Full review of Gaming Club Poker

Gaming Club Poker
www.gamingclubpoker.com
FREE DOWNLOAD!
Established 2001
Country Gibraltar
Auditor PWC
Software size 3.46 MB

Special Features
Lots of short-handed tables (5 or 6 players maximum)
Famous endorsers
4-table view option

Total score (out of 10) 6.50

 Sign-up bonus in $ $300
Deposit bonus in % 100%
Referral bonus per friend $0
Deposit free bonus $0
Paid to play ($/hour) $0

Hits
Has bad beat jackpot and high-hand bonus
Note taking support
Lobby info with players/flop and average pot
Good telephone support

Misses
Limited software
No live table hosts
Fewer high-stakes games
Summary
World exclusive $22,000 private promotion including: (1), a $17,000 WPT Bellagio Five Diamond package for the finals at the Bellagio Casino, Las Vegas in December 2005 and (2), a $5,000 cash prize free roll at the Gaming Club. For all details see promotion page. Gaming Club Poker is one of the fastest growing poker rooms in the PrimaPoker Network. They are sponsoring offline poker tournaments and have better bonus and promotions than most other Prima Poker rooms (see our deal below, which is the best Prima Poker deal currently). Gaming Club Casino, which manages this poker room, are known for their generous bonus offerings and fair bonus clauses. The Prima Poker software is OK, but not great. On the positive side, there are many very juicy and aggressive games, which is good both for the action lover and the sophisticated players looking for a good hourly return. Real money player statistics - July 2005: 3000-3500 ring game players at peak hours, 3500-5000 tournament players at peak hours. Special $300 bonus for our users if they use NETeller for deposit, plus private super value free roll!

Software and graphics
Gaming Club Poker software is a customized shared-network version of Prima Poker Network by Microgaming. There have been a number of smaller makeovers of the software during 2003 and 2004, but there are still some areas of improvement before reaching the level of top poker room software. Gaming Club Poker does share the player base with the rest of the Prima Poker Network to ensure high traffic. The game used to be slower that the average online, but nowadays the software speed as well as user's time restriction is much quicker. Hand history is available by HTML page and via email. One nice feature is the possibility to see all actions in the chat area to the right - who raised and called and for which amounts in the previous betting rounds and previous hands. This feature is invaluable for players not keeping full focus on the game (playing on other tables or having other distractions). In sum, the software is now OK, but leaves some room for improvement.

Ring game traffic
Gaming Club Poker (Prima Poker) player volume has grown tremedously during the latter part of 2004 and is now among top 6 in the industry. The ring game traffic at peak hours is currently around 3000-3500 players.

Tournament traffic
At peak hours, the tournament traffic at Gaming Club Poker currently reaches somewhere between 3500 and 5000 players (lots of these "real money players" are in massive free rolls).

Game variety
Gaming Club Poker has the standard games (Holdem, Omaha, seven-card stud and five-card stud), but there are no Hi-Lo versions. There is very good volume for the pot- and no-limit players in Holdem. There are many short-handed tables with a maximum of 5 or 6 players.

Rake
The rake is somewhat less attractive than the average. The pot- and no-limit at Gaming Club Poker is raked at every $5, which is good. The lower straight limit games (up to $1/$2) are capped at $1.50 (compared to $1 at most other sites), which is high. The tournaments fees are 10% for entries ranging from $10 up to $50. For the $100 tournaments, the fee is $9.

Soft competition
Gaming Club Poker (Prima Poker) offers some of the wildest ring games around, with view flop percentages most often in the 40-ies, 50-ies and even reaching the 70-ies. The tournaments are also quite wild, at least up to the $50 fees. It remains to be seen what the quality of players will be in the future. Presently there is much advertising, which typically attracts less experienced and looser poker players.

Sign up bonus
You can get the full $300 bonus with a very low deposit ($20 and up) as the bonus is entirely dependent on how many raked hands you play and not the size of the deposit. Remember to get the full bonus you often need a larger deposit as you risk losing out sooner or later AND you need to use NETeller. Points are awarded as follows:
Table limits .50/$1 = 1 point (capped at 400 points)
Table limits $1/$2 = 2 points (capped at 800 points)
Table limits $2/$4 and greater = 3 points

Loyalty bonus
New points program, where frequent players are invited to a number of high value free rolls and other promotions.

Promotions
World exclusive $22,000 private promotion including: (1), a $17,000 WPT Bellagio Five Diamond package for the finals at the Bellagio Casino, Las Vegas in December 2005 and (2), a $5,000 cash prize free roll at the Gaming Club. For all details see promotion page. Overall at Gaming Club Poker there are some high value promotions. There are currently 5 free rolls daily with $1000 or more in prize pool (in the Prima network). The progressive bad beat jackpot is for Holdem ring games, the jackpot starts at $500 with $50 added each day. There is also a daily Holdem high-hand bonus of $250.

Support
There is both telephone support and e-mail support.

Financial security
Should be secure, as the mother company Gaming Club Casino is a well-established online casino. Top score.

Deposit & withdrawal options
Deposit options:
VISA, MasterCard, prepaid ATM, NETeller, FirePay, Moneybookers, EcoCard.
Cash out options:
Cash out to credit card only against prior purchases make, remaining balance is paid out via various "web wallets" (NETeller, FirePay, Prepaid ATM, etc) and check.