Cake Poker – A Slice of Poker Heaven

Cake Poker has exploded onto the online poker market. Using their own proprietary software, and sharing it's platform with sites such as Sportsbook [my inaugural Cake Network site], Players Only Poker and Red Star Poker, Cake Poker opened its doors in 2006. Slowly building up their clientele base, they have recently taken off due to their unflinching attention to the American marketplace, their bonuses, ,rakeback and above all else, their customer service outlook.

33% Rakeback

Any site where player get 33% rakeback just for signing up is a big boon to the poker playing world, especially if that site is available to the US market. The rake from a given hand is divided evenly amongst the players dealt cards in a hand. So, in a 5-handed game where $1 rake is taken from a pot, each player is credited with $0.20 of revenue. Cake deducts bonuses from your MGR. So, if you generate $100 in revenue and clear $10 in bonus, your rakeback is calculated on the $90 remaining. Rakeback is paid directly into your account by Cake Poker on or about the 5th of the month for the previous month's play. So, on June 5th, the first rakeback payments will be processed for all play from May 1st to May 31st. Please use code ITHRAKEBACK when installing the software and asked for a promotional code.

100% up to $500 Initial Deposit Bonus

Cake Poker offers a 100% up to $500 with no bonus code necessary. Players have 3 months to clear as much bonus as they can [up to $500] and the bonus is earned in $10 increments every time the player accumulates 166.7 FPPs.

How FPPs are generated

Real Money Ring Games:
For each dollar that is raked at a table where you are dealt cards, you will earn one Frequent Player Point (FPP). Cake Poker is accurate to the penny, so if your table was raked $1.25, you will receive 1.25 FPP or if your table was raked $3.00, you will receive 3 FPP. Each FPP is worth $.06 towards your bonus.

Real Money Tournaments:
For each dollar worth of tournament fees you pay, you'll earn 7 Frequent Player Points (FPP) for them once you're done in the tournament. Just like Real Money Games, Cake Poker is accurate to the penny, so for a $0.50 tournament fee, you will receive 3.5 FPP.

Gold Cards

CakePoker has created 260,000 Gold Cards and tucked them safely away in their secure Gold Card Vault. Each Gold Card is stamped with a unique 'Series 2' seal, making these 260,000 cards the only 'Series 2' Gold Cards in existence.

You will win Gold Cards by playing at real money Ring Games. Each time you're dealt cards, one or both of the first 2 cards you are dealt may transform into a Gold Card at the end of the hand even if you folded your cards during the hand.

Gold Cards are chosen via Cake Poker's Random Number Generator (RNG) when a certain amount of rake is collected. This amount is reached much more quickly at a $2/4 FL table than a $.25/.50 FL table. When the appropriate amount of rake is collected the RNG chooses a Gold Card from the Vault. However, there is no guarantee that the selected Gold Card will match any players 'hole cards'. If there is no match then another Gold Card is randomly chosen each hand until a match is found. This may take several hands and may even coincide with the selection of the next Gold Card if enough rake has been collected. Therefore the same player may be awarded of 2 or more Gold Cards in a row.

Once you've won a Gold Card, the fun doesn't stop there. Every day, CakePoker will announce a Gold Card Daily Lottery. The Lottery will allow players who have the winning Gold Cards in their collection to redeem them for cash or tickets to exclusive tournaments. Or, players can choose to hold on to their Gold Cards and try to redeem them for larger Series 2 Guaranteed Prizes, including our $52,000 Gold Card Jackpot.

Gold Card 500

Complete the race by earning Gold Cards at any Real Money Ring Game. Every Gold Card you earn from the moment the race begins will race you Miles around the track. First 10 players to collect 500 miles and cross the finish line each weekly race will win the Cash and end the race. If at the end of the weekly race the top 10 players on our Leader Board have not all reached 500 miles, the cash will be awarded to the top 10 players regardless if they have reached 500 Miles or not, and the Leader Board miles will be reset for the start of a new weekly race.

Starting July 2nd, place in the Top 10 of a weekly race and earn instant cash up to $500. Place in the Top 100 and they'll reserve a seat for you in an exclusive Gold Card 500 Final. Each Gold Card 500 Final guarantees the winner a $12,000 World Poker Tour prize package putting you in a $7700 WPT main event seat with hotel and cash included.

Gold Chips

CakePoker introduces the Gold Chip rewards program. This unique program is designed to generously reward you for your frequent play.

How do I earn Gold Chips?

When you play at real money games or pay tournament fees, you will earn Frequent Player Points (FPP). As you accumulate FPPs, you begin to fill in your Gold Chip Meter. Once your Gold Chip Meter is full, you will receive the Gold Chip that is viewed here to the right of the meter . Once you earn a Gold Chip, it is yours to keep. Redeem it whenever you'd like or save it and collect more.

What do I do with my Gold Chip?

Every week you can redeem your Gold Chip for a shot at our Weekly Gold Chip Giveaways. These tournaments may change from week to week (Limit Omaha one week, NL Hold'em the next). Since your Gold Chips do not expire, you are free to use whenever you wish.
or,
Every week you can redeem your Gold Chips for a shot at our Weekly Chip Buy-in Giveaway. These tournaments may change from week to week (Limit Omaha one week, NL Hold'em the next). Since your Gold Chips do not expire, you are free to use whenever you wish.
or,
Save up your Gold Chips to redeem for items from the Cake Shop.

Why Do I Play at Cake Poker?

I like free money. Between the initial bonus, reloads, rakeback, goldchips and fish, how do I not play here? They take ePassporte, meaning any American can get and fund an account there. They run great promotions throughout the year including big prizepool tournaments and qualifiers to land-based events.

Great software. I like the software. It was a bit over-the-top when I first looked at it during my duties at ITH of writing up their review. Then I funded them, played there and I really enjoy it now. Notetaking is a breeze, I can even tag the players according to ability. The statistics screen rivals the best in the industry. You can play with or without avatars, 4-color decks, numerous card-back colors and an all-inclusive options screen for adding chips or making Cake Poker your own. Their main menu is also very filterable and allows each player to tailor it to their desire.

Traffic. Although traffic isn't into the stratospheric numbers of a Poker Stars or Party Poker, Cake Poker does manage to attract a large following in the evening hours of America as well as on the weekend. So much so, that I can easily play a few $1/$2 FL Cash games simultaneously or some NL of varying degrees of multi-tabling.

Fish, fish and more fish. My limited experience at Cake Poker has convinced me that Cake Poker is the re-incarnation of Party Poker from the 2003-2004 years. The players play any two cards, chase thin draws without odds and pay you off on the river with such consistency that playing here is a no-brainer. Players who can stomach the swings will find their earn-rates going through the roof. Play in tournaments is so donkarific that it should be somewhat easy for the better tournament players to consistently cash here and improve their ROIs substantially. There are a lot of reasons for this looseness, but one stands out above all others: Cake Poker doesn't allow HUDs, meaning the multi-tabling sharks can't rely on artificial means to quickly read the players at each table. This means Cake Poker is a goldmine for those players who can read players without this aid and who have a tendency to play at sites dominated by fish rather than sharks.

I like playing at Cake Poker. The rewards are many, the play is atrocious and the site just makes we want to come back over and over again. I can say, whole-heartedly, that I hope they make great strides, increase their traffic and remain a positive force in the American online poker world for years to come.