Bodog Poker Overview
Bodog Poker is part of the vastly successful Bodoglife.com Entertainment, one of the world's fastest growing media and digital entertainment giants, which includes online gaming; an international record label, an international television production division and more.
Bodoglife.com is licensed in the United Kingdom and Kahnawake, Canada, and in 2004, Bodog.com was the first company of its kind to have its name trademarked in the United States.
Traffic is quite high at Bodog: real-money player statistics as of July 2007 show 3,600 ring-game players and 18,000 tournament players at peak hours. And because of the close association with casino and betting sites, there are a lot of fish who don’t mind betting just for thrills.
Team Bodog boasts three excellent professional players as spokespeople for Bodog: attractive Evelyn “Evybabee” Ng, young champion David Williams, and fearsome Josh Arieh
Bodog Poker Game Features
Bodog offers all standard games: Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo, and Five-Card Stud.
Hold’em ring tables are available for 2, 6, 9 and 10 players in all limits, and stakes range from $0.05/$0.10 to $30/$60. Most players are of course concentrated in No Limit, but you can find enough action in all limits. Omaha tables are only available for 9 or 10 players, with most action in Pot Limit tables up to a $2/$4.
Stud tables are all in the same tab, and only available in Fixed Limit 8-player tables. Stakes range from $0.25/$0.50 to $5/$10, and there is some action at all times, at least at the lowest stakes.
Bodog has Sit & Gos in Hold’em NL, Pot Limit Omaha Hi and Hi-Lo and Fixed Limit 7-Card Stud, both as single table (2, 6 or 10 players) and multi table (up to 45). Buy ins range from $2 to $220, and there are some juicy Sit & Go qualifiers for big time tourneys like the WSOP and WPT.
The list of Bodog scheduled tournaments is tempting, to say the least. With categories such as “$100K Guaranteed” and “World Poker Tour”, they offer players many chances to earn big bucks or enter big tourneys. And as a very special feature, Bodog also offers “beginner tournaments", which are $4 to enter and have a modified payout structure that pays out prizes to twice as many players as conventional tourneys – an excellent way to cut teeth in tourney play while still making ends meet.
Bodog’s founder Calvin Ayre is well known for his marketing skills, and these are of course applied here in the shape of interesting bonuses and promotions on a regular basis. Bodog also offers a sign-up bonus, player points and loyalty bonuses.
Bodog Poker Software Features
Bodog has an attractive design in metallic grey and deep red. The main lobby is very well organized and easy to read, with a top tab system classified by game, Sit & Go and Scheduled tourneys, as well as brief game rules on the right window when no table info is displayed. Once you choose a game (Hold’em, Omaha or Stud) further tabs appear with more options, and you can also filter games by their limit and choose to hide full tables. There is also a QuickSeat button that allows you to start playing Texas Hold’em ring games or Sit & Gos in 3 easy steps.
Room graphics are simple and attractive: no tables or chairs, just a deep red background, player icons with their personalized avatars, the cards and the chips. They say you either love it or hate it! A nice perk is the “Felt Color” button, which allows you to choose the color and brightness of the felt from an attractive wheel of options. Bodog has a very functional “dashboard” under the table, with buttons and pre-selectable options to play.
Bodog has a very effective system that lets you see and play 3 tables at once, one in the main window and two as small side windows. Unfortunately, it also caps the number of tables you can play at 3, which is rather low. To the right of the table you can see three small windows with game details, player chat, and Stats/Notes (if you choose the multi-table view, this is visible only for your main table). Player notes are easy to take, by right clicking a player’s “plaque”, as it is called in Bodog.
Dealer action is fast, and the sounds are adequate, but there is a beep at the end of each play that can quickly become annoying. However, you naturally have the option to turn them off. The table shows the size of the pot and what your best hand is. Another cool Bodog feature is that after you have folded you can still see your hole cards – but nobody else can! – so you will never again have to wonder “what could have been?”
You have easy access to your hand history, as well as stats for your current session; however, no stats are kept over a longer period of time. Fortunately Bodog is compatible with Poker Tracker for Hold’em Ring games.
At the time of writing there seem to be no “find player” of “buddy list” options.
Overall, Bodog’s software is very good and very classy, featuring some exciting and unique options like the 3-table view, the table dashboard, the option of seeing your hole cards after folding and the attractive felt color options.
Bodog Poker Support
Bodog’s customer service is prompt and efficient, with email response times kept under 15 minutes. They do not offer Live Chat or phone support at this time.
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