Main Review:

Cake Poker is a relatively young poker room and part of the Cake Poker Network (CKPN), its own independent network. This poker network still accepts U.S. players; however, the player volume is still low, though solid growth is expected due to the unique promotions that will be offered in the near future. Cake Poker was founded in early 2006 and is still gaining in popularity.

The software is realistic, the graphics are outstanding, and the interface is smooth. The game variety is your standard fare, with tournaments standing out as Cake’s forte. Customer support is good with acceptable responses times and quality answers. Cake Poker's website has an efficient and professional design and is easy to navigate.

Cake Poker - Game Types:

Cake Poker offers the average game selection, Limit, Pot Limit, and No Limit Texas Hold'em, Pot Limit Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, Seven Card Stud, and Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo. This poker site is slowly attracting new players; most of them are very weak because they come from the sportsbooks of the Cake Poker Network, which means that Cake Poker has its share of gamblers who just keep depositing and rarely cash out. The games are ridiculously soft, the players per flop at the $1/$2 tables often reach a range as high as 60%.

The game traffic is decent but this is not the ideal poker room for those who prefer a large traffic flow. Around 850 players are connected during peak hours; most of the action is at the Texas Hold'em games. If you are looking for Omaha action you will have to go elsewhere.

The tournaments are active every now and then; around 500 players are connected during peak hours. Cake Poker has put some effort into creating various kinds of events, including Sit-and-Go's, freerolls, minor satellites, and private tables. You get the feeling that they are doing the best they can with the current player base. As they continue to grow all aspects of the room should improve. The multi-table tournaments are not as abundant as the guaranteed tournaments. The bounty tournaments are becoming more and more popular because you earn money for every player you eliminate, which is a great incentive and make for a bit more aggressive play. The freerolls and smaller buy-in tournaments continue to help increase the traffic on Cake Poker but they have a ways to go to catch up with the big boys such as Party Poker and Poker Stars.

Cake Poker currently offers an relatively easy to clear (at medium stakes an up, although it is still feasible at low stakes) 100% first time deposit bonus up to $500. The players have 90 days to clear the bonus by earning Frequent Player Points (FPP) at the real money ring games and tournaments. These Frequent Player Points turn into Gold Chips redeemable for special tournaments and promotions, and can also be used as currency to purchase merchandise at the CakeShop, Cake Poker's store.

The Gold Card program is an interesting concept for those who enjoy collecting items. Every day, a small number of gold cards is handed out to every player at the real money ring games. The cards can be used for tournament buy-ins, cash prizes, Cake Poker’s “Gold Card Daily Lottery,” or you can choose to keep them to try to collect all 52 and receive $52,000.

Cake Poker - Software and Features:

Cake Poker made an effort to create high quality software, and while in several respects, the company’s programmers succeeded, in others it failed miserably. The software is extremely impressive looking and realistic, even if the game is not fully three-dimensional. At the table, each character is unique and interesting; these avatars are photo-realistic and actually look like people. You can choose between several characters and let them sit at any chair, a handy feature if you are multi-tabling. For those who find the avatars a little distracting, there is the option to disable them. The tables are neat-looking and are placed in a casino-like setting; there is even a dealer at each table, which enhances the overall poker room effect without appearing too cartoonish.

The lobby is very well organized making it easy to find the game, tournament, or limit that you are looking for. In the lobby, you can switch between ring and tournament games as well as sort tables by any given category. The tournament tab displays all the regular tourneys, satellites, freerolls, and Sit-and-Go's; you can sort these tournaments by type and limit. The lobby displays vital statistics such as the average pot for each table, the hands per hour, and the players seeing a flop. Ten-player full-ring, six-player short-handed, and heads-up tables are all available. They do offer a four color deck option which is fairly popular with the multi-tabling crowd, allowing for easy/faster card suit recognition.

Play at Cake Poker seems as fast as or faster than at other poker sites. The dealer action is pretty fast, with less down time between betting rounds and hands. Hand histories are accessible in the upper left corner at the table; if you click on last hand, you will be taken to the last hand played. An option to sort through the previous hands you had played at the table is also available. The hand history viewer is in a picture format that shows the cards and actions on every street. You can save the hand histories to your computer or request them via e-mail in text. An option to take notes and color-code players is also available. Overall, navigating the software is simple. 

Cake Poker’s major failure is in the stability of its software. It is unusual to make it through a session of any decent length without the software client locking up. There are times where there are even bizarre partial freeze-ups, when some tables halt inexplicably and others keep running smoothly. Even after multiple software updates, the problems have not been fixed.

The table windows at Cake Poker are not resizable, making multi-tabling a challenge as the result of table overlap. For those who are content with that, multi-tabling is still difficult at times because the speed of the software tends to take a major hit when several windows are open at the same time.

Cake Poker - Behind the Scenes:

Customer support at Cake Poker is basic; the poker room offers a detailed FAQ section as well as fast e-mail support. Phone support and live chat are not available at the moment, but the e-mail replies usually include very useful information.

The poker site ensures that cards are dealt randomly and protects the personal details of its clients.

Games Types Available

• No Limit Texas Hold’em
• Limit Texas Hold’em
• Pot Limit Texas Hold’em
• Omaha
• Seven Card Stud

Deposit and Withdraw Methods

How to Register

• 1. You must clear your internet cookies before downloading the poker software from our links. This will ensure that you are properly tracked to us for your promotion.
• 2. Once you have cleared your cookie history, click on the download button and install the Cake Poker software.
• 3. The poker room will require that you enter the bonus code that we provided for you when you create your new account. Please make a note of your new Cake Poker name after you create your account.
• 4. Lastly, please notify us that you have registered your new Cake Poker account through our site. Enter your poker room account name in the respective box when you are signing up for your free gift, free money or rakeback promotion.

Platforms

Cake Poker is available on the following platforms:

• MAC. OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or higher.
• PC. Windows XP or higher.
• LINUX. (some operating systems).