Littlewoods Poker

Network

Littlewoods Poker is one of the skins on the Cryptologic network and is relatively new in comparison to William Hill and Sun Poker, but Littlewoods have definitely gotten their act together and will definitely be a major player on the Crypto network soon. They currently offer some of the best sign-up deals (see below) and rakeback deals on that network and also run lots of their own private tournaments which are not available to other crypto skins.

General

You won’t find lots of major stars playing the site, but there are still high stakes games to be found on this site. The players on Littlewoods Poker will mainly be European as Littlewoods and Crypto do now allow US players due to the UIGEA, which is a shame and this means the mornings are quite quiet and low on traffic. Peak times are usually the evenings 6pm GMT onwards. Lots of players on the Littlewoods and crypto are also associated with the sports betting side of things as some of these skins are related to sports betting companies, which means you do seem to get a lot of more ‘casual’ players who fancy a game of poker and this makes some of the games nice and fishy!

Games

Holdem- NL,PL,FL
Omaha Hi – PL,NL,FL
Omaha Hi-Lo –PL,FL
7 Card Stud Hi-Lo – FL
7 Card Stud – Hi –FL
5 Card Draw

The ring game traffic at Littlewoods Poker is not huge, but you can usual find a game running at most levels. They have the waiting lists, which will guarantee you a seat when another player leaves. The most popular game is by far No Limit Holdem at the cash games, but Omaha tables seem to be getting busier and there are often low limit 7-card stud games available.

The tournament traffic is pretty high, probably twice as many as the cash games. The popular new tournaments are the Head Hunters where basically half the entry fee is put on your ‘head’ and the other half goes into the prize pool. Every time you knock a player out you get the value of their head, so even if you don’t win, if you eliminate a lot of players you can still build a decent amount of money! The only problem is whenever you shove you get at least one or two calls off players just desperate to take a head! Littlewoods Poker also offer lots of satellites to the EPT and WPT and have a big weekly £40k game on a Sunday evening. The SnG’s are also pretty popular with the new “double your money” games, which basically means half the field are paid out. At peak times you are likely to find around 10,000 players playing on the Crypto network, which is fairly impressive considering the Americans are not in the market at the moment.

Software

The Littlewoods Poker software is very user friendly and easy to negotiate. The lobby is clear and concise, although viewing your current balance can be a bit of a pain because Littlewoods Poker use a separate cashier called ECashDirect. Finding the games is fairly straight forward and getting table info for cash players is right there in the lobby. The tables are nice and evenly spread and easy to use, including getting stats and hand histories. They also have a “pro view” option for multi table players, but this is very small and would be much better if it was re-sizeable as I think things are too crammed up if you use that view. There is virtually no lag and the software runs nice and smoothly.

Support

Littlewoods Poker have a good support department, they have a telephone number you can contact them on as well as an email service, but the knowledge of the operators who receive the emails is pretty limited in comparison to the bigger sites. Overall though, if you have an issue they will be quick and willing to do their best to help.

Payment Options:

Visa, MasterCard, NETeller, Click2pay and wire transfer.

RaiseTheRiver Opinion and overall Rating

We at Raise the River like Littlewoods Poker they have sponsored our league in the past and have always been top notch on delivering on their promises. We like the software and the tournaments and have a number of members who are regulars at the cash tables thanks to our awesome rakeback deal. We agree the knowledge of the support department needs to be improved upon and also re-sizeable table would be much better, but all in all we would definitely recommend Littlewoods Poker to our members.

RaiseTheRiver rate Littlewoods Poker 7.5/10

What the RaisetheRiver members think.

“Good tournament select, but the colours are eye bleeding” - Raffel69

“Good pro view, but not enough Guaranteed tourneys” - Kennl

“Good Software, not enough fish” -rickyrosa

“Terrible Players, horrible colours” - TanOrpheus

Raise the River rakeback deal

0- 4999 MPPs will receive 38.71% net
5000-7999 MPPs will receive 40% net
8000-10999 MPPs will receive 45% net
11000+ MPPs will receive 50% net

The rakeback is paid directly into players accounts monthly.

To get this deal you MUST do the following….
Create a new account (you can’t multi-account).
Clear your cookies.
Click the Link below and download the software and create a new account.
Email: rakeback@raisetheriver.com with your Littlewoods username
We will make sure you are tracked properly.

Littlewoods Poker Rakeback Link

Virgin Poker

Network

Virgin Poker is on the Boss Media Network. This Boss skin was created in 2005 and they have worked hard to build up a reputation and a player base. There are a number of other big name sites using the same software, such as Poker Heaven, but we at raisetheriver think Virgin will be easily competing for the top skin at Boss media in the near future.

General

You won’t find any US players on Virgin Poker as they are not allowed due to the rulings in the US. The site is mainly frequented by European players. Virgin has a unique player points system. They are called V-Points, where 1 point has a cash value of you GB penny or £0.01 ($0.02) The beauty of Virgin Poker is that they are able to call upon the resources of their sister companies and as such they have the ability to offer things such as Flights in exchange for the V-Points and offer excellent unique tournaments. Most recently the Virgin Festivals have been going down quite a storm in the UK with another sell-out expected in April 2008.

Games

Holdem- NL, PL, FL
Omaha Hi – PL, NL, FL
Omaha Hi-Lo –PL, FL
7 Card Stud Hi-Lo – FL
7 Card Stud – Hi –FL
5 Card Draw

The ring game traffic is usually not too bad, but as you can imagine, due to being a mainly European base of player, the better traffic is usually around early-late evening GMT. You can expect to find in excess of 2400 players playing the cash games at these times and most levels of buy in have decent traffic. Unfortunately the games are usually pretty quiet in the early mornings, but that is to be expected. A majority of the games are the NLHE, but you will find ok traffic in the other forms of poker too.

The tournament traffic is very good with over 6000 players playing at peak times. The only issue is that there are not enough guaranteed tournaments and the tournaments do not start regularly enough, with as a rule one starting every 15 minutes. Virgin Poker do run lots of satellite games to events such as their Festivals, the WSOP,EPT, WPT and many more. Virgin also run some very good free roll events for new players and are apparently trying to make themselves the number one site for “Poker Virgins”!

Software

The lobby of Virgin Poker is a bit of a problem in our opinion. Negotiating it is not all that smooth and the fact that the filters are pretty useless does not help either. If you are trying to find ring games it’s not too bad, but the lobby doesn’t update with the full tables fast enough and you may find yourself continually going to full tables and having to return to the lobby.

The actual game play is slick and smooth and very little trouble is had with lag. There is a problem that you cannot re-size tables, making it difficult for multi tablers’ and a bit of a pain if you like to see what is going on at all your tables. Another issue we feel could be a problem is that the chat box does not have a profanity filter meaning all kinds of swearing can be seen, which is a real shame. Overall though these are just cosmetic issues and doesn’t affect the game play.

Support

Virgin Poker offers excellent support, with live support, a telephone support department and even email support, which means you always have someone to help when required. The technical knowledge has not been found wanting as of yet, which is also a good sign.

Payment Options:

Virgin Poker use a cashier service called Webdollar, who take a share when you come to withdraw any funds, which is a shame, but a number of poker sites use these cashiers companies and unfortunately its unavailable. What I will say is to make sure you keep your webdollar pin safe as without this you cannot withdraw any monies.

Visa. MasterCard, Firepay, wire transfer, paysafe Card

RaiseTheRiver Opinion and overall Rating

We at raisetheriver think Virgin Poker is quite good, but could definitely improve in certain areas, mainly improving their lobby to be just as helpful to tournament players as it is for ring game players. The rakeback deal (see below) is an average one, but the V-Points are probably one of the best points systems out there on the net, especially with the fact that you get the benefits of the Virgin group behind it. We would recommend Virgin to all players as a good solid reliable poker site without any frills and excellent customer support.

RaiseTheRiver rate Virgin Poker 7.0/10

What the RaisetheRiver members think

Raise The River rakeback deal

0-2,500 26%

2,501-5,000 31%

5,001 -5,001+ 36%

Clear your cookies.
Click the Link below and download the software and create a new account.
Create a new account (you can’t multi-account).
email: rakeback@raisetheriver.com with your Littlewoods username
We will make sure you are tracked properly.

RAKEBACK DEAL LINK

InterPoker

InterPoker is on the Cryptologic software network, but is one of the bigger skins operating on that network. We don’t think they are yet as big as Littlewoods, but they are growing at a good steady rate thanks to their aggressive targeting of new players with good bonuses. As with all the Cryptologic sites the traffic seriously suffered when they pulled out of the American market.

General

You won’t find lots of major stars playing the site, but there are still high stakes games to be found on this site. The players on InterPoker will mainly be European as InterPoker and Crypto do not allow US players due to the UIGEA. Peak times are usually the evenings 6pm GMT onwards. One thing InterPoker do have are prop players, which shows they are trying to improve their cash game traffic. As mentioned above they do have quite a number of good sign-up bonuses, which are worth looking into.

Games

Holdem- NL,PL,FL
Omaha Hi – PL,NL,FL
Omaha Hi-Lo –PL,FL
7 Card Stud Hi-Lo – FL
7 Card Stud – Hi –FL
5 Card Draw

The ring game traffic at InterPoker is not that high, but you can usual find a game running at most levels, the only problem is it can be quiet at off –peak European times.. They have the waiting lists, which will guarantee you a seat when another player leaves. The most popular game is by far No Limit Holdem at the cash games, but Omaha tables seem to be getting busier and there are often low limit 7-card stud games available. The games have quite a few players who are there simply for the bonuses and the rakeback deals, which does make the tables pretty tough if you run into the regulars. Just make you you choose table selection a little more carefully.

The tournament traffic is pretty high, probably twice as many as the cash games. The popular new tournaments are the Head Hunters where basically half the entry fee is put on your ‘head’ and the other half goes into the prize pool. Everytime you knock a player out you get the value of their head, so even if you don’t win, if you eliminate a lot of players you can still build a decent amount of money! The only problem is whenever you shove you get at least one or two calls off players just desperate to take a head! InterPoker also offer lots of satellites to the EPT and WPT and have a big weekly £40k game on a Sunday evening. The SnG’s are also pretty popular with the new “double your money” games, which basically means half the field are paid out. At peak times you are likely to find around 10,000 players playing on the Crypto network, which is fairly impressive considering the Americans are not in the market at the moment.

Software

The InterPoker software is very user friendly and easy to negotiate. The lobby is clear and concise, although viewing your current balance can be a bit of a pain because InterPoker use a separate cashier called ECashDirect. Finding the games is fairly straight forward and getting table info for cash players is right there in the lobby. The tables are nice and evenly spread and easy to use, including getting stats and hand histories. They also have a “pro view” option for multi table players, but this is very small and would be much better if it was re-sizeable as I think things are too crammed up if you use that view. There is virtually no lag and the software runs nice and smoothly.

Support

InterPoker have a good support department, they have a telephone number you can contact them on as well as an email service,the operators do seem to be friendly and have a good general knowledge and thus providing a good service. If you have an issue they will be quick and willing to do their best to help.

Payment Options:

Visa. Mastercard, NETeller, Click2pay, wire transfer, Basic900pay, TeleBuy, Cheque.

RaiseTheRiver Opinion and overall Rating

We at raisetheriver think InterPoker is a good site to start your poker. The bonuses are decent enough in that they are easily achievable for even the small stakes players. Regular reload bonuses are offered and they have recently stepped up in their attempts to create more promotions. The toughest games are the mid-high stakes cash games, with lots of solid players, but the low limit games are generally pretty soft as a rule. Unfortunately you rarely see the high stakes SnG’s starting due to lack of traffic. Overall the software is easy and the cryptologic network is easy to use and reliable.

RaiseTheRiver rate InterPoker 7.25/10

What the RaisetheRiver members think

Raise The River rakeback deal

Interpoker now has a great offer of a 100% match up deposit bonus for any deposit upto $500 and also a 30% rakeback deal. In our books, thats an excellent deal. Just click any of these links or alterantively visit the RTR Rakeback and Bonus deals page.

To get this deal you MUST do the following….

Create a new account (you can’t multi-account).
Clear your cookies.
Click the Link below and download the software and create a new account.
email: rakeback@raisetheriver.com with your InterPoker username
We will make sure you are tracked properly.

Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt is on its own network. The software was designed and set up specifically for them. Most other poker sites are “skins” which operate on a larger network. They do this to make sure there is plenty of poker traffic for the users. You know when you are playing full-tilt you are only against players using the same skin.

General

You will find many of the top Pro’s playing the high stakes games at full tilt, you can expect to see names like Phil Ivey, Mike Mutusow, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson playing on this site, plus a whole load more. It’s also good to rail the huge games, you can easily be compelled by what you are seeing. These guys throw the kind of money around that can buy houses and think nothing of it! Full Tilt also offers the hugely popular FTOPS (Full Tilt Online Poker Series) which attracts the biggest names in the online world of poker. You can expect to see as many as 60,000 players on Full Tilt at peak times and at the moment a majority of the players are from the US, although you will see more and more Europeans on the site these days.

Games

You will find the following variants of poker hosted:
**KEY – NL = No Limit, FL = Fixed Limit, PL = Pot Limit)**

Holdem – NL,FL and PL

Omaha High – NL,FL and PL

Omaha Hi-Lo – PL,FL

7 Card Stud – FL

7 Card Stud Hi-Lo – FL

Razz – FL

HORSE – FL

The ring games are popular at Full Tilt, especially as they do offer rakeback , although you need to sign up for a new account to get it because they do not offer it retrospectively. They cater for ALL levels of players, from the micro stakes right up to the HUGE stakes. You will also hardly ever be find a time where there are no games running of your stake as it one of the most popular poker sites at this moment in time.

As for tournaments, Full Tilt has them starting every few minutes with buy-ins ranging from free rolls to the FTOPS big game of $2.5k. There are also the Sunday Special Tournaments like the Mulligan and the $750k, which once a month becomes the $1 million!. There are lots of satellites available to the bigger buy-in tourneys, including FPP (Frequent Player Point) buy-in satellites that seem to be very popular. All in all, if you are a tourney player you will find a great selection at Full Tilt.

Software

Full Tilt’s software is streamlined and easy to use. There is very rarely and lag or disconnections, even for those with slower connections. The lobby is simple to navigate and has a good filter, in fact probably one of the best, which makes it very easy to find the exact game you are looking for. Another good feature is that if one of the Full Tilt’s sponsored pros is playing at a table, that table will be highlighted in red, which makes them very easy to locate and rail (or even play if you make it that big!!). The tables are re-sizeable now, which is invaluable if you like to multi-table. The avatars can be fun or annoying, depending which way you see it, but there are options to change table views and backgrounds, so it pretty much caters for everyone’s taste. The rake at full tilt cash games is an industry standard of 5% up to a maximum of $3 per pot. We would rate the software as being very good and reliable.

Support

Unfortunately this is where Full Tilt lets all its other good work down. The only way to contact the support department is via email. There are no phone numbers or online support, which is a real shame for a poker room of this sort of size. They are usually slow to respond, but very knowledgeable and helpful when you final get in contact.

Payment Options:

Deposit: VISA, MasterCard, NETeller, FirePay, Money transfer.
Withdrawal: NETeller, Credit card, FirePay and Money Transfer.

RaiseTheRiver Opinion and overall Rating

Full Tilt is probably the second biggest online poker site at this moment in time. There have been many issues, that have been well publicised, with the support department, but to be honest that is their only big downfall. Lots of new players start out at full tilt, making some of the lower limit games very juicy and profitable. The general popularity of the site is appealing as you know you are always guaranteed an excellent game selection. If you are a tourney player and are from Europe, you may find some of the events are geared towards the American players, which is problematic, but they do seem to be introducing more ‘European friendly’ game all the time. We recommend Full Tilt for players of all levels of ability and a good place to start your poker.

What the RaisetheRiver members think.

Best software of all, but more sharks than fishes - Raffel69

Excellent Game Selection, toughest level of opposition - Cogsgoigne

fast and user friendly software, support is too slow - Cadmunkey

best railing opportunities, the micro limit tables don’t go low enough - 1tripz1

good selection of MTT’s, but poor structure in the late stages - kenn

great software - EvertonYorkie

reasonably busy at all times - Poker4Ever

RaiseTheRiver rate Full Tilt Poker 8.5/10

Raise the river Rakeback Deal

Raise the River can offer both a sign-up and a rakeback deal at Full Tilt Poker. The rakeback deal is up to 27% and the sign-up bonus is one of the best out there at the moment, up to 100% on your first deposit of up to $600. You can either click one of these links or alternatively visit the RTR Rakeback and Bonuses Pages

Blue Square poker

BlueSquare Poker is on the iPoker/ Playtech network. BlueSquare is one of the skins on this network, but are a well known and reputable gambling organisation with lots of experience in the industry.

General

BlueSquare Poker is the home of GUKPT and also the ECOOP (European Championships Of Online Poker). They are doing really well in developing and marketing their poker brand and now easily compete with the other top iPoker skins. One vital thing is that BlueSquare have incorporated their own special security measures, which is hugely reassuring for its players, with special encryptions in all financial transaction. Again BlueSquare is another of the poker skins that do not allow US citizens to play due to the UIGEA, so most of the traffic to the site is European based and therefore peaks at early-mid evenings in the European time zones. They also have some very good automated Bonuses that can be achieved, but understanding them is the difficulty, especially for the newer players.

Games

You will find the following variants of poker hosted:
**KEY – NL = No Limit, FL = Fixed Limit, PL = Pot Limit**

Holdem – NL,FL and PL

Omaha High – NL,FL and PL

Omaha Hi-Lo – PL,FL

7 Card Stud – FL

7 Card Stud Hi-Lo – FL

Razz – FL

HORSE – FL

The ring games at BlueSquare Poker are usually busy at most times throughout the day, but especially, as mentioned above, in the European evening times. I would say the traffic is fairly steady for most levels and games can quite easily be found. The standard of play is really all levels at this site, you need to watch out for the regular solid multi-tablers and use game selection a little more carefully than other sites as there are definitely sharks swimming these waters, but that said, there is definitely a good selection of fish to be taken.

As for tournaments there are a good number of guaranteed prize pool tourneys which helps to keep the traffic steady flowing. The lower buy-in tournaments at BlueSquare Poker are usually pretty soft and fishy, but the higher buy-ins and Main event satellites are often extremely tough and aggressive. There are a good selection of satellites, freeze outs and re-buy games to be played.

Software

The lobby at BlueSquare Poker has some good filter functions, which always make it easier to find exactly what you are looking for, but not everything is directly to hand even after the filters. We feel this could be improved upon. The cashier is easy to get to and very clear and concise with your information.

The game play and general software is very good, with very few technical issues reported and lag virtually unheard of. Unfortunately I don’t think this is available for the Mac at the moment. BlueSquare Poker also have introduced the feature of being able to have 3D avatars at the table, which adds a good element of fun. Overall though the software is not bad.

Support

Excellent support department. Good knowledgeable and friendly staff are available either in Live Chat, through Email support or even a direct telephone number.

Payment Options:

Deposit: VISA, MasterCard, NETeller, Money transfer.
Withdrawal: NETeller, Credit card, Money Transfer.

RaiseTheRiver Opinion and overall Rating

RaisetheRiver are fond of BlueSquare Poker especially considering they run the APAT online events, which we fully support. The software is good and stable, the lobby could be improved, but we are especially impressed with the security and banking on this site. Top notch! We think it is a good site for players of all levels, due to the wide range of skills that can be already found on the site and that coupled with the fact it is linked to a sports betting site may allow you to find some juicy fish that has just had a nice win on the sports… . Unfortunately rakeback is not allowed on any iPoker skin, but there are some very good sign-up bonuses to be gotten and some good free roll events and reward schemes.

What the RaisetheRiver members think.

RaiseTheRiver rate Blue Square Poker 7.5/10

Raise the river Rakeback Deal

Unfortunately there are none available, but you can get up to a $500 sign-up bonus depending on how much you deposit.
Just visit the RTR Rakeback and Bonuses page.

SIGN UP HERE FOR UPTO $500 DEPOSIT BONUS