Keep Them Happy

Anthony 'Tony' Soprano Sr.: Sil, break it down for 'em. What two business have traditionally been recession-proof since time immemorial?
Silvio Dante: Certain aspects of show business and our thing.

"Sopranos"

Listen to enough people in poker circles, and when it comes to online poker there seems to be two sites in particular that people always say have the toughest competition – those being Full Tilt and PokerStars.

I for one, believe that if the other sites are so easy, then why aren't all the good players there taking care of the fish? But to a certain extent, it is probably true. I've played at many different sites around the place, and I have found some sites easy and some hard but I haven't really given them all enough time to warrant a decision. That's because there will always be enough bad players at the big rooms to accommodate the good. Hopefully I can find myself as one of the latter. But the reason Full Tilt and PokerStars seem to have so many good players if the service they provide attracts players who are serious about the game. Just the fact that Pokerstars withdrawals are instant at the levels I play is a major bonus – and it's not like it is a difficult thing for them. Any questions submitted to help is answer within a few hours in my experience. Even on one occasion where I was in the wrong – I tried to make a transfer to a withdrawal service here in Australia without playing the money, effectively making a neteller withdrawal through Pokerstars – the support told me this was not what the method was created for, but let it pass just this once as I was not to know. See, that's good service – let it slide without incident and warn me not to do it again.

There's something in that, about looking after your customers. In poker, the customers are the players willing to sit with you that you think you can take money from. Ever heard the term "Don't tap the glass?" Of course you have. Why do people still do it?

I had an occasion on the weekend where in my second hand after sitting down, I got lucky. I hit a river card to make my flush after pushing all-in on the turn on a semi-bluff. I didn't expect him to call, he did with just a pair and I hit my flush on the river for the win. I even posted a "sorry, guess I got lucky, didn't think you'd call" but he went off again. So I decided to give him a lesson, as he was proclaiming how he was going to felt me and how I was free money – I cashed out of the table straight away! I had other things to do anyway, so it wasn't a dent to my poker playing time.

While I was online the other night, I noticed one of my friends from the home game was online, so I decided to jump onto his table to see how things were. It was at a lower monetary level than what I wanted to play, but who cares when you're playing with friends?

What I didn't notice was it was also a limit table. Damn, this will be boring.

I couldn't help but win. I was hitting flushes, straights, quads (flopped quad nines on a A99 flop…sadly opponent didn't have an ace) and a straight flush even. All up – a profit of $4! Damn low level limit game! Stupid waste of good fortune! What can you do? If I hit those kind of hands at my usual table, I would have doubled my bank roll by the time I stood up. But I'll take it anyway, what other choice do I have?