bwin poker - Details

Game Variety (8)

bwin poker offers a good variety of games. Offered as of now are Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo and Five-Card Draw. The games vary between No-Limit, Pot-Limit, and Fixed-Limit.

Full-table games, shorthanded, and heads-up tables are all available. There are ultra high-limit tables with $1,000/$2,000 stakes in Fixed-Limit and $50/$100 in No-Limit Texas Hold'em. The 10¢/20¢ games are the smallest limit.

Ring Game Traffic (8)

Traffic at bwin poker is very good - especially in the Hold’em games, although more and more players are showing interest in the Draw, Stud and Omaha games. In all, bwin poker is a site with very good ring-game traffic at almost all hours. bwin poker has peak cash game traffic of 9,000 real-money players at peak hours (November 2008).

Soft Competition (9)

bwin poker offers games at most levels of competition. There are very juicy games at the lowest levels of Limit and No-limit Hold'em, while the high stakes games provide fierce competition.

The Ongame network is somewhat of a favorite for the really talented European high stakes pros, making the highest stakes games very hard to beat for anyone except a very skilled player. Still, you can at times find $5/$10 No-Limit Hold’em tables with a viewed-flop percentage of 35-40%. Overall, many Hold'em games have a viewed-flop percentage in the 40-50% range.

Rake (6)

The rake at bwin poker is above average when viewed as a percentage of the pot, but shares the average maximum of $3 per pot. The formula they use to calculate the applicable rake is based on three variables: type of game (Fixed-Limit or Pot- and No-Limit), the number of players in the hand and the size of the pot in terms of big blind multiples.

The difference is No-Limit and Pot-Limit games can rake a little more on the larger pots and Fixed-Limit games max out at one big blind for five to 10 players or a maximum of $3 on pots with more than 12 big blinds. The No-Limit and Pot-Limit games have a two big-blind maximum or a maximum of $3 at 5-10 player tables and 32 or more big blinds in the pot.

An example of where this system gets expensive is playing with 3-10 players and having a small pot of 4-12 big blinds. If the pot is at four big blinds, there will be a 0.4 big blind charge, which amounts to a 10% rake. On larger pots, for example a $200 pot at $2/$4 No-Limit, there is less of a charge ($3 here is equivalent to 1.5%).

Overall, the effective size of the rake is going to be determined by your style of play. If you are playing a tight aggressive game, being heavily involved in only a few pots, your rake is going to be low and you could be averaging below 2%. If you are involved in many smaller pots, you are going to have a higher rake - in extreme cases as high as 8-10%.

Support (8)

The support at bwin poker is fast, friendly and offers good quality. Options are e-mail and phone.

Financial Security (9)

Very good. bwin is one of the largest gaming companies in the world and very profitable. All player funds are kept in separate accounts and no financial problems have been reported.

Deposit & Withdrawal Options (8)

Deposit options: Visa, Visa Electron, MasterCard, Diners Club, Neteller, Moneybookers, Bank Transfer, Freebet Card and Western Union

Withdrawal options: Visa, Neteller, Moneybookers, Bank Transfer, Western Union and check.

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