Just wait on Merge otherwise Bodog or Mint Poker

how long is this wait going to be? a few days?

Anyone have experience with this site? Im American and really want to find a decent site that's easy to deposit and withdraw

Kind of a weak move by mods to move the BetOnline thread in here.

Nobody was aware of it before; surely no one will become aware of it now, as it is buried with a million repetitive questions about Cake, Merge, Bodog, Yatahay and Everleaf.

It seems that many rooms are allowed their own thread in the zoo. Why not BetOnline? I think you guys are missing the point of merging threads on this one.

ak7062

Don't you think a thread titled "Where Can US Players Play?" is exactly the right thread for it?

No one was interested in your stand-alone thread. Now it will be read by everyone looking for the sites where they might play.

Why don't you give a review?

Minted Poker hands down, IMO.

Cake is shady. Just read the sticky at the top of this forum. Also the Cashouts are delayed an extremely long time. If I were compelled to play on the Cake Network I would play on a skin like Pokerworld. PokerWorld is backed by TheGreek Sportsbook and process their own payments, which is much much faster.

Minted Poker does have some flaws but they aren't of the shady variety. Mainly the downsides are traffic and the software. Possibly high max rake depending on the stakes you play.

Minted Poker has fast Cashouts by WU which I've received in under 3 days each time. Also the traffic is increasing and they recently merged all three of the networks that consisted of the Everleaf Gaming Network. They also have new software on the way in about 2 months.

They have a site rep on 2p2 and very good Customer Support. They offer very good promotions, RB, and Bonuses and through some affiliates RakeChases.

Have gotten checks from bodog in 2 weeks. And transfers in 3 days I think. Games are similar to merge I think. Downsides are 4 table limit and software has a memory leak and lags and locks up after a while for me. There's lots of info in the Bodog thread.

I was debating between doyles and true, then I instant message a friend of mind and he said that a friend of his tried makking a deposit on true and they were unable to process it cuz "it was under an fbi investigation." .....anyone else hear anything like this? if true is having problems, does that mean doyles room would be to?

Well, I was hoping to get some info from 2+2ers first; in that regard, the thread failed. I just found out about the room yesterday and was trying to see if it was worth putting money on.

Anyway, nothing spectacular to say. It seems like it was only launched in the last couple months, if that. Only gets like 2k in traffic at peak hours, almost all micro traffic. I'm not familiar with the software; its from the "Hero Poker Network" and is the same software as YouWager, if anyone has used that or a similar skin (I haven't). I see some potential, but obviously a lot needs to be done.

Pros: WU/MG cashouts (though there are some hefty fees), one free check per month. They have been around for years as a sportsbook and have a B+ SBR rating. From looking around some other sites, it doesn't seem at all like they are slow-paying. May be a lot of fish since I assume the majority of its traffic is from the sportsbook side.

ya some more input on betonline would be much appreciated. it doesnt look like too bad of a site.

Meh, I just tried to go to their website to download the game client and the entire website is down for maintenance. I'm gonna check it out when it comes back up. So far in limited digging, it seems like they have a good reputation in the sports betting world and they seem to have a nice array of deposit/cashout options.

Ok, their website finally came back online and I've downloaded the client. So far, my observations are that the games are raked pretty heavily. I didn't get a chance so far to observe many hands, but the biggest pot I've seen so far was in a 1.5/3 nl game where there was 3$ in rake collected.

There are quite a few small prize pool freerolls being run, and also a decent line up of 2-10K guaranteed guaranteed rebuy tournaments. The buy in's of those range from 8.80$-27.50$. Also I've noticed you can buy into tournaments using something they call bonus dollars, but they appear to be tantamount to FPPs. 1B$=.01$. They seem to also run B$ mtt's. No idea if you can redeem these points for cash but I see nowhere yet that you can. There is no mention of any poker sign up bonus, or rather, a bonus you can work off by playing poker. There doesn't seem to be any rakeback but I believe this most likely will change.

All in all, this site will most likely work itself out to being on par with Yahatay if they decide to offer some cash back options.

Minted is pretty sweet - I just signed up, got 100% depo bonus up to $400, 40% RB, and there's a $444 reload bonus still going on - takes a while to grind it out, but i'm a US player so i'm happy just being able to play lol

^Also cashouts/deposits are super fast and easy, which is a godsend for US players nowadays

Confirmed. Everleaf does very fast WU cashouts.

Bodog is also very fast. Checks seem to be arriving in a full week's time, wires taking 2-5 days, and my last cashout was via MG/"Rapid Transfer" which began processing at 4pm on Monday and was available for pickup by 7:30pm the same day.

I'm a US player and wanted to get back into online play. Since I cant sign up on the merge network I was leaning toward cake, but wanted to know what others thought. Are there better options?

thanks

Personally I would stay away from Cake for their shady practices and very slow cashouts. See sticky at top of this forum.

I would go with Minted Poker, True Poker, and Bodog before Cake. Or a combination of the three. Both True Poker and Minted Poker have RB and fast Cashouts. Bodog has fast Cashouts but no RB and a 4 table max.

If I was dead set on playing on the cake Network I'd go with the PokerWorld skin. It's backed by TheGreek sportsbook and has it's own Cashouts that are much faster then Cake. They have the same RB and deposit bonus also.

Im certainly not dead set on anything. I didnt really want bodog because of the no RB. I think I try out Minted and/or True and see how it goes.

Thanks for the help

Yeah, whatever you do, don't go with Cake Poker if you decide to put money on the Cake Poker Network. The biggest drawback to Everleaf, and even more so for True Poker is that the traffic is sparse. If you're going to play during 9AM EST-7/8PM EST then it's not so bad. But if you want to play any other hour of the day, the traffic is bad. I have been curious about going back on cake too, despite the negative pub it's been getting lately because they seem to have gotten alot of traffic from the FTP closure... but obviously, I have some mixed feelings about it, as I think I probably should.

Right now you have 3 options with any type of real traffic.

Cake -
-No HUDs
-Best Traffic
-Slow Cashouts
-Some Skins don't accept US players
-Major controversy over a players winnings being taken back by a skin, 33% rb

Yatahay -
-Allows HUDs
-Worst Traffic
-Fast Cashouts
-Lost most of its traffic when its domain was seized
-27% rb

Everleaf -
-Allows HUDs
-Decent Traffic
-Fast Cashouts
-Appears to be the safest US friendly network right now
-40% rb
-Influx of Euro Traffic after they restructured the network

I have accounts on all 3, but only play on RaiseandFold (Everleaf)now. I am affiliated with RaiseandFold, as a coach. So I obviously have a bit of a bias, but I think it is clear that Everleaf is the obvious network choice. At Raisandfold they have no hassle rakeback, excellent deposit bonuses, and the room manager is active on 2p2 and quickly responds to any issues.

Kinda agree. I been considering playing a little on PokerWorld since they have their own Cashier and have faster Cashouts. I still haven't been able to bring myself to do it though because of the way Cake has been shady.

I was able to set up an account on Minted and deposit from my CC with minimal difficulty. Looks like a decent client. The main drawback is that there's barely anyone in the tourneys. Wish more of the ex-Stars/Tilt players would discover it.

Tried minted. They won't aceppt my cc.

Can you tell me what stakes you play where there is decent traffic on everleaf? Everleaf/minted looks like it has the absolute worst traffic at all.

Decent is a relative term. When you compare the 3 sites that I talked about, Everleaf is significantly higher than Yatahy, and slightly lower than Cake in terms of total traffic.

Everleaf, up until the most recent update, had 2 entirely different player pools. Basically, half of the network was unable to play against the other half. After the update, they have merged both player pools. If you look at the lobby now, you will see significantly more games running than previously.

Pokerscout.com can give you specific information. Right now (which is not peak hours for any of the 3 sites):

Cake has 754 players

Everleaf has 580 players

Yatahay has 94 players

I encourage you to use Pokerscout.com, as well as the lobbies of each network to track average traffic. You will find this trend very consistent throughout all hours of the day.