Carbon Poker

Carbon-Poker Highlights
U.S. Players	No
Poker Network	Merge Gaming
VIP Club	Yes
Bonus	150% up to $1000
Coupon Code	FTR200
Bonus Difficulty	7/10
Multi-Tabling	12+
No Limit Stakes	$0.02 - $0.04 up to $50 - $100
Limit Stakes	$0.10 - $0.20 up to $50 - $100
SNG Stakes	$0.50 + $0.10 up to $400 + $15
Minimum Deposit Amount	$10
Compatibility	Windows 98+
Supported Languages	English
Pros	Carbon Poker has a ton of customizable features in the software.
Cons	Although the software is nice, Carbon Poker can hog your resources. Bonus can be hard to earn.

Carbon Poker is one of the biggest skins on the new Merge Poker Network. Carbon Poker was once known as poker.com before renaming itself and getting a fresh start with Merge Poker. The Merge Network currently has more than 40 skins. Those weary of new sites will be happy to hear Carbon Poker has been fully certified by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. While their player pool is still growing they do offer a nice variety of hard to find games such as 2-7 Triple Draw, Badugi, and Five Card Draw.

While sites such as FullTilt and PokerStars currently garner the most amount of play, it is important that other sites continue to build and grow like Carbon Poker and the Merge Network. Hopefully as the smaller sites begin to gain more credibility there will emerge a plethora of great options for poker players.

Once opening the Main Lobby at Carbon Poker you will see they have almost every game imaginable to offer. Starting with cash games, their NL Hold’em games span from $.02/$.05 blinds up to $50/$100 blinds. They also offer Limit and Pot Limit Hold’em up to $50/$100 as well. The No Limit games get most of their action as there are plenty of tables running up to $1/$2 stakes and heads-up games at higher stakes as well. It can be difficult to find a high stakes ring game, but there are usually 2-3 $5/$10 and $10/$20 games running at any given time. Carbon Poker offers both Pot Limit Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo, unfortunately these games have not taken off and it can be tough to find a game even at smaller stakes.

Carbon Poker offers one of the industry’s largest deposit bonuses. By using the bonus code FTR200 you will become eligible for a 150% up to $1,000 initial deposit bonus. This is an exclusive bonus and nearly double what Carbon Poker offers their standard players. In order to clear the bonus you must play real money cash games, SNGs, and/or tournaments. By paying rake/fees in these games you will begin earning VIP Points which help to unlock your bonus. For small-stakes grinders this bonus is great because it is released into your account in $5 increments. To earn $1 in bonus you must earn 75 VIP Points which might sound like a lot but you will receive 10 points for every $1 in rake/fees you pay. One final note on the bonus, it does not have an expiration date but you will forfeit any remaining bonus if you make a withdrawal from Carbon Poker before clearing the entire bonus.

Carbon Poker offers the biggest variety of games found for American Poker Online today. Besides Hold’em and Omaha they also spread Stud, Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, 5-Card Stud, 5-Card Draw, Triple Draw, Badugi, and mixed games such as HORSE and SHOE. Currently these games get very little action but as the site begins to expand these types of games typically gain a big boost. Finally, Carbon Poker allows players to create private and custom tables that can be password protected.

Being a new site their SNGs and Tournaments also have trouble filling. They offer many different SNG formats including short-handed, turbo, double-up, and bounty games. Their small-stakes heads-up SNGs get plenty of action in both Hold’em and Omaha. SNG grinders will more than likely not find enough action at Carbon Poker but the games are plenty fishy. Their scheduled tournaments are highlighted by their $109 buy-in Sunday $50k Guaranteed. This event runs at 3 PM EST each weekend and can pay out more than $15,000 to the winner. For those with smaller bankrolls, there are plenty of tournaments between $1 and $20 daily including re-buys and deep stack events.

The software at Carbon Poker is very sleek and clean. For being a newer site, Carbon Poker actually has a few features others do not. One of the more interesting aspects of the software is the “Rabbit Hunt Cam” which allows players to take a peak at the river card even after folding. They also give players the option to “run it twice” which deals out two separate boards (or turn/river cards) when players are all-in. The Lobby itself is basic and easy to use. There are tabs on the top of the screen which allow players to navigate between games and even a filter to help players zero in on certain table types and stakes. You can also sort the lobby by clicking any of the columns such as players to the flop or hands per hour. Finally, you can right click and “sticky” a table which keeps it at the top of the lobby at all times.

The tables are resizable and there is a one-click mini view which would allow most computer monitors to hold up to 9 tables without any overlap. You can also tile, cascade, or even use their grid function which is a great way to four table. At the table there is an instant hand replayer which allows you to view past hands to gain even more information on your opponents. Finally, there are plenty of quick-action buttons which help those who enjoy multi-tabling.