Farewell Paradise

Today marks the last day of Paradise Poker for U.S. Customers. No more palm trees, golden name badges, Quickies, and Players Clubs. Paradise Poker was the first poker site I deposited money and ended up being my Online Poker home for most of my online poker career.

At the time when I was searching for a poker site to play at I was immediately attracted to Paradise's wide game selection. The site had such a variety of game choices along with some unique games like "Quickies". An added bonus was the player's poker adequate at the tables. When checking out the popular sites, PokerStars and PartyPoker, I noticed a lot tension with the players. Comments and attitudes ruled the tables which seemed to match the charisma of young, arrogant teenagers playing like they were on ESPN. My first game on Paradise netted a win and a player my opponent congratulation me on the win, this sealed the deal for me of being the place to play.

Over the next few months I ended up turning my $20 investment into a near $100 bank roll just to quickly loose the money and become shy of being busted. From pennies left I was able to bring myself back up the ranks with a near $300 bank roll and never went bust again. While I never seemed to be able to officially break the $300 shell, I was able to hold on to a rather healthy bank roll for several months.

In the last week of play my bank roll was nearly cut in half leaving me with $171 and a handful of bad beats. Seems that my friends suffered equal punishment and started to loose a lot of cash once the Internet Gambling Act of 2006 was passed. Conspiracy claims that Paradise was stacking the deck so they did not have to pay off American players - whether this is true or not I don't know, but I do know I did take my last bad beat (my four-of-a-kind was beat by a higher four-of-a-kind from a player in Sweden) as "the last" and withdrew my money from the site.

Overall, my time on Paradise was an enjoyable one even though I wished the ending had a happier story. I fell that the site was good to me and my friends, and I will miss it as I attempt to make Full Tilt my new home.

In closing I must say good bye to Paradise Poker - I will miss the game selections, the people, and the tournaments. Thank you for such a good time and a fun roller-coaster ride that ultimately ended profitable. Hopefully in the future you will come back to the U.S. and the day that happens I will gladly rejoin.

Best of luck,
y.