Bamba Poker.com Overview
is a new skin of the popular Entraction Poker Network. The Entraction Poker Network, based in Sweden, is generally geared towards a European audience, evidenced by the sheer amount of languages available on the website, and the fact that the Entraction Poker Network's currency of choice is the Euro.
BambaPoker has excellent game variety: In addition to regular Hold’em, you can play Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card stud, 7 Card stud Hi/Lo, 5 Card draw, Scandinavian 5-card Stud (also known as Soko), Telesina 5 card stud (tricky five card stud variant that uses a stripped deck and includes an element of community card games), Americana (played with a deck of thirty-two (32) cards from Ace to Seven), and 2-7 3 Card draw. No limit, pot limit and fixed limit variants are offered. Most of the action does take place at the Hold'Em tables though.
Poker can be played in this room on a wide variety of systems, including any that can run a relatively modern web browser, thanks to its java codebase. Also, on the installed version, an unlimited amount of tables can be opened and played at: multi-tablers rejoice! Also, GUI is simple yet functional.
You can deposit money using a variety of options:
• Credit Card / Debit Card Deposits (both Visa and MasterCard are accepted)
• Moneybookers
• NETeller
• Switch/Solo/Maestro UK cards
• WebMoney
• Bank Transfer
The conversion rate for non-euro deposits is derived from http://www.xe.com/ plus there is also the BambaPoker fix rate of 0.75% applied to each conversion. For withdrawal requests, checks become an additional option. The minimum deposit for any payment type is €20.
There is also a casino and a sports betting facility available. This review will be focused only on the Poker Room department of BambaPoker.
Bamba Poker.com Software Interface/Usability
Simple and to the point are two concepts that best describe the software client. This can be considered a refreshing change from the graphically cluttered and animation intensive other online poker rooms are using. Very simple, yet very functional for its basic purpose; its simplicity actually allows for one thing, and its crucial: for you to concentrate fully on the cards, and not on the UI. The simple but effective looks can be attributed to the fact that the software has been written in java, and therefore offers room for expansion on anything that runs java which is a wide variety of systems, including Macs, Linux and Sun Solaris systems.
Making full use of its Java muscle, there is also a browser version available for you to play poker without installing anything, which means that BambaPoker is actually OS- independent.
The lobby display could be a little bit clearer to decipher: all the tats you need are actually displayed, but the lack of gridlines make finding the stats you need a bit hard. They are there, but they seem to hide from the looker, and this is not desirable. A lot of the time you will have to double check to see if the data you are looking at actually is the right one.
The color scheme employed on BambaPoker's tables is spot on, however. The other Entraction Poker Network poker network clients also share the same software, but they are all colored and branded differently. The light-bluish table with the pale background is employed by BambaPoker is actually very pleasing to the eye and thus comfortable for long sessions: a winner in anyone's book.
The usability of the site is very good, although it does have a couple of slight oddities – for example when you select the tournaments, you get a whole new window popping up rather than just displaying the games in the usual table display. All the standard features are in place, such as 4-colour decks, disabling animation, and altering the chat context, and muting obnoxious players.
Multitablers rejoice, as BambaPoker does not have a limit on the amount of tables you can have running simultaneously at any one time. The focus shift is not entirely optimal though: at times, you will not be fully certain about which table needs attention. However, if you got the right hardware and mindset go for it and load 20 tables or even more. The only limits here are yours as human, not the software.
One peculiar thing about the site is that any table with more than 8 players, seats 9 and 10 are almost uncomfortably close to each other. The seats 9 and 10 are laid out at the bottom, so you get a table with 4 seats at the bottom, 2 seats on each side, and two seats along the dealer tray at the top. This is something that is somewhat unpleasant aesthetically, and you may want to keep it in mind.
BambaPoker.com Poker Room Action
While the
user base is not enormous or huge, surprisingly there always is enough action going on at most times of the day or night at the level and game you want to play. The cash game action is spread literally across the spectrum: even at €10/€20NL there are always a few tables going. Even though the action is more concentrated in the Hold'Em area, there is always a fair amount of action at the other games as well, such as 5CD or PLO. 7 Card Stud and Americana are not as popular as the others though, as games for these particular variants are not always running in abundance. However, rest assured that whatever game you fancy, whatever you crave to play, you will find tables going ready for you to join. It’s important to note that traffic is mostly found on the short handed 6-table games, rather than the 8, 9 or 10 seat tables.
There is very little action however in the multi table tournaments, and registration volumes for these are usually disappointing. Sit and goes on the other hand are very popular, and you can choose from either 10 or 20 person games – both of which fill up fairly quickly. But you might want to go and put the kettle on whilst you wait at quieter times of the day, as they sometimes can take a while to start.
BambaPoker's Ease of Game, Ease of Making Money, Fish Rating
As mentioned before, is a part of the Sweden Based Entraction Poker Network, also home to 24hPoker, Unibet, TV3BET, and Chilipoker.
The water is not as rich of fish in this pond as compared to other ponds: the payer base on BambaPoker seems to be of above average quality. The lowest stakes available on BambaPoker is €0.10/€0.20, which means that any fish is likely to be found at a level that is profitable. The main issue is that there aren't any micro limit tables for new players to jump to right after the play money period of getting acquainted with poker.
BambaPoker.com Bonuses and Promotions
BambaPoker is a part of the Entraction Poker Network, which is rather large thus has a lot of competition within its own network. Unlike other Entraction Poker Network skins which offer huge bonuses and reload bonuses, BambaPoker offers a relatively modest 100% signup bonus up to €100. Make sure you use the Bamba Poker Signup Code FTR when creating your account. You will need to earn 2,000 VIP Points within 30 days to clear it.
BambaPoker also has a VIP cash back club, just like other Entraction Poker Network skins, which pays cash into your poker account each month based on the number of VIP points you earn in the previous month. The payments are tiered based on the number of points generated, and this is done in the following manner:
At the start of each month, you are paid a cash amount directly in to your poker account based on the number of points earned in the previous calendar month. The amount you earn is listed in the table below.
Min Pts Max Pts Cash Back
500 999 €25
1000 2999 20% of rake
3000 4999 25% of rake
5000 7499 30% of rake
7500 9999 35% of rake
10000 14999 40% of rake
15000 19999 45% of rake
20000 29999 50% of rake
30000 10000000 60% of rake
You have to sign up for the VIP Cash back program.
There is also a VIP Point shop available with a wide selection of goodies available, such as a Siemens Fully Automatic Espresso machine and an XBOX 360 Premium, that you can purchase using your accumulated VIP Points. Of note is that any player enrolled in the VIP Cash Back Gold is not eligible to use his or her VIP Points to purchase any item in BambaPoker VIP Shop.
BambaPoker also has a Friends referral bonus: you can easily earn €50 per each new friend you refer. This is not all; your friend can earn €25 as well.
Clearance of referral and signup bonuses is done by earning VIP points; BambaPoker uses a weighted contributed rake system. One VIP point is rewarded for each €0.40 which has been contributed in rake. When a player bets money into the pot, he/she also contributes an amount in the rake. The amount of VIP-points awarded to the player per hand is based on the player’s contribution into the pot and consequently to the rake. If the player’s rake contribution is less than €0.40, then the player is awarded with partial VIP-points. The maximum rake which can be taken from the pot is €3, thus the player can earn up to 3.75 VIP-points per hand. The players that do not contribute any money into the pot are not rewarded with any VIP-points. VIP points are also awarded for participation in tournaments. If a player participates in a scheduled multi-table tournament or a Sit & Go, the player will receive 1 VIP point for each €0.40 paid in tournament fees.
No VIP points will be awarded, if VIP points are used to settle the tournament buy-in cost.
Bonuses need to be cleared within 30 days, and are released at the rate of €10 for every 200 points earned.
There is also a Bad Beat jackpot on BambaPoker: to qualify, the losing hand must be quad Queens or higher using both hole cards. There are a few gotcha's with this progressive bad beat jackpot, such as the payout amount is based upon what stales you play etc. The Bad beat jackpot pool is shared as follows:
Losing hand gets 40%
Winning hand gets 20%
All players dealt cards split 20%
New bad beat Jackpot gets 20%
This essentially means that only 80% of the bonus can ever be paid out.
Use the Bamba Poker Bonus Code: FTR when registering.
Click here to join
!
Bamba Poker Rakeback Review
Instead of the usual percentage based rakeback deal that most other sites offer, BambaPoker offers a “cash back” scheme which is based on the number of VIP points you have earned.
At the start of each month, you are paid a cash amount directly in to your poker account based on the number of points earned in the previous calendar month. The amount you earn is listed in the table below.
Min pts Max pts Bonus amount
500 100 €5
1,001 1,500 €10
1,501 2,000 €20
2,001 3,000 €30
3,001 4,000 €50
4,001 5,000 €75
5,001 10,000 €100
10,001 15,000 €250
15,001 20,000 €400
20,001 25,000 €600
25,001 30,000 €800
30,001 (no upper limit) €1,000
Bamba Poker Rakeback Calculations
Tournament Rake Calculations:
VIP points are earned at the rate of 0.2 for each €1 of buy-in fee for freeze-out & Sit and Go tournaments. For re-buy tournaments, you earn 0.2 VIP points for each €1.
Sometimes you are able to enter tournaments by using VIP points for the entry fee – when you do this, you will not earn any back. I.e., you only earn points when paying for the tournament entry with cash.
Ring Game Rake Calculations:
You earn 1.0 VIP point for each pot that generates €0.31 or more in rake. You earn the point regardless of whether you have actively contributed to the pot – as long as you have been dealt cards.
Bamba Poker.com Customer and Technical Support
There is good news and bad news. As customary, you get the bad news first, unless you are in a bizarre and twisted state of mind which prefers getting an emotional high first and then get shot down like a duck in hunting season.
So here it goes; does not have any kind of telephone support. If you were just itching to hear the soothing and comforting (most of the time) voice of a customer service rep in your moments of dire need, you are sorely out of luck.
However, and this is a big HOWEVER, BambaPoker has one of the most outstanding and fast email responses in the industry. It seems as if they have cut off the phone part in order to fully and decisively concentrate on the email part, and oh boy have they delivered! Send them an email with whatever you need off your chest, and you can expect a full, concise and accurate reply within 15 to 20 minutes. Our test member sent them three emails in 16 hours, and received back an accurate and full response within 15 to 20 minutes on every single attempt.
Email: support@bambapoker.com
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Bamba Poker on 10 May 2006
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