♠ Saturday, July 09, 2005
Noble Poker: A First Impression
I ended up abandoning Full Tilt's deposit bonus as too difficult to work off at the limits I was playing; I may return later when I can play higher.
Iggy advised me that Noble Poker's deposit bonus (100% to $700 or to $800 thru Iggy) was easier to work off, and in theory, it is. Every hand you're dealt into at $1/$2 blinds or higher earns you four "crowns," which are worth 2¢ apiece in terms of working off bonus. Since $1/$2 NL is a little high for me, given my current bankroll, I turned to what used to be one of my old standbys: $2/$4 limit.
While there are usually a couple of 6max games of $2/$4 going, 6max drives me buggy; it's very high-variance and too difficult to play on autopilot. Noble only has two tables of full-ring $2/$4 that they ever spread, but it's actually unusual for there to be more than one of them full. Often neither $2/$4 full-ring is going. So, getting the 5000 hands of $2/$4 I'd need to work off my bonus, is proving to be harder than it should be.
The games themselves are most similar to PartyPoker, although the differences are almost all in PartyPoker's favor. The graphics are perhaps a little crisper at Noble, and you can choose among maybe ten avatars, but most of the comparisons between Noble and Party are going to favor Party. Noble doesn't spam its players in chat and with popups; that's one thing in Noble's favor.
The best thing about Noble are the players: They're horrible. I've had some horrible beats put on me, especially today, but I've also been paid off for as many as ten extra bets when I've flopped the nuts. There are some good players—and when there are less than 100 regular $2/$4 limit players I meet a lot of them—but there are also some truly horrible ones. I wonder if this applies to no-limit as well?
I'm still ahead at Noble, even with today's horrible beats, but not by as much as I was yesterday; now I probably need $500-$600 before I can head west.
♠ Comments:
I'm done with Noble, and did quite nicely there too.
Penguin
