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Where to play for money

From:   mginat
Address:   mginat@gmail.com
Date:   23 May 2006
Subject:   Online Pay Sites - Compare and Contrast?
Forum:   rec.games.backgammon
Google:   1148423966.010714.176320@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com

I'm wondering if anyone out there is playing on all the different pay
sites and can outline the advantages and disadvantages of them all?

I've had experience on Games Grid, TMG, GE and Gammonmasters. I only
like playing tournaments so maybe my experience will not be the same. I
haven't played all that much either so my opinions may be affected by
not being there long enough.

On GG I usually played jp's - I found it boring because often I had to
play the same opponent, and they were very, VERY good. Even if they had
a low rating, which didn't sit well with me. Looks like those types
would intentionally lose unimportant matches to drive their rating
down. After my membership lapsed I saw no reason to pay a membership
again.

TMG - well it could be the times I logged on, but it seemed a lot like
GG with the same players lurking. I haven't been on for a while so I
don't have much to say about TMG.

GE - So far I've enjoyed it most - there seems to be more players and
sit and go tournaments plus the daily tournaments on the hour. The
ratings seem to be realistic as far as I can tell. I DO wonder about
the Danish guys who play at World Class level with ratings in the
1700's, but maybe it's a coincidence and they just joined? ;-)

GammonMasters - I've only played in one "freeroll" - not free actually
($2) but anyway...Seems to be modelled on GE. It could be the times I'm
on, but I don't see many people online...Oh, and they offer $25 bonus
for joining. They emailed me after a few days that it will take a
couple of weeks for my account to be credited. So far I'm unimpressed
but I'm keeping an open mind. You can't save your games for analysis,
which is good and bad depending on how you look at it.

What I'd really like to see are some serious tournaments, at least 7
point matches with bot monitoring. Somehow find a way to encourage new
players to play and grow without being eaten by the sharks and cheats.
Maybe Beginner/Intermediate/Advance/Master tournaments?

Grunty  writes:

So far, TrueMoneyGames, GammonEmpire and Gamesgrid, are the largest and
long established ones.

I give my pref to TMG, bc of the great graphics and general programming
quality. They have lots of daily freerolls. No fees.

GE has lots of activity (largest population) but the graphics are so
poor. No fees, and some first time bonus.

GG has acceptable graphics. They have not-automatically-driven
tourneys. I quit playing there bc found lately some difficulty getting
moneygames at low and middle stakes. GG charges a membership fee.

Good luck.

Gregg Cattanach  writes:

Club Games can probably be added to the list, though I don't know how much
action there really is there.

A new place on the scene is BackgammonMasters, but there are a long list of
'issues' that go with this. A large amount of money available in 1-point
tournament free rolls (some are $1 EF).  Currently there are 13 free rolls
each day, from 8AM to 8PM eastern time, with a total of $1775 in prizes.
Top 4 players get paid in each one.  Prize pools from $50 to $225.

I agree with everything Grunty wrote except for the part about GamesGrid's
graphics.  They are beyond acceptable, I think they are the best.  I much
prefer it to TMG, though TMG is fine.  Heck, at GamesGrid I created 8 of the
pre-set board designs myself several years ago!  And you can build the board
to look absolutely any way you want to.

Robi  writes:

best graphic: truemoneygames (tmg)

nice graphic: gamesgrid (gg)

bad graphic: gammonempire (ge)

bad players: ge

rating system: gg, ge

automatic tourneys: tmg, ge

membership fee: gg

my favourite: tmg

Monty  writes:

GE's graphics are fine for me, but I wish I could make the window full
size - that is the main problem.  I have problems with 2 dimensional
boards and I do better with a real board, so I wish the virtual 3-D
boards could be tilted backwards a bit more.  Club Games has a near
instant GNU analysis feature that you may like a lot, so play some
games there and then go to history and see what you think of it.  I
don't like their 2-D board, as you might imagine, and I wish you could
choose your own color schemes and also decide whether you wanted to
play clockwise or counter-clockwise.
 
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