Poker reservations are poker rooms, pools and other forms of online game within a certain region (usually a country or group of countries). Players from other regions are not allowed on the reservation. Thus, in poker rooms with limited access, pools are rather weak. That is why Italian, Indian, Israeli and other reservations are in demand among experienced players from other countries.
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The history of poker reservations
The events of “Black Friday” can be considered as the beginning of the formation of poker reservations, after online poker had been banned in the USA. However, there had been a French reservation Pokerstars.fr already, which was separated from the general pool. After “Black Friday” events European governments had also begun to change their minds about online poker. Various restrictions were introduced, as well as taxes from all winnings, and in some countries poker on the Internet was completely banned.
In order not to lose all users and keep profit, poker rooms were forced to create local reservations for different countries. Rooms with European domain name extensions appeared, in which only residents of a particular country could register. The pool was limited to local players who were not particularly distinguished by their poker skills.
Due to the emergence of closed reservations, the USA, East European and some Asian countries were able to stop outflow of money abroad. According to some reports, before the events of Black Friday American players lost about $ 4.5 billion in only two of the most popular poker rooms. This money left the country, that without a doubt negatively affected the economy. In European countries, a similar situation occurred – money from rich states migrated into the pockets of poker professionals in other countries. The problem was solved with the help of the created reservations – money were being passed within the country and all payout taxes were paid, which had a positive effect on the country’s economy.
However, small local reservations had one significant drawback – relatively low attendance. As a result, the tournaments were held with a small number of participants, with small guarantees, which reduced interest in poker. Consequently, these rooms did not attract poker enthusiasts very well. To increase the attendance, the regulators of some Western European countries decided to combine their pools. At first, in 2018 PokerStars markets in Spain and France merged. Then Winamax joined the Stars, and Portuguese players were also included in the common pool. Italians are expected to be able to play in the united European poker rooms soon as well.
In addition to European reservations, poker players are also interested in Asian reservations, whose players also are not very skilled. Today, the most “fat” fishes can be found in local poker rooms in Italy, India and Israel, which we will briefly describe in the next chapter.
Brief description of poker reservations
The most traffic in Europe is collected by poker rooms in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. But regulars from Russia and other CIS countries prefer Italian and French rooms more. Players from Italy are comparable in their skills to American poker players, so more and more regulars want to register in Italian rooms. The following rooms are especially popular here: Pokerstars.it, iPoker.it, Planetwin.it, 888Poker.it, Dollaro and PeoplesPoker.
Pokerstars.it leads in the volume of traffic. Here you can find a lot of games in a wide range of limits, both in the cache and in multi-table, and even SNG tournaments. IPoker.it is characterized by its very weak players. The most popular limits in this room are NL50 – NL100. Pot-limit Omaha could be played at the same limits. SNG tournaments are well represented, but there are almost no MTTs. In the rooms Planetwin.it and Dollaro the traffic is not high enough, but, in addition to poker, you can play in them slots, casinos and sweepstakes. As a result, there are a lot of recreational players in these rooms.
According to the opinion of some experts, India is currently experiencing a poker boom. The game level of local poker players is rather low, so Indian poker rooms are quite interesting to domestic regulars. Three most popular rooms: adda52, Pokerbaazi and SpartanPoker. Peak attendance in all these rooms falls at 21:00 Moscow time. Indian poker rooms are 99% consisted of local players, which makes it very attractive to professionals from abroad.
Adda52 is the market leader in Indian online poker. Cache tables are represented at limits in the range of NL2 – NL6250. The game could be played both with the rules of unlimited Texas Hold’em and pot-limit Omaha. There are SNG tournaments, as well as multi-table events with buy-ins up to $ 70. Freerolls are also held.
The second most visited Indian room is Spartan Poker. Cash tables in this room are represented at limits up to NL700. Anonymous tables in which the statistics of opponents are unknown are very popular here. This room is perfect for tournaments fans. It hosts quite large tournaments locally with buy-ins of $ 70 and guarantees of $ 15,000 for the first and second place. There is also a $ 86 tournament in which the winner receives $ 30,000. This room is also interesting in the presence of the unusual Reverse Hold’em poker format, in which the river opens first, then the turn and at the end there are three flop cards.
PokerBaazi will also be interesting to fans of multi-table tournaments. The largest series, the Premier League, provides a guarantee of 240 million rupees, or almost $ 4 million. Omaha cash tables and anonymous tables are also popular here, but no SnG tournaments.
Israeli reservations are also characterized by a low level of play of local poker players. One of these poker rooms is PurePlay Poker, in which residents of Israel and the Middle East countries can participate. This room is of most interest to cash players in Omaha and Hold’em. Most of the game with no limit Hold’em is at the range of bets 1/2 – 10/20, and at 10/20 bets there are heads-up tables. In PLO games at limits from 1/2 to 50/100 are available. The game is played in Israeli shekels. No SnG and MTT tournaments here.
Another popular Israeli room is Gold Poker Pro, which even outstrips the previous room in attendance. Here you can find 8-max, 6-max and HU tables. Most of the game is at Pot-Limit Omaha tables. Usage of poker software is prohibited in both rooms.
Despite the fact that poker reservations allow only local residents to register, you can also get access to Italian, Israeli and Indian fishes. Contact our managers and find out more about the conditions of registration and playing in European and Asian poker reservations.
- Amateurs from Asia
- High stakes heads-up tables
- very weak fields in expensive games
- Cashier via agent
- Great action
- Good trafic
- Fewer regulars and lots of weaker players
- OFC Pineapple
- Cashier via agent
- No trackers
- Heads-Up tables up to NL1K
- Top-2 traffic of Italian players
- Fast Cashouts
- unusual software
- paid converter for displaying stats
- Bumunting at heads-up tables is prohibited
- Heads up tables
- Lots of easy opponents at all the stakes
- comfortable software
- paid converter to display stats
- VPN needed
- cashier via agent
- High traffic at all the stakes
- Weak level of play
- Heads-Up tables up to NL1K
- difficult and expensive set-up
- low rakeback
- Players from Israel
- HU-tables
- Fewer regulars and lots of weaker players
- Cashier via agent
- No trackers support
- very weak fields at all the stakes
- good PLO traffic
- Chinese poker (OFC pineapple)
- Connective Games software
- paid converter to display stats
- low traffic
- Very weak fields at almost all stakes
- Good PLO traffic
- comfortable softwar
- Good Rakeback
- trackers aren’t supported
- Low traffic
