Review of Gaming Club Poker

This review of Gaming Club Poker will describe one of my favorite sites to play no-limit hold 'em on. The reason is the soft-passive action and good number of players. While they are part of the huge Prima Poker Network, this is my favorite Prima site. Their signup process can be a real pain, but I highly recommend Gaming Club if you can tolerate the initial frustration.

Categories Reviewed at GamingClubPoker.com

Fish: 4
What is unique about the fish at this site is that they aren't the typical ram 'em jam 'em maniacs that you see on sites like Party Poker or Pacific Poker. The flop percentage tends to be lower because these fish tend to be very timid and passive, creating a very soft playing environment. You can easily take control of tighter tables and make a lot of aggressive plays from late position. There also tends to be a good number of calling stations, creating the ideal situation when you have a monster hand. The majority of players on the Prima Network are from northern Europe.

Sharks: 2.5 (inverse rating)
Especially at the lower limits, the games are pretty soft and you can easily peg the sharks out from their fishy counterparts. Many games tend to have lower flop percentages, which creates the illusion of a tough game. Sit down and try out the table anyway as they'll usually just be timid, not tough. Gaming Club does also offer many very high-stakes games for the rich fish and successful sharks.

Bait (promotions): 4.5
I think that Gaming Club deserves a pretty high bait score based on their new player freeroll alone. They add a prize pool of $5,000, which is very generous. The number of players also doesn't typically exceed 300-400, so you have a great shot at winning some decent money with this freeroll. I wasn't even aware of this promotion when I first started playing there, but I got an e-mail inviting me shortly after I signed up. I ended up placing 11th for a cool $100. That's not bad for putting in a couple hours for a freeroll. They structure it so that the top 20 all earn a sizeable amount and first prize is typically $500. In terms of deposit bonuses, they've started giving $50 bonuses at 350 raked hands. Gaming Club also sponsors monthly promotions like new plasma TV giveaways.

Skin (software): 3.5
While the graphics aren't typically very advanced at Prima sites, I like Gaming Club's green color scheme and they do offer some unique and handy features. For example, you are able to choose the table size and enable the option of color-coding the action at the table. What this allows you to do is make everyone who's currently in the hand stay green, and everyone who's folded turn red, which makes it easy to see how many players are still in the hand and where they're seated. The software also allows you to see any players past action on previous betting rounds.

Prey (tournaments): 4.5
While a shared poker network may have its disadvantages, it does help to increase the amount of tournament traffic. As a result, there are a good number of tournaments every day with various buy-ins. Another positive about their tournaments are the freerolls, which I actually find worthwhile. First of all, they actually provide a decent prize pool of $1,000. Secondly, they force potential entrants to earn a number of raked hands in the last 24 hours to qualify. This helps to limit the traffic significantly.

Overall Gaming Club Rating

Pearls (positives)
Gaming Club offers very soft no-limit action, some great signup promotions, and playable freerolls.

Hooks (negatives)
The number of tables available at a certain limit can be low, which created long wait for getting a seat at the desired table. Gaming Club also lacks live customer support and e-mail responses can be slow.

The Hammer (overall rating): 4

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Tips for Playing at Gaming Club Poker

Meat (tips)
Judge the strength of your table as a whole before you begin to make your moves. You want to be playing a style that best suits the table you're sitting at, so judge your table accordingly. If the play is weak and timid, dominate the table and take control early. If the action is loose and wild, tighten up, play only your strong cards, and stay off the draws.

Blubber (babble)
Nothing gives me greater pleasure than putting the Hammer down on one of those insane mackerel swimming around my tournament table. Have you seen the type? He raises absolutely anything, and keeps betting until he runs into someone willing to put up a fight. Unfortunately, players tend to be timid at this site and will keep giving pots away to our aquatic invertebrate friend. What's a great way to get him off his game? Slowplay a good hand against him! He'll keep betting into you, and you just meekly call to the showdown. He's thrown off a lot of his chips trying to run you over, and he'll remember that you're smarter than he is. Expect him to play a lot slower when you're in the next pot with him. Of course, if that doesn't work, you could always just fry him up in a light cream sauce. I prefer them sushi-style…

♣ ♣ For further details and ratings for GamingClubPoker.com, you can visit our basic Gaming Club Poker review.

     

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