Sportsbook Poker - Best Sign-up Bonus and Review
Sportsbook Poker Bonus
| Sign-Up Bonus | $650 |
| Deposit Match | 100% |
| Bonus Expiration | 90 days |
FIRST100
Bonus clearing is based on Frequent Player Points (FPP) that are earned when you play for real money. A FPP point is worth $0.06. Bonus is released in $10 increments: funds from your pending bonus account will be transfered to your sportsbook.com regular balance.
You can watch your pending Poker Bonus balance in the Deposit Bonus section under the Rewards tab in the poker lobby. This section also displays the number of remaining days you have to clear the bonus.
Sportsbook Poker Review
Sportsbook.com operates since 1997 and in 2006 they launched their poker room as a part of Cake poker network. SportsbookPoker gains a lot of popularity because many players were searching a poker room that allowed US residents. SportsbookPoker is open Only for americans and offers easy to use deposit and withdrawal options.
A lot of players are coming from the casino and racebook. It means that many of them doesn't have any poker experience and their game style is loose. A classic tight poker player will consistently win money, especially at low-limit stakes. At stakes up to $0.50/$1 around 30% to 60% of players see the flop. It means that a lot of "unusual" pocket cards are played when players are hoping that the flop will magicaly improve their hands. We saw cases when this number of players/flop was 82%. Many of them may even go all-in with a straight draw and lose all the money after 5 minutes of play. The other ones are all-in at preflop with a medium pocket pairs. There is less fish at $5/$10 level but it doesn't imply a more accurate gamestyle.
The action at Sportsbook Poker is complemented by unique promotions in the industry like GoldCards. When a predefined amount of rake is collected, a Gold Card is randomly chosen and displayed at your table at the end of the hand. If one of your hole cards matches the Gold Cards you win it! You are eligible even if you folded. A player can get 2 or more GoldCards in a row. Gold Cards can be used at special events. You can observe a high stakes game and in a short period of time you'll see the GoldCard appearing above the dealer's avatar
Tournaments has good traffic. Players prefer to compete in bounty tournaments, WSOP ring games and big freerolls. The most popular are the Million Dollar Freeroll series. A handy lobby feature not found in other poker rooms is the "Length" column that displays a time estimation (how long a tournament will run).
All US residents are accepted except poker players from Missouri
Software and Playability
The lobby has a list of Live Sports Betting Odds and current poker promotions. You'll have to press the Ring Games or Tournaments button in order to see the tables.
The software was conceived by professional poker players and doesn't have "sharp edges" that can cause inconvenience. There are two obvious remarks: 1) it would be better to display the list of ring games and not the betting odds and promotions banners 2) Event (tournaments, freerolls) notifications popups are disturbing, many players would like to disable them
The "Hide Full Tables" option in the bottom-right corner of the lobby is usefull filter, we think that a complementary "Hide Empty Tables" button might also be of help: it would be easier to spot the action at the tables.
You can easily check your bonus status by clicking on Rewards or Cashier button
It's a pleasure to see the convenient 1/2 pot, pot, and all-in betting buttons at the tables. This feature accelerates the game when playing at multiple tables and is missing at some poker rooms. You may also be surprised that hand histories are displayed in graphic format rather than text. It's very clear to see who did what in each betting round. The chat messages are also attached below the hand history. That helps better understand the action at the table during the game.
Game Variety & Limits
In the lobby there are five buttons that allows you to select the game: Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, 7 Card Stud and 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo. We don't know the reason, but when you try to select 7 Card Stud or 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo you'll see the message "no games found for this selection".
No Limit Hold'em is played at $0.02/$0.04 up to $50/$100 stakes. Limit Hold'em is played up to $100/$200 stakes. There are a few Pot Limit Hold'em tables up to $3/$6 but there were no players.
Omaha is played up to $50/$100 stakes, but we didn't saw action above $5/$10 limits. Omaha Hi-Lo has less action and the maximum stakes are $5/$10.
Sportsbook Poker Promotions
Gold Rush - use your GoldChips as buy-in for special tournaments and win anything from an iPod to a $12,000 WPT prize package
Gold Card Daily Lottery - win seats at exclusive tournaments or cash if your GoldCard collection matches the winning Gold Cards.
Visit Sportsbook Poker for their complete list of promotions.Deposit Methods
Credit Cards are the prefered & most convenient way to deposit.
$20 minimum deposit. Up to $1,000 per day.
Minimum deposit is $20.00. The maximum is $1,000 per day
Withdrawal Methods
Amounts that exceeds your previous deposits will be sent by check.
Your winnings will be credited back to your Visa, but no more than the amount you previously deposited from your credit card. The remaining money will be sent to you by check.
$50.00 - $2500.00 per request. The first check in a month is sent you for free. Subsequent checks in the same month will cost you $40.00 each.