One of the great things of being tasked by Internet Texas Hold'em in handling the research and review process of their affiliate online poker sites, is that I get to look at a lot of aspects of each poker room I review. This allows me to form an educated opinion abou the myriad differences of each site. This, in turn, affords me the opportunity as a bonus chaser to pick the right bonuses and games.
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.
The Internet Player of the Year Race for 2007 is in its stretch run. With a month left, the race has boiled down to two players, PearlJammer and SCTrojans at the top of the list. Over the past month they have changed the lead more than a few times. It seems a comparison to baseball. You get two teams in the same division finish their 162 game seasons in a tie with a one game playoff to decide who moves on. We are that close entering December. 74 points as of this writing separate PearlJammer and SCTrojans. Who will emerge? Will a two-week Christmas vacation take one out of the running? Will Tmay420, P0KERPR0 or Andy McLEOD shock all of us here at ITH with a December to Remember?
Time will tell.
I do know this. Despite the race seeming to be a two player runaway, this hasn’t stopped the players from kicking butt on the online tournament circuit in November. Huge cashes by players such as THAY3R, Rizen, B_O_K_E and apestyles has produced a lot of buzz online.
Stay tuned for the exciting finish. I eagerly awaiting how this last month is going to unfold. See you on the otherside.
Overview:
Mansion Poker does not accept players from the United States. Mansion Poker is the home of Big Prizepool Tournaments, as well as NL Cash Games and SnGs. Mansion has been in business since 2004, and they currently run an online casino, sportsbook and poker room. Players can find many avenues of gambling entertainment to choose form, although Mansion is best known for it’s PokerDome Challenge and high prizepool poker tournaments. Bonus: First Time Deposit Bonus: 100% up to $500. Requirements: 60 Mansion Club Points per $10 in bonus earned in $10 increments.
In tournaments, for every US Dollar (USD) you spend in tournament fees, you are awarded 2 MCPs. This equals 33% rakeback of tournament and SnG fees paid.
In ring games MCPs are awarded based on table rake. Only players who are dealt cards in the hand are awarded MCPs.
Bodog Poker is one of those sites that is truly a different beast upon the online gambling world. It’s a sole-proprietary software site that share it’s concepts and ideas on the poker landscape with no other. For this reason, most players who have had accounts with Bodog Poker either love it or hate it.
There are some interesting reasons for liking Bodog Poker and this revolves mainly around it’s potential as a bonus money cashcow. First off, Bodog is home of the 10% bottomless bonus. Got a spare $500 sitting in NETeller and no bonus offers in front of you? Plunk it into Bodog and get the $50 bonus upfront. That is an incredibly attractive feature. Not only do you have access to the money just deposited but also the bonus you just received. Only catch is that you need to earn 3 Bodog Points for every bonus dollar awarded before you can make a withdrawal.
Poker.com runs sole-proprietary software and thus doesn’t share it’s tables with any other site. As such the traffic is low compared to the larger internet sites. Don’t let this fool you. They still have upwards of 6,000 players during the week. Many of these players are playing NL with buy-ins ranging from $4 to $200, although higher buy-in tables are available. Both full-ring and shorthanded are offered. Fixed Limit players will generally find sub-$1/$2 tables going 24/7, but I find $1/$2 through $4/$8 offered in the evening hours of the US East Coast.
Tournaments and SnGs are offered. SnGs are not Poker.com’s forte. Traffic is light in SnGs, although when the site is in it’s daily zenith of traffic, players can find SnGs in earnest. MTTs are offered around the clock, but buy-ins are on the low-side of $0.06 to $10-$11. The main exception is Poker.com’s $20,000 Sunday Guarantee, which is a freezeout and costs $60 to enter. Players can get into this for as little as $2+$0.20 by playing a $2 satellite. The recent $20,000 guarantee had a mere 210 entrants and granted a huge $35.24 overlay.
Poker.com offers a 100% up to $200 bonus with no expiration date. However, if a withdrawal is made prior to completing the bonus, the remaining bonus expires. One of the drawbacks is that the bonuses clear slowly due to a lack of mid-limit tables to clear them at.
In my estimation, Poker.com is very well suited to new players who wish to start earning their bankrolls at small and micro-stakes tables. The bonus clears decently enough for these players. Likewise, players who want to learn to play MTTs and don’t want to wade through thousands of other players to win tournament money can find many MTTs at Poker.com with small fields and small buy-ins. Finally, the Sunday $20,000 is a goldmine for players with MTT talent. nm.jpg
One of the great things of being tasked by ITH in handling the research and review process of their affiliate online poker sites, is that I get to look at a lot of aspects of each poker site I review. This allows me to form an educated opinion about the myriad differences of each site. This, in turn, affords me the opportunity as a bonus chaser to pick the right bonuses and games.
The review process requires that I open an account with the pokersite in question, as many will not give access to their tables or cashiering services, for instance, without an account. I have roughly 70 accounts [6 funded] on my computer, constantly updated as I review and maintain them for fresh information. I currently know there are over 450 online pokersites. Some are very small. Most are skins.
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