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CelebPoker have had a mixed time with their online poker software. Late 2004 they decided to switch from their existing Boss software over to the Poker Network software as used by Pokerroom.com. However after changing for around 6 months, and after an extensive upgrade by Boss, and feedback from exisiting customers who preferred the old Boss poker room, they have now reverted to the new improved software provided by Boss. Backed by many UK Celebrities, and the odd overseas one, Celeb Poker has instantly gained a feeling of being here to stay with so many famous faces involved, including Lou Diamond Phillips, Mark Williams, Ken Doherty, Marco Fu and Lawrence Dallaglio.
Software: CelebPoker uses software supplied by Boss Media of Sweden, which is very crisp and sharp, with arguably the cleanest look of any online poker room at this time. It falls down on speed which is poor, and on the lack of multi-tabling capability. There was an extensive upgrade in early 2005, but there is still many areas that do not cut-it. No player notes, hand history, unable to view tournament lobby once a tournament starts, and the aforementioned multi-tabling means that Boss still require another major upgrade before this software works as well as it looks. 5/10
Support: You get the works here, with prompt email reply, knowledgeable telephone support, and prompt replies to Live chat enquiries. The only glitch is live support knowledge (this is supplied by Boss) who don’t really seem to have much clue about poker and give some strange replies to fairly basic poker questions. They also seem slow or completely negligent in responding to complaints about possible collusion or the vast numbers of Turkish players who continually talk in their native tongue, and yet account queries will be dealt with by phone or email from Celebpoker easily. 8/10
Banking: CelebPoker have more than enough selection available, Neteller, Firepay, Visa, Mastercard, Switch, Visa Delta, Amex and Bank Drafts all being accepted. More than enough to satisfy most poker players.8/10
Bonuses: There is a monthly bonus of $100, however earning this takes forever as you must contribute to the pot to have your hand counted as raked, and then clear 3000 raked hands to earn the lot. When this is coupled with both the single table restriction and the slow pace of play, you’ll be here a long time before you see that $100. 3/10
Game Availability: CelebPoker is growing, and 1000+ players can be found online late in the evening in the UK, mainly on Limit games across a fairly wide spread, but No Limit hold 'em games are getting busier, as they are only a recent addition. The short handed games are only 5 seater tables, and this is where the majority of players seem to congregate, so you may need to wait a while to get a full ring game. If multi-tabling were to be introduced, CelebPoker could start to compete. The recently introduced multi-table tournaments are still fairly small player number wise, so you get a fair chance to hit that elusive final table. 5/10
Game Toughness: Choose your games wisely, and stay away from short handed tables. If you can find a nice ten seated table, there are many with flop percentages hitting the high 60%’s that are just too good to be true. You will see some awful swings, but if your bankroll can take it, find a table full of Turkish players (they must be the worst in the world), and off you go. If they start yabbering in Turkish however, get onto support and get their chat banned, yes they are stupid enough to try to collude in the chat box. Plenty money to be made if limit is your game here, you will be able to safely step up the levels from that to which you are used to on other online poker sites and not notice the difference, but you will need the added patience requuired to just single table until hopefully a proper upgrade comes around. 10/10
Total 39/60
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