Contrary to its name, the action at Cake Poker isn’t all about poker. Granted, it’s mostly about poker. But it’s also about War: another classic card game that CakePoker players can enjoy for real money rewards.
Cake War was introduced as part of the Cake 2.0 software update. War is all about strategy and bluffing, removing the element of chance from cards entirely. Cake offers two formats of the game to choose from: Tactic WAR, or the classic version of the game with 10 cards per player, and Blitz WAR, a faster paced variant of the game with 6 cards per player. Also Blitz WAR doesn’t use a central deck. If you don’t know how to play, War is easy to learn and all the rules are posted at the site.
The gist of the game goes like this: Players start with a set of “bid cards” (either 6 or 10 depending on the version of the game). If a center deck is used, it is formed from the same cards Players then secretly bid on each card revealed from center deck with the high card winning. Players are scored by the face value on the deck cards they win. In Blitz War, in which a central deck is not used, players simply bid on each other’s cards, again with high card winning.
It’s a simple game to learn but a difficult game to master, which is why it’s become such a popular staple at Cake Poker.
Cake WAR is played with a tournament buy-in structure, which is how the prize pool for the winners is formed.
This August, 2011, Cake Poker introduces the $60,000 Gold Club Tournaments Series, comprising dozens of tournaments with big prize pools and Gold Card buy-ins. The total cash prize pool guaranteed in the Gold Club Tournament Series over the course of the month is $45,000 with an additional $15,000 Finale Freeroll open to all Cake Poker players who compete in at least 10 of the series’ events.
There will be no cash buy-ins for any of the tournaments in this series; only Gold Cards. More, only Gold Cards suited clubs are eligible for entry into these events. It only takes one Gold Card to enter any given event, but it has to be the right Gold Card. Sometimes the Gold Card Series matters as well, with some entries open to Gold Cards from all series (such as any year’s 7 of clubs) and others open only to Gold Cards from a certain year (such as the ’09 series 7 of clubs).
All Gold Card tournaments start at 22:00 GMT, or 6 pm EST. The festivities begin on Thursday, August 4 with a $5,000 guaranteed tournament with a buy-in of any series 2 of clubs Gold Card. One Gold Card Tournament Series event takes place every day, seven days a week, after that, through the end of August, with each Wednesday’s event being another $5,000 guaranteed. The $15,000 Finale Freeroll then takes place on Friday, September 2.The prize pool in the $15,000 Finale Freeroll will be divided evenly among the top 3 finishers, each getting $5,000 for their efforts.
One of Cake Poker’s most popular promotions, Turbo Gold Cards, returns for another month. With the start of July, Cake Poker players start out once again on an even playing as the vie to earn Gold Cards from the brand new July 2011 deck. And since this is a Turbo Gold Cards promotion, players can earn them twice as fast as normal.
Players earn Gold Cards by playing at Cake Poker cash ring game tables. The more you play, the more Gold Cards you earn. Which Gold Cards you receive each time you earn a new one is left to the luck of draw, as in all good poker, but you can double you chances of getting the cards you need to earn a particular prize when you play between 6:00 – 8:00 GMT, 14:00 – 16:00 GMT and 20:00 to 22:00 GMT. Those are the Turbo Gold Cards hours when players earn twice as many cards at once as they do the rest of the day and night.
There are many things players can do with Gold Cards once you’ve earned them. You can match different combinations of cards to the July 2011 Match & Win game board. Prizes include tournament tickets, cash and Gold Chips, the currency for the Cake Poker player loyalty and rewards program.
You can also trade Gold Cards in for cold, hard cash, putting them up for sale at Cake Poker’s The Exchange where buyers and sellers of Gold Cards can meet up and make a little trade.
Cake Poker is now qualifying players for the World Poker Tour event coming up in Paris this September. Qualifiers for the WPT Grand Prix de Paris start on the 4th of July and go through August 28, 2011. On two of the dates in that period – July 31 and August 28, Cake Poker will give away at least one prize package valued at $12,500 into the WPT Paris main event.
These WPT Paris $12,500 Final satellites have a direct buy-in of $268 and will give out one prize package for every $268 in the pot. Each prize package includes the €7,500 seat in the WPT Grand Prix de Paris main event along with some expense money to spend as you like.
Instead of paying the $268 direct buy-in into the Final, you could win your seat there through a WPT Paris Semi-Final costing only $30 to buy-in. These take place thrice daily and award one final seat for every $268 in the pot. Alternatively, you can win your seat in the Semi-Final through a WPT Paris Satellite, costing only $5.50 to buy-in. These take place six times daily and give out one Semi-Final seat for every $30 in the pot.
Or you can win your seat in the Satellite through a WPT Paris Super Satellite costing only $1 to enter. These take place every four hours and give out one Satellite seat for every $5.50 in the pot. Lastly, you can win your seat in the Super Satellite through a WPT Paris Super Super Satellite costing only $0.20 to enter. These take place every two hours and give away one Super Satellite seat for every $1 in the pot.
Like most poker sites, Cake Poker offers new players a matching bonus on their first deposit into a new real money player account. But going one step further, CakePoker also entices new players to join the site with a $500 Freeroll open exclusively to first-timers to the site.
The Cake Poker first deposit bonus currently stands at 110%, which is 10% higher than your average first deposit bonus. The maximum bonus amount currently stands at $600. Then, for an additional shot at some free money, Cake Poker gives all first depositors a ticket into an upcoming New Depositor $500 Freeroll with, just as it sounds, a $500 guaranteed prize pool. This ticket can be used at any New Depositor $500 Freeroll tournament coming up, with these tournaments taking place every Saturday at 2 pm ET.
In order to cash out any money won in a New Depositor Freeroll, Cake Poker requires you earn at least two Gold Chips first. You can earn those chips before the freeroll takes place, however, and that will allow you to cash out winnings from that event as soon as it finishes are your account is credited for your winnings.
As for the 110% First Timers Deposit Bonus, as with all other Cake Poker bonuses, when first earned it is credited to your account as a pending bonus that you are allowed to use for play on the site but not allowed to cash out any of until after you’ve earned 83.33 FPPs (Frequent Player Points) per $5 in bonus money to cash.
Since Black Friday, much of the poker world has been closely following the dramatic, divergent stories of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker/UB, the three sites targeted by the Department of Justice’s indictment and civil complaint. However, there has been significant drama over recent months involving three other sites, too — DoylesRoom, Victory Poker, and the Cake Poker network. Targeted them selves, by a later Department of Homeland Security action (unsealed on May 23), DoylesRoom has seen its dot-com domain seized. However, prior to that action deals between DoylesRoom and Cake Poker left the latter in severe financial straits, with one consequence being the hastened demise of another, prominent site on the Cake network, Victory Poker.
The DoylesRoom-Cake Partnership — Two Years, Four Million +
Founded in 2004, DoylesRoom originally resided on the Tribeca Network before moving to Microgaming in 2007. Then in late January 2009, DoylesRoom moved once again to the Cake Poker network. At the time of that move, DoylesRoom borrowed $15 million from Cake Poker in order to settle its debts to Microgaming as well as to fund marketing campaigns going forward. (Note: Figures associated with the DoylesRoom-Cake partnership are close estimates of amounts given to us by several associates close to DoylesRoom, Cake, and Victory Poker.)
DoylesRoom remained part of the Cake Poker network for two years before moving once again, this time joining the Yatahay network in late January 2011. At the time of that move, DoylesRoom still owed significant money to Cake Poker.
Incidentally, while the exact nature Doyle Brunson’s previous involvement with the site that bears his name is unknown, a Twitter message from @TexDolly sent on January 10, 2011 noted he was “off to Cosra Rica for three days” (sic), suggesting a trip to DoylesRoom’s headquarters in Costa Rica. On May 13, 2011, a week-and-a-half before the DOJ domain seizure of doylesroom.com, Brunson announced he was terminating his endorsement contract with DoylesRoom.
Of that original loan of $15 million from Cake Poker to DoylesRoom, $2.5 million had been kept on deposit by Cake. Meanwhile, DoylesRoom had paid back approximately $9 million, with about $6.8 million still being owed. Minus the amount kept on deposit, DoylesRoom still owed Cake Poker about $4.3 million at the time of the move to Yatahay. Of that amount, DoylesRoom paid back 10 cents on the dollar to Cake, or about $430,000.
In other words, Cake Poker’s two-year relationship with DoylesRoom cost the network about $4 million plus altogether, a big hit for a relatively modest-sized network. To their credit players were always paid on time and the network continued to function as always. But there have been consequences.
As Cake Crumbles, Victory Suffers
Some of those consequences affected Cake Poker’s internal operations. According to a former Cake Poker employee, almost half of Cake’s staff were laid off. While the network’s operating budget was severely affected, it should be noted that at no point have player funds on deposit been at risk, although that situation remained tenuous for a couple of months.
Another consequence of the DoylesRoom-Cake Poker separation concerned Victory Poker, the site headed by 28-year-old CEO Dan Fleyshman. Launched in February 2010, Victory Poker began as part of the Everleaf Network before moving to the Cake Poker Network (CPN) in August. While never a large site in terms of player traffic, Victory did manage to earn a lot of attention thanks to the availability of CEO Fleyshman and the signing of high-profile pros like Antonio Esfandiari, Andrew Robl, Jonathan Little, and others.
Soon after joining Cake, Fleyshman recognized the network was potentially heading toward some financial difficulty and thus arranged a meeting between individuals who had invested in Victory Poker and Cake Poker brass in an attempt to find backing for the struggling network.
That meeting took place in London on January 5, 2011. Before the meeting Fleyshman posted on his Facebook page that he was “Walking into one of the top 5 biggest meetings of my life with ‘Big Boy’ executives who flew in from 6 countries.” However, despite such excitement, the meeting did not meet with the success Fleyshman or Cake envisioned.
In fact, once the potential backers got a look at the status of Cake Poker’s balance sheet and the unpaid debt from the DoylesRoom loan they not only declined to invest in Cake, they allegedly pulled their backing from Victory Poker as well. Fleyshman returned to his Facebook page to express his frustration: “I rarely curse,,. But today I calmly cursed 3 dozen times… Negativity & rudeness makes me :#€£¥%*•~# Grrrrrrrrr.”
Victory Nearly Turns Cereus, Then Folds
Left in a somewhat desperate situation in their own right Victory Poker made a decision to leave the Cake Poker Network and join the Cereus Network. Reactions in late March of this year to news regarding that impending move were mixed, with many wondering why Victory would choose to join embattled Cereus. At the time, Fleyshman spoke of the opportunity to join to the third-largest network as a primary incentive, although other factors — including the need to separate from Cake — were likely in play as well.
Then came Black Friday, two days after which Victory Poker announced it was no longer accepting U.S. players. In fact, on April 15 representatives of Victory Poker already had plane tickets in hand, ready to fly to Costa Rica to meet with Cereus, sign contracts, and finalize their deal. Given what the Black Friday indictment and civil complaint alleged regarding the Cereus network’s operations, one could say that Victory Poker’s having been prevented from completing its deal to join Cereus is a silver lining of sorts amid an otherwise dark scenario for the site.
While no longer serving U.S. customers, Victory Poker remained open as part of the Cake Poker Network until June 1 when it announced it was ceasing its poker operations altogether and that all of its players would be transferred to the Cake site. Victory Poker now plans to continue as an affiliate site offering news and strategy, but no games.
Cake in the Wake
While Victory Poker’s poker room has gone silent, DoylesRoom has moved its operations over to a new domain, doylesroom.ag, where it continues as part of the Yatahay network. Meanwhile, the Cake Poker network has survived.
A “strategic partnership” between PokerListings and the Cake Poker Network was announced in March of this year, essentially a partial selling of a majority stake in the Cake Poker Network to PokerListings, which has ensured Cake is at present and going forward financially secure. Previously — before Victory Poker’s involvement with CPN and well before Black Friday — attempts were made by Cake to sell the network in whole or in part to both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker according to our sources, though both of those major sites turned down the offer.
Cake now appears to be adopting a strategy whereby it maintains a lower profile in the U.S. than it had previously as far as advertising and promotion is concerned. Such an approach may well be recommended, given the attention being paid other sites that are seeking a more conspicuous U.S. presence.
Several attempts were made to contact representatives of Cake Poker and DoylesRoom for comment on this story. Neither site responded.
Victory Poker is now closed. All the players and account balances will be transferred over to Cake Poker. This news does not come as a surprise to anyone. Victory Poker seems to have been doomed to fail from the beginning when they decided to start off on the small Everleaf Network. After a few months they moved over the the Cake Poker network and hired some great poker industry people to run the site and we thought maybe they would turn into a good site. Sadly they never lived up to expectations and we regret promoting them.
On April 17th, 2 days after Black Friday, Victory Poker decided to stop serving US players and focused on the European market. Things did not go as planned and as of now they are closed completely. As mentioned all balances will be transferred as well as any gold chips or pending bonuses.
With the departure of Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker from the US online poker landscape you may be left wondering where everyone is playing these days. A handful of poker sites have begun to stand out and make a name for themselves. We’ll break down a few today and let you know why they’re on the rise and what the best alternatives are for former Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker players.
The Merge Poker Network is growing the fastest but you may be surprised to know that it is not their flagship site Carbon Poker that is leading the way. The rising star for the Merge network is Lock Poker due to unique promotions, an ultra sleek design and a 200% up to $1200 deposit bonus. Another Merge skin that is growing rapidly is RPM Poker. If we were to list the top Merge skins in order it would be Lock Poker, Carbon Poker and RPM Poker. Keep in mind that while all three share most of their tournaments and all the cash game tables. Each also runs their own unique promotions. These poker sites are all 100% Mac compatible.
Also on the rise is Bodog Poker. This is no surprise as Bodog is an established site with a great reputation for customer service and successful deposit methods. They not only offer a Poker room but also a full casino and sportsbook. The 110% up to $1100 deposit bonus on Bodog is great as well. If you’re primarily a cash game players, there are two things to keep in mind if you decide to play at Bodog Poker. First, their Mac version is not a full version of the software. Second, Bodog limits the amount of tables you can play.
If you’re looking for a no download instant play poker site then there is only one we can recommend and that is Luvin Poker on the Everleaf Network. Everleaf is a small network that is also growing rapidly as of late and may by the end of the year be a real contender. While there are several sites on the network we at Holdem Poker Chat only endorse Luvin Poker because we love their customer support and they offer players a nice 100% up to $1000 deposit bonus.
Last week we came across a real gem of a poker site on the Cake Poker network. Sports Interaction Poker is a cake poker skin that accepts eChecks as a deposit method. As far as we can tell they are the only online poker site serving the US that has this as a deposit option. If you’re a former Pokerstars or Full Tilt Poker players, I’m sure this is great news for you. Our top poker sites on the Cake poker network are Intertops Poker and Cake Poker.
You can find more information on all these poker sites and full reviews by visiting our USA Poker Sites page.
We’ll continue to monitor which online poker sites continue to serve the US and adjust our rankings accordingly. For now we feel that the poker sites listed above are the safest and most promising for all US poker players.
Following a news story posted on Bluff online this morning, Holdem Poker Chat can confirm that there has indeed been a deal struck between the struggling Cake Poker Network and Pokerlistings.com. While most are reporting that Pokerlistings has bought Cake Poker, we are hearing that they did not buy 100% of the network. We’re hearing 50%.
The Pokerlistings website has already been changed this morning to reflect the pending sale. Cake Poker is now listed as their #1 site followed by two new Cake Poker Network skins.
This is breaking news and we’ll have much more information on the deal later today.
UPDATE: We finally spoke to Cake Poker and a deal is in the works but has NOT been finalized. I does look like it will happen sometime later in the week. As we reported earlier, the deal is NOT for 100% ownership but is for majority control of the network.
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE:
Cake Gaming NV announced today that it will be undertaking a strategic partnership with PokerListings.com. The partnership brings together two companies with extremely complimentary resources: PokerListings.com being the most comprehensive poker news and Poker Strategy website in the world and the Cake Network, a popular global poker network with a number of strong consumer-facing poker brands.
“We are extremely excited to become a major component of PokerListings.com’s massive online presence,” said Cake Network Marketing Director, Andrew Turner. “The value of being integrated into one of the premiere leaders in new player acquisition and poker-related search can not be overstated and will have a significant impact on the Cake Network ecosystem and overall liquidity. This partnership positions the Cake Network for future growth in terms of new depositing players as well as for the addition of several strategic network partners. ”
With its significant Poker and Casino holdings, PokerListings.com can stake a claim to being the largest single gambling affiliate business in the sector. Through a very close working relationship in the areas of web development, content production and traffic conversion, PokerListings.com is positioned to substantially contribute to future development of the Cake Network.
A notable aspect of this partnership includes an ongoing commitment from PokerListings.com to drive a minimum of 2,000 new depositing players per month to the Cake Network which will have a significant impact on the number of recreational first time depositors. This partnership adds considerable strength to the position of the Cake Network by ensuring a steady stream of new depositing players every month which will soften games and increase liquidity across the network.
“We have been looking for this kind of partnership for some time now and we are very happy to have closed this deal with Cake Network. Not only does the partnership bring great commercial value to our respective companies, but we are very proud to secure the best possible deals for PokerListings.com’ visitors” said PokerListings.com’ representative, Martin Carlesund.
In addition to an influx of new players to compete against, Cake Network players will enjoy several other benefits from this partnership including: syndicated high quality content, added functionality and fantastic deals for those referred to the Cake Network
nby Pokerlistings.com.
Cake Poker marks the return of their Two for the Money promotion for March 2011. If you enjoy multi-tabling cash games, then this promotion is definitely for you. Each week you will be assigned a target number of FPP’s to hit while multi-tabling. If you hit your number, you will be entered in a $2,000 Kamikaze Freeroll for that week. the kamikazes will pay out to 30% of the qualified players so there is a real chance to get some cash out of the deal. If you play cash games, you already know that the Cake Poker Network has some of the softest tables around. Now you can earn extra cash while being paid by the unsuspecting masses as well.
How it Works:
Each week in March you will be assigned a multi-table hand target. If you meet that target within the specified time period, you will automatically be awarded entry in to that week’s $2,000 kamikaze tournament*. Multi-table to meet your target through all four weeks and you’ll get a shot at a combined prize pool of $8,000!
For hands to count towards the multi-table target, you must:
Be seated at two tables or more with stakes equal to or greater than $.10/$.20.
Cannot be sitting out.
Play real money hands across all tables combined.
View your multi-table hand target and monitor your progress via the My Account tab of the Cake Poker software starting March 1st.
$2,000 Two for the Money Kamikazes
When you reach your multi-table hand target, you will automatically be entered into that week’s kamikaze tournament. Two for the Money kamikazes take place each Thursday at 17:57pm GMT starting March 10th.
Each week starts on Tuesday at 00:00 GMT and end at 23:59 GMT the following Monday.
*Kamikaze tournaments require no action by players as all hands are forced all-in. A table winner is quickly declared and the tournament continues at warp speed until the prize pool is distributed.
Terms and Conditions
Players must be 18 years of age to participate.
Employees and immediate family members of employees of Cake Gaming N.V., the Cake Poker Network and its associated companies are not eligible to take part in the Promotion.
Cake Poker reserves the right to alter, modify or terminate the Promotion and/or these Terms at any time, without notice (written or verbal) where it is reasonable to do so.
To be eligible for the Promotion players must be seated at two tables or more with stakes equal to or greater than $.10/$.20; cannot be sitting out and; must play the specified number of raked hands across all tables combined within the specified weekly time periods.
Players who meet the requirements set out in #4 will be awarded entry into that week’s Two for the Money kamikaze.
Two for the Money kamikazes award cash to players in the top 30%.
Two for the Money kamikazes run weekly, every Thursday at 17:57 GMT
Players may not transfer, sell or award their Two for the Money kamikaze seat to anyone else.
Since Black Friday, much of the poker world has been closely following the dramatic, divergent stories of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker/UB, the three sites targeted by the Department of Justice’s indictment and civil complaint. However, there has been significant drama over recent months involving three other sites, too — DoylesRoom, Victory Poker, and the 
Victory Poker is now closed. All the players and account balances will be transferred over to Cake Poker. This news does not come as a surprise to anyone. Victory Poker seems to have been doomed to fail from the beginning when they decided to start off on the small Everleaf Network. After a few months they moved over the the Cake Poker network and hired some great poker industry people to run the site and we thought maybe they would turn into a good site. Sadly they never lived up to expectations and we regret promoting them.
With the departure of Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker from the US online poker landscape you may be left wondering where everyone is playing these days. A handful of poker sites have begun to stand out and make a name for themselves. We’ll break down a few today and let you know why they’re on the rise and what the best alternatives are for former Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker players.
Following a news story posted on Bluff online this morning, Holdem Poker Chat can confirm that there has indeed been a deal struck between the struggling Cake Poker Network and Pokerlistings.com. While most are reporting that Pokerlistings has bought