London Colin
Top Member
Will it never stop? There aren't enough hours in the day! 
At about the same time that UltimateBet launched there was a much lower-key launch on this side of the Atlantic, at GameAccount My Link.
I thought I'd start a new thread to publicise this, although it follows on from something already mentioned.
I'll freely admit that the above is a referral link and so I stand to profit from any signups. This seems only fair though, since I'm ruining my opportunity to play against largely novice opposition by advertising the existence of this place! Nevertheless, I've tried to make what follows an honest assessment of the good and bad points, rather than a commercial presentation.
GameAccount continue to run their peculiar accumulation format, 1-on-1, playing the same shoe. More interestingly, they have now launched a 'proper' tournament format. More on that in a moment, but to answer Ken's question first -
I opened an account here a while ago, mainly to take advantage of a signup offer, but have dabbled with the tournaments from time to time. I agree there is only so much you can do to try to overcome the high vig (actually higher than you quoted I think). You have to rely on the majority of players being fairly naive to have any chance of making it profitable. There are a couple of factors which I've taken into account when formulating my own particular stratgey -
They've added a few other variants, none being very attractive in my oppinion.
For some weeks, however, they have been running four freerolls per day. At the allotted times the first 64 players to sign up are entered into a knockout competition; the payout starts at the semi-final stage.
Now to the main reason for this post.
At the start of this month they added what they are calling 'Multiplayer Blackjack' (their old format is referred to as 'Single Player Tournament Blackjack'). Multiplayer currently only offers 1 on 1 play, although it looks like larger tables may appear in the future. There are S&Gos and, ironically, multi-table tournaments of the sort recently suggested for Global.
Having played 142 tables (a useful feature is 'My Stats', which tells me I've so far won 79 and lost 63, a golden age which I fear will end now that you all know about this place.), I thought I'd report my findings.
There are a number of peculiarities about the game, some good, some bad, and some just ... peculiar. The good news is that I emailed their customer support with some comments and suggestions and had an encouraging response, suggesting things may well improve.
The Fundamentals
The User Interface
... is a bit fiddly (although quite pretty).
It's web-based, using Flash.
The game starts with a card dealt to each player to decide who gets the button. The low card gets the button for round one, which means they have the advantage in the final round, and so are in fact the 'winner', not the 'loser' of this step (contrary to what gets reported).
There's a slider for setting your bet, but it's not easy to use. It's not immediately apparent, but you can click on the bet and a cursor appears allowing you to edit the figure. Also, your default 100 bet appears in the circle before you've actually made your bet, which can be confusing as it looks like you have 100 more than you really do. (You'll see what I mean if you try it.)
MOST BIZARRE FEATURE - If you allow the 30s timer to expire, you don't get a min bet or a default action of stand. What you get is a message saying 'Game Over'. Talk about pressure! Luckily, I noticed this in a free practice game, not with any money at stake. I've had a few close shaves though.
There's a chat lobby, and a small chat window in the game itself. I've not really investigated this beyond the occasional 'gg'.
The Tournaments
You can issue a challenge for someone to take you on in a S&Go (referred to as a 'cash game' in the software). The buyin can range from £0.50 to £100! (or free if you just want to practice). The vig for £5 and over is 5%, below that it is meant to be 7.5%, although I found it to be 10% for the £0.50 game.
There's a ranking system! No idea how it's worked out, but you start with 1500 points and this goes up and down according to your results. You can progress from Rookie to Amateur to Pro status. Should you be a scaredy-cat, you can specify the maximum rank you wish to play against when issuing your challenges.
Rise of the robots! - There are robot players you can take on, for free or for cash. It all seems above-board, and even the 'ProBot' (as opposed to 'RookieBot', 'BeginnerBot' and 'AmateurBot') doesn't play a particularly good game. They will, however, start declining your challenges if you win too much money off them, or if they have been losing too much to players in general.
As well as the single-table S&Go (which they call cash games or match play), they have a four-player multi-table knockout (which this time they do call Sit and Go!). It's early days, but I've never actually seen one of these attract the four players needed for it to begin!
I would expect new tournament formats to be added into the schedule in the coming weeks. They've been running four daily freerolls with a £50 prize pool (they were limited to 32 players, but I think this has just been increased). In addition a £1000 freeroll on Wednesdays has just appeared in the schedule.
Unfortunately, the new Multiplayer freerolls are scheduled at the same times as the existing Singleplayer ones, which can make playing them both a bit of a juggling act.
Bonuses etc.
These things seem to change from day to day, so appologies if any of this is wrong, but I believe they are currently offering -
100% signup bonus (up to £100 I think).
A Loyaly Points scheme that can return up to 2.5% of your weekly action. (But you'd have to play non-stop!; realistically it's more likely to be 1%.)
A free book - 'Bringing down the house' or the venerable 'Beat the dealer' - for depositing £50.
My GameAccount Link
At about the same time that UltimateBet launched there was a much lower-key launch on this side of the Atlantic, at GameAccount My Link.
I thought I'd start a new thread to publicise this, although it follows on from something already mentioned.
I'll freely admit that the above is a referral link and so I stand to profit from any signups. This seems only fair though, since I'm ruining my opportunity to play against largely novice opposition by advertising the existence of this place!
Nevertheless, I've tried to make what follows an honest assessment of the good and bad points, rather than a commercial presentation.GameAccount continue to run their peculiar accumulation format, 1-on-1, playing the same shoe. More interestingly, they have now launched a 'proper' tournament format. More on that in a moment, but to answer Ken's question first -
I opened an account here a while ago, mainly to take advantage of a signup offer, but have dabbled with the tournaments from time to time. I agree there is only so much you can do to try to overcome the high vig (actually higher than you quoted I think). You have to rely on the majority of players being fairly naive to have any chance of making it profitable. There are a couple of factors which I've taken into account when formulating my own particular stratgey -
- There is a penalty for every uncompleted round so, unlike most tournaments, it pays not to risk busting out before the end.
- Most players apparently always play five hands at once, rather than one at a time or any other possibility. (This was revealed to me when I queried GameAccount about exactly how the game works. In part I think this may be because it is actually quite hard to get through all the hands within the time limit, and timing out has the same penalty for uncompleted rounds as busting out does.)
They've added a few other variants, none being very attractive in my oppinion.
For some weeks, however, they have been running four freerolls per day. At the allotted times the first 64 players to sign up are entered into a knockout competition; the payout starts at the semi-final stage.
Now to the main reason for this post.
At the start of this month they added what they are calling 'Multiplayer Blackjack' (their old format is referred to as 'Single Player Tournament Blackjack'). Multiplayer currently only offers 1 on 1 play, although it looks like larger tables may appear in the future. There are S&Gos and, ironically, multi-table tournaments of the sort recently suggested for Global.
Having played 142 tables (a useful feature is 'My Stats', which tells me I've so far won 79 and lost 63, a golden age which I fear will end now that you all know about this place.
), I thought I'd report my findings. There are a number of peculiarities about the game, some good, some bad, and some just ... peculiar. The good news is that I emailed their customer support with some comments and suggestions and had an encouraging response, suggesting things may well improve.
The Fundamentals
- Rounds: 10
- Starting BR: 1000
- Min Bet: 100 (So you could bet the min 10 times and finish with nothing!)
- Max Bet: 500
- Min Betting Increment: 1 (Very strange, takes some getting used to.)
- No Surrender
- No 'for less' (Not even to go 'all-in')
- You can hit split Aces
- I think you can only split once (but not sure about this)
- You can't DD on a BJ, you always get 3:2.
- DAS (unless you split tens and catch an ace, or vice versa; as with a BJ, your two-card 21 can't be improved on)
- A dealer BJ with 10 up is treated as 21, not a BJ! (This also applies to the single-player game)
The User Interface
... is a bit fiddly (although quite pretty).
It's web-based, using Flash.
The game starts with a card dealt to each player to decide who gets the button. The low card gets the button for round one, which means they have the advantage in the final round, and so are in fact the 'winner', not the 'loser' of this step (contrary to what gets reported).
There's a slider for setting your bet, but it's not easy to use. It's not immediately apparent, but you can click on the bet and a cursor appears allowing you to edit the figure. Also, your default 100 bet appears in the circle before you've actually made your bet, which can be confusing as it looks like you have 100 more than you really do. (You'll see what I mean if you try it.)
MOST BIZARRE FEATURE - If you allow the 30s timer to expire, you don't get a min bet or a default action of stand. What you get is a message saying 'Game Over'. Talk about pressure! Luckily, I noticed this in a free practice game, not with any money at stake. I've had a few close shaves though.
There's a chat lobby, and a small chat window in the game itself. I've not really investigated this beyond the occasional 'gg'.
The Tournaments
You can issue a challenge for someone to take you on in a S&Go (referred to as a 'cash game' in the software). The buyin can range from £0.50 to £100! (or free if you just want to practice). The vig for £5 and over is 5%, below that it is meant to be 7.5%, although I found it to be 10% for the £0.50 game.
There's a ranking system! No idea how it's worked out, but you start with 1500 points and this goes up and down according to your results. You can progress from Rookie to Amateur to Pro status. Should you be a scaredy-cat, you can specify the maximum rank you wish to play against when issuing your challenges.
Rise of the robots! - There are robot players you can take on, for free or for cash. It all seems above-board, and even the 'ProBot' (as opposed to 'RookieBot', 'BeginnerBot' and 'AmateurBot') doesn't play a particularly good game. They will, however, start declining your challenges if you win too much money off them, or if they have been losing too much to players in general.
As well as the single-table S&Go (which they call cash games or match play), they have a four-player multi-table knockout (which this time they do call Sit and Go!). It's early days, but I've never actually seen one of these attract the four players needed for it to begin!
I would expect new tournament formats to be added into the schedule in the coming weeks. They've been running four daily freerolls with a £50 prize pool (they were limited to 32 players, but I think this has just been increased). In addition a £1000 freeroll on Wednesdays has just appeared in the schedule.
Unfortunately, the new Multiplayer freerolls are scheduled at the same times as the existing Singleplayer ones, which can make playing them both a bit of a juggling act.
Bonuses etc.
These things seem to change from day to day, so appologies if any of this is wrong, but I believe they are currently offering -
100% signup bonus (up to £100 I think).
A Loyaly Points scheme that can return up to 2.5% of your weekly action. (But you'd have to play non-stop!; realistically it's more likely to be 1%.)
A free book - 'Bringing down the house' or the venerable 'Beat the dealer' - for depositing £50.
My GameAccount Link
