Absolute Poker…not quite

Since Absolute Poker has reworked their bonus structure and they were now offering a 20% reload bonus I headed back. When I fired up the program I should have known I was headed for trouble. The software had not been used in a while and needed to self-update. This wasn’t too unusual but the amount of time it took was. The Absolute server was taking fffoooorrrreeeevvveeerrr to download. I kid you not when I say that I spent upwards of 10 minutes waiting for the process to complete. If I was using dial up I could understand it but my cable connection always solidly reports at over 2Mps.

I blew this off and went to make a deposit. No errors or slowdowns occurred and the bank properly showed the deposit and bending bonus. The software looked no different than when last used so I don’t know what they were updating. The lobby page presented two active 1/2 tables and I joined the wait lists.

A few minutes of wait and I was seated. I found myself at what had to be the tightest table I’ve ever seen. It was rather common to have only the blinds see the flop. I was able to take advantage of this and within about 45 minutes was up 10BB. That’s when it happened. No warning and no signs of impending danger but it happened. We were heads up going into the river and my opponent doesn’t act. His little time bar expires but nothing happens. No fold, no check, no nothing. The quiet table just sits there not responding in any way. At first I thought the cable went out, nope. The laptop crashed, nope. Absolute crashed, nope the lobby still works. I find the table name and click on it, the list of players comes up without me. What the hell?!? I double click the table name and up pops the table in a second window with everyone playing right along without me. I still have a window up showing the same table with no activity though and when I try to close it a warning pops up, “If you leave the table now your hand will be folded.” Well I’ve got news for you, you already folded my hand like five minutes ago.

I close the window down and rejoin the table I never really left. Now I’m perplexed and a new player at the table wants to see about every flop. I get a hand and he of course sucks out the flush on the river to my flopped set. Normal stuff at any poker site but for some reason I want to punish him. Yes it’s tilt but not in my normal tilt fashion. I’ll still play a good game but not if sucker is in the pot. Then I’m stupid because he must be punished. Problem is he’s not a sucker, after calming down and actually watching his play he was just on a good run at the time and he’s a decent player. As I usually the the case when tilting I realize this after it’s to late and I’ve not only given back my 10BB profit but I’ve squandered another 15BB.

Absolute doesn’t freeze up on me anymore but the table graphics and sound get excruciatingly slow at times and others complain about it as well. The poker may be good but “Absolute” poker it is not.

I calmed down and started winning again. I ended the night up 4.29BB for two hours work so I’m happy about it. The table was very weird though. One hand almost everyone would see the flop and on the next only the blinds would be in. The poor guy to my right was getting a little frustrated with me. When he would be the small blind and it folded to him he would about always raise it. If I had something I would reraise in the BB but if I didn’t I would still call. On the flop I would lead out and he would fold 90% of the time. It was easy blind stealing and he commented at one point that I needed to give him a break. I responded that the flop always seemed to hit me. I don’t think he bought it and I left shortly thereafter so I didn’t get to test him again.

I figure I’ll need about five days of play or so at my current rate to clear the bonus. I’ll be there for a week, but if they don’t fix the problems with the software I’ll cash all out and head back to Party. (until the next reload bonus anyway)