CAKE POKER FULL SITE REVIEW

SITE HISTORY

Although Cake Poker hasn't been around as long as many of the other major poker rooms, it quickly gained attention as being a magnificent place to play poker through its solid network traffic and impressive software. With one of the largest rakeback deals in place at 33%, Cake Poker offers up fantastic cash game and tournament action while catering to players from around the world.

GAMES OFFERED

Cake Poker has all the poker games that a player could want. All forms of Texas Hold'em have tons of action all the time, as well as full tables at all limits for Omaha and 7 Card Stud in addition to the High/Low varieties of those games. Tournaments are played mostly in the form of No Limit Texas Hold'em but tournaments for the other games are on the regular schedule. Tournament types such as rebuys, freeze-outs and satellites to bigger tournaments are always running around the clock.

TRAFFIC

The traffic at Cake Poker and its network of sites has been steadily on the rise for over a year now. As the 9th largest poker room in the world and the 4th largest among poker rooms that accept players from the United States, Cake Poker players enjoy plenty of cash game tables and big tournament fields. The games are very well populated at the cash tables at the micro and small stakes, with medium stakes games ($2-$4 blinds and higher) best populated during peak hours.

VIP PROGRAMS & BONUSES

There's a lot to like with Cake Poker when it comes to promotions. First, their 33% rakeback, which is tabulated through the dealt method, is the best in the business. That means every time you are dealt cards you get a piece of the rake and at a percentage higher than anywhere else possible. There's a 110% first time deposit bonus as well as rewards program built around "Gold Chips" and "Gold Cards" which are accumulated as a player plays in real money games. These Gold Chips and Gold Cards can be turned in for gear, tournament tickets, consumer electronics and other poker gifts.

LOBBY & TABLE SOFTWARE

Cake Poker just might have the best lobby software in the industry. The layout is perfect for finding a good game in a quick manner with main tabs at the top for Ring Games, Tournaments, Cashier, Rewards, My Account, Help and Login. Once you select one of the two main playing tabs (Ring Games or Tournaments), there is a sub-tab area that allows a player to look at games by type (Hold'em, Omaha, 7 Card Stud) and below that by betting type (Fixed Limit, Pot Limit, No Limit or All). At the bottom of the lobby is also a "Game Filter" tab which allows a player to go through and have the table matrix report back exactly what a player is looking for. Filters can be set to sort through tables by table size, stakes and speed for cash games, and for game types, limit, table size, buy-in, format and game status for tournament play.

The table software itself is very traditional and has two different views. First is a "classic" view which has players sitting around a table with a dealer. There is also a "simple" view that is a traditional top-down view of the action without avatars. The table software allows a player to look at the last hand in a hand history viewer, as well as set options for chatting, sounds, animations, deck color, four color decks, background types, custom buy-in amounts and auto re-buys.

Cake Poker is also one of the few rooms that has prohibited use of a HUD at the table. Although programs like Holdem Manager can import the hand histories and keep track of stats and results for a player playing at the table, no HUDs or stats can be used against the villains. Cake Poker also allows a player to change their username at the table once a week, making data mining and bum-hunting a useless endeavor. All of these restrictions leads to much weaker competition at the table.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

The buzz around Cake Poker in the gaming industry is that it's the "next big thing" coming in terms of online poker rooms. Between the amazing rakeback deals, solid traffic and fun rewards program, Cake Poker is a fantastic place to play. The cash game tables are very well populated at the small stakes with good juicy games always going on the weekends at the medium and high stakes tables. Players from the United States and international players alike should definitely consider Cake Poker, a rising power in the world of poker.