Full review of Royal Vegas Poker

Royal Vegas Poker
www.royalvegaspoker.com 
FREE DOWNLOAD!
Established 2001
Country Gibraltar
Auditor PWC
Software size 3.98 MB

Lots of short-handed tables (5 or 6 players maximum)
Famous endorsers
Clear overview over the entire betting sequence (right-hand action table)

Total score (out of 10) 6.50

 Sign-up bonus in $ $1000
Deposit bonus in % 100%
Referral bonus per friend $50 

Hits
Large volume of players
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 loyalty program
No live table hosts

Summary
Royal Vegas Poker is one of the leading poker rooms, among the skins forming the PrimaPoker Network. Instead of the standard offer (up to $40 bonus at 40% match) we have a joint promotion with them for up to $1,000 bonus. Royal Vegas Poker has lots of high value promotions, especially free rolls. Several endorsers take part in the games, such as Lou Krieger, Bob Ciaffone and Mike Cappelletti. The Prima Poker software has been improved lately, but still leaves soom room for improvement. On the good 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. Royal Vegas is one of the best rooms to chose in Prima Network for the many promotions. Real money player statistics - July 2005: 3000-3500 ring game players at peak hours, 3500-5000 tournament players at peak hours.

Software and graphics
Royal Vegas 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. Royal Vegas 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
Royal Vegas Poker (Prima Poker) ring game traffic is quite high. The ring game traffic at peak hours is currently around 3000-3500 players.

Tournament traffic
At peak hours, the tournament traffic at Royal Vegas Poker currently reaches somewhere between 3500-5000 players.

Game variety
Royal Vegas 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 Royal Vegas 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
Royal Vegas 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
Partial bonuses are paid out for each $20 earned. Time requirement to clear bonus is 60 days from first deposit. 3 points awarded for each played raked hand at $4/$8 limits and up. $2/$4 to $3/$6 limits give 2 points. $0.25/$0.50 up to $1.50/$3.00 gives 1 point.

Loyalty bonus (4)
Royal Vegas Poker has lots of high value free rolls for players having reached a certain number of raked hands.

Promotions (8)
The focus is on big free rolls, with prize pools up to $30,000. There are currently 5 or more daily free rolls with at least $1000 prize pools (December 2004). 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 at $250.

Support (7)
There is telephone support and e-mail support. The telephone support in really good and the email support have improved with good response times.

Financial security (9)
Should be secure, as the mother company is a well-established online casino and the poker room is part of a network. Top score.

Deposit & withdrawal options (8)

Deposit options:
VISA, MasterCard, ACH transfers, prepaid ATM, NETeller, FirePay, Gaming Card, 900 Pay.

Cash out options:
Cash out via check or various "web wallets" (NETeller, FirePay, Prepaid ATM, PaySpark, etc).