Poker Host Software

Poker Host shares the software of MicroGaming [Prima]. Poker Host's table is a crimson felt with a leather-color rail. Cardbacks are a black with the Poker Host logo on the back. Players are represented by flesh tone colored placards on brown overstuffed chairs and the background is a grayish colored floor.

Players have a number of options including 4-color deck and various table sizes to choose from. There is a good statistics screen, auto-wrap note function and player "tagging" function available to the player to make playing at Poker Host more fun and profitable. The Rabbit Hunting function shows the next card even though you folded.

There are lots of new functions and the layout has improved a lot. Players can choose from 3 different lobbies where they can personalize and pin point their favorite games. Players can add their friends or target victims on the Buddy list and sit down at the same table in a second.

The main menu is well-laid out with a number of filters available to make a player's navigation easier. Cash games and tournaments can be toggled in the left-side filters. However, if there are more than one page of tables for selection, they are laid out in contiguous pages which make it much more difficult to maneuver in and filter. Setting a filter by buy-in, for example, will not alter the entire page layouts from one page to another, but rather only on a per page basis. The cash game menus include hands per hour and average pot size as well as player percentage per flop.

Poker Host's software is a bit slow, however. Items requiring refreshing sometimes take a while to do so, especially the tournament leaderboard screens. Like the main menu screens, the tournament position pages are contiguous and very difficult to navigate.

The table software at Poker Host flows with very few hang-ups and slowdowns in the action. Players always know where they are at in the hand as the player placards darken when players fold or sit out, and a nice optional feature of the red and green placard borders help differentiate between who has done an action and who is still awaiting an action.

Poker Host Traffic

Having moved to the MicroGaming Poker Network, Poker Host's traffic is shared by the other poker sites on that network. Therefore, their traffic has greatly increased. Traffic averages between 15-20,000 players with slight increases on the weekends.

Poker Host Games

Players at Poker Host have a large variety of poker they can participate in, including Texas Hold'em, 7 and 5 Card Stud, Omaha and 5-Card Draw.

Texas Hold'em is available in all forms with 10, 6 and 2 seat formats. Fixed Limit is runs the gamut of blinds from $0.05/$0.10 to $150/$300 with most traffic at the $2/$4 and lower limits. PL is offered with buy-ins of PL10 to PL20000, and most traffic is centered around PL100 and lower. NL is available in buy-ins ranging from NL10 to NL40000, but traffic is only existent at NL1000 and below.

Omaha High and Omaha Hi/Lo, though offered in fixed limit and no-limit are most prevalently trafficked on the Pot-limit tables, once again with the majority of play happening on the short-handed tables.

7-Stud and 5-Stud get very little traffic, and usually at the very lowest microlimits. 5-Card Draw is lightly trafficked in the smaller NL and FL buy-ins.

MTTs get a very decent turnout. Players can find many tournaments and structures to suit their taste. Whether those tastes are guaranteed prizepool tournaments, freerolls, turbo tournaments or qualifiers to bigger events, all can be found at Poker Time.

SnGs are offered with buy-ins as low as $0.90/$0.10 up to and including $1000+$50. Players may play 2, 3, 5, 8 or 10 handed. There are also 15-seat [3 tables of 5], 20-seat [2 tables of 10], and 30-seat [3 tables of 10] SnGs. Poker Host also offers turbo SnGs, satellite SnGs to the $100K weekly guaranteed tournament and "Rounders" SnGs. These are step tournaments where progressive good showings can land you at the 5th round and the $3,000 first place prize.

Poker Host Promotions

Players who sign-up and deposit with Poker Host through one of ITH's banners or links are entitled to a 100% up to $2,000 initial deposit bonus [minimum $20.00 deposit].

Players need to earn 25 Loyalty Points for each $1 in bonus. Players earn Loyalty Points for each contributed/raked hand they participate in. Once you meet each 1/10 of the total of the poker deposit bonus requirements, Poker Host will deposit 1/10 of the bonus amount, without having to wait a long time to release the entire bonus. Poker Host bonuses expire at the end of their validity dates. The current bonus expires on December 31st, 2008.

$150,000 Sunday Guarantee

Every Sunday at 1:00PM EST, Poker Host hosts their $150,000 Guarantee tournament. Direct buy-in is $60+$5 and players may win their way into the main event for as little as $6+$0.50 playing in one of many daily satellites offered each week.

Bluff Poker Tour

The Bluff Poker Tour is a virtual tour which takes place various online poker rooms. Each tour stop will be a $10+$1 buy-in. The Bluff Poker Tour will run from Nov 6, 2008 to May 7, 2009.

Poker Host will host warm up tournaments for the BPT, which means that you will play against the pros, you will receive bounties and you will receive an automatic entry into the Tournament of Champions by finishing 1st place in our BPT Warm-ups . No points will be awarded during the Poker Host warm ups.

How can I play in the Bluff Poker Tour?
It's very simple. Just go to www.bluffmagazine.com/bpt and register your screen name (alias) with the different paticipating poker sites you play with.

When can I play at Poker Host's Bluff Poker Tour stops?

Sunday, Nov. 2 at 8:30PM EST

Thursday, Jan 8 at 9:15PM EST

Sunday, March 1 at 8:30PM EST

Why is Poker Host my best Bluff Poker Tour stop?

200% Exclusive Bluff Poker Tour Initial Deposit bonus up to $2000

120% Exclusive Bluff Poker Tour Reload Bonus

Win a free entry into one of our weekly

Magic Hand

From time to time Poker Time management picks a hand number at random in advance and declares it a Magic Hand and establishes what the prizes will be. When that magic hand is dealt, the winner of the hand wins the main prize and all other players in the game each get a second bonus amount. (If you sit out you don't qualify!)

The Magic Hand bonus of $200 will be awarded every 4,000,000 hands dealt (approximately every 2 days).

Three people must receive cards in the hand
Must be a real money table
Must be a ring game table (Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 5 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud)
Winner of the hand will get $250
All other players that received cards will have $250 divided equally amongst them.
There will also be a special prize for every 10,000,000 hands dealt of $1000 (a single $500 bonus plus $500 divided equally among the participating players).

Bad Beat Jackpot

Four of a Kind or better is beaten. The loser of the hand receives 50% of the progressive bad beat jackpot, the winner gets 25%, and the remaining 25% is split among the other players in the hand. Both of the winning and losing hands must use both hole cards to qualify.

Poker Host Stability

Poker Host belongs to the MicroGaming Poker Network and shares it's tables and players with the other members of the network. Cashouts are right on par with industry standards. Poker Host is the poker arm of SBG Global.com, an online sportsbook and casino that has been in business since 1991. SBG Global.com is monitored by the Offshore Gaming Association [OSGA], and is one of the OSGA's most recommended sites. American players do not have access to SBG Global's online casino or sportsbook.

Poker Host Security

Poker Host uses 128-bit SSL encryption, a separate security department to detect fraud and collusion and a well trained support team to ensure that player information remains secure and uncompromised. Poker Host uses the MicroGaming software which lends it's name to the MicroGaming [Prima] Poker Network.

Poker Host Customer Service

Poker Host offers email, toll-free telephone and live 24/7 chat help directly through their poker menus for customer support. They also have a nicely laid out FAQ system. Emails are usually answered within two hours. All replies are knowledgeable and target any questions or concerns correctly. Cashouts are somewhat slower than the industry standards for NETeller.

Poker Tracker Compatibility with Poker Host

Poker Host is compatible with Poker Tracker in all Holdem, Omaha and Stud ring games. Poker Tracker will also handle Holdem tournaments, but are incompatible with Stud and Omaha tournaments at this time.

Ability to Multitable at Poker Host

Poker Host allows a maximum of ten [10] tables to be played simultaneously by it's players.

Multiple Poker Host Accounts per Household

Poker Host's official policy is to allow only one account per household/computer. This is also the strict policy of MicroGaming that players be allowed one account per household. Players found in violation will generally have their accounts frozen and assets seized.

Poker Host Reload Bonus Frequency

Poker Host is not currently offering reload bonuses at their site. Should they decide to do this in the future, ITH will update this information and post these reload bonuses and their criteria in this review.

Poker Host Tournaments with Overlays

A tournament overlay is the result of guaranteed prize money that is not offset by the participant's buy-ins. As such, all freerolls always offer an overlay.

Poker Host is now a member of the MicroGaming [Prima] Poker Network. Players new to MicroGaming will realize the significance in network changes. MicroGaming is a medium-large network with 15-20,000 players online simultaneously. Due to this larger volume of traffic, few Poker Host tournaments will offer overlays to their guaranteed prizepool tournaments.

Maximum Amount of Poker Host Bonus

Players who make an initial deposit at Poker Host can claim a maximum first time depositor's bonus of up to $2000.

Bonuses Cleared During Poker Host Tournaments

Players will get credit for 10 raked hands for every $1 in tournament or SnG fees paid. This equates to a full 100% rakeback of fees when clearing a bonus or part of a bonus with SnG or tournament play.

Time Allowed to Clear Poker Host Bonus

There is no expiratio date on Poker Host's bonuses.

Poker Host Withdrawal Restrictions

Poker Host customer service state that players do not have restrictions for making withdrawals, but other conditions like their Banking Status with Poker Host are applicable.

Bonus as a %age of Poker Host Deposit

Players who make a first time deposit at Poker Host will receive a 100% up to $2000 bonus.

Are Poker Host Bonuses Stackable?

Players may only have one pending bonus at a time at Poker Host and therefore cannot stack bonuses.

Poker Host Bonus to Table or Cleared?

Bonuses must be cleared in their entirety before they will be awarded to the player.

Can Poker Host Bonuses be Chased on 1+ Skin?

Players are free to play at any and all MicroGaming sites that do not have restrictions based upon sub-division by-laws.

Bullajami Discretionary Poker Host Bonus Rating

Piscivorous Discretionary Poker Host Bonus Rating

Poker Host has moved over from the now defunct Tribeca Poker Network to the MicroGaming Network and have brought along their huge sign-up and reload bonuses with them. I cannot remember a Prima/MicroGaming site ever post such large bonuses. This will surely attract a lot of attention and players to their site, especially American players who can fund them. Their bonus will clear in 50% rakeback for tournaments. The only drawback I can see is that their bonuses are not stackable and with bonuses this large I would prefer bonus payouts that were incremental instead of lump sum as players cannot know with certainty whether they will be able to conclude this bonus with expiration dates this far in the future. Overall, I like Prima sites and I like big bonuses. Call me greedy.

Internet Texas Holdem Free Poker Bonus Gift Offer Items Rating

Poker Host is not currently on the Free Gift Offer program. Should this condition change in the future, ITH will update this information.

Internet Texas Holdem's Poker Room Bonus Code Info

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