Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The problem with Poker Academy...

So I took a break from my Full Tilt adventures a few nights ago to play poker with my friends at Poker Academy. It went well, I managed to respect my PAX enough to play a decent game, and it almost reminded me of the good old days where IdahoAs, Chana_Pal, UncleTrick, Stillyxx and many of the other old regulars all sat down at the same table every night. It's not the same players every night anymore, but there are usually enough familiar names to hang a hat on.

Based on this information, I logged into Poker Academy again last night... Time for a relaxing game. Too tired to play seriously at FTP. One problem, though... While there are several tables running, all of those who have any players at all are entirely full. There are no waiting lists, so my only option is to enter into an open-ended waiting situation, making sure not to surf the internet or do anything else that would distract my attention long enough for someone else to come in and get the next open seat.

Ugh.

Now that I remember, this is one of the things that has driven me away from PAO. It seems we're right on the border of too many and not enough players... We've got enough to keep a few tables completely full but not enough to generate tables that are partly full and ready for new players... Since no one wants to sit in a room and wait for a half hour for the game to kick off (after which I generally give up), you're reduced to hoping you get lucky...

Double ugh.

I'd really like to play more with you guys, honest, but I can't spare so much waiting time... I often log in after my (dear) wife goes to bed in the hopes of playing for an hour before I follow... If I'm doing my math correctly, a half hour wait cuts significantly into that time.

So it's off to FTP again, grinding ever upward... With a silent apology to my friends for never being around anymore.

3 comments:

bastinptc said...

It was nice to see you, regardless.

Yeah, it can be a pain, the waiting. What I do is load up PA, and if a room is full, I log onto Stars and keep an eye on PA. I often find that I'd rather just stay at Stars. The times, they are a-changin'.

Memphis MOJO said...

I went to the PA site, but I can't seem to see if it is a free site, or is there a monthly fee?

Can you use a credit card or pay pal to get money into it?

PAPro_SandMan said...

It's free to play at Poker Academy Online once you have purchased the Poker Academy software. There is no "real money" mode for PAO. They use a system of "PAX" which works reasonably well.