PokerKings Review

Overall
83
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Ease of Competition
87
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Tournaments
73
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Customer Service
91
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Software
78
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Please note: PokerKings does not accept real-money players from the United States.

Overview
A member of Boss Media's International Poker Network, PokerKings offers games in four currencies: US Dollars, British Pounds, Euros, and Turkish Liras. Their website and software is available in five languages. Note that rake can ultimately be higher in games played for pounds or Euros.

Many of the cash games and sit-'n'-gos at this site are played five-handed. PokerKings offers a rare 5-card stud variant called SOKO where 4 to a flush and 4 to a straight count as made hands which beat a pair but lose to two pair.

Bonus
Players can receive a 100% first-time deposit bonus up to €300 at PokerKings. Additionally, if you sign up at PokerKings through a link from PokerTips, you will receive 30% rakeback.

For every €25 in rake contributed, players receive €5 of their pending bonus. It should be noted that the first-time deposit bonus is deducted from rakeback.

Rakeback is returned automatically on a monthly basis. It is calculated from the 15th of the month to the 14th of the next month. Please note that rakeback is only returned to players who generate at least €100 of rake in any given qualifying period.

Promotions
Entry to a €15,000 freeroll is up for grabs for the first ten players who make three consecutive final tables in any of 19 daily guaranteed events. The Sunday €100,000 guaranteed tournament is also eligible for qualification. While making three consecutive final tables is never easy, some of them have fields as small as 150 players.

In addition to satellites to EPT events, PokerKings also holds weekly €500 and €1,000 freeroll tournaments where players use their Frequent Player Points to register.

Tournaments
All of PokerKings' tournaments are played in Euros. As a result of this, entry fees are higher across the board compared to other poker rooms. For example, their €120+€10, €100,000 guaranteed tournament equates to a buy-in of $175+$15. Most cardrooms wait until the buy-in is $200 before charging $15 in entry fees.

The five-handed sit-'n'-gos at this site are very popular.

Software
Boss Media's software is smooth and pleasant. However, I find the color scheme specific to PokerKings unattractive due to too many shades of gray.

The lobby offers statistics on flop percentage, hands per hour, and average pot. This makes it easy to judge whether a game is loose or tight before opening the window.

Rake
PokerKings' rake structure can be bad for games played in certain currencies.

Their rake is capped at 3 units regardless of the currency. This means a £3 max rake equates to a $5.85 max rake, even though games played in dollars are capped at a $3 rake. Games played in Euros are also a bad proposition in this same manner. If you choose to play at this site, we recommend you play games in US Dollars, or even better, Turkish Lira. Small stakes players need not concern themselves since the pots in those games are never large enough to mandate a maximum rake.

Tournament entry fees start to become higher than other poker rooms at the €50+€5 level.

Competition Level
Savvy players should find the huge supply of five-handed cash games appealing. These games have a huge percentage of players seeing the flop, which is a good indication that the competition is weak. Five-handed action makes PokerKings potentially more profitable than other sites due to the large volume of decisions players face at the table.

Customer Service
One of the perks of playing at a room located on an established network is good customer service. At PokerKings, support staff can be reached 24 hours per day via email, phone, or fax.

Ring Games Offered
Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha hi-lo, 7-Stud, 5-Stud, SOKO, 5-Draw, 5-Draw 7-A

Fixed Limits: $.10-$.20 to £1,000-£2,000
NL & PL Blinds: $.05-$.10 to €100-€200

Tournaments Offered
Texas Hold'em

Single-Table: €2 to €10,500
Multi-Table: €1 to €530

Minimum Deposit
$10