I also ran KK into AA aipf twice. Both times, the other guy flopped a set so I didn’t even have a glimmer of hope after the flop.

SNG Challenge stats after Day 7:



Before today, I was averaging over +$100 a day playing approximately 10 sngs per day (I didn’t play Sat/Sun). So, instead of sitting at around $600 after Day 7, I’m under half that after today’s debacle. While today was discouraging, I’m not gonna let it slow me down. I’ll be back at it Thursday and try to average 15 sngs per day to make up for the setback.

Details of the 5k SNG Challenge

$200 to $5000 challenge details.

apparently, Beijing is watching

Bodog SNG Challenge $200 - $5000 in 60 days

To summarize, I've started a SNG Challenge to turn $200 into $5000 playing Bodog's Beginner SNG's exclusively over the next 60 days. I'll also be playing other tournaments / cash games but, the profits from those won't count toward this challenge. The details of the challenge will be posted on PokerWorks and i'll link it up as soon as it's posted. I'll be tracking my results in a 2+2 spreadsheet (2.7f) i acquired some time ago. This spreadsheet allows me to track ROI %, ITM %, net profit, hourly win rate, avg finish, etc.

I'll be submitting weekly progress reports to PokerWorks every Friday.

Here are the detailed payouts for Bodog's Beginner SNG's:
Beginner SNG / Buy-in / Payouts (1st through 5th)

Beginner / $4.+.40 / $12-$10-$8-$6-$4
Beginner + / $8.+.80 / $24-$20-$16-$12-$8
Beginner ++ / $16.+1.60 / $48-$40-$32-$24-$16
Beginner +++ / $32.+3 / $96-$80-$64-$48-$32

Wish me luck.

what a turnout!

over 500 players sat down last night to play for the $5k Borgata Open seat. not surprisingly, players were coin flipping for their tournament lives from the get go. Pauly did an excellent recap of the action.

I had Pauly, Speaker, Drizz, BoneDaddy and several other bloggah favs at my starting table throughout the night. Tina ran the Hilton sisters into cowboys and hit the rail early.




I went out in classic bloggament fashion with QQ a few spots from the money bubble when i shoved from EP and got called by two players. One player held 77 and the other A9o. Obv the worst hand took it down when a 7 hit the turn.

Even when the field was narrowed to two tables, the action was fast and furious. I saw more A-rags hit the rail or double up than i think i've ever witnessed in a single tournament.

Evy Ng's fanboy of the 2008 WSOP Main Event was among the chip leaders most of the way ran like gawd and eventually took it down.

With the exception of the PokerStars blogger giveaway behemouth, this was the largest blogger turnout ever.

Congrats to Pauly on his 5 years at Tao of Poker.

Power restored / Viva la ToP / NFL

It was good to see the latest casualties of poker bloggasphere were restored without major damage. I've been extremely lucky to dodge any of "the man's" cruel intentions.

tonight is ToP's 5th anniversary bloggament on PStars with a kickass 1st prize added. GL to all.



This Saturday kicks off the Chargers 2008 pre-season at Qualcomm Stadium against Dallas. I put up a new blog so you don't have to read about the Bolts dismantling the AFC West (again) and heading into the playoffs with their eye on a trip to Tampa next February here.

power shutdown on two poker blogging legends

from the WTF ?!!? Department