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- Wide range of accepted payment options.
- Strong VIP program; compatible with mobile devices.
- A wide variety of competitions.
- A simple, well-organised lobby.
- Nice no-deposit bonus.
- Helpful tactics and instructions.
- Too long software setup.
- There is no option for live chat or phone help.
- Needs more options for promotions
- Prolonged withdrawal times.
The 888poker brand is renowned in the online gaming world, a status that can be attributed to its long history in providing online poker games. Our knowledge extends beyond just poker, as we’re aware that 888 Holdings, the parent company, also operates 888casino and a sports betting platform. This diversified approach in the gambling industry has contributed to the success of each of its platforms, with 888poker being a prime example of the company’s widespread acclaim.
Since the establishment of the poker room in 2002, it has consistently ranked at the top of the online poker rankings. We will always be grateful for its capacity to constantly supply top-notch poker games and tournaments.
Is 888poker Legal?
When joining a new poker room, the first thing we always look for is whether or not it has a reputable presence in the gaming industry. We’ve discovered that an unauthorized online poker room doesn’t offer much benefit unless you have a reliable deposit and withdrawal method.
However, we were pleased to see that 888poker has multiple gambling licenses, which not only guarantees fair gameplay but also that your money is safe and secure there. The website’s bottom contains information on the licenses it possesses, including information that is plainly related to one from the UK Gambling Commission (#39028) and another from the Government of Gibraltar (#022 and #039).
You can count on playing in a secure environment with the platform because it holds these licenses in addition to a third one from the Malta Gaming Authority (#MGA/B2C/543/2018). Additionally, 888poker supports GamStop, GAMCare, and has received eCOGRA accreditation.
Can I play 888poker in the United States?
Additionally, 888poker is one of the few online poker rooms that serve the US market, which is another plus. the ones that have legalized playing poker online, at least. Despite this, not all of those places have a live poker room. Instead, it offers New Jersey residents access to the official 888poker website. You won’t be able to access the 888poker brand outside of that state.
The option exists for 888poker to expand its presence into further US states in the future, and we were able to learn that the company has been considering this for some time.
Although it’s true that there are only a few poker rooms serving the US market, 888poker offers something unique in contrast. These distinctions have allowed it to distinguish itself as one of the top places for US players to sign up and access their preferred poker variations.
888poker Software & Games
When we initially entered the 888poker lobby, the layout of the entire space truly left us extremely impressed. Each style of poker has its own category for you to travel to, making it simple for you to find the games and tournaments you wish to enter. As a result, you may examine all Hold’em tables in one place if, like us, you prefer to play Hold’em poker over other types of poker.
Speaking of poker games, 888poker gives you access to four additional categories in addition to the Hold’em options. Omaha, Stud, Sit & Go, and Tournaments are among them. We appreciate the ability to group your favorites in one location. We prefer to be able to quickly return to the games we enjoy, thus the “My Favorites” section is helpful for this. There are also two extra Snap Poker and Blast Poker portions.
Beginners at 888poker can also access a section designed only for them, which greatly simplifies everything. Newcomers can browse through nine distinct tables that are divided into three categories: Cash Game, Sit & Go, and Tournament, as opposed to a lengthy list of the various games and tables.
The beginner’s area impressed us with its straightforward arrangement and nine tables with three different game kinds.
The 888poker lobby features a good selection within each category in terms of the variety of each of its many games. For instance, No-Limit Hold’em offers games with stakes starting at $0.01/$0.02 and going all the way up to $500/$1,000. The majority of the Hold’em action at the poker room is on low and micro stakes games, with Hold’em games accounting for the majority of this action just like we mentioned on club gg poker review.
When compared to fixed-limit games, you’ll notice that the majority of the action occurs at $0.02/$0.04 micros. Despite the fact that the maximum stakes are $50/$100, this is the case.
You can view everyone you’re playing against at 888poker’s username and balance by looking at the graphic above.
Turning to the Omaha options, it appears that 888poker offers a variety of formats, but not enough players seem to be interested in them for the tables to ever become very busy. While it’s possible to play almost all Omaha games (Pot-Limit Omaha, NL Omaha, FL Omaha, FL Omaha Hi/Lo, and PL Omaha Hi/Lo) with traditional stakes ranging from $0.01/$0.02 to $50/$100, it’s actually surprising how little activity there appears to be at 888poker’s PL and PL Omaha Hi/Lo tables, which only accept micro and low stakes bets.
It’s good to have Seven-Card Stud and Stud Hi/Lo alternatives available there in terms of Stud poker games. However, these tables are rarely used for anything other than sporadic heads-up bets, with stakes ranging from $0.02/$0.04 to $30/$60. The players that do use this lobby for Stud play should be noted because they don’t frequently use the lesser stakes tables.
We also appreciate the fact that there are many possibilities for customizing the tables. Although the overall gameplay is unaffected, this does give you the option to add a little more personalization. You can select from a variety of backdrops, deck types, and card faces, and you can change the card format between Tilt and Flat.
Is Possible for Me to Play 888 Poker anonymously?
For some people, like ourselves, accessing an online poker room that encourages anonymous activity has become very vital. Although you will have the choice to play such games, this is not true of all of the games offered at 888poker.
This is where the SNAP promotions are available, and you can play Pot-Limit Omaha and No-Limit Hold’em in this area of the lobby. I agree with what a few other 888poker players have said about the SNAP games in that they’re pretty simple to access and navigate. These poker games are without a doubt some of the best anonymous poker options available online if you’re a player who lives outside of the United States. However, it might be argued that they are not truly anonymous games since they just send you to another table after you fold, which is usually one at complete randomness.
We’d like to mention that we have some knowledge of the SNAP poker possibilities that this brand offers because we have played them. Even though we aren’t professionals, we do really love playing the quick-fold offering. Now, it’s okay if some of you already have your own plan in place. Maybe you can just add a couple of modifications or changes to your current approach.
Why not keep upping the blind steals? In SNAP mode, you’ll typically discover that the majority of players aren’t really paying attention to your own unique habits, allowing you to benefit from late-position blind thefts.
Additionally, we advise remembering that the majority of SNAP poker players make simple decisions rather than complex ones. It’s essentially anonymous play (though not entirely), but it might be difficult to incorporate higher thinking into such games when you’re unaware of how other players at the table have previously played.
Another thing to keep in mind is that anyone choosing to stay engaged in a task must be doing so for a reason. Keep an eye on all of the callers who are acting behind you because it’s likely that they have a strong enough hand to fold right away.
We’ve discovered that SNAP games are among the most thrilling poker types. Simply put, after folding at one table, you are immediately transferred to another table where there are other players who have also just folded. After then, everything starts over. It’s similar to a quick-play option for poker players who don’t like to wait around while a game continues after they’ve folded.
Our Experience with Non-Anonymous Gaming
Although we do enjoy playing at anonymous tables, there aren’t as many of them at 888poker as there are at non-anonymous tables. So, we also played poker at the traditional tables.
Did this cause us any problems? In no way. Of course, it’s undoubtedly true that all online poker rooms will see visits from experts who can use the information from other players. When playing there, were we ever targeted? We won’t really know for sure, but we can’t really say that we’ve ever been followed from table to table or game to game by another player or players.
We can’t assume that this is the case for everyone because, as we said, it’s true that most players actually pay attention to the opponents they play against when playing non-anonymous games. But regarding our own experiences, we can honestly claim that 888poker didn’t cause us any problems.
Downloads for MAC and Windows
If you’re anything like us, you’ll always want to make sure that the software is quickly downloaded and installed so that you may begin playing poker. Even though it wasn’t an especially protracted process, downloading 888poker on our Windows machine took longer than we anticipated, to be completely honest.
We estimate that we waited for a total of roughly 10 minutes, starting when we clicked the download link and continuing through the installation procedure. We grant you that this seems short in the big scope of things. However, we were able to access the software of other poker platforms considerably more quickly, and by the time we were done, we had played a similar variety of entertaining poker games.
Since the installation process took longer than expected, rather than the download itself, this may be an area where 888poker focuses on making improvements.
Given that the file is around the same size, MAC users will probably encounter a similar scenario. The software is undoubtedly downloadable for MAC machines, but installation will probably take the same amount of time.
Utilizing 888poker’s Instant Play Games
We have never enjoyed playing poker via a web browser. There is something about it that just seems a little odd to us, albeit we don’t know why. To make things a little bit simpler for ourselves, we frequently download the software to our desktop or play on mobile, which is common in many apps these days such as upoker club which everybody is raving about.
However, you may access 888poker’s poker lobby with a web browser. However, it isn’t something that is actually heavily advertised. Additionally, the initial deposit bonus you receive when playing it in a web browser is only worth a maximum of $10, which is significantly less than the maximum $400 bonus offered when playing the downloaded version.
That doesn’t change the fact that all of the games that require downloading software are playable on the 888poker internet version. You may easily play the real money games by just logging into your 888poker account on the website. Considering that not all gamers prefer to download software on their desktop, it is a very helpful feature of the brand. Due to the fact that 888poker is one of the few well-known companies to provide a no-download poker alternative, some players find this to be a particularly alluring addition.
It’s fantastic that adopting the no-download version also ensures you don’t miss anything. The same assortment of games that are available through downloading software are also available through instant play. You can easily play the games on a Windows PC or MAC computer using your preferred browser.
888Poker bonuses
Finding an online poker room that offers a wide range of promotions is always a delight for us. That was also one of the first 888poker features we choose to research before joining. Fortunately, we didn’t have to look very far because the website has a section that lists all of the unique campaigns you may participate in.
Were we let down? In no way. In reality, 888poker offers players a wide variety of enticing prizes to choose from. Even though there aren’t a ton of benefits to choose from, it still produces a strong enough impression to attract a sizable number of players, in our opinion. Everyone has something to receive at some point, regardless of whether you’re a frequent player in the poker room or a beginner.
You may get the 888poker current offer seen in the image above right now!
In the end, we were pleased to learn that 888 also regularly changes its special deals so they don’t go stale. The same old, same old does get boring after a while, as we have seen with other poker platforms. This wasn’t the case for us, though, with 888poker because we were able to take advantage of a fantastic assortment of prizes while playing games there.
We’d like to let you know how to get the most of the money you receive from the site’s freerolls.
You’ll receive an email after downloading the poker client and registering, which you must open to confirm your email address. After that, you’ll notice a free $20 bonus there with no deposit necessary as you check in to the 888poker lobby. We usually advise sticking to tournament play and Sit & Go games with a buy-in of $1 or less to get the most out of this. This enables you to learn more about how the games work and how 888poker functions as a whole without having to spend any of your own money doing so.
The 888Poker Rewards Program
The 888poker website impressed us not only with its standard promotions but also with something else called the 888poker Club. After signing up to the poker room, you can visit the 888poker Club, where you can select from various different Club Challenges to complete. All you need to do from there onwards is start playing games to earn points along the way. The great thing about the club is that you can also earn points if you decide to place sports bets or play on casino games, too.
For each of the challenges that you complete, you’ll be the recipient of a different amount of points. Additionally, you’ll accumulate points when you continue playing poker in general. Then, when you have enough points, you get to climb up to the next level. A large number of tokens are awarded to you each time you advance to a new level.
We were really pleased to learn that once you have enough tokens, you can exchange them for a variety of gifts. Tickets to sporting events, cash bonuses, bonuses at live casinos, free plays in casinos, free bets on sports, and many more items are among the rewards offered.
Because of this, the more you play at 888poker, the more points and tokens you’ll earn. As a result, you’ll eventually be able to exchange them for bigger and better prizes. That was more than enough to have us coming back to the 888poker site time and time again.
Tournaments at 888poker
We do not participate in tournaments continuously, but there are moments when they can be fun to access. Because of this, it’s useful to know where they are and how to access them while visiting a certain site.
The aforementioned illustration demonstrates the wide variety of tournaments that may be entered on the 888Poker website.
They are very easy to find in the gaming lobby at 888poker. If you select the “All Games” tab, you can find them all organized under the “Tournaments” section. From there, you can filter through them all or browse them as a whole collection in one. 888poker has a mass of poker tournaments for players to enter, and that couldn’t make us happier. There are few things worse than not having a good selection of tournaments, but with 888poker, you won’t have to worry about that.
You can search for a specific tournament by name at the bottom of the list from the tournament home screen, in addition to being able to filter the events by kind. Additionally, to view any events you have already registered for, click the “My Tournaments” link. At the bottom of the screen, there is an intuitive Legend that you can use to see additional information on each tournament.
888Poker Live
It’s not only about the typical online experience because 888poker also offers a variety of live events that take place all throughout Europe. These occur frequently enough, and the live events have all been held in cities like London, Bucharest, and Barcelona. The 888poker website often has all the information about forthcoming tours, as well as information on satellites and buy-ins for the events.
888poker User Base
Anyone who has participated in tournaments and played in cash games at an online poker site is aware of how busy they can occasionally get. As is to be expected, this is particularly true with more widely used systems.
In terms of overall traffic, the 888poker website typically alternates between second and third place alongside its nearest competitor, Partypoker. We found that PokerStars is the only poker room that consistently rests ahead of it.
Overall, the 888poker platform has a lot of traffic because it is available in many different countries all over the world. The average number of players participating in cash games on the platform will typically reach 1,500 most weeks. The busiest hours for traffic are often from 7 to 9 p.m. GMT. Between these hours, the average number of players seated at tables will consistently exceed 2,600, and on weekends, that figure will rise even further.
When it comes to tournaments, you’ll typically find that the events with buy-ins of $15 or less draw between 800 and 2,000 participants. Despite having far less traffic overall than PokerStars, 888poker has just slightly fewer players participating in tournaments. In spite of this, PokerStars hosts more tournaments than 888poker does.
Mobile 888Poker
We might also argue that in more recent years, we’ve grown pretty acclimated to playing poker on our smartphones. Although we’ll admit that we initially opposed it, it does give you something to do while you’re out and about. Naturally, with such a following, we knew that 888poker wouldn’t skip out on taking part.
That is why we were thrilled to see that the poker room has a dedicated app that users of Android and iOS may use.
It’s always convenient to have access to your preferred poker tables from any location, which 888poker makes possible with its mobile apps, as seen in the above image.
The best part about 888poker’s mobile platform is that there is no need to download any software to your phone or tablet. The platform’s instant play feature is still available to you. It goes without saying that this is fantastic for anyone who either lacks the space on their device or doesn’t want to download a poker app to their smartphone or tablet.
Both times, all you need to do is use your regular login information, and you’ll discover that 888poker’s full selection of games are accessible there as well. Both the mobile app and the mobile instant play versions of 888poker will closely resemble what you experience on a PC in terms of visuals, design, and speed. This caught us off guard because there are typically at least one or two notable variations between the mobile and desktop versions of gaming websites. Nevertheless, 888poker is able to offer you the same superior experience regardless of your decision.
Exclusives for Mobile 888poker
There are no special deals or benefits for using a smartphone or tablet to play. We are aware that several poker casinos have offered unique incentives or promotions to players who choose to use their mobile platforms. However, 888poker treats every player equally, which is something we genuinely prefer.
Deposits & Withdrawals at 888poker
Before we finish the sign-up process at an online poker site, we carefully examine the payment options. For us, it’s important to know what we may use to deposit money into and withdraw it from the account we’re opening. So, when we looked over 888poker’s list of authorized payment methods, we were glad to see that there is a big selection of supported banking choices.
The graphic above demonstrates the variety of payment options available to you at 888Poker for deposits and withdrawals.
You should consider what works for gamers in your particular location since the accepted payment methods will naturally vary from country to country. For us, however, we typically use a debit card or an e-wallet for such transactions.
Personally, we transferred money into our online account using both a Visa Debit card and the PayPal option. I was able to make fast deposits using both of these techniques, and the procedure was incredibly easy.
Everything is clearly marked, and you have the choice to deposit one of a number of predetermined sums or enter a different amount by selecting the “Other” button. Nothing out of the ordinary is on display there.
While making a deposit at an online casino is typically a quick process, making a withdrawal can occasionally be more difficult. Because of this, our PayPal transaction was done far more quickly than when we chose to withdraw money via a Visa. If you are familiar with online gambling sites, this probably won’t surprise you in the slightest. E-wallet transactions typically take less time than card and bank transfer transactions.
It should be easy to withdraw, but this isn’t always the case.
We have always believed that if we can deposit money at an online poker room without too much difficulty, we should be able to withdraw money from the same site without any problems. After all, it’s actually up to the poker room and the payment method to return my money to us in a timely manner if we’ve validated our account with the required documentation and requested a withdrawal of a certain amount of money.
Now, we had a good experience with PayPal throughout this procedure. Regardless of the payment method you choose, there is a three-day processing delay that you must endure before receiving any inquiries. But when this time had passed, our PayPal transaction was finished in the promised 1-2 days. Actually, we probably had it with us in a couple of hours.
Although you can also use a bank wire transfer and a Visa card to withdraw money (if you’ve used one to deposit money in the past), we found that these options all take a lot longer to accomplish. The Wire Transfer was arguably the longest money wait we’ve ever had, but given the procedure, it goes through, we weren’t surprised. We were given a time period with the Visa transaction that may last up to 8 days, which is quite long for this kind of payment method.
We’d argue that despite all of the poker room’s fantastic benefits and built-in features, the waiting period for what ought to be a straightforward withdrawal is very absurd.
Support for 888poker players
This poker room’s main goal is to educate players about the games and the whole website. Because of this, there is a comprehensive FAQs database that addresses every facet of game play. However, you are welcome to get in touch with their support staff by email or by using the website’s contact form.
The 888poker website’s apparent lack of direction when it comes to offering top-notch customer care is one of my greatest complaints with it. We’ll concede that this brand has a fantastic structure for its online assistance center. There are numerous questions addressed, and frequently, the responses are sufficiently thorough.
However, aside from this, email is the only option to get in touch with the 888poker customer care service. Additionally, there isn’t really a clear way for you to do that either. You must fill out the form that is shown on the website.
However, in this day and age, we always expect to see a live chat function available, therefore it would be unfair of us to criticize an online poker site so harshly for its contact choices. This is one of the easiest methods to get someone’s attention, especially if you need to solve a pressing issue right away. Emails can never be responded to as quickly as a live chat feature, and websites frequently state that they will respond “within 24 hours”.
Rating for 888poker
We’d argue that things were better than they are now, but you may still take advantage of the lower gameplay today.
We’re talking about the fact that flop percentages at 888poker used to regularly reach 50%, meaning that on average, at least half of the table was viewing the flop in games that took place a few years ago or so.
Although that has slightly evolved in more recent years, in our opinion, the players that choose to play poker on this platform are among the worst we’ve seen in the online gambling market. To see this, all you have to do is consider 888poker’s biggest rivals and their software, such PokerStars, ClubGG Poker or Pokio.
That’s not so fantastic for someone looking for intense competition from their opponents, but 888poker’s cash games are frequently the best option for someone looking to indulge in some fishing. If you’re a little more experienced, it’s likely that you’ll gain something from being able to outperform the less skilled gamers on this platform.
Even though it’s only a generalization, we have managed to notice it in regards to 888poker. And even if we aren’t true professionals, there are probably a few others who are who have already spotted it.
888poker Review Summary
If we were to sum up 888poker in one sentence, we would probably say something like… It boasts a fantastic array of built-in features and add-ons to satiate players, but it falls short in one or two crucial areas.
The absence of optimal assistance choices is something that will always stick out to us when I think about those important areas. With the addition of live chat, this is one of the first elements we would alter.
In addition, we would like to see changes made to the way 888poker handles players’ withdrawal requests. Again, this is something that has to be resolved more quickly for a top-tier poker site. Players frequently find themselves waiting more than one week, and occasionally up to two weeks, for their withdrawal due to a 72-hour pending period, followed by the time it takes for the funds to arrive via numerous methods.
The additional promotions is another noteworthy item that we’d like to see. Even while the ongoing incentives may change frequently enough, poker players need something more to keep them interested.
What is there about 888poker that is good now that the drawbacks have been addressed? Since you can play poker anywhere, we truly appreciate that the site and its quality are the same everywhere. You receive the same interface and selection of games to play whether you like quick play, downloading games, or playing on a mobile device.
Additionally, we’re pleased with how much customization is possible in terms of the various backdrops, card decks, and other elements. With the advent of the SNAP and BLAST alternatives along with the more straightforward poker games, the selection of poker games is also highly enticing. The software runs quite smoothly, making for a consistently simple gaming session.
One final point to make is that 888poker supports a wide variety of payment options. In terms of the variety of available financing options, we are always interested in poker sites that serve a larger audience. In addition to the payment methods it allows, 888poker achieves this by offering both downloading mobile apps AND the opportunity to play in instant play mode.