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February 4th, 2012 |
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February 4th, 2012 |
Poker Room Review:
If you did not know anything about the online poker world, wouldn't you guess that Poker.com would be a good place to start? In fact, it is a good place to start. Poker.com combines the advantages of a new poker room with some of the most important benefits of a more established room. The software is the most innovative and feature packed poker client on the web.
Poker.com is highly recommended to new poker players, as: the level of the competition is low, the sign-up bonus is a good deal, and the freerolls are excellent. For more experienced poker players, Poker.com may not satisfy their every need just yet. Poker.com can not provide a steady stream of Omaha games, Texas Hold'em is the name of the game. The availability of high-stakes games are volatile, but good when they are there. Those are the drawbacks. If these drawbacks are not critical, Poker.com is a great choice. Multitabling is assisted in an inspired manner. With the overall feel of the site, a general recommendation to at least test is easily handed out.
Texas Hold'em and Omaha are offered with all betting structures. The offered stake-range is good. Fixed Limit can be played stakes down to $0.10/$0.20 and up to $50/$100. Big bet poker can be played with blinds between $0.02/$0.04 and $25/$50. However, this is a new room, with predominantly new players, and the action is concentrated to the lower levels. No limit games are usually played with blinds up to $1/$2. A couple of games with higher blinds as $5/$10 are not uncommon though. The stakes at the fixed limit games are usually higher. The Omaha tables has not seen any action worth mentioning as of yet. There are full sized tables with both 9 and 10 seat tables. The short handed tables have 6 seats and heads up tables 2 (!).
The freeroll traffic at Poker.com is massive as a result of the generous prize pools. Regular tournaments are mainly low buy-in no limit Hold’em. Most of the tournaments have a buy-in below $10. The largest tournament is the $10,000 guaranteed which runs every Sunday. The guaranteed tournaments are invigorating in the sense that they are small. Of course it is better with larger tournaments and a larger, hence better variation. But when it comes to small guaranteed tournaments Poker.com does have a good variation. It is fun with the likes of daily $500 Guaranteed R/A Short Handed $5 + $0.50 tournaments. Poker.com even run the Poker.com Championship in July where the schedule is more varied to provide a poker carnival atmosphere to all online players that didn’t make it to the World Series of Poker. A nice touch which adds to the community feeling. Poker.com also run charity tournaments where they match every donated entry fee dollar and the winner, apart from the prize pool, gets to select the charity.
Poker.com has chosen to use their own software. This has allowed them to create a poker room with a special feeling. There is a relaxed, competitive feel. There are no distractions (if you turn off the news that announces big winners, at other tables and tournaments), just a feeling that it is time to sit down and see who is best at poker. Perhaps that last statement only reflects this reviewer's opinion. The software doesn't really impose an attitude towards poker, it facilitates straight forward poker, and thereby lets your own opinion about poker be at the center. That is, there are no provoking, flashy clocks or any “cool” graphics that really do not have a purpose. The graphics is close enough to photo realistic, without any fuss. The high end technical features do not impose on the player. The interface does convey a luxurious (for example: the poker lobby has hotel piano music) and professional environment.
The cards look good. The betting options are presented OK. The tempo at the tables can vary a bit, but is in general good. One superb option that you are given is to check the boxes to: “Wait for BB” and “Automatically post blinds”, these options are then automatically pre-checked the next time you sit down at a table. Then you are automatically dealt your cards when you want to, without having to answer the same question every time and without wasting everybody’s time by doing so.
With the release of the latest groundbreaking version of the software, Poker.com has turned one of its main drawbacks into one of its biggest positives. If the table graphics almost let you forget that you are in a virtual environment then trying to “multitable” used to be a painful reminder that you are in cyberspace, now it is cheerful reminder. With the Poker.com traditional tabbed system, each new table opens in a new tab. While this system has its advantages it is detrimental to the overview. Although you won't miss any of your turns – the tab gently beeps and blinks when it is your turn to act – information given away by the other players is easily missed. The tabbed system is now one out three ways to view your poker tables.
It is possible to open each table in a new window. It is also possible to view the tables in a 2 x 2 grid mode where 4 tables fit in the same window. No matter how you choose to open your games all kinds of windows are individually, fully re-sizable. To this, the software has true multi-monitor support. The tabbed navigation system is preserved in the lobby regardless of table views and this facilitates easy movement between different areas of the poker room. The freedom this all creates is unmatched by any other poker software.
The hand histories are about as good as they conceivably can be, with one big exception: the data can not be automatically exported. Otherwise the hand histories are presented with a simple summary and also with a detailed yet easy to read option. The chat is spiked with animated smilies allowing players to laugh at a bad beat or wave to a newcomer at the table, all communicated through speech bubbles. It is possible to show just one of the cards before you muck. In all-in situations the winning percentages are percentages are presented much like in the TV-shows. Note taking includes the visual tagging of players with everything from fish to shark or you own custom description. To commemorate tournament victories, stars, ribbons and trophies are added to the player’s avatar bar, where an image can be uploaded. Table backgrounds are dynamic to allow WSOP satellites to be played on WSOP tables. In short Poker.com has the most innovative and feature packed game client on the market.
Table (click to enlarge)
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Lobby (click to enlarge)
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If a new poker room isn't good for game variety then a new room is almost always good if you are looking for soft competition, Poker.com is not an exception. The top ranking in search engines also provides Poker.com with a constant influx of relatively inexperienced players, therefore this is a trend that is likely to stick around. At the lower limits, the viewed flop percentage is wonderful. The bigger games have a fluctuating quality. Some sharks have already been attracted to the fish but the games are in general still softer than average. It is as always advisable to choose games with some criterions in mind. At the release of the site it was not possible to choose a specific table to play at, you were simply moved to a table at the stake level that you had chosen. Now it is possible to make an educated choice from a comprehensive lobby.
The size of the sign-up bonus is not intimidating, but neither are the requirements to receive it. The bonus is paid in a lump sum once the necessary number of raked hands has been played. For every bonus dollar, the requirement is ten raked hands. There is no clause about how large the rake has to be. You do however have to contribute some money – does not matter what amount – in order qualify for a raked hand. The lowest limit does not have a rake, so naturally you can not get any raked hand from playing there.
To get the full bonus of $60, $200 has to be deposited. To have the bonus released you must contribute some money in 60 × 10 = 600 raked hands. The rules makes it very easy for low stakes fixed limit players to clear the bonus, while it is moderately easy for high stakes no limit players.
The freerolls are where Poker.com truly shines. They have focused their promotional efforts to this area. They give away $5000 each and every day. The tournament schedule include 12 daily $100 freerolls. There are no requirements to enter these freerolls. To play in one of the two $500 or the $3000 freeroll you must have played at least 100 or 250 raked hands within the previous 7 days. A daily $3000 freeroll is really generous.
Poker.com is highly recommended to new poker players, as: the level of the competition is low, the sign-up bonus is a good deal, and the freerolls are excellent. For more experienced poker players, Poker.com may not satisfy their every need just yet. Poker.com can not provide a steady stream of Omaha games, Texas Hold'em is the name of the game. The availability of high-stakes games are volatile, but good when they are there. Multitabling is difficult. Those are the drawbacks. If these drawbacks are not critical, Poker.com is a great choice. With the overall feel of the site, a general recommendation to at least test is easily handed out.
The rake at Poker.com is in line with but slightly better than industry average. The rake chart is very simple. All rake is taken as $0.05 per $1 in the pot. Smaller games are usually raked in tighter intervals elsewhere. Bigger games are usually raked in wider intervals but the effect is not too large. The rake never exceeds $3. With 4 – 5 players at the table the maximum rake is as most set to $2. Otherwise standard rake policy including "No flop, No drop", ie no rake unless the game reaches the flop.
Poker.com wasn't an option if you wanted to play poker last year, because it wasn't a poker room then – it was "merely" the biggest information site about poker. The poker room was launched as recently as in early 2005. Although it is healthy with caution as well as curiosity to new flashy creations, Poker.com has a number of strong arguments in order to suggest that they will stand up to the test. As already stated, Poker.com's history goes further then the introduction of the poker room. The same team and to that new experienced personal knows how to run a popular poker room. So far there have not been any serious complaints, and the criticism that has arisen has been gratefully accepted and dealt with.
So Poker.com has the most important comp of a more established room – Poker.com can be trusted. Their customer service is knowledgeable and has a quick response time. It is stated on their web site that “Most enquiries will be answered within 30 minutes”, however the support is usually quicker than that. There is also a live chat. Basically, the staff is easy to get in contact with. While banking is smooth there are not many deposit options. One plus is an instant 5 % bonus on all Click2Pay deposits added straight to the account, which is withdrawable after 50 comp points per bonus dollar. Another is instant payouts to both Neteller and Click2Pay after you have “shown a good playing history” which usually translates as having deposited a second time and played a moderate number of hands.
