Adventures In Withdrawals or Steppin It Up A Notch
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Noble Poker is about to piss me off. I guess by writing that last sentance they've probably already officially pissed me off. I believe a little background is in order...
About 3 weeks ago I deposited $50 to Noble Poker from my NETeller account in order to take part in the Omaha8 tournaments ScurvyDog put together. They were offering a 100% matching bonus and they also gave me an automatic $10 bonus. I immediately started playing their 6 Max Turbo NL SNG's and got on a real hot streak. Not very long after I had turned my $50 into $200 by just playing SNG's. It was one of the hottest streaks I've ever been on since starting to play poker.
Around the same time my bankroll was at it's peak, the announcement of the $1500 WSOP Satellite for bloggers was made by Iggy. I decided to fund my play over at PokerStars by withdrawing some money from my Noble account. I requested an $80 withdrawal and was happy to see that I would still have more than double what I deposited originally...even with the withdrawal. A few days later I checked my account and saw the $80 had been credited back to my Noble account. WTF??!!
Via online chat I was informed that my withdrawal was declined because I had not had enough raked hands to release the $10 instant bonus they gave me. Not much of an instant bonus if you have to "qualify" the money. They informed me I needed 20 raked hands at a .25/.50 or higher blind structure in order to release the $10. They also noted I had not released any of my 100% matching for the same reason. I didn't realize that you don't earn any bonus credit by playing in SNG's and tournaments.
So trying to be a good boy I played some NL .25/.50 and actually played quite well. I have pumped up my bankroll another $100, I've released the $10 bonus, and I'm on my way to get my first $10 release of the 100% matching. They release it in $10 increments after you earn 125 crowns. You receive a crown for every hand in which you put money into the pot. You get 2 crowns when playing .50/1 which I played a little bit of.
Having met what I figured would be sufficient raked hands in order to process a withdrawal, I made another request...this time $75. A couple days later I was itching for the money to hit my NETeller account because there were 58 people already signed up for the WSOP satellite. You see, I thought it was a good sign for me to be the 59th person to sign up because that is my favorite number (pronounced Fiddy Niiihne). Even my email address has a 59 in it. Of course when I checked my NETeller account the money was still not there and since that time more people have signed up. I'm really glad the entrants continues to climb, but I'm bummed that I couldn't be the 59th...
Over the last 3 days I have battled with Noble over my most recent withdrawal request. They say it has processed and I've even gotten an email noting it was processed. However, the money has not hit my account. Both sides keep pointing the finger at the other and I'm really starting to get pissed. We are now on the eve of the Stars satellite and I still don't have my money in place to play. I have given plenty of time to be prepared and the no talent ass clowns in the back office of Noble are really doing a number on this one. I'm really hoping today is the day for me to receive the credit to my NETeller account. Otherwise I may do an unNoble thing and raise holy hell to their management.
I must say, other than the withdrawal crud I've gone through, I've enjoyed Noble Poker. While the player numbers are never huge (don't think I've ever seen over 500) the games seem to be so easy. My aggressive style has played out real well and I'm extremely happy with my recent results. As I mentioned, it's the best I've ever played online.
On the PartyPoker front, I've been playing the WSOP Steps and have had a frustrating, but good time. I've done pretty good so far, but still haven't made it past Step 2. I've probably played 15 SNG's and I'm still on my first $12 buy-in. Geez, they really do rake a boat load with the looping these Steps create. It's probably the biggest waste of time and effort as far as my poker time goes, but I'm having fun and I want to see this out.
I won the very first Step 1 I played and came in 3rd on the Step 2 narrowly missing making it to Step 3. I'm told - and now realize - that Step 1 and 2 are the toughest to get past. Once you get past those you can come in the top 3 or 4 and still advance due to the way they have it set up. So far, I've been on a schedule where I win one in every three Step 1's which gets me into Step 2. Unfortunately, though I am still able to get looped back to step 1 (thus not lose my buy-in), I just can't seem to win at the Step 2. Last night, on my last attempt of the night, I again was looped back to a Step 1 when - heads up - my trip 3's were spanked when my opponent filled his flush on the river. I slowplayed my way into a loss on that one. I had the trips on the flop and welcomed his bets when I just checked. Of course it backfired and cost me the win.
I figure I'll play somemore WSOP Steps today and hopefully I'll have some better results to report. Also, I hope I'm able to have good news about my NETeller deposit in order for me to play in the WSOP Satellite event. So lame to have plenty of dough sitting in one poker site and unable to get it to another site to play. Just ridiculous(ly gay).
posted by TripJax @ 3:23 PM,
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