Cake Poker Review

Cake Poker was launched in 2006 by a small group of professional online poker players. The online poker industry is a notoriously difficult market to enter, but these poker players were passionate about their poker site. They had played online poker for years and knew exactly what poker players want in a poker site.

So this small group of poker players set about creating the first poker site that was ever actually owned by real poker players. The end result was Cake Poker, a quickly successful and fast-growing poker site. Several other poker sites have since joined forces with CakePoker.com and they now have more players than ever.

Cake Poker Bonus

Cake Poker has a massive sign up bonus in which they will match your first deposit at 110% for up to $600 in extra cash. This bonus will more than double your first deposit so take advantage of it while you still can. There are never any guarantees in the bonus world.

After you make your first deposit, the matching bonus funds will be placed in a separate bonus account. These bonus dollars are then released to you in $10 increments as you earn Frequent Play Points (FPPs) in real money ring games and tournaments.

FPPs are earned at a rate of 1 FPP per $1 in rake paid in ring games. In tournaments, you earn FPPs at a rate of 7 FPPs per $1 in tournament fees. These points add up quickly so the bonus isn't too tough to clear.

CakePoker.com Software

The Cake Poker software is just as impressive as you'd expect coming from a group of ex-poker players. The software looks great and it runs smoothly even when playing multiple tables at a time.

The features are pretty much what you'd expect from an average poker site. You can take notes on players, view your own statistics and filter the games lobby to only show the types of poker tables you want to see. Everything is very well put together and easy to find so even though the features list might be a little on the short side, the software gets the job done perfectly.

Cash Games

The cash games at Cake Poker used to be its greatest weakness but business has really picked up lately. You can now find tables running at all stakes from the lowest on up to the highest. There's not a lot of super high stakes action but you can usually find someone sitting there waiting for you if you feel so inclined.

Cake Poker does not allow poker tracking software so the games are softer here than at many other sites. The multi-tabling professionals who depend on statistics software to help them make decisions quickly usually find homes other than Cake Poker.

Tournaments at CakePoker.com

The tournament scene at Cake Poker has improved considerably as well. You can find tournaments around the clock at all buy-in levels. Whether you're a small stakes newbie or a seasoned vet, you'll find the tournament action you're looking for at Cake.

Cake Poker has all the major tournament types including freezeouts, sit-n-go's, satellite tournaments, step tournaments and much more. The owners of Cake are great at setting up live tournament events as well. I've seen CakePoker.com send several players to the Playboy Mansion after winning satellite tournaments at Cake.

Customer Support

Cake Poker has average customer support. They have a great FAQ section but if you need help from a real person, the only contact method is via e-mail. I'll grant that they offer quick response times through their e-mail service but it's still frustrating not being able to pick up the phone and talk to a live person.

So far the customer support team has worked quickly and efficiently. There haven't been any major issues, players have always been paid and the poker site has remained a safe place to play since it opened in 2006. I feel confident playing at Cake Poker despite the fact that they don't offer live phone support. Hopefully that will change in the near future.