Bodog Poker
Established in 1994, Bodog is one of the oldest and well respected online gaming giants in the industry. With a unique and diverse business portfolio that includes its online sports book and casino, poker room, an international record label, a publishing house and a television production company, Bodog has quickly established a reputation as a bit of a rebel with a tendency to do things their own way.
Bodog Poker opened for business in 2004 and grew very quickly with the help of some great promotional offerings and a heavy duty advertising budget. The poker room gained massive public exposure after the 2006 World Series of Poker, where Bodog player Jamie Gold emerged as the $12 million dollar winner. Currently, Team Bodog features seasoned pro players such as Jean-Robert Bellande, David Williams, Evelyn Ng and Justin Bonomo.
Bodog may not be the largest poker room out there, that doesn’t mean it has any less to offer its players. Graphics throughout the site are first-rate, game play is quick and glitch-less, and their poker software is considered one of the best in the business. With an excellent game selection, abundance of unique and excellent promotional offerings, and softer than average Texas Holdem tables, Bodog is one of the most enjoyable online poker rooms to play in – not to mention profitable for the more advanced player.
As an independent poker room, Bodog runs its own exclusive software designed by the Bodog Entertainment Team. The software is excellent, looks great and has all the slick graphics, clean lines, and innovative functionality you’d expect from them. Interesting features include a “spotlight” function, control over game window size, table size and background adjustment, player tracking, table/player stats and the ability to customize your avatar. Players can choose between multi-window play and a special Bodog 3-in-1 table view in a single window.
Game selection at Bodog is better than average, with all variations of Texas Holdem, Omaha, and Seven Card Stud on hand and the less common Five Card Stud. Games vary between No-Limit, Pot-Limit and Fixed-Limit, with limits ranging from $.05/10 up to $30/60. Full-table games, short-handed and heads-up tables are all available. Most of the action is to be found around the Texas Holdem tables, especially at the small and middle limits, but decent action can be found at all the other game varieties at any given time.
Tournament games are also in abundance at Bodog, with millions of dollars up for grabs each month. You’ll find all your standard freeroll, Sit and Go, scheduled multi-table tournaments, and online qualifiers for major poker tournaments. Bodog also offers "beginner tournaments", where the payouts are awarded to the top 50% of the finishers.
As more and more poker rooms are shutting their doors to US players, the rooms at Bodog just keep getting busier. With its large US following the site is usually at its busiest around 7pm EST, where traffic averages around 2,400 ring game players and 9000 tournament players (April 2009).
Bodog Poker does some heavy promotion in their linked sports book and casino. As a result of the cross over traffic, the room has a reputation for having some relatively soft player competition in comparison to the other rooms; with plenty of loose players at the low-mid limit Texas Holdem tables. Tougher competition can still be found; if you’re looking to go up against some serious players just head over to the higher limit tables.
For a company with such diversified business interests, Bodog has managed to put together a poker room with enough to satisfy even the most serious player. With excellent software, superb customer service and enough guaranteed action to make it worth your while – it’s a guaranteed hit.
