Carbon Poker Room is one of the newest online poker sites on the internet, but also one of the most promising of the newly released. It is based on the Poker.com skin, and is in fact a reincarnated version, since the Poker.com team is unable to advertise its business in the United States. We therefore regard to it as the “new” Poker.com. The software is superb, fast and flexible, comes bundled with Blackjack and Backgammon and all the vital functions and filters you can think of when you play at the tables, or when you browse through the lobby. It also features very soft competition and comes with a great variety of games, including rarities like Razz and 5 Card Draw. It is, however, not very competitive today as its traffic rates are far too low to stay in the game with giants like Full Tilt Poker and Titan Poker. Therefore, it lacks a few serious promotions and tournaments.
Software (9)
Carbon Poker Room is using the perfected software of the Poker.com network and is also the second to do so. It is fairly unknown to the average poker player, but regardless of its lack of its status, this room is indeed based on the highest quality software you can think of. It is based fully on a Flash module, meaning that aside from being a low-weighting program, it is also resizable with no image quality loss as a direct result. Aside from just looking good, Carbon Poker offers everything from player notes to custom chat icons to excellent lobby filters. Features are dwelling here, although the table isn’t as customizable as some other sites, but still good. All in all, there is little to complain about.
Traffic (6)
It is a member of a new and very small network, but in spite of this, there is more action than you would expect. Both real and play money players go beyond 8000 during peak hours, which is more than acceptable. Most of the traffic is in Texas Hold’em as one would expect, but Omaha and other games are populated every now and then too. A majority of all players come to play ring games, although the frequent freerolls do lure a lot of new and veteran players to the tournament tables as well.
Tournaments (6)
Carbon Poker is not a place to go if you are looking for satellites to real action poker, such as World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour. For such tourneys, we recommend any of our top rated poker rooms. Carbon Poker does offer a few exciting tournaments, but is limited to its lower player count. Therefore, we rarely see games of the same magnitude as offered on sites like Full Tilt Poker. Either way, you have the regular and daily freerolls ranging from $50 and up to $50,000 (occuring only once every month). Freerolls aside, CarbonPoker also offers tournaments with guaranteed cash prizes ranging up to a few thousand dollars.
Game Variety (8)
In 2005, the Poker.com software was far behind its competition in terms of varieties. Only Texas Hold’em and Omaha was available, but fortunately, times changed in late 2006 when a few great additions came to our attention. Aside from the already mentioned poker types, Carbon Poker offers 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, 5 Card Stud, 5 Card Draw, Triple Draw and Budagi, a Chinese poker variation.
Soft Competition (8)
The competition is usually very soft at Carbon Poker. It is typically poker rookies and small-stacked players who come to play at the freerolls, and then later end up at the poker tables to lose cash. Even if you go as high as $2/$4, you often see tables with over 55% seen flops, which is significant at these stakes. The lower you go, the higher the number, of course. While it’s not the softest of all competitions, it is far from the average stack too.
Sign Up Bonus (7)
As a new member on Carbon Poker, you receive a wealthy bonus worth $1000 with a match of 200%. To claim it, you are required to enter the Carbon Poker promotional code max1000 (also known as promo code) in the Coupons field, which is located in the cashier. To read more about this bonus, please refer to our Carbon Poker promotional code guide.
Loyalty Rewards (4)
As a player at Carbon Poker, you earn Comp Points, which is short for complimentary points. Just like in a land-based casino, you earn such points to receive rewards for being a loyal member. Unfortunately, Carbon Poker lacks proper rewards and comes only with a few mini promotions and entries to tournaments, with the latter one being the most interesting of the two.
Promotions (4)
Carbon Poker is still in a growing phase and must attract more poker players before it can offer heavy duty promotions. For now, you have the new player bonus at $1000 and freeroll entries added, regular freerolls, a Royal Flush bonus which earns you a 100x bonus every time you hit it with your pocket cards, and last but not least, the comp points, which are fairly rewarding.
Support (5)
Only e-mail support is available once you run into trouble. This is obviously the most popular method of correspondence, but live help and telephone support would not hurt. We found the response time to be fast, usually within a few hours, and very accurate, however.
Deposit & Cashout Methods (6)
Deposits: Visa, MasterCard, ECO, Click2Pay, Neteller, Moneybookers and ePassporte.
Cash-outs: Neteller, Click2Pay, MyCitadel and bank transfer.
Carbon Poker Room
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