Bodog Poker Review And Users' Guide

Bodog Poker is the best online poker room for many people because it's so profitable. It's profitability derives from:

• They have the worst players of the top five US-friendly sites. You may be able to double or triple your earn rate, or play one to two limits higher, by playing at Bodog rather than one of the larger, tighter sites.
  
• They have the best first deposit and reload bonuses. Their first deposit bonus is 110% up to $500 and they offer monthly 100% up to $500 reload bonuses.
  
• There are large overlays on many of their guaranteed tournaments (meaning they pay out more than the sum of the buyins).

Bodog's customer service is also among the best. They respond to emails within 15 minutes and also offer customer service by phone, which is unique among poker rooms. I think you get the best results by calling them on the phone, so do that for anything important like deposit or withdrawal advice.

Bodog's software is considered to be below average, but there aren't any problems so serious that it would keep you from playing there. For serious players the four-table limit is a weakness, but there's nothing preventing you from playing another poker room at the same time. Bodog doesn't write hand histories to your hard drive, so if you want to use a hand history database (e.g. Holdem Manager) you'll need to buy a hand grabber program (it's more than worth it to any serious player). Bodog has enough traffic for most players playing up to about $200 NL Hold 'em.

Bodog is most famous as a sportsbook, and you can bet on sports or play their casino games from the same account. Bodog doesn't use US-based payment processors so they're not susceptible to the occasional processor problems that plague other poker rooms. Their payouts are as fast (checks in a few days) and reliable as any poker room.

Insider hints:

• Visa and VirtualPin are the recommended deposit methods. Checks are the standard payout method. Call Bodog if you have any deposit or payout questions.
• Poker Table Ratings is a free website that's useful for selecting the most profitable tables, finding the biggest winners and losers, looking up individual opponents, and being alerted when selected players are online.
• Bodog Hand Grabber doesn't include cards your opponent mucked at showdown in its hand histories, but you can look them up by hand number in Bodog's software. While you're playing you just have to double-click the last hand link (a single click doesn't work reliably).
• There is a free AutoHotkey script that can help with bet sizing and a few other things.

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