[Bodog/Bovada/Ignition] Unofficial Thread

I'm a long time heads up sng player on this site. I'll be honest with you. I'm not sure these games are beatable anymore after this update. The main adv you have is at the low levels. You can figure out how people are playing. Obv if you raise the blinds high enough there is no skill in anything. You're basically at 25/50 starting off now with the ante, although there is basically another 25/50 level right after. Both 12 minutes till 50/100. You do have 10 more minutes until the 50/100 level. That's one plus, but I think that's far outweighed by the fact that you have nothing at 10/20 and 15/30 anymore. Everything you do is riskier. We'll see what the action looks like in the coming weeks.

Here is just as big - there are no more $200 games. I have no idea on earth why they removed them.

Also - there is no reg speed for any stake. It's turbo all through 100. So they removed the regular speed games and 200s altogether. I remember there was a reg sitting 200 pretty much religiously every night. So no more of that.

For whatever reason, the only stake I see reg speed for heads up is 1 buck. lol. Although I'm not sure it makes a difference. If you look at the blind structure for that lobby, it's the same. Except you have 2k in starting chips instead of 1500. If they thought reg speed games weren't filling as much, that's always been the case. BUT action has been down overall across the board. And what's the point in removing them you make more money if you get games running at the same time at regs and turbos. Makes zero sense.

Long time reg, again. I almost feel like I lost my job today. I mean it's sad. I made around 6 figures the last 7-8 years. They obv made the change in 2024 where you could only sit 1 table at a time per stake till someone registered. I thought that was to drive up the action because before that you had a million regs come in late 2024 after covid and you would see 12-15 guys sitting at 25s and 50s for example. But if you want to drive up the action this is just stupid. You can't beat a "bad reg" with this structure now. I actually did pretty well vs regs over the long haul. Worth playing? Debatable. But I made more than I lost for sure. That's really how I was able to stick around. The only guy I wasn't really willing to play was the 200 reg that started playing on here like a year and a half ago. Sits literally every day of the year. No life whatsoever lol. And he'll play you like a maniac 4 tables a time. Could maybe run him off, but would take a while and I'm at the point in my life where I don't care about ego wars with online regs anymore. But there is no EV vs regs now.

I have no idea how they think they're making money doing this, tbh. All that eventually happens is regs leave the site and there is nothing left.

MTT structures are equally awful.

Same thing for me, not really sure how to operate with it.

Came here to see if anyone has figured out how to download HH now that it's using this interface. If you click on "open" it opens the HH in a .txt file but does not send it to the appropriate download folder.

Edit: My bad. It actually does download it into the folder.
Edit2: Welp, it does download the file into the folder, but PT4 is not importing them correctly to include all the hole cards.

same experience with HEM and the converter

Why would they change this? It was the one redeeming aspect of this software.

I think it’s time for us to start chimping out. Just complain until they change it back.

Anyone else experiencing major lag today?

Ok so I downloaded the HH to my folder and honestly works as normal otherwise. I can see the hole cards etc. Using HEM 3.1.40.0.

they made the blind structure worse, effectively raising the rake.

and the lag is so bad after the recent update i blind out half my games without seeing a hand.

time to uninstall again for a while

They just changed the format again at the hu tables. 50/100 now starts at the 10 minute level. It was at 24 minutes yesterday after the the initial change. This is essentially unplayable. I played last night with the other structure. Far from ideal, but you could probably make money through that over time against terrible players. Regs obv no, but with most regs leaving anyway you would be able to do respectably although smaller margins.

*Notice to everyone on this forum, I highly recommend everyone email the site with the basic message: If you change the format of the games to the point where you get rid of pretty much any skill that exists whatsoever, then essentially what happens is all the regs driving the action leave and the poker room will be non existent. Period.

Do I think this will change their minds? I'm not sure, but I also know they aren't very smart. Honestly with this new headsup format, there's no point in even offering these games. Fish don't sit first. Regs do. So if regs leave, then you got no games at all.

Is this all designed to basically get rid of winning players? That's what I'm wondering. The thing is they could have done this a long time ago. I've been on this site for nearly a decade. And btw, the reg that used to be playing at 200s pretty much every night for the last year and a half - that guy wasn't on last night. There's been probably 5 days this whole year he hasn't been on. So he just left. And that's what 90% of players will do. What's the point in even offering poker at this point?

$$$monayyy, What are you whining about? You've been sitting there for so many years, clicking on whatever the prompter says, and now the freebie's over. Good luck, lol.

Clicking on whatever the prompter says? I don't know what you mean by that. And "freebies" over? Dude, only reason I could have played there the last few years was being able to do well vs regs. I don't think anyone could have made much money exclusively targeting fish once they made the adjustment to only allow one player to sit a certain stake at an sng. Whoever was on was just staying afloat. It was brutal. You had to be on at certain times, games were down from the 2010s. And regardless there are no freebies. It takes time to play. You have to earn everything no matter who you play. I respect almost any grinder because I know it's not easy.

They made the sngs unplayable. And from what I hear, the multi tourney structures are terrible too. They basically phased out everyone who made some sort of an income on that site. And in my opinion, it's completely unnecessary. These bs structures aren't gonna be bringing in new players. I was on tonight. There wasn't anyone at 100s in the hu sngs after these changes. Just dead. Those changes won't do anything except screw over players who donated rake to them for years. It's regs who drive the action. They honestly might as well just get rid of the poker room at this point. At the very least, sngs are over now. I think all you got left is probably cash. Not sure how many guys are making money at the cash games at this point on here. Feel free to chime in on that. My intuition is that's probably dropped off a ton also.

What they should have done is be competent and find a way to bring back action. It respectable even in June, declining but playable. 2022 and 2023 were totally fine even after covid. The biggest issue then was the million bot regs taking up way too many tables. People on here during then know what I mean.

They turned it into 100% a pure gambling site.

Dude, save your incredible success stories against the regulars for your mom. We all know how HU works. HU has been dead for about 15 years. All HU regs use software that suggests optimal actions according to GTO. If you don't use it, the cartel will destroy your bankroll in a week. If you played for five years, that means you used it and were most likely part of the cartel. Therefore, YOU ARE GUILTY.

Stop. This is getting cringe.

I am a fairly new player to this network, and just made my first withdrawal using MatchPay. I was fearing the worst, since it seems kind of weird and I've never had to go through anything like that at other sites to do a withdrawal. But to my surprise, it seems to have worked pretty well, and painlessly. That being said, just wondering if going forward there is anything about that method that you suggest being wary about. I did try to read what I could understand, and I know to confirm receipt actually occurred before confirming it.

Otherwise, just my 2 cents that this seems to work pretty well for anyone who doesn't do crypto (like me).

People can backcharge you, so you have to be wary of this.

Can we all start sending them emails and tell them to revert back to the old way of downloading HHs. This new format is unacceptable. I have sent mine.

It's common knowledge ignition hates regs it's been the softest site on the web for a long time. They know this and want to keep it that way so recs have a chance. Emailing them is a waste of time they'll do what they want like always.

as I told

When are they going to get rid of all the bots? Every MTT (at least mid stakes and above), a whole slew of them max late reg and stall every single hand, making every hand take upwards of 3-4 minutes. After a short while the average stack is like 8bbs because of this bs.

How after all this time has nothing ever been done about this?

which window version you guys using?

Why do some poker tournaments on Bovada start players with 99,999 chips instead of 100K?

They did this with all sngs, not just hu

6 man hypers are laughably unplayable now.

I have never been one to believe the rig hype. Variance is a real thing and anyone who plays long enough will go on some nasty slides. That said, I literally cannot win with AA anymore on bovada unless it's preflop in which case it's always just the sb and bb I pick up. I get it all in pf against A8os, they hit runner runner straight. Queens hit sets. 87s hits backdoor flush or straight when we get it all in on the flop. So while I never believed in all the rig theories, I think it's also naïve to assume an offshore, unregulated site would never make even small tweaks to help their profits. I mean even if they tweak just a little (small percentage), it could have a rather larger effect on their income. Why wouldn't they? Is 60 minutes going to blow the whistle on them? Are degens going to stop playing? I don't think so.

TL;DR Bovada seems awfully awfully suspect lately...dating back to at least 2024. Not saying it's rigged, just saying you have to start to legitimately asking if it is at some point. The stuff that's happened to me can happen in a non rigged environment. But the odds are staggeringly against it (yes, I keep track and yes I did the math).

The message posted by NL grinder - You left out 90% of that post. I posted that because bovada banned my account after 10 years randomly when I did nothing wrong. Their reasoning had nothing to do with poker btw. They claimed I was part of a betting syndicate in terms of sports betting, abused bonuses, engaged in fraud, etc. None of that happened. I mentioned how I lost a crazy amount of money betting sports. They either mistakenly flagged me, or did so for some other reason. I posted this just to illustrate how ridiculous bovada is and how their is no sense of gratitude how much money you pour in. They made hundreds of thousands of me. Yet, no VIP program. And I couldn't talk to anyone once I got that email.

I wasn't "bragging" about beating regs. My god man. Just illustrating it got really hard the last few years for most guys. Of all the bot like regs there actually were, I was the most distinctive player by far. I did all sorts of stuff most players wouldn't do, or the solver wouldn't recommend, because in order to beat those players you had to know how they think. Playing a general game style like you would vs a random would lose you money to those players. So my experience expanded my time being able to make money there all I was saying. Never used any software. Heavily against it, but hey that's what people do it it what it is. I learned everything myself.

*More than anything, I'm just trying to stand up for a lot of people who put in time and effort and generated rake for the site over the years only to get screwed over. I'm not shocked they did this. There is no VIP system at all. They don't care. But to be so dismissive of regular players driving the action and, once again, essentially turn this website into a crapshoot is really disgusting.

Yoloing - I understand this. HOWEVER - 1. They coulda done this years ago. 2. Regs drive the action. No regs none of these randos sit first 3. A fish will lose at any game, cash, multis, etc.

The reason this wasn't done before was because traffic was so high. Think about covid. It was just an endless pit of money thrown around. They all lost. But more came in. The fact is though regs drive action, and if regs don't make any money they leave and that's not good either. And also, the previous turbo structure there was still a ton of variance! I lost to not so great players all the time. It was just volume and winning at a certain clip that made you money.

Beasting - I made $ a long time there. It's not rigged. But they have essentially no customer service. They give you a platform and that's it. I think overall they are just incompetent. Turning the games into Russian roulette isn't going to make them money because casual players on there traditionally are in and out. Them losing at a slightly less rate doesn't make nearly as much as having new players. Would you rather have a $100 sng run 30 more times a day or have losing players lose at a little lower clip? Makes no sense, especially considering most casuals don't rematch/reregister depending on a win or loss