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Sportsbook Poker
US CREDIT CARDS ARE NOT BLOCKED: One of the best aspects of
Sportsbook Poker is the fact that virtually all US credit
cards are accepted for deposits directly through the cashier. The
acceptance rate is nearly 100% and you
shouldn't experience a block with any US credit card. The minimum deposit is a positive for new players at
$20. From personal experience, I can report that a major US
bank credit card was used successfully for deposits in under a
minute or two. This same card had always been denied at other poker sites.
SPORTSBOOK
POKER PROMO CODE FOR $1,000 BONUS PLUS 10% INSTANTLY:
BEATTHEFISH. Our players are eligible for an instant 10% cash
bonus and a 100% play-through bonus, good up to $1,000. Please note that you must visit
Sportsbook Poker and download the software from one of our links
to the site to be eligible for this bonus.
NEW $500
FREEROLL FOR OUR NEW PLAYERS:
Our new
Sportsbook Poker players now receive a $500 private freeroll
entry after making their first deposit. Freerolls take place
every Wednesday at 10:30PM EST and can be found under the
"Private" tournament tab.
Sportsbook Poker only accepts players from the US and
Canada.
Overall:
5/5
While I am usually apprehensive about
brand new poker sites, I have been very impressed with
Sportsbook Poker so far. There are three aspects of this site
that stand out to me and are probably its greatest draw: the ability
to deposit smoothly using US credit cards, the awful players that
populate the tables, and the combination of an instant deposit bonus
with a larger play-through bonus.
Along with other crossover sites,
Sportsbook Poker
has to hold some of the worst players online. Surprisingly, the
traffic is also very good with busy tables all the way up to $10/20.
As mentioned above, this site uses third-party payment processors
built right into the cashier and even major US banks don't block the
transactions. You can fund your account in literally 30 seconds.
At this poker room you can actually do what you want with your own money for a
change.
Besides the excellent deposit system,
Sportsbook Poker does have a strong promotional system with
an increased 100% deposit bonus for our players, an extra 10%
instant cash, a $500 freeroll, and very good
customer service. While it may not have the brand recognition of the
larger sites
Sportsbook Poker does offer a number of improvements with the
block-free deposits and, perhaps more importantly, one of the few
remaining havens for loose tables. As this sites gets more exposure, I think it will
become one of the top sites for US players.
Bonus (100%
up to $1,000 plus 10% instantly) and Promotions:
5/5
On the promotional side, I give high scores to the simple deposit
bonus system that is set up at
Sportsbook Poker. Our visitors receive a 100% bonus with a $1,000 cap
in addition to an instant 10% cash bonus,
which is one of the highest bonuses online.
Please note that you'll need
to use one of our links to
Sportsbook Poker and promo code BEATTHEFISH to earn this special
bonus. The instant 10% is added onto all deposits and can be used
immediately at the tables. There are so few no-strings-attached
instant bonuses out there that I highly recommend this bonus
structure.
In terms of the included 100% play-through bonus, the
most important aspect is that you should be able to earn the full
amount without a lot of hassle. Every FPP (Frequent
Player Point) you earn nets you .06 of the bonus. I frequently
earned $20 or more in bonus money per session. In the Rewards tab, you can check on
your bonus progress to the nearest cent. Reload bonuses are also
often available.
The player promotions at
Sportsbook Poker are done mainly with Gold Cards and Gold Chips.
Each Gold Card represents a card in the deck and is rewarded
randomly at the tables. These can be redeemed for cash by making poker hands out
of them. Gold Chips are earned through your play and you can use
them to buy into special freerolls.
Finally, new players signing up through
us to
Sportsbook Poker are eligible to enter a weekly $500 private
freeroll after making their first deposit. Tournaments will take
place every Wednesday at 10:30PM EST and can be found in the
"Private" tournament section. Overall, the promotional
system is very strong with the large initial deposit bonus, 10%
extra upfront with one of the few instant bonuses left in the
industry, and the player point system.
Fish: 
5/5
It is refreshing to see another site
come along with such truly terrible players. Being mainly a
sportsbook, they're bound to have inexperienced players. Giving
Sportsbook Poker a 5 Fish Rating may not be sufficient.
While this is still a new site, the majority of these players simply
don't know how to play poker very well. This is true even at the
higher limits.
To give you an example of some of the action that
you'll find at
Sportsbook Poker, I have on more than one occasion run into players who
buy in for the maximum and then go all-in every single hand until
they go broke. Other players will routinely go, or call, all-in on
inside straight draws. I have bluffed at pots in position, gotten 3
callers, picked up 3rd pair on the river, and then won the hand at
showdown.
You'll routinely see tournament style plays of preflop
all-ins with small pocket pairs against weak overcards. The pots
usually grow quickly and often preflop. Where did these tuna come
from? I believe that the credit card deposits really help to loosen
up the games as poor players won't be apt to play tight to preserve
their bankroll.
I recommend that new players try to break the bank
before this level of horrendous play changes down the road. The action
at
Sportsbook Poker is
highly centered on 6 and 10-handed no limit hold'em with typically 4
or 5 full tables at each limit up to a couple of active $10/20
games.
Tournaments:
4.5/5
I am actually surprised that
Sportsbook Poker has as much tournament traffic as it
does. New sites usually struggle for a year or more to build decent
tournament traffic, but this site runs an event every 15 minutes or
so during most hours. The best guaranteed tournaments draw about 300-500
players and typically have buy-ins ranging from $5-30. Most tournaments offer a guarantee on the prize pool of between $1,000 to $25,000.
They sometimes fall short of meeting the guaranteed prize pool
simply from player buy-ins and will have an added overlay.
Another
tournament style hosted at
Sportsbook Poker that I would like to see more sites
adopt is the Bounty tournament. The Bounty events are run throughout the day
with about half of the buy-in being your bounty. The most popular
daily event has a $1,500 guarantee and a $3 buy-in. Every time you knock out
a player you'll collect their bounty. The rest of the prize pool is
distributed normally amongst the top finishers. These tournaments
increase action and you have an interesting way to win some cash
regardless of how you finish in the tournament.
With player traffic continuing to
increase steadily,
Sportsbook Poker has been able to add a $100,000 guaranteed
weekly event every Sunday at 5PM EST. The buy-in is $150, which I
feel is just about the sweet spot for larger tournaments. That level
is attainable for more casual tournament players but also sizable
enough to create a decent prize pool. Recently, a $250,000
guarantee has also been added to the schedule, which takes place
monthly with a higher $250 buy-in. Sit and Gos are also popular without much
of a waiting period up to the
$100 level.
One Sit and Go style offered at
Sportsbook Poker that should be at every other poker room is the
Double-Up event. This unique structure offers 5 of the table
entrants nothing and the other 5 twice the buy-in. It's an extremely
addictive style that has become very popular on the network. Even
during off-peak hours the Double-Ups fill up fairly quickly up to
the $100-200 level. While the traditional 3-player payout system is
still a very effective way for seasoned players to make a consistent
profit the Double-Up adds an entirely different set of strategy and
is a refreshing change of pace from the typical grind.
Software:
4/5
The software at
Sportsbook Poker is utilitarian and gets the job done at a
fast pace without unnecessary frills. While it won't stun you with
innovative graphics, the typical overhead view works fine and is
laid out logically. I do like that you can choose your own
photo-quality avatar to represent yourself at the table in "Classic"
mode. The "Simple" mode, which can be selected in the table options,
changes the background graphics and removes both the dealer
and player avatars. I've been favoring this mode lately because of
the clean look and the obvious spotlight over the currently acting
player.
More important to me
than the graphics is the game speed, which is slightly higher than
average. Full 10-handed
NL ring games at
Sportsbook Poker usually settle between 55-70 hands per hour.
The software does not feature a player time bank, which helps to
speed up the game overall and eliminates the obnoxious posturing
common at poker rooms supporting extra time. Other software
positives to me included a built-in bonus status section and the
ability to resize each window.
I also liked the built-in Gold Chip
meter at each table along with in-table stats about flop percentage
and average pot. The hand history is intuitive with a graphical
interface and you can choose to have your hands saved in an updating
text file on your machine for use with external analyzation software.
US Payouts:
4.5/5
I think that
Sportsbook Poker uses two of the best remaining payout
methods right now in direct checking account payments and Fedex checks.
Receiving payouts directly to your checking account is, in my opinion,
the easiest withdrawal method out there. You don't have to deal with
the bank in order to cash a check, which is convenient for night
owls like myself.
After initially faxing or e-mailing the site a
voided check you can receive future payouts within a few days to
your checking account via ACH. You can also choose to have a paper
check sent through a
courier service. Once they're issued, you'll receive them within 2 or 3 days
via Fedex.
Customer Service:
5/5
My first time playing at
Sportsbook Poker left me with a bunch of minor questions
about how the site worked in terms of bonuses, the software, etc.
Instead of waiting around for an e-mail response, I just used their
Live Chat option. I never had to wait for a representative and I did
always get an accurate answer. They also provide toll-free phone
number support, which I respect.
Player Traffic
Amazingly,
Sportsbook Poker is attracting excellent traffic even though
they're on a new network. In fact, their ring game traffic is
usually busier during off-peak hours than big-name competitors like
Absolute. Typically, you'll find at least 5 or 6 full
10-handed ring games at middle limits and double that in 6-handed
tables. You can also find 20 or more simultaneous microlimit games
at each level. The highest stakes also regularly have a full game or two
going, including $5/10 and $10/20 NL.
Best Features
US credit cards are not blocked. This has to be the easiest site to
fund with virtually all credit cards being accepted.
Awful players. I'm not sure if I have seen a worse population of
players at on online poker site.
Good player rewards. The 100% bonus is earnable and they have some
other unique promotions.
Strong traffic. Fortunately, you can find ring games going at all
levels and tournaments are pretty popular.
Game Selection: Hold'em,
Omaha, 7 card stud
Limits: Limit: 4c/8c up
to $100/$200 No-Limit: 2c/4c up to $50/$100
Deposit Methods:
Visa and Mastercard. Please see the top of the
page for "US Credit Cards" for more information.
Sportsbook Poker is the only site I know of that will not
encounter a block when attempting to deposit using any US credit card. This
has been verified by our site using a major US bank. By far, this is
the easiest site for US players to deposit with.
Minimum Deposit:
$20
Tips: As I've
mentioned throughout this review,
Sportsbook Poker is a very beatable site overall if you make
the necessary adjustments. Typically, you'll have more than one fish
at your table with this profile: very aggressive preflop, likes to
draw, and puts in too much money with marginal hands. This is an
extremely profitable type of player, but it means that you'll
probably need to tighten up.
Because you'll be faced with so many
preflop raises, you can play it safe by waiting for your strongest
starting hands. Instead of trying to suck out maximum value with big
pocket pairs by setting traps, you can usually make
larger-than-average raises and still get plenty of action. You also
should isolate the loose players with these premium hands as they
hold up much more often against fewer opponents.
At
Sportsbook Poker, don't hesitate to
make a substantial (or even all-in) raise with big pocket
pairs or other monster hands for fear of wasting your value. This includes when you hit
hands like nut straights, flushes, and full houses. Why bother
slowplaying if you can get your big bets paid off? You're still
maximizing your EV if you get called occasionally with huge bets
as opposed to getting paid off most of the time with conservative bets.
Player Review Received via E-Mail:
"I wanted to thank you for tipping me off to
Sportsbook Poker. I just signed up there and played there
for the first time tonight and I immediately made money. You weren't
exaggerating about the Fish there! I also like their bonus structure
a lot and it was easy to make a deposit via credit card.
When you
combine the 100% bonus match and all the fish it is a no brainer...in
fact, it seems like free money. I thought the software was ok, but I
prefer Bodog because the games seem to move along a little faster.
Anyhow, thanks for the tip....I am going to keep playing there and
it looks like it is going to make me quite a bit of money.
Brian O'Neil -- Arlington, VA"
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