Cake Poker Bonus Review
December 8, 2008
Get the maximum allowed 33% rakeback bonus + 100% up to $500 bonus
Cake Poker is the flagship site on the Cake Network and revolutionized the way players received player rewards by creating the unique Gold Card and Gold Chip program. The poker room provides various promotions for live events including their own unique promotions geared towards their rewards program such as their popular 100 Gold Card Giveaway events. Additionally players will receive a competitive first deposit bonus, top of the line support and Cake Poker is one of the few rooms left which cater to US players by accepting US credit cards. They are licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission and have been in business since 2006.
Cake Poker Initial Deposit Bonus
Cake Poker provides all new players with a standard bonus of 100% match up to $500. This bonus will be held in your pending bonus account until you have met the play through requirements which are explained below. You will also receive entry into the new player $500 freerolls on top of earning Gold Cards and Gold Chips by playing in any of the real money games. To meet the play through requirements you will need to earn frequent player points, with Cake awarding points at rate of 1 point for every $1 in rake or 3 points for every $1 paid in tournament fees. Every Cake Poker player point has a cash value of $0.06 of your bonus, which means you will need to earn 833 player points for every $50 in bonus dollars.
Promotions
The Gold Card and Gold Chip program is one of the room’s biggest highlights and actually rewards players for their loyalty. The Gold Cards are only available at the cash tables and are distributed to players by random. Once a table reaches a fixed amount of rake, the RNG will choose a card from the vault and provide it to a player at random. The cards are awarded in all cash games which means players can earn cards at any stake. These cards can be used in various on site promotions such as the Daily Gold Card Lottery, the Gold Card Race or collected as a set for a cash prize of $52,000. The Gold Chips work in a similar fashion and are earned based on the number of FPP’s you accumulate in both ring and tournaments. The Gold Cards can be redeemed in the Cake Poker online store or access to exclusive freerolls with prize pools up to $10,000.
Tournaments
Cake Poker has continually provided players with some great promotions and tournaments. Their tournament schedule is formatted for Holdem and Omaha games only and features daily guarantees, bounty tournaments, freezeouts and satellites to both their own main events in addition to live events. The tournament prize pools range from a couple hundred right up to the room’s monthly event, guaranteeing a $250,000 prize pool with buyins of $300 + $12, or you can earn your seat through a daily qualifier for only a couple dollars. An interesting tool supported at Cake is their tournament monitor located in the main lobby. This is a great feature for players who want to keep tabs on upcoming events, or track any tournaments which are about to run in an overlay.
Sit and Go Tournaments
The sit and go lobby provides a wide variety of tournament formats. Although the games are only supported in Holdem or Omaha, players will find shootouts, bounties, heads-up and their most recent addition the Kamikazes. The Kamikaze tournaments are the fastest SNG game online. Each player is forced to go all in on the first hand, and it’s a winner take all event. Although the game is based entirely on luck rather than skill it has become a popular event in the SNG department.
Ring Games
The ring games are supported in Texas Holdem, Omaha and Omaha Hi Lo with stakes starting at $0.01/$0.02 up to $50/$100 and tables hosted in NL, FL and PL in each of the variations. Over the last couple of years Cake Poker has seen a significant amount of growth and because of this, players should have absolutely no problems finding a game of choice at any of the stakes supported. In lobby statistics, displaying the viewed flop percentage, hands per hour and average pot size are available.
Software & Graphics
The software was created by a group of engineers and poker players who wanted to offer something unique and creative for players. The graphics are nicely designed and provide a sleek background with 3 dimensional avatars used and a full table setting. The games have a striking resemblance to an actual brick and mortar table. Players will have access to hand history files, which are saved directly onto your hard drive in addition to your own personal game stats located at the tables. The tables support chat and you will notice that your hand stats, player rewards info and note taking is located in the same box. An interesting take to the Cake software, is that they don’t support data mining software simply because they feel it gives players and unfair advantage. Due to this they also provide players with the ability to change their user names once every seven days, to avoid being tracked. Multi-tabling is available with resizing tools and Cake supports up to four games in play at once.
Competition
The competition at Cake ranges from your average beginner to semi online pro. The room has gained the attention of various players and because of this you will find the competition varies according to the limits played. That being said the low limit cash tables still provide an above average number of soft games with viewed flop percentages peak in the high 50’s through most limits up to $3/$6.
Support
Players who need to contact Cake Poker’s support team can do so by using the email or live chat features. The room does provide a support section within the lobby which details information about any known issues they are currently working on. If it’s an issue with the software, we suggest you check here first. The overall response time is excellent even during peak hours.
Deposit Options
$50 minimum deposit with Visa, MasterCard, Neteller, and MoneyBookers.
Withdrawal Options
Neteller, Moneybookers and Check
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