Carbon Poker - Best Sign-up Bonus and Review
Carbon Poker Bonus
| Sign-Up Bonus | $500 |
| Deposit Match | 100% |
| Refer Friend | $25 |
| Reload Bonus | $300 |
100FIRST1K
The bonus clearance is based on comp points. You get $1 per 250 comp points. The bonus is paid in $10 increments. The number of comp points earned per raked hand depends on game stakes (5 points per hand at $1/$2 stakes). Notice that bonus expire after 30 days of inactivity. If you forget to provide the bonus code when depositing, you should contact the support within 7 days and they will add the bonus to your account.
Carbon Poker Review
You may think that Carbon Poker is a fairly new poker room, but it's not true. Carbon is a rebranded version of previously well known Poker.com poker room. The team behind poker.com couldn't advertise their room in US and they were forced to launch a rebranded version of their poker room.
Carbon Poker is a member of the Merge Gaming Network that welcomes US players. For now, the Merge network has a small amount of traffic that is mostly concentrated at Texas Hold'em tables.
You earn Comp Points when playing tournaments and real money ring games. The number of points earned depends on game stakes. At Limit $5/$10 you get 10 points per hand. From $1/$2 to $2/$4 limits you earn 5 points per hand. Check out their website for details about Comp Points. Notice that a player who sits down first at a table will earn 2xCompPoints during that session with at least four players. Comp Points can be redeemed for tournaments buyin, freerolls or merchandise at Carbon Store (keyrings, playing cards, scotch glasses, tee shirts, travel mug etc).
In addition to Hold'em and Omaha, Carbon Poker offers H.O.R.S.E., 5/7 Card Stud, Razz, Badugi, Ace to 5 Lowball, Deuce to 7 Lowball. Besides poker games, Carbon offers much more gaming experience: click on "Other Games" in the lobby and you'll find Backgammon, Casino Games (blackjack, roulette, caribbean stud) and Video Poker (joker poker, deuces wild, jacks or better).
When it comes to tournaments, only Hold'em and Omaha are the prevalent games. But you may also find Badugi and Draw Poker tournaments.
The Carbon stylish website is well structured and offers all the information you need in order to enjoy the games. For newbie players, there is a brief text about each game offered and links to detailed descriptions on wikipedia. Carbon Team demonstrates a strong dedication for poker community via a well managed poker forum (with more than 272k posts in June, 2008) and a poker blog started back in February 2007. You'll get a quick and consistent support via Live Chat at any time.
Software and Playability
The software is one of the most advanced and feature rich amongst other poker rooms. This is clearly pointed out by their stylish website that have a separate section dedicated to software characteristics.
We'll have to say from the start that the software is very CPU intensive and playing at multiple tables can become a nightmare on a slow computer. Even if you change Graphics performance in Settings menu to the lowest value and disable animations, you'll notice that CPU usage is nevertheless high. Furthermore, in Best Performance mode vs. Best Graphics the game table will look a little bit ugly, especially the cards and chips. We recommend to disable animations and use the Best Graphics mode.
If you don't care about the high consumption of computer recources and have a fast computer, you will be rewareded with a pack of unique features that you'll not find in other poker rooms:
- Player Tag: better known as player notes but much more powerfull. Adding notes and specifying custom images for players are standard features found in other poker rooms. The innovation is the ability to see which players from your Contact List are online/offline and at which tables they are playing. It means that you can easily monitor and join tables where previously tagged players are.
- Vector Graphics: the difference between vector format and raster format is that the quality of an image doesn't degrade when scaling it. In other words, it means that you can resize your table and be sure that the graphics will remains clear. (Other poker rooms comes with packs of raster images at different sizes: when you resize you table, the software chooses which is the best image size suited for yor table dimensions). We think that vector format is ideal for medium to big table sizes. Nevertheless, for small table dimensions it's better to have carefully painted raster images.
- 2x2 Grid layout: everyone knows that it's embarrassing to constantly jump between tables. The 2x2 format will automatically position and resize your windows so that you'll be able to see them all at the same time.
- Player Accolades and Stars: if you win a major event, you'll get a trophy or ribbon that other players will see. Even if your don't win at special events, Carbon Poker will reward you with stars: the more you play, the more Carbon Stars you get.
- Deal It Twice: a unique feature. If two players go all-in, they will be able to deal the turn and river cards two times. For that to happen, they both should agree on that. DealItTwice is available at No-Limit Hold'em tables only.
- Expose one card: instead of showing both cards, your are allowed to show only one. It's a nice feature when your are bluffing and want to tease your opponents.
Game Variety & Limits
You will always find action at Texas Hold'em tables up to $5/10 stakes. There are a few players at Omaha tables predominantly at $0.10/$0.25 micro-levels. Stud and Draw poker tables are empty most of the time.
Carbon Poker Promotions
Reload Bonus: 75% Reload Bonus up to $300 and a $10,000 Freeroll Entry. Bonus Code: RE75FREE. This bonus is paid in $10 increments. $1 paid per 300 comp points.
Along with the deposit bonus, you will get one entry to a $1,000 freeroll and an entry for 14 days into the $500 freeroll for new players.
Royal Flush Bonus: get a bonus = 100 x big blind if you hit a royal flush. That means $1,000 at $5/$10 stakes.
Freerolls: Carbon is well known for it's freerolls ($50 Freerolls every 4 hours and frequent freerolls from $1,000 up to $50,000)
Visit Carbon Poker for their complete list of promotions.Deposit Methods
If your bank doesn't allow you to use the credit card, use FoneLinx or iBankG deposit methods.
Min $25 - Max $500. Some banks may block the transaction, use FoneLinx in that case. (Just open a FoneLinx account and use your Visa to deposit)
Min $25 - Max $2,500. You can use you credit/debit Visa, wire transfer or a check from any US bank or international bank to fund your iBankG account.
FoneLinx cards can be recharged in $100, $200 and $300 increments using Visa card or eCheck.
10% instant bonus on first deposit. Min $10 - Max $1,000
Min $10 - Max $10,000. You will need to complete an ID verification process with PIC-Club before you can fund your account.
deposit methods not available in U.S.
Neteller, Click2Pay, EcoCard, Moneybookers.
Withdrawal Methods
PIC-Club.com is a convenient payout option because it has many withdrawal methods: wire transfer, company check, certified check or money order, western union.
withdrawal methods not available in U.S.
Moneybookers, Neteller, EcoCard, Click2Pay.