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Full review of Poker Champs
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Poker Champs
www.pokerchamps.com
FREE DOWNLOAD!
Established 2003
Country Malta
Software size 7.4 MB
Special Features
CashFlow bonus program
Membership referral scheme
Endorsed by 4-time WPT winner Gus Hansen
Four-in-one screen feature Total weighted score (out of 10)
5.50 |
Sign-up bonus in $ $0
Deposit bonus in % 0%
Referral bonus per friend $0
Deposit free bonus $0
Paid to play ($/hour) $0
Hits
Futuristic look and design
Fast software
Weekly bonus cash payouts instead of point system
Guaranteed daily tournaments
Misses
No high stakes games
Only Omaha and Texas Hold'em are currently available
No live support
Not a high player volume site |
Summary
PokerChamps is a fresh and futuristic poker room designed with the serious poker
player in mind. It is endorsed by Gus Hansen, the Danish player who has
succeeded in winning the World Poker Tour four times, and the Swedish online
poker-wiz Erik Sagstrom (known as Erik123 in the online community). PokerChamps
is a new room and, while it does not yet have a lot of player traffic, it has
the potential to become one of the most frequented playing sites. They are still
working independently and are not yet part of a poker room network. The games
are soft and loose and the biggest marketing scheme is the CashFlow bonus
program, where you as a player receive cash on a weekly basis. Instead of giving
players points and various awards like other poker rooms, PokerChamps makes
their players part of a rake-back scheme: The more you play, the larger the
percentage of your weekly rake that will be paid back to you (between 5%-50%
rake-back). The downside is that you have to start from scratch every week and
it is very hard to reach the 50% level. Real money player statistics - July
2005: 600-1000 ring game players during peak hours and 800-1200 tournament
players during peak hours.
Software and graphics
PokerChamps’ software is fast and reliable with a futuristic spin. It was
created for the serious player and can therefore be a bit overwhelming for the
beginner. The playability is high quality and you can play up to six tables
simultaneously. When you log in you have the option to choose from SingleTable,
EnlargedTable, DuoTables, FourTables (4x4PokerPlay), and SixTables mode. In
order to use the “four-in-one-screen feature” you need a screen with at least
1152 x 864 pixels and to play six tables you need 1600 x 1200. PokerChamps
provides its players with information for each table regarding “viewed flop
percentage”, average pot, and hands dealt per hour. Taking player notes is a
feature not yet supported.
Ring game traffic
Traffic has not reached considerable volume and play is concentrated on low
stakes No-Limit Hold’em at the moment ($1-$2 down to 2c-4c games). There are
typically 600-1200 players during peak hours, out of which at least 90-95% are
in the Hold’em section.
Tournament traffic
PokerChamps has tournament traffic of 1200-1600 real money players during peak
hours.
Game variety
The game variety is low. The only games offered are variations of Texas Hold’em
and Omaha. These games range from 6-handed to 10-handed in No-Limit, Pot-Limit
and Limit style. PokerChamps plans to launch Stud, Stud Hi-Lo, and Omaha Hi-Lo
in the future.
Rake
PokerChamps uses a “no flop, no drop” policy, meaning they do not take out any
rake from pots where there was no flop. The rake is at a maximum of 5% on all
types of games and stops at $3. In Pot-Limit and No-Limit games the rake is 5%,
and reaches a maximum of between $0.50 and $3 depending on the number of players
at the table
Soft competition (8)
The traffic is at its greatest at the micro-limits and the games vary from loose
to very loose, often with a “viewed flop percentage” reaching upwards of 50% to
80%. This translates to very juicy and loose games for the small stakes player.
You can normally find great Hold’em games up to the $5-$10 limits and for
No-Limit up to $1-$2.
Sign up bonus
PokerChamps has no sign-up bonus, instead they rely solely on their CashFlow
bonus program.
Loyalty bonus
The big marketing scheme for PokerChamps is their so-called CashFlow bonus
program. The point of the program is to reward real money players with rake-back
on a weekly basis, and also to provide them with the opportunity to sign-up
sub-affiliates that will, in turn, convert rake into cash for the player who
signed them up. Every player that signs-up with PokerChamps will serve as an
affiliate to them. The rake-back percentage starts at 5% every week and then,
depending on how much you pay in rake during the week, you can get up to as high
as a 50% rake-back. There are 10 different levels of rake-back percentage and
you start at level 1 after each week. Rake is calculated as an exact portion of
the pot that you personally contributed to and is not based on an average
amount. This means that the tighter you play, the less rake will be counted on
you. If you play an average of 2-3 hours a day on a $5/$10 table, your direct
payout from PokerChamps will be approximately $100 per week. Also, PokerChamps
will periodically offer deposit bonuses although these have been on the smaller
scale so far.
Promotions
PokerChamps has a referral program where, instead of receiving a fixed cash
amount per referred player, you get a piece of all future rake paid by the
referred player and the referred player under him and so forth. This means that
all these players become your affiliates and there exists a theoretically
unlimited growth to this “referral tree”. The system grows according to a tree
structure in an integrated system. There are also quite a few free rolls and
tournaments with a guaranteed price pool. And, an additional bonus is that you
might find yourself playing against established pros, since Gus Hansen and his
peers quite frequently play four tables simultaneously at all different levels
and games.
Support
Currently, the only support function available is via email. Their response time
is fairly quick but a bit lacking when it comes to addressing more detailed
questions. The website www.pokerchamps.com is very informative and covers most
important topics. In fact, when we tested the support function PokerChamps
themselves went back to their website for answers!
Financial security
The site is quite good for a relative newcomer with financial muscle and famous
backers.
Deposit & withdrawal options
Deposit options: VISA, MasterCard, NETeller, and Wire Transfer.
Cash out
options: NETeller, Wire Transfer, and Cashiers Check.
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