888 Poker

888 operates on their own network and there aren’t any other skins available to play on their games. The 888 brand was established in 2002 however the site used to be called Pacific poker before that. 888 have continued to be a successful poker site that also offers casino games and sports betting. 888 is globally available in comparison to other sites. 888 registered their company and if you reside in the states of Nevada, New Jersey or Delaware you can download the official software corresponding to your state and legally play in their games. 

Games on offer

There are of course both cash games and tournaments that run daily. No Limit Hold’Em and Pot Limit Omaha being the most popular. 

Android 888 Poker App (UK new players only) - Download

Snap

888 have a cash game variant called “Snap” which is 888’s version of PokerStar’s “Zoom” format or the original site to launch this game format was Full Tilt poker under the name of “Rush Poker”. This format runs by joining a pool of players rather than a single table. As soon as you click fold you will be moved to another table and dealt a new hand with new players. This makes the hands per hour rise significantly for both professionals and recreational players. 

Bad Beat Jackpot and Royal Jack Pot Tables 

These are specific tables that take a little bit of extra rake and add it to a progressive jackpot. The Royal Jackpot tables will require a player to hit and table a royal flush and depending on the size of the jackpot that royal could pay out handsomely. The Bad Beat Jackpot is awarded if you lose a pot with four of a kind or better. For both of these jackpots you must be able to use both of your two hole cards.  

Blast

Blast poker is 888’s version of PokerStar’s creation of “Spin ‘n Go” tables. How it works is after you register for a blast sit n go you will be sat with 2 random players and then you will get a random multiplier and the winner of this hyper 3-man sit n’ go will walk away with the prize. You can win up to 10,000 your original buy-in within minutes! 

888 Bonus offers

888 has two main offers that would be wise to take advantage on when deciding to play on this site. The first is the welcome $88 bonus which you can claim without even having to deposit and the first deposit bonus of 100% up to $400. Along with the 100% match up to $400 you will receive some free small tournament tickets that could net you a little more in bonuses. 

Both bonuses do not mean you will instantly be gifted this amount of money straight into your wallet. You will be given the $88 bonus in the combination of tournament tickets and cash while you play on the site. The 100% first deposit bonus will be cleared in $10 increments as you pay rake on the site. The time limit for clearing the entire bonus is 90 days, which is actually quite generous in comparison to other poker sites as their rate for clearing the first deposit bonus is a mere 30 days. 

The main drawback of this site is that there is very little offered in regards to rakeback. There are occasional poker promotions and free spins that will be offered sporadically throughout the year but those really aren’t much. The only rakeback you may receive is based on 888’s team club system where you may purchase goods including cashback and tournament tickets with gold coins that you will earn as you rake on the site. The rakeback via this system will be about the same as Pokerstars. 

Game quality

The software is very good and despite the almost non-existent rakeback it does indeed attract a lot of professionals. Having said that, 888 does a very good job advertising their site on tv around the globe and this in turn seems to give an endless stream of recreational players. Which is probably why there appears to be many professionals on this site despite the almost non-existent rakeback. There is not a whole lot of traffic for high stakes. 

Conclusion

888 poker has been around for a long time. The traffic on 888 is decent and is similar to the poker traffic on party poker. They have tournaments and cash games running around the clock, and they offer a free $88 bonus when you sign up. These free bonuses, however, are not given instantly but gradually given after you have paid a certain amount of rake to the poker site. The software is easy to use, and everything seems to function great.

888 is a great alternative to the bigger sites such as PokerStars and Partypoker. There is an endless stream of recreational players due to 888’s successful international ad campaign. However, there is almost no rakeback so this might be a site to clear the first deposit bonus and then decide to see if it’s still worth playing on. There are also enticing game formats that are not as easily available to find on other poker sites such as the Bad Beat Jackpot and Royal Jackpot Tables.