- 888poker takes online security very seriously and is award-winning for its socially responsible gaming. Users under the age of 18 are not allowed to play 888poker's online games. To learn more, go to our Responsible Gaming section.
- Since 1997, 888poker has been the home for online poker and with over 10 million registered users, 888 is the trusted leader for online poker. We're not the only who've taken notice: 888poker has won Best Gaming Product 2012 & Best Poker Operator of the Year 2011.
888 Poker LIVE Sochi. In August 2019, 888poker held 888 Poker LIVE Sochi. It was first event 888poker in Russia. Russian poker player Vasily Tsapko became the winner of 888poker LIVE Main Event and had nearly $200k in cashes. 888 Poker is among the largest real money internet poker rooms, and you could also claim a great sign up bonus when you opt to play in the actual money games at 888 Poker. It is all about where you're sitting in relation to the action, and Texas Hold'em is no different.
Payday
Players can redeem their Reward Points daily or visit the 888Poker store and use their points to purchase merchandise.
Bonus
New players who do not have an existing or previous account at 888Poker get a 100% up to $800 deposit bonus and $88 FREE Package no deposit bonus, as follows:
100% up to $800 Welcome Bonus (For non-UK players):
- Use code NEW800 when making your first deposit
- The bonus is awarded in $10 increments each time you collect 10 points per every $1 of the bonus
- The bonus is worth 20% rakeback while clearing it
- Uncleared bonus expires after 90 days from the time you deposit
You will also receive:
- 7 tickets to the $500 First Depositors' Free Tournaments
- 2 Tickets to the $1,000 Depositors Free Tournaments
- 1 Ticket to the First Depositors' Challenge Tournament
Play with £20 for New Players (UK):
- UK players will receive £20 Bonus Package
$88 FREE Bonus Package (No Deposit):
- Immediate $1 in real money credited your 888poker account.
- $7 tournament tickets: 14 tickets for $0.5 buy-in tournaments distributed over a 1 week period
- Pending $80 bonus
Comment
888Poker was created with the online poker player in mind. Players can compete against friends or fellow members in one of the many poker rooms. Games include all of the favorites such as Texas Hold 'em, Omaha Hi, Omaha Hi/Lo, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo and BlackJack as a side game.
888Poker review
888Poker is one of the 'granddaddies' of the online poker industry and the 888Poker deal is one of our most basic deals. 888Poker is one of the longest running poker rooms out there, online since 1997 and these days, after some major updates and overhauls, they're right back in the elite of the online poker world with around 10 million players from various corners of the world.
The 888Poker Network software is quite excellent indeed. Beginners are greeted by a lobby of their own. That's right, 888Poker is fully aware that today's beginners are tomorrow's high raking online pros, so treating them like VIP from the get go more then makes sense for the online poker operation of tomorrow. The beginners' lobby aims to actively guide players along, making their first encounter with the intricacies of an online poker lobby as mild as possible. The lobby has been made available in high resolution, so it is indeed a beauty. The tournament lobby dashboard offers players real-time information on tourneys. Satellites for various tournaments can be found much easier, and it only takes a couple of mouse-clicks to register for them. Needless to say, in the new software, navigation is much easier, and so is customization, with more options available. There's a handy Quick Seat option and players can store their cash game and tournament settings in their favorites. There are special cam tables where players can actually see the people they're playing against. 888poker mobile apps are available for Android as well as for the iPad and iPhone.
888Poker have significantly improved their promotions system too. They now feature some of the biggest weekly guaranteed prize-pools in online poker. 888Poker's tournaments have something for every player: buy-ins range from $1 to several hundreds of dollars, and daily guarantees are in the $20k range. Weekly guaranteed tournaments carry about $80K in value. MTTs and STTs run all the time, and even though 888Poker is not yet recognized as a prime tournament destination, it may well become one in the future. Satellites and qualifiers to big live events run as well. The tournament tables offer plenty of special twists too: players can now team up with others, and end up with a share of the prize-pool even if they bust out before the bubble. Late comers can still register by taking advantage of the late registration feature. Fast-folding Push and Fold action is also available.
888Poker's main draws are the excellent traffic numbers, the outstanding low-to-mid stakes action, which is driven by thousands of recreational players coming over from their sports betting and casino operations and their webcam tournaments, which do indeed give the games an entirely new dimension.
Only players located in following countries are eligible: Austria, Canada, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Chile, Georgia, Serbia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Croatia, Macedonia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Aland Islands, Pakistan, Estonia, Mongolia, Thailand, Morocco and Tunisia.
Why would you read yet another review of 888 Poker you ask.
Because this one is different.
While researching 888 Poker, I quickly released there was a lack of a good and honest review.
Most of the reviews I found were written by guys and gals who treated them more like advertising rather than reviews.
If I wanted honest and unbiased reviews/comments I had to turn to the dungeons of online forums, where I would find exciting and frank discussions about 888 Poker.
But, finding all this information scattered around the interwebs was quite time-consuming.
So, I concluded there was a lack of a thorough and honest written review that brought all of that information together.
But fear not, those dark times are over, and I have now compiled a combined review and case study of 888 Poker, which is brutally honest and aims to let you know everything you need to know about 888 Poker.
At the end of this review, you will find the results from my case study, in which I played 20,699 micro cash games.
What do you think?
Did I make a profit or loss?
To find out, sit down, relax and read on.
Quick Links
How I did this 888 Poker Review
Deposited USD 50 with NETELLER
Played 20,699 micro cash games
Used the poker strategy tough by Jonathan Little
Recorded the hand history with PokerTracker
Played all the game variants
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About 888 Poker
Let's being with getting to know 888 Poker a bit more.
888 Poker, operated by 888 Holdings plc, they opened up their doors in 2002 (back then as Pacific Poker), offering players traditional poker games such as Texas Hold'em, Omaha, and Seven-Card Stud.
888 Holdings plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker: 888). So, if you are into stocks as well as poker, investing in 888 is an option for you. But keep in mind that poker only counts for 22% of the total revenue of 888 Holdings Plc. The primary source (60%) of income comes from 888's casino operations.
We will have reasons to revisit the fact that the majority of the earnings from 888 comes from their casino operations in my section about player quality.
Are they trustworthy?
888 Poker has been reviewed and certified by eCorga under their 'Card Shuffling Review.' That means that their Random Number Generator (RNG) has been review and verified by an external party.
I emailed them about this to gain further knowledge and here is a snippet of their reply.
In 2013, 888 Poker won the EGR Operator Awards for best poker operator of the year. The criteria for doing so are summed up in this sentence:
'The poker operator of the year award will be given to the operator that has operated the most successful real-money poker offering over the past year.'
But, they have not won the award since then.
In summary, 888 Poker is a part of a big, publicly listed company, so you should have no worries about it being rigged or that they will suddenly disappear with your money.
Depositing and withdrawing money
Depositing money into your 888 Poker account is very easy.
You have over 40 different ways of doing so, for example, VISA/MasterCard, PayPal, and NETELLER.
Not all of them will be available for you though. Depending on which country you live in you will be presented with different options. You will find all the available options for you in the 888 Poker software on the cashier menu.
When depositing money, you will accumulate a positive 'Member Transaction Balance' for that specific payment method. This means that whichever deposit option you choose will also be available as a withdrawal option as long as your 'Member Transaction Balance' is positive for that option.
More details on this can be found in their withdrawal policy.
In that policy, we find another thing worth highlighting regarding the withdrawal limits and identification requirements.
ID requirements for different withdrawal limits.
As you can see the more, you withdraw per month the more information about your identity you must provide.
What about exchange rates?
There is a lot of heated discussions about the exchange rates set by 888 Poker.
Let's dive into that and find out what's going on.
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Accordingly, to 888 Poker the exchange rates are set by their bank.
If needed, 888poker will apply an exchange rate to your deposit according to the daily exchange rate used by our bank.
Is this exchange rate good or bad?
There is a lot of discussions about the exchange rates being bad. You will be subject to their exchange rates when you deposit or withdraw in any other currency than the US dollar.
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You should, therefore, only deposit and withdraw in US dollars and let other parties, like your local bank, do the exchange by using their rates (which generally are much better for you).
For this to work you must verify that your 888 Poker account default currency is US dollars. When you register your account, it will be set in your country's currency automatically. So, beware of this and contact their support to make sure your default currency is in US dollars.
For the case study of 888 Poker, I created a new account and deposited 50 US dollars. I did this using my NETELLER account, which default currency is USD. By making my deposit like this, I avoided all the troubles with exchange rates.
The deposit was instant and without any fees.
Keeping your account 'dormant' Blackjack how to surrender.
When (if) you read the terms and conditions for your 888 account you will come across this section:
'Should you fail to use your account for six months your account will be considered a 'dormant account.' The six-month period will run from the date of your last login to your account. In the case of a dormant account, the Company will levy a monthly administration fee at a rate of 10% of the balance in the account on the date that it became dormant.'
Hang on a minute!
Will 888 start taking my money if I don't use my account for six months?
Yes!
When you don't use your account for six months, they will take out a 'monthly administration fee' of 10 % each month until you run out of money or until you log in to your account again.
So, if you plan a nice long vacation and have money in your account, then make sure you login ones every six months or withdraw all your funds before you leave. Also, note that you won't receive any interest money from 888 Poker.
Bonuses
888 Poker operates with two bonuses for new players.
$88 free with no deposit needed
This bonus sounds too good to be true, right?
Will 888 Poker will hand over $88 for free to your freshly registered account?
The answer is that they might very well do just that.
But it comes under a few conditions.
You won't receive the full amount at once. What you will receive immediately is $2 in real money and $6 worth in tournament tickets.
The rest will be given out in small increments of $8 depending on how much bonus points you accumulate within the time limit of 90 days to claim this bonus. That means that you will have to generate 10 x 250 = 2 500 bonus point in the first 90 days of registering your account order to receive the full $88 bonus. And $22 of those $88 is real cash; the rest is tournament tickets.
So yes, there are some conditions to this bonus which makes it pretty hard to receive the full $88. But at least you will get $8 entirely for free with no conditions what so ever.
And that is a pretty sweet deal for anyone who wants to start playing poker with real money without depositing.
When I registered my account, I immediately received the $2 real money bonus as well as the six tournaments tickets for $1 each. Unfortunately, I didn't use all of the tournament tickets before they expired. So be quick!
But, the no deposit bonus is an easy and excellent way to start playing real money poker without making a deposit.
Double your money + free tournament tickets on your first deposit
When you make your first deposit, you are awarded a bonus that will double your money and give you free tournament tickets.
The tournament tickets will be credited to your account immediately upon depositing, and the money bonus will be paid out in $10 increments based on the number of bonus points you generate.
Below is a snippet of the most critical parts of the terms and conditions for this bonus.
I deposited $50 and immediately received eight free tournament tickets as well as five $10 pending bonuses. For each bonus, I can follow the bonus points required to receive the bonus which is a nice and helpful feature.
Here is as a screenshot of the free tournament tickets I received.
Withdrawal rules on bonuses
If you play well and make good bank on your real money bonuses, they may only be withdrawn after you have generated 2.5 bonus points for every $1 received. This means you will have to play quite a lot before you can withdraw it.
Gameplay
How is the gaming experience at 888 Poker?
That's what you will learn in this part of the review.
Design
When you first log in you will be presented with an, in my opinion, excellent layout. You can easily choose from 3 different levels of cash games, sit & go's and tournaments. This makes it easy for a beginner to start playing in no time.
If you want to be more specific and choose more carefully what type of game you want to play head over to the 'All games' you will see everything that is going on.
Here you can make all kinds of selections to find the game or tournament that is right for you.
When you have found the right table for you and you sat down this is what the actual gameplay will look like.
This is a standard table design, and you have the information and options that you would expect. But, if you look to the top left corner, you will your progress towards receiving your next bonus.
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Rake
Rake is always something you should consider when choosing your poker site.
But what is rake?
Rake is the primary revenue stream for poker sites. It is a percentage taken from the pot. Benoit Lafontaine has written an excellent explanation of how it is calculated on Quora.com.
What is the rake at 888 Poker?
It is usually 5% but varies depending on what kind of game and limits you play. But you should note that 5% is pretty standard so 888 Poker does not stand out in either direction in this matter.
Traffic and quality of players
If you examine how many active players 888 Poker had on an average the last seven days you will find that 888 Poker is the second most popular poker site, only beaten by PokerStars.
That means that there is usually no shortage of players to compete against.
To determine the quality of the players, we must first determine what a lousy player is. If we can agree that a poker fish usually is a recreational player with limited experience, then the quality of players on 888 Poker is pretty low.
Why?
Because 888 Poker is marketing themselves to new and recreational players. This together with the many reports online that 888 Poker being a 'Fishtank'.
Also, as I mentioned in the beginning 888 is mainly a casino which means many casino players will try their luck on the poker tables once in a while.
So, if you believe yourself to be quite the poker player you should start playing on 888 Poker for some easy money.
Platforms
888 Poker offers you to play on a variety of different platforms on either desktop or mobile. With all these options they make it pretty darn impossible not to be able to enjoy a game of poker.
The desktop user has these options:
As a mobile user, you have the options to play on iPhone, Android, iPad, and Web app.
My Case Study
Now, we will look into how easy/hard it is to make money playing poker on 888. Since they get a lot of their revenue from casino players, one would assume a lot of those low skilled poker players are easy targets. Well, if you also believed that I would say you were right.
I played 20,699 cash games at No Limit Hold'em $0.02/0.05, 6 player max. I did this by multi-tabling four tables and this made me average around 300 hands per hour. The strategy I used is the one tough by Jonathan Little in his book 'Strategies for Beating Small Stakes Poker Cash Games.' I am by no means a professional poker player. I am an amateur player, playing mostly for fun and thus that is my benchmark.
I tracked all my games using PokerTracker and turned my initial deposit of $50 into $600
Hands: 20,699 Won: $600
This shows that by using a sound poker strategy, it is possible to make money playing poker on 888.
Support
888 Poker can easily be contacted by online chat, phone or email. Their main help page is a big FAQ which is quite extensive and gives a lot of useful information.
The online chat is only available through the desktop app and here but it requires you to have an account. The same is true to email support which won't be answered unless your email is registered to an account.
A funny thing I noticed is that the chat was unavailable (early in the morning) unless I was just about to deposit more money. Then the cheerful Grace appeared and wanted to have a small talk about my bonuses.
What do other Reviews say about 888 Poker?
Although I did my research before writing this review, you should have a look at what other people has to say about 888 Poker.
Luckily for you, there is no shortage of online reviews for 888 Poker. A simple Google search for '888 poker review' gives you 238,000 results.
By analyzing those results, you will find that the reviews can be organized in two different types, user reviews and affiliate reviews.
User reviews
The user reviews are made by everyday people who write comments on public review sites or forums. These reviews are unfortunately for 888 Poker not too pretty.
The users on TrustPilot give 888 Poker 1.2/5 from 350 reviews.
The main issues reported were:
- Buggy software
- Long payment times
- Bad exchange rates
- Terrible support
- Rigged gameplay (see the introduction to find out why you can trust 888 Poker)
Although this seems quite depressing, you should keep in mind that there are a few positive user reviews too.
Reddit has a few threads about 888 Poker which is positive.
Affiliate reviews
These reviews are mainly (not all) written by website owners with the sole purpose to gain affiliate revenue from 888 Pokers affiliate program. This means that the reviews are biased and might not be trustworthy.
But what about this review then? Doesn't this qualify as one of those?
Well, yes and no. This review is supported by affiliate links, but I have put in a lot of effort and research in making it trustworthy bringing up both good and bad sides of 888 Poker.
I hope you do feel the same after reading it.
Your experience
I am now overly excited to hear about your experience of 888 Poker.
Is it your favorite poker site?
Do you play there regularly?
Does it stink?
Whatever you think of it, write a comment!
