Top 5 Bitcoin Poker Sites of 2015
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BetCoin Poker Review
Betcoin Poker is a poker site that offers a lot to its players. Offering both regular games and tournaments, Betcoin Poker brings to the table a great location for playing poker. To help assist, it even includes an online database that displays the tournaments in an easy-to-search format, helping see what is happening on the site even without actually being logged in.
Betcoin Poker has a very easy account system, needing just a username, password, email and nickname. The nickname is to help protect accounts further by allowing the use of a different public name than is used for logging in. When it comes to security, this is a wonderful thing!
Unlike some poker sites, Betcoin Poker has its very own client, giving a real poker site feel. This makes playing on the site much more comfortable, and the client helps make everything much more familiar to those who have played on other major sites in the past.
Withdrawals are all handled manually, although it is stated that in most cases they are sent out within seconds after making the request. The minimum withdrawal amount is 0.05 BTC, which is equal to 50 credits.
Betcoin Poker has multiple promotions that are ongoing:
- 1 BTC deposit match bonus – make a deposit of 1 BTC or more and get an extra 1 BTC as a bonus
- Most ring game hands played daily – the top 10 players who play the most hands in ring games are awarded bonus chips from a stack of 0.1 BTC
- Consecutive days ring game hands played – bonuses are given for players that take part in at least 100 hands a day over multiple consecutive days
- Most tournaments played – bonuses are given for the top 10 players who take part in the most tournaments per day, from a stack of 0.05 BTC
Pros
- Betcoin Poker is part of a larger network, encompassing an actual casino as well as the poker site itself
- Utilizing an actual poker client helps give a more professional feel to the site
- Deposits are instantly credited and withdrawals are handled quickly (usually almost instantly) as well, making it easy to get started and cash out
- Security is seen on the site, in that it uses a username to log in but also allows a separate (and different) username that the other players on the site will see
Cons
- It has a small population at this time, so there is not a lot of play
- It requires downloading a client (and while the client is a pro, it is also a con in that it is not usable on mobile devices)
A leaderboard is featured as well, helping see who the top players are at any given time. This also plays in to the site’s promotions, allowing more rewards to be earned just by playing – regardless of whether players are winning or losing their hands.
Unlike some poker sites, Betcoin Poker has its very own client, giving a real poker site feel. This makes playing on the site much more comfortable, and the client helps make everything much more familiar to those who have played on other major sites in the past.
“If there weren’t luck involved, I would win every time.”
Watching the games was very pleasurable, especially seeing that players are on low stakes (0.5 chip big blinds) and medium stakes (the 10 chip blinds are pretty popular). While none of these are considered as major stakes, that will likely end up changing as the site continues to grow and Bitcoin becomes more popular. As it is in its current state, the site is an awesome experience for both watching and taking part in the poker games, and getting involves is easy enough that making a deposit (or joining one of the hourly freerolls) is painless!
Getting up and running with Seals With Clubs was a great experience. As an avid poker player already, the entire system was already pretty familiar. Rather than using the browser-based client, I opted for the standalone (non-installed) version. It was as simple as downloading, unzipping it and running the client and within seconds I was at the lobby! From here, I surfed around a little, looking at where the bulk of the site’s activity was holed up at. It should come as no surprise that freerolls were by far the most popular, often getting as many as 300 players in at once. Past this, when it came to the money games the most people were in Texas Hold’em, followed by Omaha (although at a much lower rate). Click here for our full list of Bitcoin gambling sites.
Seals With Clubs has an average of around 400 concurrent users on at any given time, although it does dip to around 200 from time to time. This leads to a great number of players to go against at any given time on both cash tables and tournaments.
Cash Games, Sit & Go’s and Tournaments are all available for the popular game types of Texas Hold’em, Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo. No matter what your favorite game type is, you can find others interested in playing it as well (although Texas Hold’em is by far the most popular choice among Seals With Clubs players).
Chip Values and Rake
A single chip on Seals With Clubs is worth 1 mBTC (or a thousandth of a Bitcoin). This value does not fluctuate, regardless of Bitcoin’s current value.
Rake is charged depending on the game type and blinds, as follows:
No Limit/Pot Limit – 2.5% of the pot with a 10 chip maximum
Limit (Big Blind < 100 Chips) – 2.5% rake with a 2 Big Blind cap Limit (Big Blind > 100 Chips) – 1% rake with a 7 chip maximum
Promotions
Promotions. There are a few different promotions here that are well worth checking out:
Every Sunday there is a 40 Bitcoin guaranteed tournament called the “BIG BTC.”
There is a “Table Starter” bonus that offers 50% rakeback to anyone playing on a 6-max or 9-max table with less than four players. This is automatically rewarded.
There is a bonus system set up called “Krill” that rewards you for playing. The chart of current requirements and the rewards is as follows:
| Wave 14 | 10,000,000 krill | 50% Rakeback | GrandMasterSeal |
| Wave 13 | 5,000,000 krill | 47% Rakeback | |
| Wave 12 | 2,000,000 krill | 45% Rakeback | Sage Seal |
| Wave 11 | 1,000,000 krill | 42% Rakeback | |
| Wave 10 | 500,000 krill | 38% Rakeback | Shrewd Seal |
| Wave 9 | 200,000 krill | 33% Rakeback | |
| Wave 8 | 100,000 krill | 27% Rakeback | Cunning Seal |
| Wave 7 | 50,000 krill | 19% Rakeback | |
| Wave 6 | 20,000 krill | 11% Rakeback | |
| Wave 5 | 10,000 krill | 5% Rakeback | Tricky Seal |
| Wave 4 | 5,000 krill | 2% Rakeback | |
| Wave 3 | 2,500 krill | 2000 Chip Freeroll | Daring Seal |
| Wave 2 | 1,250 krill | 1000 Chip Freeroll | |
| Wave 1 | 500 krill | 500 Chip Freeroll | FlounderingSeal |
Krill is earned while taking part in both cash games and tournaments, and the freerolls are tiered (such that at 2500 Krill you have access to all three freerolls).
Our Rating
My rating for Seals With Clubs is a 10/10. The only potential problem is the withdrawal time, but even compared to the industry average it is much shorter than the standard. With all of the promotions that go on and the ability for everyone to get rakeback from their play, Seals With Clubs offers a great experience for new and experienced poker players alike.
