UB vs FTP (vs PS)

[RemyXO]

A little off topic here, but I'd greatly appreciate your help!

I've been playing on PokerStars since the Armageddon, cleared all my stacked bonuses. Been running SICK hot lately too, which is nice. So, it's about time I signed up with UB or FTP (signup bonus, free books, etc, all the good stuff).

Now, which one in your opinion is better at micro stakes (.50/1 and 1/2)? Please, shed some light on:

- Number of tables running at these levels
- Level of competition
- Number of sharks/bad players
- Bonus clearing speed
- Reloads frequency
- Comparison of the above vs PS
- Anything else (software, support, etc)

Gracias all!

[Buzz-cp]

sorry to answer your longish post with a quick dart, but I think PS pretty much rules in all of these categories.

Buzz

[marchron]

Full Tilt, AINEC. 1/2 at UB is a ghost town. Not only is it tough to find a 1/2 full-ring game, as of right now there's not even a 1/2 short game going.

FTP, on the other hand, was one of the bigger beneficiaries of the UIGEA. They're a lot busier than they were when I left a couple years ago. The bonus is a bitch to clear. It's a bitch at UB also, but theirs never expires.

Still, I'd hit up Full Tilt and stay there until you're 'rolled for 2/4, then hit UB.

[BigBadBabar]

ftp's number of games offered at these levels beats ub by a loooong shot.

ub's games when they run are probably a bit softer now that most of the tags/bonus whores have left because they recently changed their bonus structure to be sucky (it was dreamy which is why it was my home base for a long time).

rakeback is about equal.

ub has more reloads than ft. initial deposit bonus about equal. clearance rates are both pretty crappy. it depends how much of a grinder you are. if you're not putting in serious hands it's gonna be a while before you even finish the initial deposit bonus on either site. i would suspect ft might be a bit faster now on bonuses. you might want to check bonuswhores but i'm not sure how accurate they are.

i've not played much on stars but stars beats both of these sites in support, software, and number of games offered. stars only has those four small reloads a year, and no rb, so either ub or ft will be more profitable overall for you.

stars fr games are probably more nitty however than either one of these. ft is aggro lately at these levels and ub is a mix.

i think frankly if you plan to multitable a fair amount and be a 'real grinder' as it were then it has to be full tilt by default.

pm me for my screenname so you can ship me some money for this exhaustive analysis [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] also for like 10 bucks i'll grind a few hours on each site for you and give you exact bonus clearance rates on whatever game level you want.

[BigBadBabar]

buzz, stars wins in some categories but in others like bonuses, rb, quality of the fr games at those levels, they don't come close (or don't have it)

[OrigamiSensei]

Ugh, don't bother with UB. I play there exclusively because that's where my money is stuck and I haven't bothered to reopen account and begging our fellow microers to do a funds swap to get money in. I've done enough reviews to know the games at Stars are far, far juicier than at UB. UB games tend to be tight pre-flop and hyper-aggressive post-flop. I'm a former weak-tight nit and my post-flop aggression factors at .5/1 are something like 3.4/3.2/2.4 on the flop, turn and river respectively. I have to do it just to survive. I can't get my winrate anywhere significantly in the green, partly because I suck at poker but also because the games are tough. Also the bonuses clear so slowly at UB that it's hardly worth the bother. At some point in the last year they changed it without warning. I didn't really notice when it happened but it has become blindingly obvious that bonus money accrues a lot slower than it used to (and it was never fast).

To go through the list more throughly:
- Number of tables: a decent number at .25/.50 but I think they're bot-infested and the games at .5/1 and 1/2 are actually a fair amount easier to play. Unfortunately there are never more than one or two full-ring tables running at .5/1 and 1/2. The action seems to be at NL and there's a fair number of 6-max tables running but I don't play either of those very often.
- Level of competition: fairly tight aggressive. Not really good players but with enough aggression to raise the variance. Relatively few outright fish.
- Number of sharks/bad players: very few of either
- Bonus clearing speed: slow, slow, slow. I still have over $1500 left and I'll never clear it.
- Reloads: reasonably frequent but much less generous than before the fristing (i.e. 25% instead of 100%)
- Comparison: From session reviews the Stars games look a whole lot softer and I'm guessing there are more tables
- Software, support: Never needed support but I do honestly think the UB software is really good for the most part. It's very fast and it's not visually annoying like Full Tilt.

[NIX]

www.pokersitescout.com can help you.

I don't know if it's for everyone or if FT just likes me, but every ~6 weeks, I get a free $100 in bonus from them to try to clear in 7 or 14 days. I never finish it, but I guess I get close enough that they keep sending offers my way.

[BigBadBabar]

origami and others, i can probably help with swaps involving ub. pm me.

[Buzz-cp]

I think it's been said before that FT+RB ~= PS

[marchron]

You can now turn off the features at Full Tilt if they're bothersome. Personally, I like them.

Right now there's only one .50/1 table going, and it's full-ring kill with 42% seeing the flop. Pretty good, but if you multitable, having only one option obviously sucks.