Trials of a Poker Apprentice: Spades Lounge now holding freerolls

Sorry to disappear the last few days, but I really needed a bit of a break. It might be hard to believe, but sometimes spitting out words on a regular basis can be a bit of a chore.

There's some good news for those of you waiting for the opening of Spades Lounge. As mentioned earlier, they are currently in beta testing. During this time, they are holding three freerolls daily, at 1, 6 and 10 p.m. EDT. This is a chance to get in and win some money to play with once they do open.

I've had a chance to play in a couple of these, and they are quite soft. They only pay 20 places, but I have yet to see one with 175 players. In addition, it seems that about 60-70 percent of the field signs up, then never shows up to play. The most live players I've had at a table so far is four. However, the software doesn't really show who is a live player and who is posting and folding. Basically, you just have to look for the people folding their unraised big blinds. I've been able to use this to my advantage and have done pretty well in the tournaments, although I have yet to cash. Stealing blinds from auto players can get a bit tedious, and I invariably get bored and try to run over the live players too. I'll build a big stack and then do something like push with 2-2, only to get called by Q-Q.

Spades Lounge is really starting to grow on me. At first, I thought the interface was somewhat bland, but now I appreciate it for its simplicity. And the software seems to be getting more stable. It runs a little clunky on my 500 mhz G3 iMac, but runs fine on a 933 mhz G4 or a 1.8 ghz PC.

There are still some oddities, though. The biggest is how they treat the dealer button. At their tables, the dealer receives the first card, instead of the last. I don't know that it really matters, but it's strange.

Anyway, if you've already signed up for
Spades Lounge or you're thinking about doing so, now might be a good time to download the software and start playing in these freerolls. Once this beta test period ends, they will be starting up the aforementioned evilbilly Friday Night Freerolls, as well as the $40,000 grand opening freerolls. You will certainly want to try out the software a couple of times and get used to it before those start up.