Bodog Poker

Bodog Poker
Screenshots

One of the oldest sportsbook and poker rooms online is still open to American Poker online players. Bodog, also known as BodogLife, is one of a few sites still catering to US-based poker players since online poker legislation was passed in 2006. Bodog was founded in 1994 and has battled through some tough times in past years but has managed to keep their casino, sportsbook, and poker room open at all times.

A lot of poker sites and casinos were faced with a tough decision when the UIGEA attempted to shut down American Poker Online in 2006. Fortunately for US players, Bodog was one of just a handful of sites to stay open to their American player base. Had it not been for these sites online poker may not exist for American players today. Bodog has seen some nice benefits in staying open for American Online Poker including a nice increase in player traffic.

Bodog offers one of the better bonuses found online today. Their 110% up to $1100 bonus also comes with an additional 10% in cash! There is no sign-up code necessary, just install the Bodog software, deposit funds, and your account will be credited with an extra 10%. From that point on you have 60 days to clear the actual bonus which is 100% up to $1100. In order to clear the bonus you must earn 10 points for every $1 in bonus. Players earn points by generating rake in cash games or paying fees in tournaments and/or SNGs. To collect the entire $1000 bonus you will need to earn 3,000 points by playing real money games.

While Bodog does not have as much traffic as major sites like PokerStars or FullTilt that allow American poker online, it still has a large enough player base for small and mid-stakes grinders. The most popular games are their small stakes NL Hold’em Cash games which typically have plenty of full tables all the way up to $300NL. Whether you enjoy playing 6max or Full Ring there will be plenty of tables to choose from starting at $5NL. Bodog offers stakes up to $10/$20 blinds for NL games and $30/$60 blinds for Fixed Limit Games. Besides Hold’em, Bodog also offers Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 5-Card Stud, 7-Card Stud, and 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo.

Their tournaments and SNGs are also quite popular especially at the lower-stakes games. Most of the SNGs running will be at the $20 buy-in level or below while the higher buy-in levels are generally of the heads-up variety. Bodog does offer Omaha and Stud SNGs as well as heads-up and multi-table formats. Their tournament schedule is highlighted by the weekly $100k Guaranteed which runs every Sunday. The $150+$12 buy-in event rarely gets enough entrants to reach its guarantee which is great news for those who play as Bodog pays out a lot of overlay. There are many smaller guaranteed tournaments running daily including multiple re-buy events.

One of the first things players notice about Bodog is how smooth their software runs. This allows for quick game play which translates into more hands per hour than offered by other sites. The Lobby is fairly easy to use, with tabs to navigate between games and stakes. Bodog’s software has a few unique aspects including the lack of a time bank at the table. Instead players have a status bar which slowly works its way down while they make their decision. This greatly affects the pace of play forcing players to make quicker decisions. The one major downside to their software is they cap the numbers of cash tables players can open at once to four. Unlike other major sites who allow 12, 16, or even 24 tables, this tends to keep a lot of the grinders away. While upping this number could result in more traffic, it would actually make the games much more difficult.