Ease of use:
CakePoker offers a large downloadable program complete with customisable avatars, graphics are striking when compared to some sites, and the layour is not too confusing. Games are easy to find, and the software notifies you if there are any big tournaments upcoming that you may wish to play in. Navigating the site is swift and without much lag, although to the beginner the inital choice is somewhat bewildering. Worryingly, disconnections seem to happen often, and it is evident that the software is still in later stages of development, glitches occur, and it is difficult to use at times
7/10
Bonus:
CakePoker, like so many other poker sites, offer a 100% bonus of up to $100 on all initial deposits. This bonus is then released via playing raked hands and tournaments. As stated above the conversion rate is 1FPP=$0.06, i.e 16.7FPP are required to earn $1 of the bonus. This bonus expires after 3 months and is released in $10 increments. It is easy to obtain, but only if one plays the higer ranked ring games.
CakePoker also offer golden chips which are exchangeable for FPP's without removing them from your bonus earnings, these gold chips can then be exchanged for tournament entry tickets or items from the CakePoker shop.
They also offer Golden Cards, which are obtained randomly within ring games, each of the Golden Cards bears a normal number or suit, and each card is attributed a face vale in terms of Gold Card points- for example the 3 of Clubs nets you 20 points, whereas the Ace of Spades nets you 1450 points. The top 10 players in terms of points at the end of each month, receive cash prizes. Also Golden Cards can be exchanged within the lobby for cash prizes, determined by the hands of the month- e.g this month if you hold four 8's and an Ace in Gold Cards you can exchange it any time for $1,000. There are also bonus daily prizes, today 3x the 3 of spades will net you $13. The Grand prize for obtaining all 52 Gold Cards in the deck, will payout $52,000.
All bonuses can be tracked live from the in-game lobby.
Overall the bonuses available are aplenty, and the judicious user will be able to accumulate quite a lot of bonus cash, however beginners may again be overwhelmed by it all.
9/10
Transfer:
CakePoker offers a slightly restricted group of depositing and an even more restricted amount of withdrawal methods. However each of these methods are performed quickly and safely, and US users are accommodated which is unusual for the industry.
6/10
Fairness:
CakePoker is a relatively new company and as such has no long-standing reputation as some of its competitors do. However there are no recorded infidelities on the site, and there is nothing to suggest that the site offers anything but completely fair gaming.
8/10
Events:
There are a fair amount of events ongoing at CakePoker at any one time, newly launched is the $1,000,000 freeroll event, which offers many freeroll qualifiers in order to reach the grand prize.
The staple event of CakePoker is the $100,000 tournament every Sunday at 7pm EST, giving players a range of freeroll or rebuy and add-on chances to enter. Well- attended, this is the focal point of CakePoker's week.
Compared to other sites, the amount of such events and qualifiers seems a little thin on the ground, but the ones which are offered, are well-advertised and have good competition for them.
7/10
Types of game:
CakePoker offers Hold-Em, both limit and no limit, It also offers Omaha games, both normal and High/Low.
Ring games in NL Hold em begin from as little stake as $0.02 and rise to $100 at maximum. Offering plenty of choice in between. Omaha games are similarly well set-up but traffic on Omaha games is poor at best.
There are plans to introduce 7 Card Stud games, and although the option is in the lobby, there are no tables present as of yet.
Tournaments are varied and many for the low buy-in player, but those looking to play High Stakes tournaments may be disappointed. At the time of writing, tournaments were happening about every ten minutes, and freerolls happen about three times a day, which is far below the industry standard.
5/10
Traffic:
At peak hours CakePoker has around 5,000 players on 400 tables, this is well below that of other sites, althought this may be attributed to the site still being in its' infancy.
4/10
Competition:
With so little traffic, competition at CakePoker is difficult to analyse. What players there are at Cakepoker are definitely knowledgeable and skilled, although with the large range of micro buy in tournaments and ring games , it ensures there is a level of competition for everyone. More experienced players may find a lack of truly decent competition however.
6/10
Customer Support:
In Lobby Chat is not avilable on CakePoker, an e-mail service is offered, and is quite passable and efficient when it comes to resolving problems. Additional features are available which allow customers to set personal limits on spending, be it daily, weekly or monthly, and there is the option to ban yourself from the site for an agreed length of time if you feel you are playing too much. This is an addition which it would be good to see on other sites.
8/10
Financial Security:
CakePoker is a relatively new site, but has no financial concerns, and uses the latest in security technology to ensure that all deposits and withdrawals are 100% safe.
9/10
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