Questions about Bovada?

I know this isn't the best place to post this but I assume there are a few here that play on Bovada. I made a deposit yesterday and played a few hands. I read through the faqs page and they say the allow programs like PT and HM. Are any of you using either of these on Bovada?
I'm like to hear of any quirks, tricks etc. if you would please!

I play on Bovada and I don't use any tracker or stat program.

The anonymous tables mean that it is supremely unlikely to have more than 50 hands on any identifiable villain, so the notion of having stats is ruled out by small samples.

Do check out the HH's at least 24 hours after you leave the table, as you will be able to see all Villains' hole cards.

Thanks Mad that make sense. How do I retrieve the HH's? Also what is meant by annonymous tables?

Originally Posted by HarleyGuy13

Thanks Mad that make sense. How do I retrieve the HH's? Also what is meant by annonymous tables?

He just means you are "Player 7" or whatever, not a name, when you sit down at a table. Because of this you can only track an opponent's stats while he is sitting at that particular table. If he gets up (or you get up), your stats on him reset and you'll have no way of knowing if you are playing against him at a later date or not (because he might be player 3 at the next table).

To see HHs, hit the Account button right under the login, then Hand History Search.

Anonymous tables = no one has a screen name, or icon or any identifying anything at the tables. So it's nearly impossible to link play on one table or day to another table or day. You can not accumulate stats beyond a single session, since everyone is completely anonymous to you once they leave your table (so when they first sit down, they are unknown to you). Some people do unique things, and can be identified, but nothing on Bovada will track that for you.

You can take notes on players, but if that player leaves or loses an all-in pot, the notes will not persist. Even if they don't leave the table, but re-buy. The notes will stay if you mouse-over the note icon, but if you click it, they disappear. So that's downright annoying.


The HH's can be viewed using the Bovada GUI or downloaded as a text file. The GUI to view your hands is kind of crap, but it's better than a year ago, so that's something.

Click ACCOUNT, then click the Hand History tab, and you can search for specific start and end times. There are 2 sub-tabs in that tab and one is the viewer, the other is the download.

I find it's an invaluable tool to click "View Prior Hand" (or whatever the actual text is) and write down the Bovada start time (down to the second) on any hand I find worthy of checking back on. Otherwise, sifting through hundreds of hands a day just to find one specific hand is a pain in the ass. Especially since the search to look up a hand shows all hands from all tables chronologically, but once you are viewing a hand the next/previous buttons take you to the next/previous hand on THAT table.

I don't use a HUD or anything on Bovada, probably should b/c my attention span sucks and I'm 4-tabling and it's like impossible to go back through HH's if you have a tough decision in under a minute. At least on sites w/ a replayer I could quickly scroll through the past ~30 hands and see if my opponent had shown up with anything retarded.

Collusion is a big concern too on anon tables, I've been playing a lot of PLO and the games are very soft and beatable at microstakes despite massive rake. I don't think I'd play any higher than $100 PLO eventually though, the temptation to collude has to be enormous. Not only do you have anon tables so players can't police the games like w/ what happened at FTP back in the day, but can anyone trust Bovada security to even come close to regulating them?

There is a Bovada HH converter out now that will let you import your hands into PT or HM. It at least lets you track your own play, review hands, stats, etc. Villians still show up as anonymous, but being able to see mucked cards is pretty nice

Thanks for the input gentlemen. I've been playing a few hands and it does seem pretty fishy at the mircos. I'm starting all over after being off since black friday so I need all the fish I can get. Grinding it out trying to build a bankroll starting at $50. Up to $70 afer a couple sessions so I'm hoping it continues although I don't know I'll have the time I used to. Not that I was every out of the mircros. Sure is nice to be able to play though!!!

If it's your first deposit, you'll be unlocking the bonus for the first few weeks... mystery money shows up in your account for a while. I suggest working yourself up to 4 tables as soon as you're comfortable doing so. I don't think you can clear the bonus in the time period playing one table of 5NL.

I cleared $100 playing $5 PLO for like ~10 days

Hi Harley,
long time no hear. Glad you're getting back into the pokers. I've slacked off alot only playing a couple of times a week (sometimes not that much) I usually play cash games on Carbon and SNG's on Bovada. I had about $11 left on Bovada and started playing micro SNGs and didn't care if I lost it all. I think I have about $350 now but don't usually pay attention to the BR. Carbon is up and down. Not many FR 10NL games but a ton of 4NL so I mix them to play about 6-8 tables.

Glad your back!!!

Sasquach it's good to be back around and see you are all still around. I'm just testing the waters trying to recall everything it took me so darn long to learn, if I ever really did learn anything!!!
Thanks for the warm welcome back!