Friday, September 03, 2004

I’ve gotta give Pacific Poker some props today. Not only did they make good on the Monty with the kickback and the added prize money, they responded to an issue I had with a SnG quickly and correctly. Two nights ago, I joined a $16+1.6 SnG and immediately began having trouble with the table. The cards were dealt for the button and the screen completely froze. I managed to maneuver away from the table by clicking on the lobby where I watched my chips get blinded away. I even tried un-installing and re-installing the software… no use. After much swearing and sweating, I got back to the table about fifteen minutes in and saw a betting screen, but no cards. So I did what any self-respecting poker blogger would do… I moved the bar (and my chips) all-in. I must’ve lost because the screen popped up that said “You came in 15th in this tournament”.

Now I’m not sure what happened there, or how I beat five people without even playing a hand, but I was rather steamed. I immediately fired off an email to Pacific Poker’s customer service group complaining about the locked screen. I made it clear that I didn’t expect anything from them except for a refund of my entry. Lo and behold, this morning I received an emailed apology and my $17.60 back. It wasn’t instantaneous, but it was the proper response and was done with professionalism and customer service in mind. GOOD JOB, PACIFIC POKER!

Before I even knew their response, I went back to Pacific last night to my favorite cash cow tables. The first tournament I played, I literally didn’t play a hand for the first three rounds. My blinds were raised and/or re-raised and I was getting completely unplayable hands. Of course, that meant that I still had around 650 chips when we got down to the final table. Amazing how I could fold every single hand preflop and outlast ten other people, but that’s why I love these tables so much. My first hand at the final table was KK from MP. IIRC, the blinds were 50/100 and I made it a soft 250 and brought three callers along. The flop was three rags, nine high, and one of the blinds bet 100. I slid the bar over for all-in and got one caller. Rag-rag finished the board and more than doubled me up. Next hand was AJo. Still early position, so I limp with four others. Flop is Jxx, one of the blinds bets, I soft-call, hoping for another caller to come along, and get one. So three of us see the turn, an Ace! Blind bets 100 again (weak) and I pop all-in, figuring the blind is pot-committed, and the other guy will fold with any draw. Sure enough, the blind calls with KJ and now I’m chip-healthy after playing only two hands.

Long story short, I ended up in 2nd for a tidy little $80 payoff. I probably misplayed one or two of the heads-up hands going for fancy check-raises and allowed my opponent to outdraw me cheaply. Oh well… I sat around and watched the 49ers and Giants both spit the bit for an hour or so. God, the 49ers are going to suck bad this year. Anyway, I got bored with watching my teams collapse and went into another SnG and bubbled out in 6th. I wasn’t giving the game my full attention and probably shouldn’t have even signed up for it. Note to self: don’t sign up for a tournament just because it needs one more person.

1 Comments:

At 11:12 AM, Blogger Felicia :) said...

Ugh, they still haven't given me my money back for "disappearing" in the Blogger tourney. I just keep getting repeat 'automatic' e-mails from them. Grrrr.

 

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