Full Review of Bodog Poker
Summary of Bodog Poker
Bodog Poker has been around since 2004, but Bodog.com as such is something of an old man in the gambling world. Its sports book and casino opened as early as 1995, and the people behind this poker room have got a profound knowledge about the online gambling industry.
This poker room grew very rapidly at the start and its stable player base is still increasing, not least thanks to a massive advertising budget that you’re bound to have noticed. This success is not surprising at all: Bodog offer great games and has well-functioning software. If you are looking for soft Holdem games you have come to the right place.
Bodog received a lot of publicity after 2006 World Series of Poker. The $12 million winner, Jamie Gold, was playing for Bodog – read more about this below. At present, their poker team includes several well-known players such as Josh Arieh, David Williams and Evelyn Ng.
Note: Bodog is one of the steadfast poker sites that welcome US players in these times of legal bickering. Kudos for that.
Bodog Poker and Poker Junkie offer an exclusive upfront $100 tournament credit sign-up offer at 100% match. The offer is automatic via the Poker Junkie download link. The tournament credit offer is automatically released for play within 48 hours of offer activation. Any tournament winnings won with the tournament credit, which was in turn earned through the offer, are free to be withdrawn without limitations. No special restrictions apply to the offer.
Each Sunday there’s a $100,000 guaranteed tournament, with satellites starting at $1.
In the Player’s Choice tournaments, the first prize of $12,000 can be used to buy in to any land-based events with a buy-in of $10K or less, such as WPT, WSOP, or EPT ($2,000 for travel expenses).
Poker Traffic
After its launch, Bodog was long one of the fastest growing poker rooms on the Internet. Traffic has now stabilized and Bodog has landed safely among the biggest 10-15 online poker rooms.
With 2,400 logged-in users at peak hours (in January 2008) it’s safe to say that the site has managed to build a loyal player base.
If you’re a Holdem player you won't have any problems finding a game on this site. During peak hours there’s also a decent offer of Omaha and stud games. Traffic is usually at its most intense around 7 PM (PT).
Even with the legal fight over its old domain, Bodog.com, the poker room staff managed to stay on top of things. Within 24 hours after the old Url was ceased, the site moved to a temporary Url and later to its new permanent address, bodoglife.co.uk.
Software & Graphics
Bodog Poker launched new and improved poker software in January 2006. With this full-fledged version, Bodog managed to create one of the best pieces of poker software on the internet. It runs without any delays or downtime, all games are fast and smooth, and you can customize your playing experience to a large extent.
Like all good poker clients, the Bodog software allows you to take notes on other players. It also shows you all necessary table statistics, such as view flop percentage and average pot size. The statistics about your own game is better than in most other poker rooms. During the game you can keep track of how often you see the flop, your win percentage and more. After the hand is folded, you can still see your hole cards – if seeing your would’ve been straight flushes doesn’t get you off balance, that is.
Bodog has taken a brave step into the modern and thrown out the realistic-table design. In line with recent research on web usability, they instead show relevant information in a readable format. The player is always seated in the center, a smart detail that also improves playability.
You can play up to three tables at once. This is a limitation for the ambitious grinder who is used to working maybe as much as eight or even twelve tables in parallel. For most players, though, three tables are probably good enough. Plus, it works very well.
All this combined makes the Bodog software one of the best in the industry.
Game Variety
The game variety at Bodog Poker is better than average. The games offered are Texas Holdem Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo plus the more exotic Five Card Stud.
Contrary to many sites, Bodog can actually display decent action in all of the offered game varieties. Even so, action is concentrated to the holdem tables, as usual – but let’s not blame individual sites for the prevalent trends in the poker world!
You can play most of the mentioned poker games at full-ring or short-handed tables, but also heads up. You can choose between fixed, pot-limit and no-limit, any you are therefore likely to find whatever game you wish to play.
More About
In WSOP 2006, Bodog player Jamie Gold won the $12 million first prize – but how much would he get to keep? Allegedly Gold had promised a companion half of his winnings! Of course, he hadn’t expected to win millions of dollars...
Read more about
Jamie Gold’s six million dollar promise!
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