Monday, January 12, 2009

Poker site review - Interpoker

I thought it about time to post my second poker site review and decided on Interpoker, as it is one of the few remaining skins on Cryptologic, and i'm not sure where the future lies for them. However, I can comment on how they are running currently. (with respect to fixed limit holdem anyways).

Strengths
  1. Solid rakeback deal through RakeTheRake with 30% rakeback
  2. Additional rake race through RakeTheRake
  3. Monthly freeroll through RakeTheRake
  4. Monthly bonuses simply by entering a code. No need to redeposit. You pick the size of the bonus you want from a number of choices
  5. Bonus is paid in pounds if your account is in pounds, and clears almost twice as quickly as a $ account. (trap for young players - open your account in pounds to get the best bonus deal!!). It was even better before the pound dropped so much in valuen against the $.
  6. Bonuses are NOT deducted from rakeback
  7. Works with Pokertracker
  8. Low stakes double up sitngos are fishy - even I can win :)

Weaknesses

  1. Traffic is fairly limited and getting a little worse due to skins leaving the network. Not as big of a drop off as I had expected though
  2. Often every single table in my range ($1/2 - $3/6) is full of tags. But then you get some random times where every table is full of fish. Go figure
  3. Pound or euro tables have a higher max rake - trap for young players
  4. The best bonuses require your account to be in pounds which will incur conversion fees when you deposit and withdraw

Rake structure

Above $5 its a flat 5% of the pot which is actually pretty poor. I'll have to check it as I can't recall it being that bad.

My performance

This is another site where I have had a horribly cold start. Early on I was at -8BB/100 and have gradually pulled that back to a -0.5BB/100. I'm actually positive 2BB/100 at $3/6 and positive 1BB/100 at $2/4, so my stats are being dragged down from getting slaughtered early on at $1/2.

Overall i've deposited $570 onto Interpoker (although my deposits were actually in pounds, hence the odd number), but I am yet to withdraw any money, and have a current bankroll of $1,100. So overall up around $530 in around 5,000 hands.

Included in that i've played around 50 double up sitngos for a profit of $50. The majority have been just $5 games that i've played as a bit of fun for a break from the cash tables.

My current plans

I will continue to take up the minimum monthly bonus that requires 300 points to clear. I'm finding I can comfortably get the 300 points needed even with limited table availability and my limited play schedule. I suspect that the bonus pluse rakeback is equivalent of somewhere near 60% rakeback.

I will also use interpoker for my double up sitngos whilst I still require points to clear my bonus for the month. Even when cash tables are empty, the low stakes double ups often fill up pretty quickly.

I will cease playing Interpoker when either the games dry up even further so that I can't find good games from $1/2 to $3/6 to play while clearing my bonus, or if the pound drops significantly further against the dollar.

Who am I signed up through

As noted above i'm signed up through RakeTheRake. As one of the bigger rakeback providers they've always paid on a timely basis, although with Interpoker it has to go directly to your Interpoker account as it's actually paid by the room direct. RakeTheRake have enough added extras (rake race / freeroll) to make signing up through them worthwhile.

Overall opinion

Interpoker can be a bit hit and miss I find. There are often times when there's not a single table worth playing and its a case of opening the software, having a quick scan of the tables and closing it. Other times you can spot the fishiest of fish and sitting down at several tables is a no brainer.

If you're only playing on a single site, again I couldn't recommend it due to the lack of volume. However, if you're looking for a relatively high rakeback site and have other sites you're playing on at the same time its a pretty decent deal.

I will have to watch the site fairly closely though to see what impact the skins leaving Cryptologic have on the traffic for Interpoker, and whether it remains viable to play on.

3 comments:

Violt said...

good plug to rtr, but to be honest since you are so bonus whoring oriented you should know that there are opportunities to get twice RB + bonuses on certain bigger networks.
30% + freerols (you probably wont play) + rake race (you probably wont qualify) is very marginal at best.

parttimebonuschaser said...

Well the interpoker bonus + rb is equivalent to around 60% rakeback in theory.

In practice last month my 30% rakeback payment was $28. My bonus payment was $45, which if you assume the 30% rakeback is correct it implies a total rake of $93, and therefore a rakeback of 78% or so. (that I can take up every single month, not just as a one off - and that is before the freerolls and rake race).

Admittedly kickback bonuses can score you 200% rakeback equivalent or higher, so they are much better, but they are also just one offs, and they basically exclude you from getting a rakeback deal from the particular site.

So ... going down the list of the better publicly available deals:

Party 150% - 2000% already done
Fulltilt 380% - Long term site with RB instead
Betfair 380% - aussies excluded
Ladbrokes 300% - done this month
Gnuf 343% - done last year
Pokerstars 250% - done last year
Carbon 244% - aussies excluded
Littlewoods 238% - kick back instead
PKR 227% - not done. might do next
Pokertime 200% - done last year
Jampoker 200% - not done. may do but small network
Actionpoker 198% - not done. very small network
Bodog 198% - already done. found good deal
Pacific 198% - already done. found good deal
Lucky Ace 156% - not done
Mansion 153% - done
CD poker 150% - not done
Poker770 142% - not done
Chilli poker 133% - not done

So the main network that I haven't hit up that still has reasonable deals is Ipoker. However, I would like to have some kind of kickback deal on their first so don't want to eliminate any sites by doing a one off bonus.

However, if you can point me to some other deals that are reputable, feel free!!!

I've tried an under the table deal or two in the past which did work okay for a few months before all of a sudden disappearing, so I tend to stick to more reputable rakeback operations these days.

Violt said...

I dont want mention names in your blog but drop me your email address and you can judge for yourself. I think you will be surprised (like i was few years ago).
Or you can PM me on 2p2 (violt)