Question about Grand Bay $30 sign up bonus

[Grizwold]

I found this easy to clear sign up bonus from bonuswhores.com
[ QUOTE ]
"$30 on any deposit over $30
Grand Bay Poker Bonus Code is NOT required
Must play 3.33 raked hands for each $1 in bonus money
Bonus releases in one lump sum of $30"

[/ QUOTE ]

This sounds pretty good then, I only have to play 100 hands? Even if it was more that would be fine. So I d/l the program and made an account but have not deposited money yet, as I am waiting for my transaction from PokerStars to Neteller needs to clear. I recieved a confimation e-mail from Grand Bay after signing up, and found a link in there about the same bonus as well. So I followed the link to make sure I could find out everything I could about the bonus before starting any transactions.

One quote from the Grand Bay site regarding terms of this bonus:
[ QUOTE ]
"$30 FREE - NEW REAL PLAYERS
1. This promotion is only valid for first time Real Grand Bay Poker Players and requires a minimum purchase and wager of $30 at Grand Bay Poker."

[/ QUOTE ]

Here is where my confusion starts. What does minimum purchase and wager mean? Well I understand minimum wager, but I'm not sure what exactly is meant by purchase. Or is this just extra mumbo-jumbo they added in? No biggie anyway. But then I find something that may be contradictory.

Another quote from the grand bay site, regarding rules about "General terms and conditions for all bonus-promotions and offers ":
[ QUOTE ]
"The player becomes entitled to cash-in the promotional-bonus credits after either betting in a total of 100 raked hands or staking $100 in total bets. The minimum cash-in amount is $50."

[/ QUOTE ]

I understand everything up to the "minimum cash-in amount is $50." What does cash-in amount mean? Does that mean deposit? Wager or purchase? I assume it must mean depositing; cahsing-out it withdrawl so I did some math and figure this means deposit. If so does this likely not apply to the $30 Sign up bonus? Any info appreciated. Especially from someone who has cleared this bonus successfully by depositing $30 or so (but less than $50).

[Dave Coulier]

Cash-in actually means cashing out. Im pretty sure they choose a term that makes no sense just to confuse players. BTW I believe there is a thread already about Grand Bay and the jist of it is that you should NOT play there.

[Grizwold]

Thanks for the reply. I found 2 threads about Grand Bay within the last year, and it seems a bit risky. But this is a pretty decent sized bonus, and I have such a small amount anyway. This bonus seems so easy to clear that I think it is may be worth the hassle of trying to get credit for it. At least I hope I will be able to cash out at minimum what I put in there + profit/(or loss, hopefully not).

[Bobo Fett]

You could check the threads to be sure, but I remember the problem being with the RAF bonus, not the sign-up. I know I got the sign-up without a problem. Still wrestling with them over the RAF. And I believe Dave's correct, cash-in means cash-out...go figure.

[jjbish]

I deposited $45, was gonna do more but no patience to cash out at other sites.

I then played 50nl and was all-in on about 40th hand or so.

I emailed support and asked them if I had met my wager requirement, having been all-in for ~$60 or so.

3 minutes later I had a congrats you did it reply, & the $30 was in my acct.

cashed out, hit neteller, bye bye GB

[Grizwold]

Cool, thank you. From what I've found researching GB on 2+2, the sign up bonus is not so hard to get credited, but they give most problems w/ the RAF bonus. So I wanna hit and run as cheaply as possible w/ the sign-up bonus. Take care. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Daniel Magix]

As a small bankrolled donk - I was going to hit up GB and GR for their easy-to-clear bonuses, but I erased both from my list upon researching them here on 2+2. Well, I would love to do them, so I hope you post results and I hope it goes well for you. If I see some positive reviews, I will add them back into my whoring lineup.

[Jibba]

Stan James is a decent prima to hit and has a better bonus I believe. Offers 25% RB, $100 for 250 raked hands (although there is a catch), and a $50 refer a friend bonus.

[Bobo Fett]

[ QUOTE ]
Stan James is a decent prima to hit and has a better bonus I believe. Offers 25% RB, $100 for 250 raked hands (although there is a catch), and a $50 refer a friend bonus.

[/ QUOTE ]

A catch? To say the least! Don't get me wrong, it's a great bonus...but I think that needs some explanation.

Strangest bonus clearing terms I've come across, if they still hold true, and looking at the website, they appear to. The 250 hands required for $100 are VPIP raked. That's right, not even contributed. However, it counts if ANY Stan James' player contributes beyond the blinds. Over at BW there is a referral vine that has been going on for about a month, but it looks like it might be dying an ugly death. Could still be good for seeing when there will be other SJ players online, though...that helps clear the bonus. It cleared for me as a 5.9x...I probably had other SJers on with me about 1/4-1/2 the time I played, I can't be certain. Also, as Jibba mentioned, SJ pays you rakeback. I made another $9.10 in rakeback while clearing this.

EXCELLENT CS! Had trouble with the RAF, which they fixed, and when I asked for my last update, although I was only at 242/250 hands they credited the bonus...and I never asked them to.

[Grizwold]

Warning: Long Post, No Content about actually trying to get the bonus credited here yet, but other helpful (I think) info about this questionable site.

I deposited $35 into GB and started clearing my bonus. There seems to be a lot of varied opinions about GB, mostly about the ease of receiving the sign-up bonus and the RAF bonus. I am only using the sign-up bonus, so I will only be reporting on that. In addition there is also not much info about the site other than the bonuses, so I thought it may be helpful to compile a list of pros and cons of GB, in addition to my results from obtaining the sign-up bonus. I will try to organize this information so that it will be easy to understand.

The sign-up bonus requires you play 100 rakes hands if I understand correctly, which I have completed. But I have not been credited for my bonus yet; in fact I haven't even requested it yet, as I already ran into a snag. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

First I must say, this is my first time playing on a Prima skin. So there is some relatively new content I had to go through on this site which other players may not require as they have another Prima "Handle(?)" or nick-name or w/e. Some features I mention about the site may be generic features which are included on all Prima Skins; so as a disclaimer please disregard those pros/cons when comparing the quality of this site to other sites, as the features may already be included in other Prima sites which may be better still. Another disclaimer, I have played primarily on stars, but also a lil on party, fulltilt, and pacific. So my opinion will be slightly as how this site relates to stars.

This probably applies to so few people. I doubt anyone who reads this thread will have this particular problem. But it is still quite annoying and tilts my opinion about GB towards unsatisfied so far. So about the snag I ran in to. ::Sigh:: I registered on GB and registered my Prima Handle, I am 21 and live in CA. I played 101 raked hands easy the .05/.10 limit withing 24 hours after depositing. After playing I went to my e-mail and found a new e-mail saying my account has been "locked" for underaged gambling. The e-mail included my Ref: # (the numbers/letters used I think when logging in to any Prima Skin, it is like the account name). The Subject was "Player 21 or younger." I followed a link from the e-mail and found

[ QUOTE ]
Grand Privé Group does NOT accept wagers from individuals under the LEGAL GAMBLING AGE for where they reside.

In addition, no player under 21 may play at Grand Privé Casinos.

[/ QUOTE ]

The e-mail itself actually does not mention anything about age, except in the Subject only; that is the only age on the whole e-mail! E-mail is basically a bunch of crap asking for more info like pics of a license/utility bill/credit card to correct any wrong info I may have registered. But I am not underaged! UGH! So I sent a reply explaining my situation and left the copy of the original e-mail in the reply. I get a reply from them within minutes, but it is only the exact same e-mail about underaged gambling I received to begin with. Everything is the same except for the subject says "Your Account" and the font is smaller lol. My reply is not addressed or included. I assure this is some stupid auto-reply. Damn idiots.

Jeez this is turning in to a long post. And now I'll finally get in to my site review which does not include Sign-Up Bonus info yet, to be added later (Hopefully [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]). Maybe this is not even in the right forum any more, o well, it can be moved.

Lobby related

The Lobby is very bugged out in general.

When viewing table list the number of players seated at the table is often not correct. Also the names are not correct and chip stacks are wrong. I think it's only updated every so often, but I was sitting at a table for a long time and the names and number seated which were listed in the lobby were completely off. Also once a table was listed as no players sitting there, but it was actually almost full when I opened it, then sat down. So I suspect there are multiple problems w/ the lobby. But sometimes it is accurate, I'd say 50/50.

Waiting list is very bugged out. I joined the waiting list for a table, and saw on the waiting list already were 2 players ahead of me. The info on the table seemed to be accurate, and I was verifying the table was actually occupied. Since I was watching the game I saw the seat open and I didn't think I was first on the list, but I figured "wth, I'll click on the Reserved Seat and try to sit down." I got right in. I don't know if this is a bug or if this is how it is supposed to be. I am quite sure the players ahead of me hadn't left because they were still on the list. And when other players left, the Reserve Button held the seat until someone sat down. So I think it's kind of like a first sit first serve type thing lol. But also once I was first on a list and a window opened when a seat opened (like normally on other sites) and clicked on it I was directed to my seat. There are so many bugs in this damn program, it's kinda crazy. I'm waiting to see five of a kind dealt. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Bank(Cashier) is crappy. It takes a minute to reflect your true amount when leaving a table. And it does not display the amount of money you have in play; I'm not very comfortable with that, I worry I could leave a table and my money will never appear in my Bank and be gone forever! I wouldn't be much surprised from this site. And I'm expecting the worse when I try to cash out from these bums, but more to come on that in future post.

So how do I get so much experience with the waiting list when only having to play 100 hands to clear the bonus? That brings me to my next observations:

Game selection and player quality

Very slim selection. I assume people needing to clear a $30 bonus and considering playing on this poorly reviewed site does not have a lot of money to gamble with. So you will probably find yourself in micro. They have .05/.1 lowest stakes, and 1./.2, .25/.5 etc. w/ full ring and 6 max even at lowest stakes. But the selection is so poor, 1 table max for each limit (I play limit btw). During the day maybe there is 1.5 tables at each limit. During prime time, I think there is like 1 full ring game and 1 6-max game, and at worst hours of the night there is 1 table or less at each stake level, with waiting list. Tonight at 11:30 PST there was 1 .05/.1 6-max table full. Out of curiosity I checked the higher stakes even though I wasn't gonna play there. There were no other full tables below .5/1.

The quality of the players is pretty soft. Much softer than the micro players on stars. A lot of them just don't seem to know how to play, which is pretty common at all micros, but at this site it's much more common I think.

At the table

While in general my review of the site is negative, I did like some of the options/features at the table. I hope these are the features that are standard at other Prima sites, so I may leave this one w/o looking back.

The options for sizing tables are cool. You can use a "small view" so that it becomes pretty compact, and you could easily view several tables on one screen. Although I did not get to utilize this feature because of the crappy table selection.

The layout at the table is nice, standard but kinda nice graphics. Nothing too crazy or ugly. Also the audio is pretty nice and well placed. I hate the sites where it doesn't make sound when you want it to.

There is a nice feature where a check mark is displayed next to players who still have cards. Clicking on it shows exactly the action that player has made in that current hand. Kinda like when using the option to see all actions in the chat log, except this doesn't spam the chat. In stead you can see only the action of a particular player and easily toggle it to viewable and not. This could be helpful when playing many tables and sometimes not being able to remember all of every players actions in multiple hands/tables. But again this was not a problem for me, so I did not find much other use for this feature; I just hope it's on other Prima.

It's easy to see who is still in the hand because the whole background box surrounding a players name changes color. This is easier to notice quickly than the little cards displayed next to a player at PS. Again, a feature best used when viewing multiple tables.

Here's a sort of shady trick they use, to try to hide the raked chips on the table, and make it as hard as possible to determine the amount (although I caught on to this immediately). It's not really a problem, just shows the kinda crap these guys try to pull. Normally when mousing over a chip stack, the amount of that particular stack is displayed next to your mouse. For example, mousing over 2 white chips on this table would display "0.10" and it would work on any stack on the table. However, when mousing over the rake amount, this number is not displayed. So you have to determine the rake amount by counting the chips there. Also the raked chips are conveniently placed on top of the rack at the top of the table, so as to try to make it harder to notice among the different colored chips stacks. lol

Ok, now this is definitely the longest post I've ever made. And I have a feeling this is a lot of unsolicited info, especially in this forum lol. O well, I decided to keep notes about this site and I'm almost through it now! Plus I don't mind if this is only helpful for one or two of my 2+2 friends. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Software compatibility

Does not display mucked hands, one of my favorite features of PokerAce HUD. I checked the hand history in PokerTracker to see if maybe that had info about mucked hands and maybe there was only a problem between AceHUD and GB or what. On PokerTracker also, there was no history of mucked hands.

Using TiltBlocker on this site is sort of an art. In some different seat positions your chip stack is displayed almost in the center of your cards. So using TiltBlocker in some seats also covers part of the suits of your cards. So either you have to deal w/ seeing the top half of your stack (not really Tilt Blocking) or seeing only part of the suits of your cards. You can't change locations on the table either.

Conclusion

Well, that's the most significant things I took note of. There is a lot more not worth mentioning. And I'm sure a lot of the crap I mentioned is also not worth mentioning lol. Generally this site is kinda shady. There are a lot of lil quirks they stick you with that inconvenience you and stuff. And on top of that many bugs also. I'm hoping to leave ASAP, but I need to get my bonus first and account unlocked. Already I'm not really satisfied and the customer service is crappy. More to come about the customer service, ease of receiving bonus, and cash-out speed in future post, when stuff starts happening. So far I am not liking this site much and do not recommend it. If you need the $30 bad, I wouldn't risk the $30 in it for the $30 reward; if you don't mind losing $30, you can try this site, but for me that's 1/2 my online bankroll so far as I haven't played much online and only starting bonuswhoring now. Losing $30 would bring me back to even after all my hard work at Stars micros, not utilizing and bonuses or rakebacks. Although this advice is highly depending on how easily I will get the bonus credited and if my account becomes unfrozen easily (if at all, I better not have to wait til 22! but I'm fearing so). Basically I could lose all my profit from my online career of only 20k hands if these guys decide to screw me. My satisfaction is hinging on the customer service. Hope this info helps. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]