BetHoldem Poker

BetHoldem Poker has only been around since 2005 yet in that short period of time this room has established itself as the second biggest poker room on the Prima Poker network, itself one of the largest poker networks in the world today. What this means for new players is that they can expect to see thousands of fellow real-money poker players when they sign up with BetHoldem Poker. An amazing stat is that last month, June 2006, BetHoldem Poker exceeded 10,000 real-money players at peak times. You will find active cash games and tournaments at every level pretty much on demand.

The promotions and special offers are juicy and enticing, catering to the type of person who has crossed over from online sportsbooks and casinos. So at BetHoldem you will find hefty sign-up bonuses, bad beat jackpots, random prize drawings for "magic hands" awarded every other day, and fun contests. If you`re a serious poker player these novelties won`t really sway you, but they do entice inexperienced fun-seeking poker players to join up, and that alone should be music to the ears of any online poker pro.

BetHoldem Poker runs on the Prima Poker Network, which has both good and bad aspects to it in our opinion. The good stuff is as follows: it is very stable and reliable - 10,000 players can be on there at the same time and it won`t be an issue; you can play up to eight tables at the same time; you can select various table sizes and view up to 5 tables at once; the various statistics you can access are first-class. But the lobby itself is way below average. It is tough to navigate and the design is mediocre. On the whole the graphics are average at best. It`s not a huge deal by any means, but this poker room will never win any style awards.

We`re pleased to note that the customer support is way above average. This poker room is managed by operators who have a lot of prior online gambling experience and it shows, because good customer care is clearly paramount to this organization. There is 24/7 help, fast support with good knowledge to back it up, and the banking facilities are comprehensive and easy to use.

• 50% bonus up to $250 for initial deposits, and Insider readers also qualify for a free poker chip set. It`s available upon request once you have played 250 raked hands
• Guaranteed weekly tournament of $100,000

• Leaderboard contests where top points earners for the week compete for cash prizes as well as up to $300 in free sports bets from the sportsbook.

• A Magic Hand bonus of $500 awarded to one randomly selected hand every other day (every 1,000,000 hands dealt).

• Progressive Bad Beat jackpot, currently stands at $90,000 (July 5, 2006)

• Earn BetHoldem points (BP) the more you play and trade them in for seats at tournaments or for special BP promotions.

Rake at BetHoldem Poker:
The rake here for ring games is slightly better than the industry average. The usual $3 max rake applies, and there is a sliding scale for short-handed tables just as one would find in a bricks & mortar card room. Micro-limit tables feature lower rakes, although the tournament fee structure of 10% of the buy-in is high.

Traffic:
June 2006 saw upwards of 2300 real money players at the ring games during peak hours, but unlike a lot of the other new poker rooms BetHoldem manages to spread out those players evenly across a variety of games and a variety of limits. We were impressed with the number of high-stakes players as well as the usual cluster of newbie`s at the micro-limits. The traffic for tournaments is very high, averaging 4500 at peak times recently, but as we said earlier they actually managed to exceed 10,000 players at one point in June. That`s very encouraging indeed.

Game Limits and Games that you can play at BetHoldem Poker
The game variety is excellent here, and you`ll find active tables as well, which is always a plus. It`s one thing to offer Stud, but quite another for an online poker room to have a game going on when you get there. BetHoldem also features some very loose and lucrative games, but not all the tables will be like this. You have to search for them. We found the short-handed tables and the turbo tables to be wild in a good, profitable kind of way. Use the lobby to track down the tables with high view-flop percentages (some well over 50%) and proceed from there.

Deposits / Withdrawals:
BetHoldem offers an incredible array of banking options to deposit and withdraw your funds, and getting your money out is relatively quick and simple as well. The deposit options: Instant Bank Transfer, Credit Card, NETeller, MoneyBookers, Swift Pay, Firepay, Express Money Transfer, On Demand Funds, FedEx Draft, Mail Draft, Wire Transfer. The withdrawal options: NETeller, Regular mail, Firepay, Bank transfer, Express Money Transfer, FedEx Draft, and MoneyBookers.

Competition:
The Prima Poker Network used to be very soft but times have changed somewhat and the standard is improving. The guaranteed tournaments and qualifiers they offer to major tournaments have improved to such an extent that a lot of stronger players have come on board. There are still fish mind you, but you have to know where to go. As we stated earlier, if you play at the turbo tables you are quite likely to find weaker players eager to throw money away in a hurry. The full table games and the big tournaments are pretty competitive - not shark-infested by any means, but certainly not mugs either.

Player Loyalty Program and Service 
There is a fairly standard loyalty rewards program in place at BetHoldem Poker. You earn "BP" points when you play at cash games that are $1/$2 or higher and for playing in real-money tournaments. These points can then be redeemed after your first month on the site for entries into special tournaments or for other promotional offers. If you are a bonus hunter this is a good poker room to play at because you`ll want to multi-table ($1/$2 limit is the quickest way to earn your sign up bonus) and multi-tabling is a breeze at BetHoldem. It is easy to see multiple tables at once, and the software is designed to support multi-tabling (up to eight games simultaneously, although we don`t recommend trying that).