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Our 2017 Review of 3x EGR Award Winner, 888 Poker

Have you heard of 888 Poker?

There’s a good chance you have.

888 is a well-known international gambling brand. You might even have an account at one of their sites – maybe their casino, bingo hall or sportsbook. You may have even already read one of our other 888 reviews on their casino or sportsbook.

In this review, however, we’re going to cover their poker room.

While they’re not remotely close to overtaking PokerStars – the 600-pound gorilla in the online poker space – 888poker does have some neat promotions, features and tournaments that I think might be reason enough to check them out.

The only way to know for sure? - Continue reading below.

Visit 888poker

Device Compatibility:

Key Information

• Website – www.888poker.com
• Launched in 2002
• Licensed by the UK Gaming Commission
• Email - [email protected]

Hits & Misses

• Huge Selection of Banking Methods
• Completely Mobile Compatible
• Great VIP Program
• Below Average Promotions
• Limited to 4 Tables

Deposit Methods

Who is 888 Poker? Who owns them? Are they licensed?

888 is owned and operated by 888 Holdings, a massive public gambling company located in Gibraltar. Their poker room started in 2002.

They’re an EGR Award Winner (Best Poker Operator) 3-times running. And they have more than 10 million registered users.

Do they accept Americans?

One of the unique things about 888 – unlike many of their peers – is that they’ve penetrated the legal US market. If you live in Delaware or New Jersey, you can play at one of their skins. Otherwise you won’t be able to play here.

Do they have any complaints, scam accusations or warnings?

Any company who’s been around for as long as they have will have complaints. But there’s nothing major worth mentioning. I couldn’t find a reason that would keep you from playing here.

How do you contact support?

You have a couple options:

EMAIL: [email protected]

Contact Form on Their Website

I’ve seen other sites say they have phone numbers, but only if you find the number from a random (hidden) page or one of their other properties. So, it sounds to me like they’re not interested in chatting on the phone.

I’ve also seen other reviewers say their email support can be better. That it often takes more than one email to get a response, and that responses are less than helpful.

I’ve seen others say the complete opposite, though – so, your mileage may vary.

What banking methods can you use to make a deposit? Are there any limits or fees?

Here are the options you can use to fund your account:

Limits for most options start at between $10-$20.

What options can you use to cash out? Are there any limits or fees?

You can use:

Cash outs can take up to 1 week to process, and then up to another week to clear your account. But this is for certain options only, and is the worst case scenario.

There appears to be no fees. However, if you win more than $30,000, they do say they may pay you out in installments of $30,000/month.

The minimum cash out is between $10-$25. It depends on the option and what currency you use. And you can cash out between $5,000 and $50,000 per month – this depends on your ‘level of authentication,’ which is based on how much information you’ve given them. You can learn more about that on their website.

Does 888poker offer a welcome bonus?

They do – they have a welcome package.

With this offer you’ll get a 100% match up to $400. Claim the entire amount and you’ll have an $800+ bankroll.

In addition to the bonus, you’ll also get:

• 2 tickets to a $1,000 depositors freeroll
• 7 tickets to a $500 first depositors freeroll
• 1 ticket to a first depositors challenge tourney

The freerolls may not seem important, but they give you a chance to earn a lot more than the $400 bonus.

The bonus money will be released to you in $10 increments for every 100 bonus points you earn. You earn points at the rate of 2 points for every $1 paid in rake (cash or tourney).

You’ll continue at this clip until you earn the entire bonus, or until 90 days are up (when the offer expires).

Do they have any additional bonuses or offers?

There are a few offers, however, there’s only a couple ongoing promotions. Here’s the details.

This is an interesting promo where you can boost your winnings. There are 5 different ways to do this:

• Monday Twins Freebie – Finish in the money in both the Monday Twins Challenge tourneys (on the same day) and you’ll get seats to the following week’s tourneys.
• Free Month of Sunday Challenges – Make the final table in both the Twins Challenge tourneys and you’ll get seats to all of the following month’s tourneys.
• Win one tournament and make the final table in the other in the same day and you’ll get $1,000 cash.
• Win one tournament and come in 2^nd in the other and you’ll get $2,500 cash.
• Win both tournaments in the same day and you’ll get $10,000 cash.

And that’s on top of the money you can win playing either/both tournaments. This gives you 7 different ways to win every Monday.

Invite your friends to 888 Poker and you’ll get $10 cash. You’ll also get a ticket to a free tournament where you can win iPads, iPhones and other neat stuff.

888 runs limited time promotions, too. Sometimes these last only a few weeks, while other times they may last 2, 4 or even 6 months. For example:

• Get $88 free
• Jackpotland – Play in their free tourneys up to 4 times each day. Spin their jackpot wheel each time you make it to the top 500 players. You can win up to $100,000 on every spin. The more tournaments you play, the more chances you have to win.

Other than their poker offers, they also promote their casino and sports promotions. This will give you access to thousands more in bonus money. That might be something to consider if you’re interested in casino games or sports betting.

Do they have a VIP program?

They do – their 888 Poker Club.

One of the unique things about their Club are the levels – there are TONS – 500 levels in all. To move up, all you need to do is earn so many points and Gold Tokens.

You can see all their levels, and what it takes to earn each one on their website.

You earn points by playing poker and casino games, betting on sports, or completing one of their many challenges.

There are many perks to becoming a Club member. For example, every time you climb 5 levels, you’ll get a mystery scratch card where you can one of these prizes:

• Tournament tickets
• Cash bonuses
• Casino Free Play
• Sports Free bets
• 888poker Club points
• Live Casino Bonuses
• Club Gold Tokens
• Live Bet Bonuses

There are also tournaments for every 5 or 10 levels you move up. Each one has a different prize pool attached to it. They get as high as $10,000.

This is a unique VIP Club. You’ll earn points for playing – something you were going to do anyway – and unlike other rooms, the tiers don’t look terribly hard to hit – in the beginning, anyway. It gives you a lot of incentive to come back and play.

What software do they use? What features do they have?

They use their own proprietary software. The upside to this is that it’ll feel new – unlike when you play at a poker skin where they use the same exact software as the other rooms on the network.

The downside is it may take some getting used to. It may also not have or support all the features you want.

Some of the features 888’s software has includes:

• Whether to show your folded cards.
• Choose how the tables react when it’s your turn.
• 3D poker tables.
• Webcam poker tables.
• Tracking software (such as Holdem Manager) is supported.
• Play up to 4 tables simultaneously.
• Other software features I’ll cover in the next section or two (revolving around games, mobile or download options).

Then you have the common features all rooms have – chatting with players, emoticons, taking notes, showing bet/pot amounts, and so on.

How can you play their games? Do they offer mobile poker?

They give you 3 options – a download, an instant play (browser) room, and yes, even mobile access.

It sounds like their mobile poker is well above average, too. It works well, and all their games and stakes are available. You can also handle your banking, though you have fewer banking options from your phone. The biggest complaint about their mobile is the lack of multi-table support. But that’s hardly surprising, given that their desktop/instant play poker room only allows a max of 4 tables.

Their mobile poker room is compatible with newer generation Apple and Android devices.

How much traffic do they have?

According to Poker Scout they are 3^rd in the entire world. When I checked them out, they had 2,700+ cash game players and a 3,000 player peak 24-hour average. Poker Scout doesn’t show 888’s total number of players online.

Their traffic levels are darn good since they’re not on a network. They share their traffic with only the few (smaller) sites they own.

What poker games can you play?

You can play:

What cash games can you play? What variants? What stakes?

Texas Hold’em is the clear favorite, followed by Omaha. The stakes you can play vary on the game, but you can expect to find anything from $0.01/$0.02 up to $25/$50; fixed limit Hold’em from $0.02/$0.04 to $500/100; pot limit and fixed Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo from $0.01/$0.02 to $25/$50.

888 offers tables with 2, 6 and 9 seats, except at hold’em, where there are no heads-up cash game tables.

One of 888’s more popular variants is Snap Poker, their version of fast fold poker. With this version you can play upwards of 200-300 hands per hour. This is available on all their platforms – download, instant play and mobile.

What kinds of tournaments can you play? Do they have any guaranteed tournaments?

If you check out their tournament page, you’ll see they have all kinds of tournaments. You can play:

• SNGs
• MTTs
• Heads-Up
• Satellites
• Step Tournaments
• Guarantees

And more.

Players say their SNGs up to $10 fill up pretty fast. And you can find heads up matches up to $100 that run.

The most interesting SNG they have, I think, are their BLAST tournaments. These are like the Spin and Go tourneys you’ll find elsewhere that have a randomized prize pool.

This is how 888 does theirs:

• 2x prize pool 55% of the time
• 5x prize pool 40% of the time
• 10x prize pool 4% of the time
• 100x prize pool .04% of the time
• 1,000x prize pool .004% of the time
• 10,000x prize pool .001% of the time

These are 4-player hyper tournaments. It’s sort of a combination between a turbo SNG and a lottery.

If that, or any kind of SNG is not your thing, 888 has all kinds of different tournaments, too. Here are some of their more popular options:

• The Hurricane – Buy-in for $109 and play for a min $5,000 guaranteed prize pool. Has 10 minute levels, late registration and re-buys. This one has 8 players per table.
• The Typhoon – This has a $55 buy-in which will get you 5,000 starting chips. There are re-buys, but no add-ons. The guaranteed prize pool is $4,000.
• The Turbo Mega Deep – This has a $215 buy-in which will get you 10,000 starting chips. The blinds increase every 6 minutes and there are no rebuys or add-ons, though there is late registration for the first 2 hours. This has a $40,000 guaranteed prize pool.
• The Goldfish – This has a $1 buy-in which will get you 5,000 chips. The guaranteed prize pool is $500. There are re-buys, and the blinds go up every 6 minutes.
• The Whale – This one has a MASSIVE $600 buy-in which will get you 10,000 chips. The guaranteed prize pool is $120,000. Blinds go up every 25 minutes. There are no re-buys or add-ons, but late registration is available for the first 3 hours of the tournament.

And more. Lots more. This barely scraps the surface.

What I like here are the extremes – the budget-friendly $1 Goldfish tourney and the $600 buy-in Whale tourney.

They have several others, which you can see on their tourney page. Some of the variants include high roller events, knockout tourneys, turbo blinds, deep stacks, 6, 8 and 9-handed tables, re-buys, add-ons, and more.

What I really like about their tourneys is they have a little something for everyone. No matter your budget, you can play in one of their guaranteed tournaments – and if not, you can always satellite into one. Not only that, but most, if not all of these run daily, giving you multiple opportunities to win big.

Here are our overall thoughts and recommendation for 888 Poker.

What do we like least about them?

And most important of all…

What do we like most about them?

Do we recommend 888 Poker?

Yes and no.

If you want a room like PokerStars, you’re not going to be happy here. 888 simply doesn’t have the promotions, tournaments or overall volume PokerStars has.

If that’s you, then I wouldn’t sign up here.

However, if you’re a low volume (cash) player; if you want to play some interesting tournaments; or, if you want to play any kind of tournament or cash game on the go, then 888 might be for you.

The bottom line – if 888 Poker sounds like a good fit – we recommend them.