As an addendum to my previous post, I should share with you that I placed third in a blackjack tournament this evening at ClubUBT, winning another $75, thus doubling my winnings. So, I've been a member for about a month and almost paid for a full year's membership. Not too shabby.

Which probably raises a question amongst some of my readership: If you're doing so well, does that mean the average member of ClubUBT is a complete moron? Possibly. But I should note, the bulk of my winnings come from poker, at which I have about a decade of experience playing in casinos, so it's not too surprising that I've done well there, and doesn't necessarily reflect on the skill of the ClubUBT players as a whole. On the blackjack side, where I have very little tournament experience, I've done less well (as I'm not skilled at BJ tournaments, I will withhold judgement on the ability of the site's typical blackjack players) But as for what my personal opinion of the site's poker players is, based on what I've seen, I'd say that the players of ClubUBT are decent, but somewhat inexperienced. And don't seem to take into consideration the one-sided payouts of the tournaments, which are generally winner-take-all or something rather similar (I'm sidestepping the issue of points, which you can win in tournaments and allow you to enter other tournaments; in short, I'll just say that I believe some players play conservatively to guarantee themselves of at least winning some points, which seems to me a huge mistake). Furthermore, I don't see too much creative playing, and creative play implemented in exactly the wrong time. And I see a lot of players bust out of the tournament, despite having substantial chips, with low pocket pairs they probably should've folded pre-flop, but kept even after the flop hit with the paint. In the interest of keeping my personal observations my personal advantage at the tables, I won't talk about other specific plays that make me think the players are somewhat mediocre, but I think the way a community of players play low pocket pairs says a lot for their amount of experience.

So on the poker side, I say the players are not bad, but somewhat below the typical caliber seen in card rooms playing for substantial real money. That said, don't expect to see the sort of players you see playing in free games at places like Yahoo! With prizes on the line, people play accordingly. But if you're a solid player looking for entertainment with a possibility of winning money, this is a good spot to look.

Now, my strategy is to be more selective in tournament selection, look for the bigger prize money like the blackjack tournament I just won, and tournaments with merchandise prizes I want (the Blu-Ray DVD player is being given away Tuesday). Now if you'll excuse me, I have a poker tournament to play.