Cake Poker is one of the newer poker sites which is quickly gaining strength as word spreads of it's user friendly software and great loyalty program. A medium to small sized room, Cake Poker first went online in 2006 and as one of the few poker sites which still accept players from the US it has a very loyal group of players. If you prefer to play at a site where you can get to know the regulars, make notes on your opponents (and spot the newbies) and then Cake Poker could be for you.

The lobbies are simple to find your way around, clearly displaying all the info you need to make an easy informed choice on which game to join. The software has been well thought out and has all the options you would expect from a high quality online poker room. Although there isn't an option to see your made hand (your best hand displayed as on the screen as play progresses). This option is great for beginners or players who enjoy multi-tabling so it's a shame it has been missed out.

The action preselect and betting options are very easy to use and include a sliding scale for betting plus 1/2 pot, pot and all-in buttons. Likewise the notes system is super easy and you can even colour code your opponents for easy recognition of your opinion of your opponents skill level.

Overall Cake Poker has a lot to offer and offers a very slick and comfortable playing experience. I wouldn't recommend it for high stakes players as the action at the higher levels can be thin, but for low to mid stakes players Cake Poker is a first class online poker room.

Cake Poker are currently offering a 100% of first deposit bonus up to $500. The bonus can be claimed by using the bonus code 500CAKE when signing up or registering for the first time. Full details of how this bonus works and how the bonus is redeemed can be found on our dedicated Cake Poker Bonus page.

Cake Gold Cards
Cake Gold Cards are a great idea and I wish more poker rooms ran this kind of promotion. The Gold Cards are based on a deck of cards with some cards being more rare and hence more valuable than others (See website for more details).

You can earn Gold Cards by playing in any real money ring game (not tournaments). They are randomly distributed to players based on how much rake a particular table has accumulated. So if you're playing on a high stakes table more Gold Cards are awarded more often. The Gold Card appears over the dealer during a hand where a Gold Card is being awarded and any player who holds that card receives the Gold Card, this will continue to the next hand if no-one holds the card...and so on. See below for all the ways you can use your Gold Cards.

Gold Card Tournaments
The Gold Cards can be used to enter special Gold Card Tournaments with cash prizepools or even packages to events like EPT and WSOP.

Gold Card Daily Lottery
Every 24 hours Cake annouce their daily winning Gold Card, spot that your collection contains this card and you can redeem the card for your prize (as long as you claim within the same 24 hours). The prizes can be entries to tournaments or for cash prizes. For example on May 12th the Ace of Spades was the winning card and anyone holding this card was entitled to claim the prize of $2000 cash added to their account!

Monthly Guaranteed Prize Hand
You can save up your Gold Cards to make hands and if you can match the monthly prize hand you can collect a cash prize.

Gold Card 500
The Gold Card 500 is a race based on how many cards you have collected. Each card has a 'mile' value and the top 10 players who collect the most miles within a week receive a cash prize up to $500.

$52k Gold Card Jackpot
Be the first person to collect the full deck of Gold Cards and you'll be the lucky winner of the $52,000 jackpot. 2 players have already won the Series 1 and 2 jackpots, the race is now on for Series 3.

There are no live game satellites running at Cake Poker at present

Gold Chips
Introducing Cake Poker's Gold Chips - Cake's unique way of rewarding your regular play. Most poker rooms offer a points system for frequent play but Cake has one of the best programs as the rate you collect 'chips' increases the more you play.

You earn Gold Chips by automatically collecting FPP's (frequent player points) as you play in any real money game. Your FPP's are then exchanged for Gold Chips at a set rate. You only earn chips at the faster rate for the same calendar month, at the beginning of the month you return to the 1st Gold Chip level. See below for the rate at which you collect Gold Chips within any calendar month:-

• 1st Gold Chip - 120 FPP's
• 2nd Gold Chip - 115 FPP's
• 3rd Gold Chip - 110 FPP's
• 4th Gold Chip - 90 FPP's
• 5th Gold Chip* - 70 FPP's
• 6th+ Gold Chip - 70 FPP's

Gold Chip Tournaments
There are a few ways to 'cash in' your Cake Poker Gold Chips. You can use them as a direct buy-in to special Gold Chip Tournaments (typically 5-25 Gold Chips for a $5k prizepool). You can also use Gold Chip to buy into satellite tournaments to all of Cake's larger tournaments like the Sunday $75k or $30k. There's even an option for Sit and Go players who can join 'Gold Chip Lover's' Sit and Go's where you can increase your Gold Chip stack. All of the special Gold Chip tournaments are listed under the 'Gold Chip' tab within the tournament lobby.

Gold Chip Shop
You can also spend your Gold Chips in the Cake Poker Shop where apparently you can buy Shirts, Caps and groovy things like Ipods but unfortunately every time this reviewer has tried to check it out it's been 'closed for renovations' - so I'll keep checking back to see exactly what's on offer.

Most freerolls at Cake Poker are reserved for those who have Gold Cards or Gold Chips, however they have a weekly $500 bankroll freeroll which you can only enter through satellites running throughout the week. There are also regular small PL Omaha and Texas Holdem freerolls throughout the week.

An important thing to point out about the freerolls at Cake Poker is that you will not be able to withdraw any of your winnings from freerolls until you have collected 2 Gold Chips. Once you have collected 2 Gold Chips any winnings from future freerolls will also be available to be withdrawn immediately.

First Depositor Freerolls
Cake Poker run a weekly $500 first depositors freeroll for, yes you guessed it, first time depositors.

There are currently no in-house leagues or leaderboards at Cake Poker.

You can easily play for free at Cake Poker. Simply select 'Ring Games' in the lobby and then select 'play money'. You will find many active tables where everyone is playing with 'play money' chips. If you run out of chips then click the dealer sat in the top centre of the table and then click the 'add chips' button. This is a great way of getting used to the software and we suggest you play at least a few hands on the play money tables to get used to the software before you play on the real money tables.