888 Poker is one of the world’s most acclaimed poker sites. Most users prefer the site for its concrete software, fast response and uniquely lucrative promotions. The platform is also a sister site to the online poker giant 888.com, which has deservedly earned a stellar reputation in the world of gambling. 888 Poker was launched in 2002 and was known as Pacific Poker for a number of years. The firm is Gibraltar-licensed and is owned and operated by 888 Holdings plc. 888 Poker has consistently delivered a quality gaming experience to its users, and it is not a surprise that the site has such a huge following.
After the site’s latest update to Poker 8, players will have access to plenty of top-notch features such as an improved search function, 3D table graphics, an integrated casino play, improved multi-tabling capabilities among many more.
How to register an account with the poker site?
It couldn’t be any more straightforward to sign up for an account with 888 Poker. You just have to launch the client application and click on the register button then you can proceed to fill out the registration form. Like most sites you have signed up with, the site will require your full names along with several other credentials.
After filling out the form, you will be required to verify your email and possibly confirm your identity by uploading a photo of your scanned government-issued ID. Your citizenship will determine the latter.
888 Poker does not offer its gambling services in countries where online poker is banned. You can check if your country of residence is included in the list of eligible countries available on their official website.
Welcome Bonus
The moment you are done setting up your account, 888 Poker will begin showering you with bonuses. The value you can get from these promotions is however not that impressive, except from the amazing no-deposit bonus of $88.
New users will need to verify their email, after which $1 will be sent to their account and $7 in $0.50 tournament tickets. Over the course of one week, you get two tickets every day. The $80 balance will be sent to your account in chunks of $8 that include $1 cash and $7 tournament tickets. Each portion is credited to your account every time you collect 250 bonus points. Points are earned at a rate of two points for every dollar paid in tournament fees or rake.
You can withdraw your bonus money as soon as you have accumulated 2.5 points for every dollar you have received as bonus money.
888 Poker also grants 100% matched deposit bonus for deposits as high as $800. For the money to be credited in your account, you will be required to earn 100 bonus points. Then the funds will be released to your account in $10 instalments as you use it to play or withdraw it.
This offer is, however, not that impressive. Since the pokey player earns the bonus point at the rate of 2 points per dollar in rake, the deal is equal to a 20% rake-back offer. Customers in PokerStars and PartyPoker get 28% and 30% Rakeback deals respectively. The terms of use, deposit, and withdrawal are, however, a little different from 888 Poker.
Apart from the match deposit bonus and the no-deposit bonus, every first deposit gets the user a free tournament tickets package. The package includes:
• For $500 first depositor freeroll you get seven tournament tickets,
• For $1,000 depositor freeroll, you get two tournament tickets,
• And one ticket for your first challenge tournament, which offers you a chance to win a slot in the following Sunday challenge tournament
The value of free tournament tickets does not increase with the amount you deposit. Therefore, the value of 888 Poker’s offer is inversely proportional to the size of your deposit if you choose to take the offer.
If you are considering to deposit $100 or less in your gambling endeavour, 888 Poker is a better option to any of its competitors. However, if you plan to make any more significant deposits, you should consider taking up Party Poker or PokerStars’ offers.
Tournaments
Persistent tournaments on 888 Poker include the Sunday Mega Series, Fish’n’Chips MTTs, and the daily HighRollers. There are also plenty of NLHE and PLO events that offer buy-ins ranging from $0.50 to around $30
The Sunday Mega Series.
The Sunday Mega Series offers five significant events that attract thousands of poker players across the U.S. The specific offerings on each Sunday Mega Series change from one week to another,. Still, you can generally expect to find the following:
• The Mega Micro: Begins at 19:30 GMT and offers $5 buy-in with a $4,000 guaranteed prize pool.
• The Mega Dozen: Begins at 18:00 GMT and offers $12 buy-in with a $20,000 guaranteed prize pool.
• The Mega Deep: Begins at 17:30 GMT and offers $215 buy-in with a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool.
• The Turbo Mega Deep: Begins at 20:30 GMT and also offers $215 buy-in but with a $15,000 guaranteed prize pool.
• The Mega Knockout: Begins at 21:15 GMT and offers $209 buy-in with a $5,000 guaranteed prize pool.
You will often find satellites for the above events that can go as low as $0.50. If you already have an account with 888 Poker and enjoy playing MTTs, these tournaments are definitely worth a shot.
Fish’n’Chips
Alternatively, you could try the daily low buy-in MTTs. Fish’n’Chips usually have large guaranteed prize pools. Though the offers can change from time to time, a typical Fish’n’Chips mid-week schedule should look like this:
• The Goldfish: Begins at 20:00 GMT and offers $1 buy-in with a $1,000 guaranteed prize pool.
• The Swordfish: Begins at 18:00 GMT and offers $30 buy-in with a 5,000 guaranteed prize pool.
• The Catfish: Begins at 3:00 GMT and offers $12 buy-in with a $1,500 guaranteed prize pool.
• The Blowfish: Begins at 13:00 GMT and offers $5 buy-in with a $1,000 guaranteed prize pool.
While these offers are significantly higher than on 888 Poker’s competitors, the competition in this area is quite soft. Skilled players will often finish the tournaments in the money. If you are used to making a buck on the tough MTTs offered by PokerStars, I think you have what it takes to pleasantly surprise yourself on 888 Poker.
Highrollers
Like in most of her competitor’s sites, Highrollers can get quite harsh. For the average and armature players, there is too much on the line while playing HighRollers. HighRoller tournaments are offered at 888 Poker on a daily basis.
Highrollers will typically include the following tournaments. The list might fail to cover some of the tournaments that appear as part of the HighRollers series, but you can expect to find the tournaments below.
• The Typhoon: Begins at 9:00 GMT and offers $55 buy-in with a $3,000 guaranteed prize pool.
• The Twister: Begins at 11:00 GMT and offers $55 buy-in with a $3,000 guaranteed prize pool.
• The Tornado: Begins at 20:00 GMT and offers $109 buy-in and a $10,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Cash Game activity
888 Poker basically offers you three options to choose from in cash games: Hold’em, Stud, and Omaha. Majority of poker players on 888 Poker prefer playing No-Limit Hold’em exclusively. As a result, some of the game offerings on the site often remain inactive.
• Hold’em
While most of the users prefer sticking to the low and micro-stakes, no-limit Hold’em on 888 Poker offers buy-ins from as low as $0.01/0.02 to $500/1000. At any given time (even during peak hours), there are only a handful of 6-max medium stakes tables active.
Though Pot-limit tables are also available on the site, the section seems lifeless these days. For fixed-limit games, the $0.02 & $0.04 section appears fairly active though you could stake as high as $50/$100.
• Omaha
Though 888 Poker provides a lot of options for Omaha poker players, the section often gets low action. You could play all the games below with buy-ins ranging from as low as $0.01 to $50/$100:
o NL Omaha
o Pot-Limit Omaha
o FL Omaha
o FL Omaha Hi/Lo
o PL Omaha Hi/Lo
• Stud
888 Poker offers both Stud Hi/Lo and Seven-Card Stud for poker stud players. However, you should not raise your expectations beyond the common heads-up play. Stakes ranging from as low as $0.01/$0.02 to highs of $30/$60 are available on the site.
While in other sections most players prefer the lowest stakes, it is worth noting that stud players frequenting the 888 Poker site avoid staking on the more economical options.
Sit & Go Tournaments
There is a surprisingly wide selection of Sit & Go tournaments being offered at 888 Poker along with two eccentric poker offerings that you cannot find on any other acclaimed poker site.
Sit & Go tournaments are offered for Pot Limit Omaha, No Limit Hold’em, and Omaha Hi/Lo. The individual buy-ins can go as low as $0.01 and as high as $1,000. The high-roller S&G action is,, however, all about the No Limit Hold’em.
While most options are availed in the Turbo and Super Turbo events, S&G sizes can range from heads-up duels to full-ring games. Considering the offerings available in acclaimed competitor sites, the offers are more or less equal to 888 Poker’s Sit & Go tournaments.
888 Poker Deposit and withdrawal options
There is a large selection of banking options available at 888 Poker. This is not a surprise in the iGaming industry to increase their customer base with customers from as many jurisdictions as possible. We would recommend opting for the e-wallet options available whenever possible. E-wallet options, such as PayPal are the fastest and most secure transaction methods.
Deposits
888 Poker offers the following options for its customers to deposit funds in their accounts:
• Standard wire transfer
• Credit card
• Prepaid card
E-wallet: Neteller payment option is available for depositing money into your 888 Poker account. Paypal is however restricted to players from:
• Germany,
• Austria,
• Finland,
• Italy,
• Spain,
• Ireland,
• Sweden, and
• The United Kingdom
Withdrawals
It takes slightly longer to cash out from 888 Poker than in other acclaimed poker sites. It might take up to five business days to process your Neteller and PayPal withdrawals. Though rarely, players will sometimes be forced to stick to the standard wire transfers that can take as much as ten days to be processed.
Customer Support
The 888 Poker customer support is easily the best when compared to other leading poker sites. There is a well-organized FAQ section available on the website if you want to make inquiries. The section includes:
• Promotions and bonuses
• Deposits and Withdrawals
• Available tournaments
• Signing up and logging in
• Managing your account
• Remedies to rampant technical problems
Live support is also available via email, which is somewhat disappointing given the fact that most poker rooms provide their users with 24/7 live chat and toll-free phone support.
During our review, we received email responses in less than twelve hours and sometimes in just a couple of hours. We found the email support to be very professional, attentive to detail, and quick to respond to queries.
Conclusion
888 Poker is one of the world’s oldest online poker sites. Having had an experience of more than twenty years in the industry, it is not surprising to see the amount of following that they have amassed. The offerings on 888 Poker are considerably better than in most of its competitor sites.
Like any other gambling site, 888 Poker has its pros and cons. Most of its disadvantages are in the site’s terms of bonuses and game availability. However, it is quite obvious that 888 Poker is the only Western poker site that does all the basics right. The site also gives the experienced poker players an opportunity to place their bets without the worry of multi-tabling restrictions.
The most enticing features on 888 Poker are the extremely generous no-deposit bonus and periodic reward programs and promotions. Poker players flock the site to play their Sunday Mega Series and the daily Fish’n’Chips, which very often rewards them with cash.
Generally, 888 Poker has something for everyone who would wish to play poker online. It is perhaps the reason 888 Poker is the most trusted and oldest poker sites on the internet.
