I like it when an online poker site is backed by a large and successful company. It means my money will certainly be safe, the site’s software will definitely be of high quality, and customer support will be better than at smaller rooms. Big companies have a lot to lose in terms of market share and reputation, so they generally try a bit harder to please. That’s certainly the case with www.Bet365.com poker.
Bet365 is the 7th largest private company in the United Kingdom. According to its website, Bet365 serves 5 million customers in over 200 countries across the world. Bet365 employs over 1,000 people to ensure the high quality of its sports betting, casino, bingo and poker operations. In short, Bet365 has the resources to provide a top-notch poker experience. And in my opinion it succeeds in every way.
I was very impressed by the Bet365 software, the volume of players on the network, and the softness of the games at my stakes. I could fire up the Bet365 client, quickly find my preferred games, and sit in at 16 tables without a hassle. I found that the players at the Holdem and Omaha Hi tables were, in general, terrible; so I had no trouble making some money while also donking around for fun.
What’s more, Bet365 runs some great promotions and tournaments that add value to the playing experience. There are a ton of incentives for me to stick around at the site, which I’m glad to do, since these incentives help my bottom line. Be they in the form of straight-up bonuses or value-added tournaments, there are myriad opportunities to boost profit at Bet365.
Bet365 is safe, secure, and trusted in the industry. It spreads tons of games of all types and stakes. If you’re looking for a great all-around poker room, Bet365 is for you (Bulgarian and Italian players are excluded from playing at Bet365).
Bet365.com Poker – Bonus Offers and Promotions
Bet365 will give you a 100% bonus on your first deposit, up to $100. That’s $100 free just for signing up and putting your bankroll on the site. The bonus is easy to clear, and is released in increments as you play raked hands. The benchmark is $10 per 1,200 “Merit Points” earned. You’ll earn about 3.2 Merit Points for a pot raked at $1; 7.6 Merit Points for a pot raked at $2; 16 Merit Points for a pot raked at $3; and so on. Given this structure, the bonus clears quickly; especially if you’re multi-tabling or playing stakes higher than $0.50/1.
Once you sign up at Bet365, you’re eligible to compete in a series of “Beginner’s Races.” If you opt-in, you’re basically competing against a bunch of other newbies to see who can play the most raked hands. This is a great way to motivate yourself to clear your first-deposit bonus while earning some extra prizes on top. At the end of each Beginner’s Race period (2 weeks), the top 100 players in terms of raked hands played win cash prizes. First place wins $150, second place wins $135, and third wins $120; so if you’re a high-volume player, the Beginner’s Races are a great way to seriously boost your bankroll for free.
If you’re a Sit-n-Go player, you’ll love the Bet365 Jackpot SnG tables. There are four varieties of these, and the general idea is that if you win a few in a row, you get a prize. At the Dirty Dozen tables, for example, winning four in a row earns you $2,000. At the Maui tables, five wins in a row earns you $15,000 minimum. At the Rio tables, six consecutive wins nets you at least $30,000. These are all no-strings-attached cash prizes, so if you’re pretty good at SnGs, you’re well-off giving the Jackpot tables a try.
All Bet365 players become members of the VIP program upon sign-up. The program is based on the Merit Points we learned about above. As you earn Merit Points, you move up through the four different VIP levels; each of the four levels unlocks a new level of cash bonuses you can claim with your points. For example, a Silver VIP (1,000-9,999 MPs) can cash in 50,000 points for $600; a Platinum VIP (25,000+ MPs) can trade in 1,500,000 points for $37,500 cash. The VIP system at Bet365 is pretty straight-forward, and you don’t need to do anything above and beyond playing your regular games to earn prizes. Just keep grinding and you’re well on your way to earning cash bonuses that will pad your bankroll for free.
Obviously there are no shortage of bonuses and promotions at Bet365. In my opinion, the value-added here is much greater than most other sites online.
Bet365 Poker Cash Games – Traffic and Competition
Bet365 draws players from the iPoker player pool, which is currently the 4th-largest online poker network. That means there are a ton of games, a ton of tables, and a lot of fish pretty much 24/7. Bet365 runs a casino and sportsbook in addition to its poker room, so you’ll find a lot of degenerates spilling over onto the Holdem tables. This makes for lots of games and tons of donks–a grinder’s dream, really.
As is the case with most sites online, Holdem is by far the most popular game spread at Bet365. But unlike other sites, it’s not only No Limit Holdem that sees action. Fixed Limit Holdem is spread from micro to high-stakes, and there are even active Pot Limit Holdem tables to be found at all stakes–that’s rare to find, and cool if you’re looking for a change.
I’m a 6-max Holdem player, and I like to play lots of tables at once. Bet365 is great for me, since there are always tons of these games running–enough that I’m able to play 16 games simultaneously, at any time of the day or night. If you’re more of a full-ring fan, there is plenty of action there as well; certainly more than enough to set mine at 10+ tables.
I found a strong correlation between opponent skill level and stakes at Bet365. At the micro and small-stakes tables, players are a joke. You can basically make money while taking a nap against most of your opponents there. This holds true up to about $1/2 NL, where I noticed a drastic drop in the preflop call rates at the tables. Players tightened up, started getting agressive, and in general seemed like they knew what to do. If you’re looking for a more challenging game, that isn’t a problem–go ahead and sit in. But you’ll certainly find more fish at limits lower than $1/2 on Bet365.
If you’re not a Holdem player, Bet365 could be a good spot for you. Many lesser-known sites spread games like Omaha and Stud but don’t get any players using them. At Bet365, there’s always a significant number of players sitting in for all of Omaha Hi, Omaha 8, and 7 Card Stud.
The Pot Limit Omaha tables are very busy up to around $1/2. There’s more Omaha action at Bet365 than I’ve seen at most of the smaller rooms combined. What’s more, the Omaha players seem to really suck. I noticed a preflop call rate of around 80% for most 6-max tables, and about 65-70% for full-ring tables. That’s pretty insane, and a good indicator that the games are very soft.
As for the more obscure games, 5 Card Stud and Razz all have some space at Bet365. Unfortunately, there isn’t much traffic in the games above the micro-stakes. But if you’re just looking for a little variety, it’s great to be able to hack around on the $0.5/1 Razz tables with a bunch of bad players. Options are everything, right?
Bet365.com Poker Tournaments – Traffic and Competition
There are tons of tournaments running all the time at Bet365, both Sit-n-Gos and regularly scheduled MTTs. Since the network’s player pool is so big, the site spreads tourneys for all varieties of poker and in many different game structures.
If you’re into SnGs, you’ll find tons of lower-stakes Holdem action here. The most popular games by far are the 10-man turbos, which are heavily populated up to around $10+1. That’s not to say the action drops off above $10+1; far from it. Games run every 5 minutes or so at any stake you can find. But if you’re multi-tabling, your best bet is the lower-stakes turbos.
Bet365 runs what are called “double-up” Sit-n-Gos, which are an innovative twist on the regular 10-man game. In a double-up, the top 50% of players get paid out–so 5 out of 10. That means that while the payouts are slightly less than in regular SnGs, you cash more often. Winning these requires you to play a slightly different strategy than normal, which basically boils down to nitting it up. If that’s your style, you’ll like the double-up games a lot.
Bet365 keeps a robust and busy Multi-Table Tournament schedule, which is rare for a smaller room. The main drawing point I noticed were the guaranteed tournaments–there are tons of them, and overlays are pretty common, especially at off-peak hours. The $4k guaranteed rebuy runs daily, and seems like a popular game; the $2 buy-in means there’s always a good chance of Bet365 being stuck with the difference, which is good for you.
The flagship tourney at Bet365 is the Sunday $200k. As the name suggests, the game is a standard freezeout with a guaranteed prize pool of $200,000. The buy-in is $300+20; you can buy-in for cash or satellite in via one of the many–cheaper!–SnGs running throughout the week. Generally, this tourney runs at a huge loss for iPoker; 5-figure overlays are the norm, and not too long ago players were treated to $30,000 of iPoker’s own cash. As far as the major tournaments go, Bet365’s Sunday $200k is one of the best in terms of value for your money. If you’re a tournament regular, it is certainly a must-add to your schedule.
Bet365 Poker – Software and Support
I was very impressed with the quality of Bet365’s software client. When you first click on to the lobby, you’ll notice the sheer cleanliness of the thing–it’s really nice to see. Minimalism is in, and I really appreciate it when a poker room doesn’t stuff their software with all sorts of clutter. The colour scheme is a very pleasing teal and white, which makes locating tabs and reading table info an absolute joy; gaudy colouring doesn’t compromise readability, which is much more than can be said about many poker rooms.
The lobby features a variety of easily-locatable game filters that allow you to quickly and efficiently find your game of choice. Sort by stake, limit, game structure, players per table, and so on. You can choose to show only tables that play in a specific currency, if you wish–games are available in USD, EUR, and GBP.
The poker table interface at Bet365 is top-notch. Tables strike a nice balance between simplicity and functionality. Player notes are readily visible, avatars are not overbearing, and chips as well as bet amounts are easy to read. You’ve got the option of viewing your deck of cards in two or four colours, which is helpful if you’re multi-tabling.
Speaking of multi-tabling, you can play up to 16 games at a time at Bet365. This was a huge selling point for me, and was one of the main reasons I signed up. It’s getting more common for poker rooms to limit the number of tables you can play to 4 or 8 these days, which is terrible for heavy grinding; and if a poker room doesn’t limit tables, often its poorly-coded software will be so laggy that playing more than 4 at once is impossible anyway. Bet365 is wonderful in that regard; efficient software and a 16-table limit makes for happy grinding all around.
The support team at Bet365 is available 24/7 to answer whatever player inquiries come their way. There are plenty of options as far as methods of communication go: e-mail, telephone, fax, post, or live chat. As far as security goes, Bet365 has a flawless reputation in the online poker community. Your bankroll is safe and secure, the tables are free of colluders and cheaters, and the company isn’t in danger of going bust any time soon. In terms of software and support, Bet365 scores high in every regard.
Bet365 Poker Deposit and Withdrawal Methods
There are plenty of ways to get money into and outof your Bet365 account–as long as you’re not from the United States. Unfortunately, Bet365 can’t serve American players at that time. But for the rest of us:
Deposit Using
Debit Card (Electron, Laser, Maestro, Solo, VISA Delta), Credit Card (VISA, MasterCard), Neteller, MoneyBookers, PayPal, Click2Pay, Ukash, Entropay, Bank Wire, Bank Transfer, Cheque.
Withdraw Using
Debit Card, Credit Card, Neteller, MoneyBookers, PayPal, Click2Pay, Ukash, Paysafe Card, Entropay, Bank Wire, Bank Transfer, Cheque.
Bet365 Poker – Quality, Security, and Easy Games
Bet365 is a safe, secure place to keep your bankroll, and its support team is top-notch. There are a variety of cash games and tournaments spread around the clock, all of which host a ton of bad players consistently. The Bet365 software is one of the best poker clients you’ll find online. Getting money on and off the site is simple and hassle-free, and Bet365 has a stellar track record with respect to paying out on time.
What’s not to like?
The bonuses you’ll earn simply for signing up at Bet365 are significant, and the promotional tournaments Bet365 runs as a standard offer great value for your money. Sign up now and get started grinding at online poker’s best kept secret.
