Tiger Poker
8 years ago
04 Dec
‘Tiger Gaming burning bright, at the tables of the night’, William Blake might have said, were he an online poker player!
In fact, the modern-day tables of online poker sites would benefit a bit from a ‘tiger’s eye’, with the big sites not really paying enough attention to the average player. Which is why, having spotted Tiger Gaming, I thought it might be an idea to review them, so here goes….
Who are they?
TigerGaming, the ‘rising cat of online poker’, has been around for a while, but since their 2012 transition to new ownership, they have gone from strength-to-strength. Now their Chico Network occupies 14th spot in the online rankings according to PokerScout.
That’s a very respectable position - ahead of the Hive Network for example, who have also been massively successful this past year or so - and they are now gunning for a top ten spot.
The fact that TigerGaming is available worldwide is a huge boon; their BetOnline (BOL) network even serves the US. No matter where you might find yourself, you’ll still have access to your games.
Which players are they aimed at?
The site doesn’t have pros and grinders desperately ripping money out of your hands every day. Which means, of course, you get a more ‘pure’ poker experience - minus the bots and 3rd party software which are currently populating the top sites.
The normal poker player, who loves playing the game with the hope –rather than expectation - of winning is who TigerGaming is aiming its site at, and it seems to be working.
It’s not super-competitive, but you’re always assured of an enjoyable and fair game, be it cash or tournament or one of the many other variants they offer. The last 6 months have seen a good steady rise in their number of players online daily – always an excellent indicator and a sign they must be doing something right!
What do they have to offer?
Sign-Up Bonuses
A generous package is offered, including a 1st-time 100% deposit bonus up to $2500 (which you can also get for their casino) and a $500 free-roll bonus.
Daily promotions are also heavily featured, with the Beat the Grinch Jackpots being an unusual and fun festive addition. Find out which player in the event is the Grinch and try to knock him out for the cash prize!
Freerolls
You can simply sign-up to the site and start your ‘tiger’ experience with their hourly free-rolls. This is never a bad way to try out a site you are thinking of joining, and hopefully winning some cash along the way. Of course, you’ll have to deposit something before cashing out your winnings – but this seems fair enough if you are enjoying the play on offer.
Games
TigerGaming has their own interesting slant on games, which is quite refreshing!
Looking at their ‘lobby’, the games are spread across the usual cash, tournament, sng, and play money. NLHE is, naturally, the mainstay of the site, but TigerGaming also offers some interesting variants such as Chinese poker and Pan.
Tournaments run regularly, and the buy-ins are usually below $11. A typical tourney will have maybe 80 players, and pay 8 places, so thankfully you’re not going to be facing the 6 or 7 hour, thousands-of-player-type MTT that you’ll find on the likes of PokerStars.
But the MTT’s here don’t use antes and they also don’t allow late entries, (another bug-bear for the average player, who often sees several hundred players hit the rails early, only to be replaced by a 2 hour swarm of late entries!)
So, tournaments tend to be much more exciting and don’t take all night! The playing schedule is fine, however; 8-minute blind levels and 1000 chip starting stacks, with a single re-buy being the norm.
The MTT leaderboard freeroll is worth $10K for the top 100 at Gold Level ($10 and up tourneys) so there is a definite incentive there to improve & play, then improve & play again.
SNG’s -you’ll find plenty of them, with stakes from under $1 up to $100. Heads up matches are offered at much higher stakes if wanted. Again the action is fairly fast; it’s not a site where you’ll find yourself endlessly waiting for mutli-tablers to do their boring thing!
There is also the huge $25,000 Sit 'n Go Leaderboard Challenge, which makes things a lot more fun. It includes Gold, Silver, and Bronze categories depending on your usual stakes.
Cash games are stacked at the lower to mid level range; $0.01/0.02 up to $0.25/0.50, which is fine for all but the most bank-rolled or expert player. All pots are non-capped rake, so be careful when you’ve got an obviously chopped-pot – don’t shove hoping your opponent hasn’t spotted it!
One of the best features of TigerGaming is that they have signed up for the Online Poker League, an ambitious and lucrative new league, which has managed to involve 10 separate sites in their excellent 69 tournament schedule.
Billed as the ‘World’s Biggest Online Poker League, they are offering $10,000 in leaderboard prizes – with TigerGaming hosting their 2nd event soon.
Why would you choose TigerGaming?
There are a lot of problems with the top sites at the moment. They simply don’t seem to be too keen on their actual player-pool for some reason, taking more than they are giving out! Player revolts are, unfortunately, all over the place right now.
Conversely, sites such as TigerGaming (and their BetOnline version for the US poker market) are focussed almost entirely on making sure their players are happy and catered for.
They offer everything a poker player could really ask for:
- A world-wide presence
- A rising position in the market
- A focus on the average poker-player and what he wants
- All the games you would expect plus some extras
- Bonuses, jackpots, and promotions
- Very quick and easy cashouts
Overall TigerGaming is an excellent alternative to the big mainstream poker rooms. I have been very impressed with what I’ve seen, so give the ‘Rising Cat of Online Poker’ a go and see if the poker animal in you is satisfied!
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