|
|
May 16th, 2008 |
|
|
|
May 16th, 2008 |
Poker Room Review:
Royal Card Room focuses on a really good poker experience. Royal Card Room also wants you to get an opportunity to beat all the Europeans. RoyalCardRoom is part of the B2B network which is a strong European network. The software is high tech with loads of smart features. The software is geared to create a smooth gaming experience with a clean and rapid interface. It is not only the software that promotes good poker. The bonuses (signup- and loyalty bonuses) and the games also stimulate great poker action. The first deposit option is a huge 100% match bonus up to €500; and the loyalty bonuses create one of the best value programs online. Royal CardRoom has the widest range of poker games of all poker rooms.
The widest range of poker games translates into 10 different poker variants. The standard five are complemented by two draw games and three stud games. Royal Card Room, and the B2B network, has the best total draw game traffic online. They offer regular 5 Card Draw and Triple Draw (deuce to seven), a lowball game. The variation on the stud front is even greater. Seven-Card Stud Hi and the same game played with split pots is accompanied with Soko, Telesina and Americana. The Five-Card Stud variants with roots in different European regions are developments of the original game with different rule variations to create more action in the games.
Another area where Royal Card Room excels is with the no limit Texas Holdem games. The players at Royal CardRoom really like no-limit Holdem. The number of no limit Holdem mid stakes games is excellent and there is a lot of high stakes games too. The games are also very good. Many of the smart software features makes no limit games much better, including: auto-rebuy, all-in extra time and a betting slider with incremental betting options. Limit Holdem is the second most popular game. Omaha Hi is frequently played at very high stakes. All other games except for 7-Card Stud Hi Lo are always available; at least a number of games are played at decent limits most hours of the day. The peak hour traffic is in European evenings. The ring games at Royal Card Room are played at 8 seat tables. Limit Holdem is an exception with full games with 10 players. All short handed games are for a maximum of 6 players.
The B2B network (Royal Card Room) has a fair sized tournament section, about as many players find themselves here as in the ring game section. The big bet (NL and PL) poker tournaments are generally run with 9-seat tables. The supply of tournaments is first-rate. The size of the bigger tournaments are good, the largest weekly guaranteed tournament is the Thursday €25.000 Guarantee with a €200 buy in. As the peak hours are in the European evenings, big tournaments run at complementary times compared to many other poker rooms. Over 60 poker tournaments run on a daily basis.
The software creates a great gaming experience. The client is easy to navigate. There is no blur whatsoever; the interface has a clean, simple and appealing look. While the software is downscaled and makes it easy to take in the situation, there is room for extra features promoting the playability.
There is a small pause at the end of each hand making it easy to observe the outcome. There is also automatically a pause when a player needs to rebuy to continue, thus not missing any hands. An extra time allotment is awarded for tough decisions in large pots. The games proceed in a prompt tempo. A resourceful recent addition is an option to automatically rebuy, if used a player is just one click of a button away to have full buy in again at any time. This auto-rebuy option is great for no- and pot limit games. Another feature for big bet poker games is a drop down box giving choices of betting in increments of the pot. In other respects Royal Card Room’s software delivers as it is supposed to. Statistics, player notes and chat do the job.
Java client allows Apple and Linux players to participate in a convenient manner. The only drawback of the software is its stability, or sporadic instability. It seems there are glitches a few times every day. The buggy periods manifests in slower play and occasionally malfunctioning graphics.
Table (click to enlarge)
|
Lobby (click to enlarge)
|
There are decent poker players in the B2B network (Royal Card Room). The player base grew tremendously in 2004 and has continued to grow at a steady pace. A large part of the new players comes from Scandinavian sports books. While this is usually undivided good news, it has not lowered the quality of the games dramatically.
The competition is slightly above or on average online. It seems the well run poker room attracts some good poker players too. Games in the lower limits are in no way deterring. One common denominator for all games is that they are passive. The games are different from most other rooms dominated by American players. Weak tight play is much more common, at the higher end of the low limit spectrum, than in most other rooms. There is a European style of play at Royal Card Room and the B2B-network.
Royal Card Room has a really huge and entirely matching bonus for first time depositors. Use bonus code reviewed500 to get a 100% match signup bonus up to €500. As the exchange rate currently is at about 1.2:1, this is an approximately $600 bonus.
Royal Card Room’s first deposit bonus is paid out 30 days after the deposit. The clearance rate is €10 per 200 VIP Points earned during the period. Earn 1000 VIP points for a €50 bonus, 2400 VIP’s for €140, and so on up to 10,000 VIP’s which will entitle you to the whole €500 bonus. VIP’s are Royal Card Room’s promotional- or loyalty points. 1 VIP is awarded to each player at the table when a pot is raked €0.31 or more. This makes the bonus a bit tedious to clear at the lowest limit. Already at one or two levels higher, the bonus becomes reasonably easy to clear. The higher the stakes, the more money in the pot, and the more hands are raked the minimum amount. At about €0.25/0.50 for no limit games and €1/€2 for fixed limit games, a comforting percentage of played hands lead to VIP’s. At levels above this just about every pot that reaches the flop gives every player points.
When playing at Royal Card Room you are automatically enrolled into something very similar to a rake back program. VIP points are not “only” used to clear the signup or reload bonuses. The more you play, the more VIP points you get. The more VIP points you receive in a month, the more cold hard cash is automatically paid to your account the first of the next month through the VIP CashBack Bonus. If you earn 500 VIP in a calendar month the bonus is €5. As you earn more VIP’s, the bonus is increased also expressed as a percentage. With above 3,000 VIP in a month the bonus amount is €50, and so on. The ceiling of the program is set at 30,001 VIP in a month which leads to a €1,000 bonus. If you clear the whole 100% up to €500 first deposit bonus within a month, the CashBack Bonus will give you an additional €250 for the 10,000 VIP and you end up with a total €750 bonus. The CashBack bonus runs every month.
Moreover, VIP points are not consumed by the VIP CashBack Bonus. The bonus is paid out based on how many VIP’s were earned the previous month. That is VIP’s earned, not how many you have, and the VIP’s are still there to spend. The way to spend VIP’s is as tournament buy-ins. Both MTT’s and STT’s are available for VIP-point buy-ins. All tournaments are not eligible for this entry method but a decent share of them is. One of the most popular VIP-point buy-in tournaments (in this particular case VIP-points only buy-in) is a daily €200 added tournament for 30 VIP’s with rebuys.
Royal Card Room's rake structure is slightly better than average. The customary standards are used. The target value for the rake is 5% – with the rake most often landing in the 3 – 5% range. A “no flop – no drop” policy is enforced meaning no rake is taken unless there is a second betting round. The highest of the caps is set at €3. No- and Pot Limit tables are all raked in increments of €0.05 per €1.00.
One detail which disfavors the players is that the rake is capped at €2 on €1/€2 limit tables (where many other rooms has it at €1, this cap is also used on Royal Card Room's €0.50/€1 tables and below). On the other hand, this €2 cap is applied to €1/€2 limit tables and above (which is not praxis in many rooms). Moreover, the cap when there are 2-3 players is €0.75 on all tables.
Giving attention to what is needed to get VIP-points (which are awarded if the rake is more than €0.30) it is quickly realized by consulting the Royal card Room complete rake chart that the pot needs to reach €7 in no- and pot limit poker and €10 in fixed limit games. That is unless the game is played with 2-3 players. The larger pots in fixed limit games are a consequence of them not being raked in as frequent intervals as the no- and pot limit games.
Royal Card Room is a safe poker room to play at, foremost because they are part of a stable network. In a stable network none of its members are allowed to soil the networks reputation in any respect. That is how the matter stands; there have not been any recorded problems with Royal Card Room or any of the other poker rooms in the network.
Support is only offered by e-mail, with an added mailbox in the subdivided FAQ area. A phone number presented directly to all players. This shortcoming is not decisive as the e-mail reply time is decent. Besides, the quality in the answers is good, most answers are to the point in plain language. Royal Card Room offers support in Swedish and Finnish as well as English.
Withdrawals are handled in an impeccable manner, minus two drawbacks. First off, withdrawals are only administered on business days meaning they are not processed on Saturdays and Sundays. Secondly, each player is only allowed one withdrawal free of charge every running 30 day-period. Royal Card Room does not charge any conversion fees. However most money transfer companies including NETeller has a spread on their currency exchange rate. Credit should be given to how Royal Card Room handles bank transfers. Bank wiring is usually one of the slowest cash out method in a poker room but RoyalCardRoom's banking system allows comparatively fast wire transfers.
