888 Poker Netherlands

Poker room 888 Poker is one of the leaders of online poker industry, which is ranked second by the players traffic below such giant as PokerStars. Even such popular poker rooms as Full Tilt and Party Poker as well as iPoker network fall behind 888.com in the traffic of players.

888poker, formerly Pacific Poker, is an international online pokercardroom and network owned by 888 Holdings.^[1] 888poker was established in 2002, and is based in Gibraltar.

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• 888 Poker Review & 888 Poker Promo Code 2020 888 Poker deservedly has a stellar reputation in the poker world. With an exceptional poker client, well-rounded MTT and cash-game traffic, and major partnerships with brands like WSOP, it is no wonder this is the second-largest poker site in the world.

History[edit]

The poker provider was originally launched in 2002 as Pacific Poker and later rebranded 888poker. The site enjoyed early success due in part to a large number of players who joined from its more established sister site.^[2]

United States[edit]

When the United States Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006, affirming that online gambling in the United States was illegal, 888poker was forced to close its doors to all American players.^[3] Changes to online gaming regulations in 2013 in some states has prompted return by 888 to the US market.

Nevada[edit]

888poker has partnerships with several private gaming entities in Nevada,^[4] and New Jersey.^[5] Authorities in these states require that online casino providers join an offline partner in order to receive an operating license. On March 21, 2012, The Nevada Gaming Commission granted 888 a license as an Interactive Gaming Service Provider. 888 launched its online activity in Nevada officially on September 15, 2013.^[6]

New Jersey[edit]

On November 26, 2013, 888 successfully launched its online poker site for online poker players in New Jersey.^[7] 888 operates under a permit (permit number NJIGP 13-006 ) issued to its partner Caesars Interactive Entertainment (which is a subsidiary of Caesars Entertainment Corporation) to offer online gaming in New Jersey.^[8] Its poker offerings are available only in the state of New Jersey and to players who are at least 21 years old.

Delaware[edit]

On May 2, 2013 888 announced that it has been selected by the Delaware Lottery as its Primary Vendor to operate internet gaming systems and services. 888 has signed a partnership agreement with Scientific Games, the largest technology provider for electronic lottery gaming in the United States as part of its operating license in the State of Delaware. The service is scheduled to become available to Delaware residents before the end of 2013.^[9]

Europe[edit]

Denmark[edit]

In Denmark, 888poker was launched as a localized version in September 2015, after acquiring a license from the Gambling Authority.^[10] After launch, 888 Denmark manager in Denmark, Simon Ravn, said: 'We have a slightly different approach to the Danish poker market than many of the other poker providers; we want to offer value to all our players, rather than focus on sign up bonuses and new customers', adding that 'people still want to play poker and we think we can offer a new, fresh experience with us'.^[11]

Spain[edit]

On June 15, 2012, the General Directorate for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ),^[12] published on its website the definitive list of operators licensed to operate in Spain, including 888 Spain plc. 888poker offers since its online products, combined with a series of live tournaments among which the SuperStack, with events in several Spanish cities in February in which distributed more than €400,000 in prize money during 2014.^[13]

Poker games offered and player experience[edit]

The 888poker offering includes poker game variations such as Texas Hold’em, Omaha (High & Low) and 7 Card Stud Poker, along with Sit & Go and Tournament games.^[14] Products are available on all major platforms, including PC, Android, and Apple devices. A new version of the mobile app was launched on Aug 21, 2013, providing mobile access to multi table tournaments.

888poker was the first online poker provider to introduce poker tables with webcam integration to allow its members to socialize more with other players and to make the overall gaming experience more human.^[3]

Mobile poker[edit]

Following 888poker's upgrade of its mobile app in July 2013, the company's then CEO, Brian Mattingly, revealed in an interview that 888poker's strong sales growth comes from the expanding mobile poker market. Mattingly stated that 17% of 888's UK wagers in general are placed on mobile devices and hoped that the company's UK mobile share will double in the next year and a half.^[15]

888poker Club[edit]

888poker's loyalty programme, the 888poker Club, features daily free tournaments and offers players a chance to win $100,000 each month. Players also receive scratchcards for every five levels they climb.^[16]

The 888poker team[edit]

A variety of professional poker players and celebrities act as brand ambassadors for 888poker. Among the prominent persons who have joined Team 888poker are Dominik Nitsche, Martin Jacobson, Chris Moorman,^[17] Sofia Lövgren, Kara Scott, Natalie Hof, Parker Talbot, Vivian Saliba^[18] former Australian international cricket bowler Shane Warne,^[19]UFC Welterweight champion George St. Pierre,^[20] and the former footballer Denílson.

Uruguayan footballer Luis Suárez also signed a contract with 888poker in 2014. However, the partnership was dissolved due to the events of the 2014 World Cup.

Live Poker Tournaments[edit]

888poker Live and XL Championships Series[edit]

888poker hosts the 888poker Live event several times a year, a series of poker tournaments held in several cities around the world. In addition, 888poker organizes three online legends - XL Inferno , XL Eclipse and XL Blizzard - collectively known as the XL Championships Series.^[21]

World Series of Poker[edit]

888poker is the main sponsor and the exclusive organizer of qualifying rounds for since 2014 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.^[22]

Super High Roller Bowl[edit]

In 2016, 2017 and 2018, 888poker was the main sponsor of the Super High Roller Bowl hosted by Poker Central at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. This tournament was a buy-in of US$300,000, the second most expensive and the most expensive 2017 poker tournament worldwide.^[23]

World Poker Tour[edit]

In November 2017, 888poker and the World Poker Tour (WPT) entered into a partnership that immediately enabled all players on 888poker to qualify directly for the WPT DeepStacks in Berlin.^[24][25] On February 11, 2019, WPT announced a new partnership with 888poker, which will see two new events added to the WPTDeepStacks Europe schedule. One in Malta and one in Portugal.^[26]

888 Poker LIVE Sochi[edit]

In August 2019, 888poker held 888 Poker LIVE Sochi. It was first event 888poker in Russia.^[27] Russian poker player Vasily Tsapko became the winner of 888poker LIVE Main Event and had nearly $200k in cashes.

References[edit]

1. ^'Pokerlistings.com: 888poker Becomes Second-Biggest Online Poker Site'. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
2. ^'888poker Network'. Check'n Raise Poker.
3. ^ ^ab'888 Poker'. iGaming.org.
4. ^'888 partner with caesars for online poker launch in Nevada'. Yahoo. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
5. ^'888 strikes New Jersey deal with Caesars'. The Telegraph. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
6. ^'888poker set for launch in Nevada'. Reuters. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
7. ^'NJ official site'. 888 Poker. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
8. ^'Internet gaming permit holders'(PDF). NJ.gov. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
9. ^'888poker selected by Delaware for online gaming contract'. Poker Update. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
10. ^Peter Bollerup Andersen (December 5, 2015). 'Klar til Danmark: 888Sport får comeback'. BetXpert (in Danish).
11. ^Simon Hoffmann Petersen (May 18, 2016). '888 indtog København: 'Det danske marked er en prioritet''. PNN.dk (in Danish).
12. ^Operadores de juego con licencia para operar en España. Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (in Spanish).
13. ^400.000 euros se repartieron en 888poker Super Stack 2014. soloazar.com.ar (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 26, 2016. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
14. ^'888poker'. Company history. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
15. ^'888 CEO announces mobile revenue rise'. Online Casino Archives. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
16. ^'888 changing rewards programme, ditching rakeback'. Gambling Insider. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
17. ^'Chris Moorman joins Team888'. pokerglobal.info. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
18. ^Rainer Vollmar (November 9, 2017). 'Vivian Saliba ist neues Mitglied im Team 888poker'. Hochge Pokert (in German).
19. ^'Shane Warne joins 888poker team'. Poker News. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
20. ^'UFC champion Georges St. Pierre signs at 888poker'. Bloody Elbow. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
21. ^Katie Callahan (April 3, 2017). '888poker Launches New XL Championships Series'. PokerNews.com.
22. ^'888poker Partners with WSOP for 2017'. PokerNews.com. February 14, 2017.
23. ^Dirk Oetzmann (April 27, 2017). '888poker Returns as Main Sponsor for Super High Roller Bowl'. PokerListings.com.
24. ^Rainer Vollmar (November 9, 2017). 'Tickets für die WPT Berlin – World Poker Tour und 888poker geben Kooperation bekannt'. HochgePokert.com.
25. ^Matthew Clark (November 9, 2017). 'World Poker Tour Joins Forces With 888poker And Announces Tournament of Champions Location'. US Poker.
26. ^'WPTDeepStacks Announces Partnership With 888Poker, 2019 Events in Malta and Portugal'. worldpokertour.com.
27. ^'888poker in Russia'.

External links[edit]

Why would you read yet another review of 888 Poker you ask.

Because this one is different.

While researching 888 Poker, I quickly released there was a lack of a good and honest review.

Most of the reviews I found were written by guys and gals who treated them more like advertising rather than reviews.

888 Poker Netherlands Antilles

If I wanted honest and unbiased reviews/comments I had to turn to the dungeons of online forums, where I would find exciting and frank discussions about 888 Poker.

But, finding all this information scattered around the interwebs was quite time-consuming.

So, I concluded there was a lack of a thorough and honest written review that brought all of that information together.

But fear not, those dark times are over, and I have now compiled a combined review and case study of 888 Poker, which is brutally honest and aims to let you know everything you need to know about 888 Poker.

At the end of this review, you will find the results from my case study, in which I played 20,699 micro cash games.

What do you think?

Did I make a profit or loss?

To find out, sit down, relax and read on.

Quick Links

How I did this 888 Poker Review

Deposited USD 50 with NETELLER

Played 20,699 micro cash games

Used the poker strategy tough by Jonathan Little

Recorded the hand history with PokerTracker

Played all the game variants

About 888 Poker

Let’s being with getting to know 888 Poker a bit more.

888 Poker, operated by 888 Holdings plc, they opened up their doors in 2002 (back then as Pacific Poker), offering players traditional poker games such as Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and Seven-Card Stud.

888 Holdings plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker: 888). So, if you are into stocks as well as poker, investing in 888 is an option for you. But keep in mind that poker only counts for 22% of the total revenue of 888 Holdings Plc. The primary source (60%) of income comes from 888’s casino operations.

We will have reasons to revisit the fact that the majority of the earnings from 888 comes from their casino operations in my section about player quality.

Are they trustworthy?

888 Poker has been reviewed and certified by eCorga under their “Card Shuffling Review.” That means that their Random Number Generator (RNG) has been review and verified by an external party.

I emailed them about this to gain further knowledge and here is a snippet of their reply.

In 2013, 888 Poker won the EGR Operator Awards for best poker operator of the year. The criteria for doing so are summed up in this sentence:

“The poker operator of the year award will be given to the operator that has operated the most successful real-money poker offering over the past year.”

But, they have not won the award since then.

In summary, 888 Poker is a part of a big, publicly listed company, so you should have no worries about it being rigged or that they will suddenly disappear with your money.

Depositing and withdrawing money

Depositing money into your 888 Poker account is very easy.

You have over 40 different ways of doing so, for example, VISA/MasterCard, PayPal, and NETELLER.

Not all of them will be available for you though. Depending on which country you live in you will be presented with different options. You will find all the available options for you in the 888 Poker software on the cashier menu.

When depositing money, you will accumulate a positive “Member Transaction Balance” for that specific payment method. This means that whichever deposit option you choose will also be available as a withdrawal option as long as your “Member Transaction Balance” is positive for that option.

More details on this can be found in their withdrawal policy.

In that policy, we find another thing worth highlighting regarding the withdrawal limits and identification requirements.

ID requirements for different withdrawal limits.

As you can see the more, you withdraw per month the more information about your identity you must provide.

What about exchange rates?

There is a lot of heated discussions about the exchange rates set by 888 Poker.

Let’s dive into that and find out what’s going on.

Accordingly, to 888 Poker the exchange rates are set by their bank.

If needed, 888poker will apply an exchange rate to your deposit according to the daily exchange rate used by our bank.

Is this exchange rate good or bad?

There is a lot of discussions about the exchange rates being bad. You will be subject to their exchange rates when you deposit or withdraw in any other currency than the US dollar.

You should, therefore, only deposit and withdraw in US dollars and let other parties, like your local bank, do the exchange by using their rates (which generally are much better for you).

For this to work you must verify that your 888 Poker account default currency is US dollars. When you register your account, it will be set in your country’s currency automatically. So, beware of this and contact their support to make sure your default currency is in US dollars.

For the case study of 888 Poker, I created a new account and deposited 50 US dollars. I did this using my NETELLER account, which default currency is USD. By making my deposit like this, I avoided all the troubles with exchange rates.

The deposit was instant and without any fees.

Keeping your account “dormant”

When (if) you read the terms and conditions for your 888 account you will come across this section:

“Should you fail to use your account for six months your account will be considered a “dormant account.” The six-month period will run from the date of your last login to your account. In the case of a dormant account, the Company will levy a monthly administration fee at a rate of 10% of the balance in the account on the date that it became dormant.”

Hang on a minute!

Will 888 start taking my money if I don’t use my account for six months?

Yes!

When you don’t use your account for six months, they will take out a “monthly administration fee” of 10 % each month until you run out of money or until you log in to your account again.

So, if you plan a nice long vacation and have money in your account, then make sure you login ones every six months or withdraw all your funds before you leave. Also, note that you won’t receive any interest money from 888 Poker.

Bonuses

888 Poker operates with two bonuses for new players.

$88 free with no deposit needed

This bonus sounds too good to be true, right?

Will 888 Poker will hand over $88 for free to your freshly registered account?

The answer is that they might very well do just that.

But it comes under a few conditions.

You won’t receive the full amount at once. What you will receive immediately is $2 in real money and $6 worth in tournament tickets.

The rest will be given out in small increments of $8 depending on how much bonus points you accumulate within the time limit of 90 days to claim this bonus. That means that you will have to generate 10 x 250 = 2 500 bonus point in the first 90 days of registering your account order to receive the full $88 bonus. And $22 of those $88 is real cash; the rest is tournament tickets.

So yes, there are some conditions to this bonus which makes it pretty hard to receive the full $88. But at least you will get $8 entirely for free with no conditions what so ever.

And that is a pretty sweet deal for anyone who wants to start playing poker with real money without depositing.

When I registered my account, I immediately received the $2 real money bonus as well as the six tournaments tickets for $1 each. Unfortunately, I didn’t use all of the tournament tickets before they expired. So be quick!

But, the no deposit bonus is an easy and excellent way to start playing real money poker without making a deposit.

Double your money + free tournament tickets on your first deposit

When you make your first deposit, you are awarded a bonus that will double your money and give you free tournament tickets.

The tournament tickets will be credited to your account immediately upon depositing, and the money bonus will be paid out in $10 increments based on the number of bonus points you generate.

Below is a snippet of the most critical parts of the terms and conditions for this bonus.

I deposited $50 and immediately received eight free tournament tickets as well as five $10 pending bonuses. For each bonus, I can follow the bonus points required to receive the bonus which is a nice and helpful feature.

Here is as a screenshot of the free tournament tickets I received.

Withdrawal rules on bonuses

If you play well and make good bank on your real money bonuses, they may only be withdrawn after you have generated 2.5 bonus points for every $1 received. This means you will have to play quite a lot before you can withdraw it.

Gameplay

How is the gaming experience at 888 Poker?

That’s what you will learn in this part of the review.

Design

When you first log in you will be presented with an, in my opinion, excellent layout. You can easily choose from 3 different levels of cash games, sit & go’s and tournaments. This makes it easy for a beginner to start playing in no time.

If you want to be more specific and choose more carefully what type of game you want to play head over to the “All games” you will see everything that is going on.

Here you can make all kinds of selections to find the game or tournament that is right for you.

When you have found the right table for you and you sat down this is what the actual gameplay will look like.

This is a standard table design, and you have the information and options that you would expect. But, if you look to the top left corner, you will your progress towards receiving your next bonus.

Rake

Rake is always something you should consider when choosing your poker site.

But what is rake?

Rake is the primary revenue stream for poker sites. It is a percentage taken from the pot. Benoit Lafontaine has written an excellent explanation of how it is calculated on Quora.com.

What is the rake at 888 Poker?

It is usually 5% but varies depending on what kind of game and limits you play. But you should note that 5% is pretty standard so 888 Poker does not stand out in either direction in this matter.

Traffic and quality of players

If you examine how many active players 888 Poker had on an average the last seven days you will find that 888 Poker is the second most popular poker site, only beaten by PokerStars.

That means that there is usually no shortage of players to compete against.

To determine the quality of the players, we must first determine what a lousy player is. If we can agree that a poker fish usually is a recreational player with limited experience, then the quality of players on 888 Poker is pretty low.

Why?

Because 888 Poker is marketing themselves to new and recreational players. This together with the many reports online that 888 Poker being a “Fishtank”.

Also, as I mentioned in the beginning 888 is mainly a casino which means many casino players will try their luck on the poker tables once in a while.

So, if you believe yourself to be quite the poker player you should start playing on 888 Poker for some easy money.

Platforms

888 Poker offers you to play on a variety of different platforms on either desktop or mobile. With all these options they make it pretty darn impossible not to be able to enjoy a game of poker.

The desktop user has these options:

As a mobile user, you have the options to play on iPhone, Android, iPad, and Web app.

My Case Study

Now, we will look into how easy/hard it is to make money playing poker on 888. Since they get a lot of their revenue from casino players, one would assume a lot of those low skilled poker players are easy targets. Well, if you also believed that I would say you were right.

I played 20,699 cash games at No Limit Hold’em $0.02/0.05, 6 player max. I did this by multi-tabling four tables and this made me average around 300 hands per hour. The strategy I used is the one tough by Jonathan Little in his book “Strategies for Beating Small Stakes Poker Cash Games.“ I am by no means a professional poker player. I am an amateur player, playing mostly for fun and thus that is my benchmark.

I tracked all my games using PokerTracker and turned my initial deposit of $50 into $600

Hands: 20,699 Won: $600

This shows that by using a sound poker strategy, it is possible to make money playing poker on 888.

Support

888 Poker can easily be contacted by online chat, phone or email. Their main help page is a big FAQ which is quite extensive and gives a lot of useful information.

The online chat is only available through the desktop app and here but it requires you to have an account. The same is true to email support which won’t be answered unless your email is registered to an account.

A funny thing I noticed is that the chat was unavailable (early in the morning) unless I was just about to deposit more money. Then the cheerful Grace appeared and wanted to have a small talk about my bonuses.

What do other Reviews say about 888 Poker?

Although I did my research before writing this review, you should have a look at what other people has to say about 888 Poker.

Luckily for you, there is no shortage of online reviews for 888 Poker. A simple Google search for “888 poker review” gives you 238,000 results.

By analyzing those results, you will find that the reviews can be organized in two different types, user reviews and affiliate reviews.

888 Poker Netherlands Live

User reviews

The user reviews are made by everyday people who write comments on public review sites or forums. These reviews are unfortunately for 888 Poker not too pretty.

The users on TrustPilot give 888 Poker 1.2/5 from 350 reviews.

The main issues reported were:

• Buggy software
• Long payment times
• Bad exchange rates
• Terrible support
• Rigged gameplay (see the introduction to find out why you can trust 888 Poker)

Although this seems quite depressing, you should keep in mind that there are a few positive user reviews too.

Reddit has a few threads about 888 Poker which is positive.

Affiliate reviews

These reviews are mainly (not all) written by website owners with the sole purpose to gain affiliate revenue from 888 Pokers affiliate program. This means that the reviews are biased and might not be trustworthy.

But what about this review then? Doesn’t this qualify as one of those?

Well, yes and no. This review is supported by affiliate links, but I have put in a lot of effort and research in making it trustworthy bringing up both good and bad sides of 888 Poker.

I hope you do feel the same after reading it.

Your experience

I am now overly excited to hear about your experience of 888 Poker.

Is it your favorite poker site?

Do you play there regularly?

888 Poker Netherlands Wikipedia

Does it stink?

Whatever you think of it, write a comment!