bwin Poker
 3.68 / 5 |
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Read more details on the bwin Poker bonus.
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bwin Poker Highlights
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100% up to $500 new player bonus -- Automatic bonus with our links!
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NUTS: Bwin Poker is part of the Ongame Network, so they have a very large player base. The software is very user friendly and multi-table friendly. Good history feature with statistics and note-taking feature. They offer nice guaranteed tournaments with lots of action at most levels and also Bwin has a no-download client for easy use on a Mac or any other computer that you don't want to download software onto.
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BEATS: As part of Ongame, Bwin does not allow any U.S. players. Withdrawal options are somewhat limited (although there aren't reported problems).
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Mac friendly software
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bwin Poker Info
| Network |
Ongame |
| Number Of Players |
23,749 (Fri, 20 Nov 2009, 4:18pm EST) |
| Multi-Tabling |
12 |
| Resizable Tables |
Optional Mini View |
| Minimum Deposit |
$1 |
| Deposit Minimums |
Bank Transfer: $10, Diners Club: $10, MasterCard: $10, Moneybookers: $10, NETELLER: $10, Ukash: $10, Visa: $10 |
| Withdrawal Minimums |
Bank Transfer: $10, ClickandBuy: $10, Moneybookers: $10, NETELLER: $10, Visa: $10 |
| No-Limit Ring Stakes |
$0.05 - $0.10 up to $10 - $20 |
| Limit Ring Stakes |
$0.05 - $0.10 up to $500 - $1000 |
| Sit & Go Stakes |
$1.00 + $0.20 up to $500 + $25 |
| Player Points |
Yes |
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In order to be invited to our Exclusive bwin Poker Events, make sure you sign up for FTR's Events Mail. By signing up you will receive e-mail reminders for all of FTR's Exclusive Events along with special freerolls and tournaments. You must have a valid forum account to add your name to the list. |
Bwin.com Overview
Signup for Bwin Poker's Battle of the Forums!
is part of the Ongame network, which has the fifth highest traffic volume online today, only slightly behind Party Poker. It shares its tables with other popular Ongame rooms including Poker Room, Red Kings, Betsson, Eurobet, Euro Poker, Mansion Poker, Poker Loco, Hollywood Poker, and several others. Because this room doesn't allow US players there is much more traffic when Europeans are awake and available to play.
While you'll find a modest range of cash game stakes to play at BwinPoker, microstakes players might look elsewhere to learn to play No-limit Hold’em if $0.05/$0.10 is too rich for them. The highest No-limit Hold’em game supported by the site is $10/$20, which isn't really very high at all. If you don't like Hold’em you can also choose from Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, and 5 Card Draw. The number of tables for these games can be limited however, especially late at night. At 11 PM EST on a Saturday night, for example, we found a couple of low limit Omaha games, but no Omaha Hi/Lo tables running at all, only two 7 Card Stud tables, and one 5 Card Draw table.
If you're a microstakes player and you enjoy No-limit Hold’em Sit & Go tournaments, you will have plenty of company at Bwin Poker. It gets slightly more difficult to find a game the higher you go, especially later at night. You shouldn't expect to find many games above $50+$4 if you decide to play outside peak hours. Bwin has full table and short-handed Sit & Goes, as well as multi-table Sit & Goes (from two tables to five tables). There are also Sit & Go tables for games other than Hold’em, but they fill much more slowly (and not at all late at night).
There is a decent variety of scheduled multi-table tournaments available at Bwin Poker. One of their biggest tournaments is held every third Saturday and features a $220+$15 buy-in with $500,000 guaranteed. There are a variety of satellites available for this tournament (which guarantees $111,000 to first place). The structure is also fairly good, with a 3000 chip starting stack and 20 minute blinds. Other interesting tournaments include a $5000 guaranteed $2+$0.25 rebuy; a weekly 'Big Deal' tournament with a $150,000 guaranteed prize pool; tournaments featuring games other than Hold’em; and many other regular freeze-out type tournaments. Participation in multi-table tournaments range anywhere from 12 people to a few thousand people depending on the game and the buy-in. Occasionally tournaments will be canceled due to too few people registering (usually games other than Hold’em or satellites).
Bwin Software Interface/Usability
The interface at is basic, but fairly responsive and easy to work with. The lobby can show cash games or tournaments at the click of a button and there are also links to the cashier and support (which sometimes takes a while to load and does so in a separate browser window).
If you click on cash games in the lobby there is a tab corresponding to the type game you wish to play and all the available tables. The tables can be sorted by limit and number of players, as well as pot size, % of players per flop, and hands played per hour. If you highlight any given table all these stats appear in a little box on the right side of the lobby.
Clicking on tournaments in the lobby will show you something similar, with a Scheduled Tournaments tab, a Sit & Go tab, and a Private tab. Tournaments can be sorted by start time (which shows you how many minutes remaining for tournament starts within the hour), tournament type, game type, buy-in, status, and number of entrants. The box on the right hand side gives you details about prize pool and starting stacks when you highlight a given tournament. Double clicking on a tournament brings you to a somewhat shoddy tournament lobby which doesn't open in a separate window. If you want to compare a couple of tournaments you need to click "tournament info" in order to open a separate window in your browser with full tourney information including prize payouts.
The actual tables run fairly smoothly without much confusion. There is no option to turn animations off but that's not so bad because cards are dealt pretty quickly. The full tables seat ten players and the short-handed tables seat five. Each seat comes complete with an image of a person (always the same person in any given seat). If you feel that these images clutter the table you can turn them off (you do this in the lobby under 'preferences'). With images turned off the tables are much simpler and look very clean. There is a small chat box on the bottom right side underneath the table and you can decide what you will see in the box with easy option clicks. The chat box can also be detached into a separate larger window if you prefer.
We have a couple of dislikes about the tables at Bwin Poker. First is that hand histories open up in a web-browser, which causes them to load slower and in an oversized and awkward window (especially annoying if you are multi-tabling). The second is that you only have two choices for table size: gigantic or tiny (see our screen captures for a sample). Furthermore, if you're in the middle of playing on gigantic tables you actually can't change the size of the table you're currently on (only new tables that you open will be different in size). The one good thing is that you can change between table sizes by clicking a single button on any given table rather than have to go to the lobby and change it in preferences. You just can’t toggle sizes once you’ve begun playing.
There are a lot of preference options including language and time zone. The sounds of dealing cards and stacking chips at the tables aren't very offensive but you still have the option to turn them off. Lobby settings allow you to hide private and play money tables, as well as full real money tables. You can also hide the lobby's chat if you don't like seeing it. There are several table setting selections including options to show stack amounts, timers, and avatars. You can have a 4-color deck, you can leave images of people's folded cards so that you know they were dealt in this hand but chose to fold, and you can choose a display of your hand value after you're dealt cards (i.e. if you have a pair, trips, straight, etc.).
Bwin.com Poker Room Action
If you play at during peak European times, there is plenty of action in both tournaments and cash games. At a peak time of around 4 PM EST there are between 8,000 and 10,000 at the cash tables alone, making for juicy games and fairly good table selection. Playing at peak times is best if you are looking to play larger stakes or at games other than Hold’em. If you're a small stakes player you will usually find a few tables to play at, no matter what time of day you login.
Bwin Ease of Game, Ease of Making Money, Fish Rating
The cash games at feature a mix of decent and bad players, and these are much softer than those at say Party Poker or Poker Stars. You can find some fairly high pot sizes if you scroll up and down the cash game lobby, especially during peak hours. Playing at bwin showed a fair amount of calling station type players that are not nearly as aggressive as those at Poker Stars (at a sample size of $50NL and $100NL). For example, it was rare to see a 3-bet when there was a raise preflop (which is not the case at Party Poker or Poker Stars).
While the pots can become quite big and the players per flop can be quite high for a given table, there are still some good players and multi-tablers. As long as you note these players however, you should be able to make money playing cash at bwin.
Tournaments at Bwin Poker have players who are much worse than those found at Poker Stars. There are some people who know what they're doing and have probably read Harrington on Hold’em, but there are also a lot of players who have no clue. You will find that Bwin has a greater percentage of players that bust out after an hour of play than at Poker Stars (close to 65% in the tournaments we've participated in), despite similar structures and starting stacks.
Bwin.com Signup Bonus Codes and Promotions
See our bwin Poker Bonus page for details on clearing your bonus.
By signing up at through FTR you will be given a 100% up to $500 new player bonus. You make your first deposit, you will receive an additional 100% up to $500! You have to make sure to use the links on this page to receive the bonus. There is no code to enter, for the bonus is automatic with our links! The $500 bonus will then be ready to be cleared at the rate of 8 Bwin Points per $1. Once you collect the full amount of points, the $500 is yours. You have to earn them all within 90 days or the bonus becomes invalid.
Also, from time to time Bwin Poker will offer various reload bonuses to its members, but this is random and you never know when you are going to get it offered. They use a special inside program where they will e-mail you if you have a potential bonus opportunity. But let's get real, who wants to wait? You just want to be able to get your bonus when you sign up! However, if you do happen to get a bonus offer, here is the information on earning it:
Bwin Poker Points are used to obtain its poker bonuses and are collected automatically when playing real money games. Bonuses are announced via email or the poker website on a regular basis and usually need a bonus code. Each bonus requires a certain number of Poker Points, and once they are earned, the bonus is automatically credited to your account. Poker Points are earned at a rate of 0.1 per $0.10 rake taken in a given cash game hand. For example, if $0.20 of rake is paid in a particular hand, you will receive 0.2 poker points if you were dealt into the hand. For real money tournaments, you will receive 5 poker points per dollar paid in tournament rake. For example, playing a $20+$2 tournament will earn you 10 Poker Points. Poker Points are not used for any purpose other than earning bonuses.
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Bwin.com Customer and Technical Support
Clicking the support button on the upper right side of the lobby at will open your web-browser and show you the options you have for contacting Bwin's support.
There are two categories of support: Poker Support and Bwin Support. For bonus and game inquiries or technical poker issues you contact Poker Support. For issues regarding user ID, deposits, cashouts or other account inquiries you contact Bwin Support.
There's an option on the support page to directly email them from their site. One slightly annoying thing is that once you press the 'submit' button there is no confirmation message that the email actually went through. Also, Poker Support only operates from 8 AM to 12 AM (time zone GMT+1) so there is no one to help you out if you like to play late.
If you'd rather call, each support group has a phone number that operates between 10 AM and 10 PM daily (GMT+1). For Poker Support call 00350 777 61 and for Bwin Support call 00350 777 61. There is unfortunately no live chat option (despite there being a general chat option in the main lobby).
bwin Poker User Reviews
Overall Rating: 3.68 / 5
You must be registered and logged in to our Poker Forum to review this poker room. Only post commentary in your review. If you have questions about bwin Poker or would like to start a discussion, please post in our Online Poker Rooms forum.
Last Updated on 20 November 2009
great place to play by mrickett on 18 Sep 2009
Interface: 
Action:
Fish:
Bonuses: 
Support:
The review above does a great job
describing bwin and all it has to offer.
If you haven't read it yet, please do
for the most accurate description of
this room. Great bonuses, great
software, and support is pretty good
too.
New bonus by givememyleg on 30 Nov 2008
Interface:
Action:
Fish:
Bonuses:
Support: 
New deposit bonus at Bwin!
Bwin updates by givememyleg on 04 Nov 2008
Interface:
Action:
Fish:
Bonuses:
Support:
Bwin has some increased traffic and new
promos!
Ranking by courtiebee on 21 Feb 2008
Interface:
Action:
Fish:
Bonuses: 
Support: 
Ranking for review!
avoid it by Sphinx on 08 Dec 2007
Interface:
Action:
Fish:
Bonuses:
Support:
Bwin poker is just "there", for you to
play if you like. Or not. It's probably
seen by Bwin as a minor part of their
business, and, as such, it doesn't
offer sign-up bonuses, nor decent
support to players. There's very little
or none effort in improving the site.
The software is just like PokerRoom,
with its ups and downs. Sad to see some
really great features (free seat
selection on short tables; good pot size
and bet amounts display) mixed with
other just unacceptable on a poker room
(the need to sit out from tables to
refill, need to select tables in order
to see the table stats, table lobby is
navigation-unfriendly). It hangs quite a
few times, takes too long to load, and
it is slow, which has an effect on
played hands/hour. Action is very decent
in cash games (and also SNGs), up to
middle limits, with several tables to
choose from, full and short handed (from
10max all the way to heads-up). NL cash
from 0.05-0.10 USD. Costumer support is
absolutely awful: email only, days to
get an answer. Its laughable to
understand that they don't know much
about their own software and the game
itself, and getting different people
giving you contradictory explanations to
the same queries. That is, when they
actually read them, because often
you're just politelly prompted to the
site FAQs, as they seem to have some
difficulty in understanding beyond the
basics. The games are very very fishy up
to middle limits, and basic TAG strategy
is quite enough to get you winning good.
Clueless players are frequent in
micro-limits. As stated before, bonuses
are almost inexistant... The ones
(rarely) offered, come out with a lot of
nice publicity, but they all come down
to the same: little amounts offered,
that one has to conquer by playing huge
amounts of hands related to the bonus
size(they even make fun of it, stating
things like "you know that here nothing
comes for free...). Bottom line: there
have to be better places to your money.
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