Wow, I’d forgotten just how stupid Ultimate Bet is.
I took out $150 and spread it across Ultimate Bet, Party Poker and Pokerstars. I’m not that used to the interfaces on UB or Party so figured I’d not multisite them simultaneously, and just play UB today. I was quite pleased to find a reload bonus on Ultimate Bet, so that’ll boost the earnings there a bit.
You know when you read the beginner’s forums on 2p2 etc, and there’s usually someone whinging about how it’s impossible to microstakes because everyone calls no matter how much you raise preflop, and they always try to see every street and their 84o always manages to make a straight crushing your aces?
Well that’s the embodiment of NL10 Ultimate Bet. Unfortunately it took me a little while to adjust;
I’d raise on the button with my usual ATC and if the blinds didn’t call then the limper(s) in the pot certainly would (usually all of them would). Even if I’d managed to isolate one of them, a cbet on a decent flop would also get called. I realised I was spewing money with what would normally be reasonable play.
So I tightened up my range, mainly in late position (which is normally fairly wide, but there’s not much point messing around when the play’s so loose – blinds, UTG and MP position stayed roughly the same). With pocket pairs I tried to see flops a bit cheaper than the usual 3bb. The plan is to just value bet – fit or fold good starting hands and then make them pay when they hit.
I made a few hands and recovered most of my losses, then hit a dry spell (plus a few decent players appeared). You can see from the graph exactly what happened when! The dry spell is annoying – playing this kind of style you have a hugely negative redline, and it’s a steady drain of money.
So, results not so hot so far – this is becoming a test to see which site loses me the least rather than wins me the most. Early days though.
Updated (party poker to the rescue!):
FT (136 hands): $1.33 + $0.60(rakeback)
PS (153 hands): -$12.35
UB (330 hands): -$8.77 + $1.42(Rakeback)
PP (304 hands): $15.05
total: -$6.72
