Bet365 Poker Review

Bet365 Poker

After being a Prima poker room since the beginning, Bet365 recently switched to iPoker poker network joining, among others Victor Chandler and Titan Poker. As you may know, iPoker poker rooms use Playtech software which is functional but also quite resource intensive - not a problem on most PCs but older ones may struggle under the weight a bit. The Bet365 lobby is easy to navigate and features a buddy list, banking and account pages plus a few Playtech casino games.

Games, Traffic & Tournaments

As far as player traffic goes, the switch to iPoker does not mean a decrease in player volume. iPoker is just as popular, if not more, than Bet365 Poker's old client, Prima Poker Network. Some 10,000-20,000 people play here every day and there's no problem what so ever to find a game. The NL section is extremely crowded with hundreds and hundreds of active tables between $0.01/0.02 and $50/100. Every level up to $5/10 always has at least a couple of games going, both short-handed and full ring. If you are a player in the $0.01-0.02 - $3/6 range, finding a good game is as easy as abc. Limit action is also good, there's plenty of active tables from micro-limits to $20/40, above that games run sparesly. Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo traffic is surprisingly high, some 30-50 tables always run, most of them between $0.02/0.02 and $2/4. Stud games are somewhat rare but do run from time to time.

A wide variety of tournaments can be found here, everything from 10c Sit & Go's to rebuy and freezout MTTs with buy-ins of several hundred dollars. As always, cheaper multi-table tournaments are the most popular, the $1-10 rebuys with guaranteed prize pools tend to fill up fast. Freezeouts are also quite popular, you'll find several of these every days with buy-ins from a single dollar and upwards. As I mentioned, Sit & Go tournaments are plentiful, no matter if you play cheapies or the more expensive ones. As a whole, I really like Bet365 Poker's tournament section, there's something for everyone here.

Promotions And Support

Bet565 Poker currently offer a 100% bonus that's worth up to $500. This bonus releases in increments and a player needs to earn 365 Merit Points (MPs) for every $10 worth of bonus money. You better visit Bet365's home page to see how MPs are accumulated, it is a very complex proposition. This bonus has been improved recently (April 2008) - it used to be earned on $5 which sucked but at $10, it's a 100% better proposition. Reloads normally happen on a given day in the month and are usually around the 25% mark.

Even though Bet365 has changed venues, the old customer support team is still around, at least that's what I'm told. CS is truly great, no matter in which way you choose to contact them. There's live chat where you get your answers right away, email support where all your questions are answered the same day and even multi-lingual phone support. Or use the call back function and have a staff member phone you up. All in all, Bet365 provides one of the best services in the business.

Banking

For deposits, there's a bunch of methods available: Neteller, Moneybooker, Credit Card, Entropay, Western Union, Click2Pay, UKash, Instadebit, SolidPay, FirePay, Paysafecard, Bank Transfer plus a few more. Withdrawals to e-wallets are rather fast, around 12-24 hours. Cashouts to bank account, by cheque or other method N/A.

Conclusion

I've played at Bet365 for almost 4 years and I really like it here. It is clearly one of the best iPoker Network sites with it's next to impeccable customer service and above average speed for cashouts. This online poker room comes highly recommended imho. I have awarded Bet365 poker room 4.5 stars in this review: only a handfull of poker rooms can compare in my opinion