00:05
18 Apr

Reviewing poker sites – in this case TonyBet - is usually a lonely affair, with lots of poking about into the inner workings of the site in order to give readers and prospective players a clear view of what to expect.

For TonyBet, however, I’m going to enlist the help of a poker-grinder par excellence – Jon Lundy from PokerVIP – to add that personal touch, and see just how a professional micro-stakes player approaches a new site; a huge bonus for those looking for a change.

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TonyBet

First up, a little introduction to TonyBet itself wouldn’t go amiss. The brainchild of Antanas ‘TonyG’ Guoga, one of the poker world’s biggest personalities, TonyBet was, at one time, the exclusive domain of Open-Faced Chinese poker players.

This year, however, has seen a variety of new games added, and naturally there are a host of promotions to go along with them. But let’s start by looking at how a player views this new site, and then we’ll check out the what the promo goodie-bag has to offer later.

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The Player’s View

Jon Lundy – with 10 years and over 10 million hands of online cash game experience behind him - has made a very healthy living scouring the world’s poker sites to find the softest games around. As his video series about TonyBet shows, he appears to have found the perfect place to rake in the bucks.

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Smooth software and soft games

The micro-and low-stakes games are where Jon lives and breathes poker, anything from 2NL ($0.01/0.02) up to 25NL ($0.10/0.25), and his TonyBet introductory video shows him taking the first 4 tables available and showing just how soft these games are. ( Of course, this soft state cannot last forever, so it might be a good idea to get in there early and stake your place.)

Lundy’s video series is a great way to view the TonyBet site. His years of playing and coaching mean that he investigates all the little ‘knobs and buttons’ which separate good sites from basic ones.

Hand histories, replays, the playing lobby, rebuys, and a host of other small but essential factors are all shown to be excellently designed and easy-to-use…the word “smooth” cropping up time and again, which is important for all of us. No clunky or awkward software!

The lobby is easily sortable for Cash Games, Sit&Gos, MTTs, and Fast Forward Poker and filters allow players to find the gametype and stakes of their choice easily. The usual series of options such as ‘Auto Post Blind’ and ‘Auto Muck’, etc are also there.

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The Games

So, what does TonyBet offer in the way of games? After all, that’s why we’re here! They started as an OFC (Open-Faced Chinese) site – and this is still their ‘biggie’, a game which requires a blend of powerful strategy and keen intuition. If this sounds like you, there is money to be made in OFC, with TonyBet leading the way with 5 variants on offer, each just a little bit different from the other.

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Open-Faced Chinese

Classic, Pineapple, Pineapple 2-7, Progressive Pineapple, and Turbo all feature on the site, and don’t worry if you’re brand new to the game; they have all the rules and even an OFC online school to help you along the way.

This was Daniel ‘KidPoker’ Negreanu’s enthusiastic claim after trying it out, so it’s definitely something which should be on your ‘poker bucket list’. And he’s not alone, ‘our’ poker pro Jon Lundy will soon be trying his hand at OFC and sharing his experiences of the game.

If you are already an OFC aficionado, then you’ll find everything you could dream of here: tough games against the regs to help you improve, soft games against the newbies to rake in the readies, and probably (well, definitely!) the world’s best OFC tournaments.

As OFC High-Rollers champion Jennifer Shahade said when picking up €100,000 and the title:

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If you already think that this sounds great, try Tonybet now and and get in on a pile of promotions and freerolls.

Of course, it’s not only the Open-Faced Chinese game which has made TonyBet one of the leading and fastest-growing online sites in the past few years.

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No Limit Hold’em and PLO

PokerTube wrote about the site’s new game launches late last year, which saw them introducing micro-stakes versions of Texas Hold’em and Omaha cash games without rake, with plans to add higher stakes tables, plus SNG’s and tournaments. More recently they have introduced 4-max tables, HeadsUp games, and 10,000 chip starting stacks.

Their latest additions of live straddles and ‘run it twice’ options in the cash games have proved very popular, extras which Lundy himself finds very attractive:

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Promos/Rakeback

It’s all very well having the world’s best players singing the praises of TonyBet Poker, but what else do they offer you and me, the everyday online poker enthusiasts looking for the best place to spend our hard-earned cash?

Promotions in this day and age are a must, so let’s take a look at what is described as ‘Everyone’s a Winner’ – to see what TonyBet actually offer in the way of incentives.

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€10,000 Dreamerz Freeroll League

As ever, freerolls are a huge draw to any site, and TonyBet’s €10K includes all sorts of tempting goodies – and won’t cost you a thing. The latest iPhone 6S’s, all-inclusive Las Vegas packages, daily, weekly, and a huge final free-roll all add up to a great deal.

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€15,000 Grinderz League

While some sites seem determined to dismiss their most regular players, TonyBet has found a huge wad of cash to celebrate their best Holdem and PLO grinders, with €15K in cash, and Glory Series tournament tickets on offer for the €100K GTD grand finale. Points mean prizes, so there is every incentive in the world to keep at it.

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Free €10 Tickets to the €2,500 GTD Event

It’s nice to be nice, as they say, and newbies to the site are given a free buy-in - with the chance of scooping the best part of €2.5K. No such thing as a free lunch? Maybe not, but this’ll do nicely as a warm welcome instead.

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The SnG Heads-Up Challenge

Again, while others are cutting entire games out of their online offerings, TonyBet are looking for ways to make more and reward players who try them.

Heads-up players haven’t been having the best time of late, so the SnG HU offerings here are a huge boost, with €1000 in cash a month to play for. Every week, the Top18 SnG HU players share the €100 leaderboard prize pool, while the best 18 throughout the month are rewarded with €600.

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Rakeback scheme

TonyBet have recently changed their rakeback deal, and now offer one of the best – and most unusual – in the industry.

There is a minimum rakeback level of 25% if you sign up from an affiliate site, but for those who have had a bad day at the poker office and chuck €100 or more, they will receive an extra 55%, making it 80% rakeback and lessening the blow. As it goes straight in your account automatically every Monday, perhaps those weekend bad beats won’t hurt quite so much.

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Up to €2000 Sign Up Bonus

That’ll do nicely, and it’s up there with the very best offers from other sites. “Every player to fund their account for the first time will receive twice as much,” they say, so definitely worth considering if this is your big attraction when choosing a new poker home.

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Overlay

Quite possibly the favourite word of tournament players worldwide, overlays happen when there aren’t enough entry fees to cover the guaranteed prizemoney, so the site makes up the difference.

How does that help you in practice? Well, this will likely only be a temporary occurrence while TonyBet tournaments reach the level of their other offerings, but basically you’re playing against fewer players for the same big payday!

When the overlays finish, I would expect something innovative and exciting to replace them, a huge online tournament series being part of TonyBet’s plan.

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Game traffic

Naturally, how busy a site is goes a long way towards making a players mind up about whether or not to play there. If we break down how well TonyBet are doing, we can see that they are competing well with similar sites.

The OFC games (and also their sportsbook for those interested) see a huge amount of traffic. OFC draws an international crowd across many time-zones so there are always games aplenty.

The same goes for their micro-stakes NLHE and PLO, where you’ll find 2NL up to 10NL running constantly, peaking during European evenings and weekends.

At the low stakes, there is decent cash traffic from 20NL to 50NL, certainly enough to multi-table the majority of the time.

From 100NL up to 1000NL there are fewer options, but the numbers are growing weekly, and overall the games are relatively soft and rec players are common, so there is definitely money to be made here.

As far as tournaments go, there is an excellent schedule, complete with their own freeroll league series – again lots of value to be had.

Everyone is already playing on Tonybet, so why aren't you? Check out the deals here.

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Any downsides?

Well, it would be remiss of me to not mention their casino-side of things being very slow and bureaucratic when it comes to payouts, and perhaps the initial process of signing up could be a little quicker. This, however, is being looked into as I write.

Also, although the big tournaments attract good numbers, it might prove a little quiet at the moment for tournament grinders who want to play from morning to night, although things are clearly looking up for the site in this respect.

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Conclusion

“As they say at TonyBet, and like players do with an all-in, ‘no balls, no glory’!” That's how TonyBet spokesman Warren Lush describes his site, adding, “We are in a unique position as an up-and-coming operator to try such things.”

Judging by the site itself, Jon Lundy’s game-play videos, and the rapidly-rising number of players flocking to them, it’s difficult to find any serious downside.

Basically, what you see is what you get with TonyBet. Highly-specialised in its OFC offerings, extremely innovative in its other games, and hugely competitive overall. Their promotions are not only competitive, but in many places out-do many of their long-standing fellow sites.

The site itself, and the playing platform, are both high-quality affairs – befitting of a fast-rising modern poker site whose main aim is to offer players a great alternative to the biggest sites.

All-in-all, TonyBetseem to have it covered and appear to be going from strength-to-strength. Personally speaking, I’m off to the tables to throw some euros Jon Lundy’s way just to see how he describes my horrible play!