Betsafe Poker is the poker room offered by the popular Scandinavian online casino, Betsafe. A popular poker destination in Europe, Betsafe Poker is a member of Ongame network, which keeps the games running smoothly and at a very high quality.
One of the main reasons to play at Betsafe Poker is that is a section of a larger online casino. In these cases, the poker rooms tend to be filled with bad players who just wandered over from the casino section in the hope of making a little cash off of poker. Because of this, even mediocre poker players can really clean up by playing at Betsafe and their fantastic welcome bonuses provide even more incentive to play. Betsafe also knows what poker players want, and has superior customer support and banking options.
While the Betsafe poker room runs on very solid software and provides all the features and games that poker players have come to expect, there are a few cons to playing there. One is that due to the high volume of casual players, there is rarely any table hosting any game other than Texas Hold'em. Also, the software tends to run slowly, which reduces the amount of hands per hour, and the amount of money that can be made off of the fish.
Betsafe Poker currently has one of the best sign-up bonuses that can be found, offering a 200% bonus on the first deposit, up to a whopping $2,500! They also give players an extremely generous 90 days to clear the bonus, which is released in one installment once the required amount of play has been reached. There are also lower bonus levels for players who are looking to get in on the action, but don't have a lot of money to deposit at the very beginning.
Betsafe Poker runs its own VIP program, where players collect points for their play based on rake and tournament fees. The best part of this program is that points are not accumulated in order to buy hats or key chains. Instead, Betsafe Poker gives players cash back based on the amount of points earned in a specific period. Players who spend a lot of time on the site can even earn up to 40% over the course of a year!
As with other online poker rooms, there are also many different special tournaments and offers available throughout the year. Some of the most popular promotions at Betsafe Poker are the point races. Players are ranked on a leaderboard based on the amount of points earned during a certain amount of time, with the top players winning valuable prizes.
Betsafe Poker is part of the Ongame poker software platform. While the Ongame network is lauded for their amazing bonus programs and tournaments, their software is not one of their strong points.
The software and gameplay tends to be sluggish at times, with far too much waiting time between hands. Additionally, the table and lobby interface is small and quite confusing. After some time, it is simple to work out and get used to, but at the beginning it can seem quite daunting.
Betsafe Poker offers many different stakes and buy-ins for Texas Hold'em, including No Limit and Fixed Limit games. These tables are always quite popular and full, with games available at any time and at any limit from microstakes all the way to $2000 buy-ins. One advantage of Betsafe is that they offer a large amount of shorthanded table with only five seats, perfect for players who enjoy shorthanded games.
One of the drawbacks of the service is that there isn't much to play outside of Texas Hold'em. While Omaha and Stud tables exist, they are largely ignored by the vast majority of players, many of whom are fish who only know about poker from what they have seen on TV.
As a part of the larger Betsafe Casino, Betsafe Poker has truly amazing customer support. Their live customer support is fast and professional. They even go the extra mile and put forth a 15-minute customer support guarantee; if a query is not answered with a real answer, not an automated message, within 15 minutes of being sent, they will give that player 10 EUR, no string attached. However, the support is so good that it is unlikely that they ever give away that money.
Another advantage of Betsafe Poker being part of an online casino and sports book is that they support almost every type of deposit and banking method imaginable. Additionally, the payments are safe and secure. They also know that when a withdrawal is made, people want their money immediately, so they pledge to process every single payment within one business day.
Betsafe payment options include: Visa, Visa Electron, MasterCard, Maestro, Entropay, Moneybookers, Neteller, Local Bank Transfer, Fundsend, ClickandBuy, Przelewy 24, Citadel, and SpeedCard.
