AbsolutePoker vs. PokerStars

[lotus776]

I currently play at Absolute and am considering switching to Pokerstars. I love MTTs and Absolute only offers them every half hour whereas Pokerstars has them well everytime...What can anyone tell me about Absolute and Pokerstars; why should I stay or go...? Let me know Please!!

thanks

[TwistedEcho]

absolute has a smaller player field, you'll see the same players over and over and be able to recognise the good players/have a decent set of notes. The playing fields are pretty small also so if your good at mtts, you'll make a nice number of FT/ITM finishes.

On stars there are LOADS of players, huge fields, but huge prizepools. I was a successful player at AP for a while (two top 3 finishes in the 13k guarantee and several other decent cashes) but moved to stars for the bigger tournaments. Whilst i'm not at a FT every day, when you do win a tournament you win a very nice amount

[lotus776]

more specifically, I'm talking about the structures of particular tournaments. Stars seems to have many different options for tournaments that sound like a lot of fun. The various shootouts are good examples...How are the bonuses at Stars; and how is it to clear them?

[TwistedEcho]

bonuses are rare at stars, they have plenty of players joining up so don't need to offer reload bonuses like AP does. The structures play out pretty similar from what i recall, i mainly played the rebuys on AP, and i left long before they added all these HU sngs and new stuff.

Go to the first link in the 'An Anthology of 2+2 Wisdom on MTTs ' post for a comparison of tournament structure from one site to another

[centja1]

I very recently (about a month ago) switched from AP to pokerstars.

I'll list the main reasons why I did it:

1. The blind structure at AP is not as good. The blinds move up very quickly compared to PS. Also, I'm not sure about their SNG's anymore, but they really donked the blind structure of those to where you were at 50/100 within 30 minutes of playing. I seem to remember about 2-3 months ago thinking that their SNG's had essentially become a crapshoot not worth playing. Not sure if this is still true.

2. The fields at AP seem to be a little tougher than the fields at PS. I was able to have a nice ROI at AP because of the smaller fields, but now that I have a frame of reference, I believe PS is somewhat softer than AP. In particular, I would recommend putting about $50 on PS and playing the $1.00 + $0.20 45 player SNG's for a while to guage what it's like.

3. I got tired of manually tracking my tournament results. I had been patiently waiting for them to re-format their tournament HH's so PokerTracker could use them, but they never did. The last straw was when they recently went through the big overhaul and introduced HH saved locally and changed the format of them but didn't do anything for tournaments. Tournaments with PokerTracker are cake on PS.

4. I like the interface on AP and don't really have a problem with it, but I like the interface on PS a lot better.

That said, I am using what is left of my bankroll on AP to qualify for the 2006 ME. They do have nice satellites into their weekly ME Satellite, which never has more than 150 players. So, I think you would have a much better shot at qualifying there than on PS.

Overall, I couldn't be happier about moving to PS to play tournaments.

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I would recommend putting about $50 on PS and playing the $1.00 + $0.20 45 player SNG's for a while to guage what it's like.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is exactly what I did, but I came over from Full Tilt.

Centja, I was wondering if you can tell me what the step up to the $5 SNGs is like on PStars? How large should I build my bankroll at this newbie level before I try to move up?

So far I've tripled my bankroll in ~110 SNGs.. I do very well (40% ROI so far) in the $1.50+25 18 person turbos, but of course I know as I move up in buyin levels, those turbos become a craps shoot. (I see good results at this low level by stealing a lot of chips when people do not change gears properly 6 and 5 handed before the merge to the final table.)

I am willing to go up to the next level with a bankroll on the skimpy side, as I will just move back down if it does not work out. I feel like I'm getting less and less experience playing at this level, and I would be willing to take a little -EV to gain experience playing in the better SNGs, yet I do not want to risk ruining my tiny bank.

Thanks for your advice,

Keith

[Sam T.]

I don't know about Absolute, but the Stars Bonuses are good because they never expire and (unlike the ******s at Pa**y) you can earn it playing tournaments. (Also, you can stack bonuses, so if you haven't cleared one when another is announced, you can still get both.)

[centja1]

the difference is not that great. You'll find some tougher players in those, but they will generally be donkish. You may see a little decrease in your ROI, but not that much.

The main chance you're taking is that you'll hit the bad run in the beginning and have to move back down. I think you'll be okay with a bankroll of 27 buy-ins as long as you're willing to drop back down if you go cashless after 10 tries.

variance is the name of the game with a short bankroll. if you're a winning player at the $1 level, then i see no reason to believe you won't be a winning player at the $5 level.

[burningyen]

I just recently started playing on Absolute after I found some graphics mods on 2+2 that allowed me to tolerate looking at the screen for more than 3 seconds. But I'm not sure if I'll be keeping my money on the site. The play isn't all the fishy, and the blinds are fast (made worse by the fact that the software is slow). I'm probably moving my money to Stars.

[Brad F.]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I would recommend putting about $50 on PS and playing the $1.00 + $0.20 45 player SNG's for a while to guage what it's like.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is exactly what I did, but I came over from Full Tilt.

Centja, I was wondering if you can tell me what the step up to the $5 SNGs is like on PStars? How large should I build my bankroll at this newbie level before I try to move up?

So far I've tripled my bankroll in ~110 SNGs.. I do very well (40% ROI so far) in the $1.50+25 18 person turbos, but of course I know as I move up in buyin levels, those turbos become a craps shoot. (I see good results at this low level by stealing a lot of chips when people do not change gears properly 6 and 5 handed before the merge to the final table.)

I am willing to go up to the next level with a bankroll on the skimpy side, as I will just move back down if it does not work out. I feel like I'm getting less and less experience playing at this level, and I would be willing to take a little -EV to gain experience playing in the better SNGs, yet I do not want to risk ruining my tiny bank.

Thanks for your advice,

Keith

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The Stars 2-5 table SAG's are pretty weak from $1-$10. I've played all of them, and I think that the talent at the $5 level is almost as bad as the $1 tables.

If you have $150+ in you roll I'd try a couple 5's just to get your feet wet. If you get to $100 again I'd go back to the $1's. But if you are seriously in the money 40% in the 1's I don't think you'll look back. You should get a couple good cashes in 10 $5 SNG's and you can propel your roll from there.

But I have lots of gambol and don't mind risking more of my roll than the average player. So take my words with a grain of salt.

Brad