Cake Poker Review

Cake Poker is a medium-sized poker site that was launched in 2006 on its own poker network. Since then, several other poker sites have joined the Cake Poker Network and traffic has slowly grown since then. Cake Poker is not a very large poker site but it offers softer-than-average tables and one of the industry’s best loyalty reward programs.

One of the main advantages of playing at a smaller poker room is the fact that the tournaments are much easier to cash in. With more than $5,000,000 in guaranteed prize pool tournaments every month and a limited player base, there is a lot of money to go around at Cake. Players at Cake Poker can choose between Texas Holdem, Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo at a wide range of stakes.

Cake Poker Bonus

Cake Poker has a very nice deposit bonus for all first time players. When you sign up at Cake Poker you will get a 110% bonus for up to $600 extra on your first deposit. On top of that, you’ll earn a free ticket to the $500 new depositor freeroll, where you’ll be able to hone your skills against other new players.

Once you make a deposit and receive your bonus, the money is cleared by earning frequent player points (FPPs). Each FPP is worth $0.06 and the bonus money is released in $10 increments until the entire bonus has been cleared. Your account will be credited with $10 every time you earn 166.67 FPPs.

Frequent player points can be earned at Cake Poker by playing in real money ring games and tournaments. Every time you are dealt cards in a ring game, you’ll receive 1 FPP per dollar raked from the pot. Partial points are awarded, which makes it easy to accumulate points at all levels. In tournaments, 1 FPP is given for every $1.00 paid in tournament fees. You’ll have a total of 90 days to earn out as much of the bonus as possible. After that, any remaining bonus funds expire.

Cake Poker Tournaments

Cake Poker has a great tournament selection for such a small poker room. In addition to their $5 million worth of guarantees every month, Cake Poker hosts a variety of traditional tournaments, bounties, turbos, freerolls and more. You can participate in a $100,000 guaranteed tournament every week and a $250,000 guaranteed tournament every month. Players can also win seats to major live events such as the WSOP through any of Cake’s many satellite tournaments.

Sit-n-Go tournaments are always starting and they run at buyins that range from $1 to $220. These tournaments come in 6, 10 and 30 person formats and are offered in Texas Holdem, Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo. You’ll also find shootouts, turbos and double-or-nothing SNGs. In addition to that, players can compete in step satellites which start out at just $1.10 and give players the chance to win packages to the World Series of Poker.

Cake Poker Competition

The players at Cake Poker are relatively tight but unimaginative. It’s not a complete fish festival but you won’t get eaten alive by a bunch of sharks. At games below $0.25/$0.50, you’ll find plenty of easy tables but it gets bad once you move up in stakes. At $0.25/$0.50 and above, most tables have players-to-the-flop percentages in the 20s. There are definitely softer sites out there.

Cake’s tournaments are noticeably softer, thankfully, and are good for building a bankroll. The large variety of tournaments types tends to spread the competition thin, leaving the majority of tournaments full of casual and new players.

Cake Poker Software

Cake Poker’s marginal software is probably the main reason why Cake hasn’t experienced the same massive player growth as some of its competitors. The graphics use realistic player avatars but overall the graphics are uninspired and rather bland. They don’t detract from the game at all but it’s hard to find anything good to say about the graphics. On top of that, the tables run slowly with choppy animations and noticeable pauses between hands.

I usually don’t have any problems with the functionality of the software but today I experienced two major errors while writing this review. For about thirty minutes, the Cake Poker client wouldn’t even run – it gave me an error that said it couldn’t connect to the network. Once I finally got the software running, it crashed when I logged in to the cashier and clicked on one of the tabs inside there. This was just an isolated incident but the timing couldn’t have been worse.

On a positive note, the poker lobby is easy to navigate and lists the tables in an orderly fashion that makes getting started simple. The Cake software also has a few handy options such as four color decks, changeable player avatars, auto-rebuy and automatic exporting of hand histories.

Cake Poker Deposit Options

Players can deposit at Cake Poker through Visa, MasterCard, UseMyWallet and eWalletXpress. It’s not the longest list of deposit methods in the world but these deposit options work well. Cash outs are available in the form of a paper check, UseMyWallet or eWalletXpress.

Cake Poker Support

Fortunately, Cake Poker has a comprehensive self-help guide because the only form of support they offer is via e-mail. They usually respond quickly but you are at the mercy of whoever it is that answers e-mails. Hopefully they add new support options soon but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Admittedly, the software isn’t the greatest but Cake does have some nice promotions, is a reputable site and offers a nice deposit bonus which is why it makes our list of recommended sites. Visit Cake Poker to claim your $600 bonus.