Sometimes poker players have a hard time choosing the best place for their play as the variety of poker rooms and their offers are plenty. For those occasions, we have prepared this article with the best current rake back deals. The rooms described below have an optimal combination of comfortable play and high rake back percentage.

PartyPoker is the poker room that actively develops recently. After gaining mere $25 per week, player guarantees himself 20% rake back. Regulars are eligible for automatically receiving:

• 25% rake back –$150 in rake or more;
• 30% rake back –$600 in rake or more;
• 40% rake back –$1,200 in rake or more.

For players that make $100,000 or more in rake per year, Party have status Diamond Club. To receive it, one has to contact support. It provides with 50% rake back.

New players at PartyPoker will get first deposit bonus of 100% up to $500. It has to be made within 120 days after registration in the poker room. Players have 90 days to wager it. The bonus is paid in parts of 10% of its total amount. 8 points of the poker room wager each dollar of the bonus. That means first deposit bonus provides players with 12.5% rake back.

PokerProDeals players additionally get payments on our exclusive deal.

PartyPoker also has all the conditions for players to make rake.

• updated software that supports trackers;
• big cash traffic (4-5 in the world in volume);
• active game in fast poker up to NL100 included;
• special Casual tables with amateurs at all the stakes.

PokerKing is the poker room for Russian-speaking players of the network that allows playing with US players – Winning. Minimal rake back available to all the players is 10%. VIP-program called Royal Club consists of five monthly levels. The first one is Bronze. The others are reachable after gathering a certain amount of rake:

• Silver: $305 in rake – 15% rake back;
• Gold: $758 in rake – 20% rake back;
• Platinum: $1516 in rake – 30% rake back;
• King: $3021 in rake – 40% rake back.

To stay at a certain level, one has to gather twice less rake.

First deposit bonus in PokerKing is 100% up to $777. It allows 10% rake back that is credited in portions of $2 for every $20 of rake.

Also this poker room has a weekly rake race for cash players – King’s Treasures. For players in its leaderboard it can add 20% in rake back.

PokerKing specialties:

• Good software that looks similar to PokerStars and allows tracker support;
• More action at cash tables (9^th place in the world);
• Presence of weak American players at the tables.

Chico Network (poker rooms Tigergaming, Betonline, Sportsbetting) is the second network in volume with American players. Official rake back is provided with points exchange and is equal to 5%.

Additional rake back is provided by:

• Big first deposit bonus – 100% up to $2,500. It is wagered for 60 days, in parts of $5 after gathering 1,500 Comp Points. It provides with 33% rake back;
• Weekly cash leaderboard for $10,000. It has three levels. Getting into TOP-20 provides with up to 20% in rake back depending on the final placement;
• Monthly reload bonuses that provide with 30% rake back.

Moreover, PokerProDeals get additional payments on the exclusive deal.

Chico networks poker rooms are different to the ones of Winning network:

• tracker support via converter that is provided to our players;
• weaker field due to low official rake back;
• fast poker presence.

Microgaming (Betsson Poker, Red Stars Poker, Poker Loco) is one of the most famous European poker networks that is mainly targeted for the biggest cash traffic in the world.

Loyalty systems of the poker rooms in this network offer their players maximal monthly rake back should they accumulate 300€ in monthly rake (Red Star players get in regardless of the rake accumulated amount). Maximal rake back is 10% but PokerProDeals players get maximal VIP status of the room and 30$ rake back right after the registration.

First deposit bonus up to €1,000 (200% up to $2,000 in Red Star Poker), that is credited for 60 days and provides with 20% rake back.

Additional monthly reload bonuses provide with 20% rake back.

Microgaming poker rooms are different to all the above mentioned with:

• restricted tracker support at casual cash tables;
• presence of totally anonymous cash tables in the traffic;
• lower rake due to smaller caps;
• minimal requirements to get maximal rake back.

PokerProDeals players in these poker rooms get the best rake back terms and receive additional support and bonuses.

The most popular variation of poker is certainly Texas Hold’em and you will see a lot of traffic pretty much in every online poker room. However, the overall level of the completion is much higher and there are other negative sides like bots and regulars. This makes it hard to win playing Texas Hold’em.

That’s not the case with Pot Limit Omaha which is the second most popular games of poker online. While there aren’t as many tables as NLH, this variation still attracts enough attention and the overall level of the competition is much lower. Whether it’s because there aren’t as many education materials online or because the game is more complex, the opponents are worse compared to Texas Hold’em. As a result, you could make good money playing PLO.

In this article, we will take a quick look at the traffic in the biggest online poker rooms out there. This will help you pick the best place for you, depending on the limits you play:

• PartyPoker: during peak hours, you will find plenty of table at PLO $10, but not more than 10. The next two limit offers about 5 tables or so, while there are 3-4 tables at PLO $50. If you go higher, there are 1-2 tables per limit from PLO $100 to PLO $1k. The exceptions are around the PLO $200-400 where you can find 5-7 tables on each of the limits;
• Winning Poker Network: surprisingly, there are more Omaha players here than PartyPoker. At the limits between PLO $10 and PLO $50 you will find at least 10 tables on each level during the peak hours which are around the evenings in Central Europe. You will also find a decent traffic at PLO $200-600 and there regularly more than 5 tables of PLO $1k;
• Good Game Network: the Asian giant GG network is also a good place to play some Pot Limit Omaha. You can find about 5 tables on each level up to PLO $400 and at least a table or two on the higher limits up to PLO $5k. You can also enjoy the unique Push/Fold format offered by GG. We’re talking about the European evenings here, the numbers are different at other times;
• iPoker: the micro and low limits up to PLO $100 offer about 5-10 tables during peak hours. If you go higher than that, you will find 1-2 tables only;
• Unibet Poker: this is a great place to find action around the low and micro limits in the PLO $4-$25 range. There are about 10 tables on each level during European evenings. The higher limits are still decent, with a couple of tables up to PLO $400 or so;
• Chico Network: this is one of the few places where there’s actually action on 9-max tables and not only 5/6-max. You will see about 10-12 tables on micro limits up to PLO $25. The number drops to 4-5 tables in the PLO $50-$400 range. Every now and then there will be active tables up to $1k PLO;
• Microgaming: the traffic here is very solid, especially during the peak hours in Europe. There are about 10 tables or more on all levels from PLO $10 to PLO $100. Above that, there are still a couple of tables on each level up to $1k PLO.

If you’re looking for the Omaha Hi-Lo variation, there’s not much traffic out there. You can find a couple of tables in most places, but only during peak hours and mostly low or micro limits.

A quick analysis of the numbers shows that you can find decent PLO action across all levels. If you looking for micro limits, Unibet is probably the best place out there. If you’re looking for PLO $10 and $25 tables, Microgaming and Winning are a good choice. For a bit higher limits, you should go to the GG network. Finally, the best high stakes action can be found at Winning Poker Network.

WPN has a couple of other advantages that make it a good place for Omaha players. For a start, it’s one of the places where HUDs run without any issues. On top of that, you can find some of the best rakeback deals.

Or conclusion is that Omaha is a great opportunity, especially in big networks limited to certain regions that aren’t so good at poker. The opponents there are worse than what you will find at No Limit Hold’em tables, but there’s a lot of variation and discipline required to be a long term winner in Pot Limit Omaha.

2017 was a good year for the citizens of some of the European segregated markets such as Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain. An agreement was signed on July 6 and it seems 2018 will bring even more deciding steps in this direction.

Spain And France Follow Through

The gaming regulators in France and Spain, ARJEL and DGOJ respectively, have announced that shared tables between players from the two countries are coming as soon as the next few weeks. It’s hard to say which poker rooms will take advantage of that, but the biggest players in the industry are the main suspects.

The news will certainly make the French and Spanish players happy. They could expect more formats to run better traffic, larger tournaments, and possibly, better promotions.

Portugal and Italy Still On The Wait

The situation is not as rosy in Italy and Portugal, though. The Iberian country seems to be working on the matter, but the local laws are way too restrictive. Still, the desire is there and the Portuguese poker player could expect good news at some point in 2018.

Italy is the only country that is obviously not interested in a shared player pool at this point. At least that’s what the politicians of the country think. The local licensing procedures are a nightmare, while the regulators are not sure if the shared pool is a good idea. The Italian poker players are certainly hoping for a change in this mindset soon, but there’s no clear indication what’s going to happen.

Our Two Scents

A shared pool between some of the biggest European markets is as natural as it gets. Of course, it requires a couple of different countries working together and coordinating their laws which is always an issue. We hope things go through easily and the players of rooms such as iPoker.it, Winamax, People’s Poker, and Pokerstars.it would experience even more traffic and promotions.

On November 1st almost all the rooms of Good Game network (Natural8, BetKings Poker, BestPoker, AllInAsia) applied the new loyalty system. Instead of fixed rakeback of 35% a new system called Fish Buffet was implemented.
Fish Buffet is a VIP program based on cashback with whole range of new never-before-seen specialties in the world of online poker.

How does Fish Buffet operate?

1) Firstly, you have to sight up for it by clicking the button opt-in in the right top corner of the client.

2) After the moment you will start playing for real money, the process of accumulating special points -Fish Buffet Points (FP) – begins; the points are accounted as 1FP for 1 cent of rake.

3) Since that very moment meter of Fish Buffet levels begins to operate (the progress can be tracked in the section account bonuses at Fish Buffet, or by clicking the icon of the system next to the area opt-in button was situated).

4) There are 25 total levels and 8 statuses (Plankton, Shrimp, Goldfish, Crab, Octopus, Whale, Shark and VIP) at Fish Buffet. The first two and the last statuses have only 1 level. GoldFish and Crab have three levels each (bronze, silver, gold). Octopus, Whale, Shark have five levels each (bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond).

5) You have a certain period to reach every level – from 1 day to 3 months. After the player reaches the level, he gets an opportunity to make a spin at a special reel spin (poker account – bonuses – Fish Buffet). The reel is divided into sectors with bonuses of different sizes. First two levels have four of them, the others – six. The bonus on the reel goes straight for the account. Player is able to enter the new level.

6) Should the player fail to accumulate the required number of FP (500 to 300.000), counting will be annulled and you will start from the scratch.

7) Reel bonuses provide you with 10 to 100% cashback. Its maximal size depends on the level you reach: ащк 24-hour levels – 40%, 72-hour ones – 50%, 7-days bonuses have rakeback of 60%, while 15-days ones of 80% and 90-day bonuses have rakeback of 100%.
What is the probability of bonus at Fish Buffet reel?

Fish Buffet has announced cash back of 15% to 50%. This indirectly tells us that reel bonuses probability is quite random and doesn’t effect its size. The representatives of the room give us controversial information. Looks like we’ll be able to get a clear view on it in a few months when the players will count the probabilities.
The answer to this question is the most important for the regulars of GG network. If the probability of bonuses will depend on its size, this might lead to the situation when cashback on the distance will be at its minimum of 10%.
If the probability of bonuses will be equal for all sizes, Fish Buffet innovation may provide with increased percentage of rakeback for grinding players. This increase will be only notable in the long run as bonuses are random.

In general, we can say that Fish Buffet is hobby player-oriented system to support their activity in the room starting from the first days of play.
PokerProDeals provides all our players at all the Good Game network poker with the best conditions for the game.

On July, 6^th new PokerStars VIP system came in force with its main specialty of practically full refusal of rakeback as a part of it. We can’t say that it is something new on the poker market as 888 Poker implied the similar system over a year ago. However PokerStars is the place where vast majority of poker regulars are concentrated and rakeback used to be an important part of their profit. Only rakeback was the factor that made play at high stakes with strong competition advantageous. No wonder maximum of mere several percent on new loyalty system sentenced the opportunity of these players to earn money playing poker to death. That’s why they are actively searching for PokerStars replacement.

With the help of this article we would like to offer you some alternatives to PokerStars play. PokerProDeals offers deals in more than 30 poker rooms, including the ones with good rakeback percentage and traffic top lists leaders for years.

Players who are looking for PokerStars replacement but aren’t ready to play in the most “exclusive” poker rooms may choose from the following poker rooms and networks:

• PokerKing (Winning network)
• IPoker network
• PartyPoker (Party.Bwin network)
• Microgaming network

They are given in such an order as in addition to rakeback and traffic size, the important part of their work in poker tracker support and software comfort for the users who are regular poker players.

PokerKing is the representative of American network Winning (WPN).  The network is in TOP-10 in traffic size.

Pros:

• Lots of weak American players
• Big and various traffic, in addition to a huge number of 6-max Holdem tables (up to NL1.000 included), there is action at CAP tables, in Omaha, HU, 9-max Hold’em tables, SnG tournaments up to $30, including lottery ones(jackpot poker and SnG 2.0) with buy-ins up to $100.
• Standard rake of 5% in cash games with average size of $3, low rake in HU cash (caps of $0,5 to $1,5) and in HU SnGs from 2 to 4,5%, 6% for jackpot SnGs and 5-9% in common turbo and hyper turbo SnGs.
• Royal Club – loyalty system with points exchange for cash with 10 to 40% of rakeback. You have to reach Royal status to get maximal rakeback ($3.333 in rake per month to reach it, $1666 to confirm it the following month).
• Weekly rake races King’s Treasures (for cash players) and SNG Treasures (for SNG players) which give 20-30% rakeback.
• Friendly support, including via chat in the client.
• The client supports trackers and other software without any restrictions, there are waiting lists and opportunities to see what players are at the tables in the lobby.

Cons:

• Maximal weak American traffic is in late night or early morning CET from 1-2 AM to 6-7 AM.
• Second and succeeding cash outs within the month have 5% fee.
• No fast poker
• High offered rakeback up to 70% attract big numbers of regulars especially in European prime at stakes of NL25 and higher, on the other side, PokerStars regulars though can’t be surprised with big number of  regulars at the tables considering the rakeback.

IPoker Network (Coral Poker, Winner Poker) – is one of the oldest and most famous European Poker networks. The network is in TOP-10 in traffic size.

Pros:

• Many weak European players as the network has many poker rooms, which are the part of weak gambling sportsbooks and casinos, weak players are stimulated with rake contribution system.
• Traffic peak is in the evening CET (later than in other European poker rooms and networks) and most of its part is in 6-max Hold’em tables up to NL1.000, the only place with Holdem 6+ action, speed poker with stakes up to NL100 (the most popular one is NL20).
• High rakeback percentage up to 70% on our deal
• Poker client supports trackers.

Cons:

• High rake due to cap of above average size and special contribution system (SBR) where winning players pay more tan half of the rake, on the other hand this creates good condition for about-zero and weakly losing grinders. High rake in lottery SnGs (Twister).
• HUD only for one table in fast poker, no waiting lists.
• The network doesn’t accept players from  certain countries

PartyPoker is one of the oldest and most famous poker room that used to be the leader of the industry before PokerStars. There are active changes in it and its rep improves. The room is In TOP-5 in traffic.

Pros:

• Peak if the traffic is in evening CET, weak field is cultivated by the poker room for several more years.
• The biggest traffic size of the offered poker rooms and networks. There is play at 6-max tables at Holdem, there is play at stakes up to NL5,000 , at stakes NL250NL200 there are 10 to 25 tables at all stakes, Fast Forward have the biggest stakes at NL500 with main part of traffic at NL10-NL100, there are lottery SnG Hero with buy-ins up to $100.
• Standard rake of 5% in cash games with middle cap sizes, low rake in SnG Hero of mere 5%
• Rakeback of 40% if you make $1,200 or more per month and 50% if you make $100K in rake per year, the possible rakeback percentage on our deal is 55-65%.
• Special “Casual Cash Games” with smiles in lobby for those amateurs who don’t like multi tabling.

Cons:

• All regular cash tables are anonymous and stats is only displayed in the current session, full-scale HUD is only available in fast poker.

Microgaming Network (RedStar Poker, PokerLoco, Betsafe Poker, NordicBet Poker, Betsson Poker) – famous European poker network, TOP-15 in traffic

Pros:

• Many weak players from Nother European countries, peak of the traffic begins earlier than in other European rooms and networks.
• Almost all the traffic of the network is in 6-max Hold’em tables – there are 10 to 20 tables at stakes NL20-NL100, there is some action up to NL1.000. Third part of all the tables are anonymous, lottery SnG Fish Party have a progressive jackpot up and buy-ins up to 50 euros.
• The lowest rake size in cash games of all the above mentioned rooms and networks due to small caps. Fish Party have rake of a little more than 5%.
• Fixed rakeback of 30% to 50% on our web site’s deal.

Cons:

• Fast poker only at NL2.
• Stats at cash games are available only for hands you’ve taken part it.
• No waiting lists, all the table in the lobby are anonymous, nicknames can be changes.

Those aren’t the only poker rooms and networks offered by our web sites. If you’re ready to play at lesser known poker markets with high rakeback level, contact us and we will provide you with the deal in Asian, Latin American, Middle Eastern poker room or reservation.

Organization of poker markets as national reservations is a wide spread practice. In Europe this principle is realized in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France. The main advantage of poker reservation and the goal of creating them is full control of financial streams and keeping the capital inside the country. On the other hand, such organization of poker market has one major disadvantage – size. The population of 10 million residents in Portugal and over 60 million in France and Italy gives a firm restriction for the growth of business and, therefore, its profitability and effectiveness.

Certainly those in such a business realize this fact and lately some events may be interpreted as a try to find a way out of this situation. The way out is fairly simple and it helps saving the main advantage of poker reservation and increases its size. It is in the bigger national reservation  inside European Union, that has financial and organizational structures that ease thus task.

During the latest year, the latest loophole was closed in Italian reservation with traffic segregation for .com and .it in The Hive network, Winamax received licenses to operate in Spain and Portugal and announced hiring employers with possession of Spanish and Portuguese. There were also pieces of news about work towards uniting pools.

Now we have an open info about this big reservation being created. Alex Dreyfus (Head of Global Poker Index) announced in Twitter that documents about uniting poker reservations of Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. Tech moments of this union will be tested this autumn.

It is possible that this is only the first step and only those countries prepared for it the most are uniting in the moment. More than two hundred million residents in this new reservation is great but EU can have twice bigger market.

Our web site supplies an opportunity to play in the most European poker reservations. As new bigger reservation of four countries with bigger traffic is being created, the new players will have an access to it with the best possible terms.

 

The choice of playing session time for regulars is defined primarily by the combination of two factors in the traffic of their main poker room. Those are pool size and players’ skill – i.e. optimal play time is the one with maximal traffic and the biggest share of weak players. As latter are the amateurs and play when they are free from work and other activities, everybody knows that peak of weak players is in the evenings of the time zone where the most layers of this or that room leave. The gap of +/- two hours from that peak is the best time to play.

All the poker rooms can be divided into three big groups on this factor: European, American and Asian ones. The easiest for us to adapt is European primetime, which is relevant for such networks as IPoker, Microgaming, Party. The traffic reaches maximum first in MPN at 21 hours CET, an hour later peak reaches Part and IPoker’s traffic peak is at 23:00. Such a shift is caused by bigger number of players from certain European countries in the traffic of those networks. Microgaming has more players from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, while Ipoker has more players from Great Britain, which is a couple of hours closer to the West.

American poker rooms and networks, regardless of being in Northern or Southern part of it have peak with maximal stream of weak local players in the evening of Atlantic coast time zone of the USA. This is at 3 AM CET. Chico network has peak 1.5 hours later. Winning network, according to PokerScout data has peak hours in the late night the early morning Central European time, but  it varies vastly – some days it is 3 AM and the other days is it 7 in the morning. So if the former two networks have traffic decrease at 8-9 AM CET, Winning has lots of weak opponents during these couple of hours. This is probably caused by the fact there are more players from West Coast of the USA in this room, so that blurs the peak of traffic.

Asian poker rooms and networks, where most of the players live on the Pacific coast have traffic peak and the biggest number of weak player at 15-16 hours European time and has big number of players till eight or nine in the evening. The exception here is Good Game network, which works on attracting European traffic lately. So they have peak of the traffic like the rest of Asian rooms, and there is no massive decrease of activity at the tables in evening European time. Up to 1 AM the number of players at the table decreases no more than by 20% to the peak.

Certainly, the choice of the perfect time of play isn’t the only factor that positively effects on your win rate. Creating the best conditions for your play is the main thing to care about. You can get additional bonuses and rakeback on the best deals of our web site PokerProDeals. In order to get details contact as via contacts section of our web site.

Party Poker continues to make news one after another. It’s been only a week since their new loyalty system started operating with maximal rakeback increased to 40%, and now there is an info on new pleasant news for grinders.

At a private conference in England, Party Poker innovation managers announced implementation of the new yearly VIP status in the VIP system of the room – VIP Diamond, for players who are able to generate more than a hundred thousand dollars of rake per year. The owners of this status will receive 50% rakeback. One is able to send request to e-mail [email protected] to include it. This would be one of the highest rakeback percentages among top rooms.

Also, local variant of Zoom poker called fastforward was updated. The room filled the gap between NL25 and NL100 – NL50 was added. NL200 and NL500 also happened without any loud noise. There aren’t too many players there yet, but the thing these stakes are in lobby supposes PartyPoker waiting for new players at high stakes.

Analogue of spin tournaments – Sit&Go Hero at Party Poker also has one stakes limit added – $50 buy-in. With jackpot of $500.040. The biggest stakes here is $100. Sit&Go Hero are a little bit different from spin tournaments as these are 4-max tournaments with part of prize fund in bounty of one randomly selected players at the table.

We will see whether the dynamics of this changes in Party Poker become positive within Summer months. All the room have done previously made a positive impact on its image and traffic. Despide seasonal drop of traffic in online poker industry, Party was able to increase it a little bit and come up from 9^th to 4^th place in traffic within the latest three months.