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Is there an online poker site you'd like to review? |
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Tell Us About It! |
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SportingBetUSA |
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Pro Rating :
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User Ratings :
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Avg. Rating :
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| Reviewed By Kris Takahashi |
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About SportingBetUSA |
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Poker Site
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Summary Review
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SportingBetUSA is the self-proclaimed place for Americans to play poker. After all, they have the words "USA" in their name and an American flag on their website. Who cares if they are based in London and are traded on the London Stock Exchange? As my friend Paul Revere once told me in a dream, "The British are coming again, only now they're posing as Americans." He then told me that I can save up to twenty percent on car insurance by switching to..., so I started beating him senseless. But that's a story for another time. This wretched story is about one horrifically bad poker site, people who spell "frequently" as "frecuently" (perhaps that's a British thing - British American, that is) and overall an experience to avoid at all costs.
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Year Started
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2005
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Country
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United Kingdom
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Languages
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English
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Overall Rating
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New site - rates 2 out of 5 stars.
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SportingBetUSA Online Poker Features |
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Size Rating
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Player Feedback Rating
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Customer Service Rating
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Banking Rating
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Game Play Rating
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Game Selection Rating
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Security Rating
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Recommended For
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beginner
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Deposit Types
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Bank Transfer
Bank Wire
Credit Card
eCheck
Firepay
NETeller
Western Union
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Withdrawal Terms
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Poker Games
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7 Card Stud
Texas Hold'em
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Rake
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From $0.10 to a maximum of $3.00
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Play Multiple
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1
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Play Free
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1
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Limits
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Fixed limit games, pot limit, no limit
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Recent Promotions
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$1 satellite for a trip to Vegas with $1,000 spending cash
Cash back bonuses, as high as 15%, given monthly contingent on raked hands
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Bonuses
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Tournaments
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Security
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128 SSL
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SportingBetUSA Pros & Cons |
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Pros
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WSOP Satellite
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Cons
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Limited games and tourneys
Low player numbers
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SportingBetUSA Review |
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Reviewed by
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Kris Takahashi
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The Company
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SportingBetUSA was established in the UK and came online in 2005.
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Site Navigation
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Good
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Site Response Speed
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Average
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Services Offered
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Poker Room
Tournament Play
Sportsbook
Racebook
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User Experience
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Average
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Full Review
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The Poker Website
Poker schools are as big a fad as online poker and SportingBetUSA throws the teaching angle right off the bat, complete with a picture of a creepy old professor who stares at you with the eyes of a child molester. Too bad for him children don't play poker, for you see there's this age limit which is very effective in keeping children from looking up porn and I can't see why it wouldn't be the same for poker. Anyhow, it appears the SportingBetUSA website is a cluttered mess that reminds me of an old newspaper dipped in water with the ink running. It seems most of SportingBetUSA's poker sites are actually sportsbooks masquerading as part time poker tables.
Registering, Cashing and Playing Poker
If you're familiar with the EFS system that SportingBetUSA incorporates, then you'll know it is quick and painless and credit card friendly. Why did I mention it then? Well, in case you weren't so familiar. Unfamiliar things need to be made familiar lest you end up with some venereal disease. Yet even as I look up poker deposit options, SportingBetUSA continues to pimp their sportsbook and casinos, telling me that the "Caribbean Stud" jackpot is currently at a price of $341,000, which I find a ridiculous price, no matter what kind of shape this man is in. Of course, I do not know the going rate for such a thing, but I asked the Caribbean man I met in Kyoto, who fancied himself a stud also, how much he would charge and he wouldn't go higher than $500.
Poker table is standard and seats ten, graphics are pedestrian and the whole thing is done half-donkey. The only games offered are Texas Hold 'em and 7 Card Stud. Not even Omaha or Omaha Hi/Lo, which are pretty standard anywhere else. Tourney wise, they offer satellites to the World Series of Poker, but the buck stops there. I tried finding other events, but every other link takes me back to the sportsbook. Not that I'm against the bookies, which are my first vice, but we're here to talk about poker and nothing else.
Bonuses and Poker Promos
In an amazing coincidence, SportingBetUSA offers the same bonuses for their poker room as they do for their sportsbook! Gadzooks! It's as if the two were connected somehow! What is it? Well, it's 10% sign up and 5% re-load on Thursday deposits. That's so you bet early for NFL Sunday, but as far as poker is concerned, it holds no significance whatsoever.
Promos include $1 satellites for a trip to Vegas with $1,000 spending cash and a cash back bonus which can be as much as 15%. The cash back bonus works a lot like a Discover card, where you spend a billion dollars to earn thirty five cents.
Online Poker Customer Service
Although the people at SportingBetUSA provide plenty of phone numbers, emails and live chat support for you, most of these people are sportsbook and casino helpers and you not only must pick a part of their brain that is hardly used, you must also compete with other helpless people seeking help that they didn't get from the Almighty Poseidon. Got that? In other words, they have decent customer service people, but during peak hours it may be hard to get through. Furthermore, the live chat is not live at all, but a web query. If you take the advice of users, which I sometimes do, most consider the people at SportingBetUSA to be crooks, much the same way people think Bill Gates is a crook. A nerdy, pant pissing crook.
Overall Poker Rating
SportingBetUSA focus is obviously not poker. Poker is, if I may be frank, a tawdry whore, an insignificant zit on the humongous butt that is SportingBetUSA. Whether or not they will decide to tackle that front, the same way Microsoft stepped onto the gaming scene with the Xbox, remains to be seen. However, like Microsoft, they have the resources to do it and if they ever get over their methamphetamine-induced hallucinations that these crappy sites are going to cut it, look out.
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