Visit Ladbrokes Poker

Screenshots

(click to download)


Screenshot Ladbrokes Poker lobby

Ladbrokes poker lobby (125 kb)

Screenshot Ladbrokes Poker default table

Default table
(78 kb)

Screenshot Ladbrokes Poker: 10 resized tables on 30 inch monitor

30" monitor, 10 tables
(500 kb)

Ladbrokes Poker review

Reviewed August 11th 2009
Last updated: December 16th 2009

Player base

Ladbrokes is on a network together with Unibet, which means that at the tables you can encounter players from both these poker rooms. It won't be possible for Americans to sign up at either of these two poker rooms and join the player pool. Although Ladbrokes uses the Microgaming software, they are independent of Microgaming financially.

Games offered

Cash games - At Ladbrokes the poker varieties that are offered and have at least some games going at this Tuesday evening are hold'em, omaha hi, omaha H/L, 5 card draw and 7 card stud. The stakes at no limit hold'em start at 2 nl (2 cent big blind) followed by 4 nl, 10 nl, 20 nl, 50 nl and further up all the way to a staggering 10.000 nl. There are a fair amount of full ring games going at the microstakes up to and including 50 nl (mostly 5 to 10 tables). This is highly dependent on the time of the day, as there will hardly be any full ring action in the morning and afternoon hours (central European time). Full ring action at higher stakes is low throughout the day. This is contrasted by a decent amount of shorthanded (6-max) traffic at all levels. Most of the tables are in euros, while at some tables you can play in US dollars.

Tournaments - Ladbrokes offers a fair number of multi table tournaments with a very good structure. The regular tournaments have 15 minute blind levels counting 18 levels to 1000/2000 blinds with a 200 ante. Player fields in most multi table tournaments are small to medium. Besides the single table sit & go's there are also multi-table sit & go's. Because of the low traffic in them they only fill up at a decent rate at the lowest buy in levels of $2.5+0.25 and $5+0.50.

Tournament structures at Ladbrokes Poker.
Tournament type Starting stack Level dur. (min.) Level # 1K/2K blinds Antes
MTT's regular 2000 10 18 y
turbo 2000 5 18 y
deep 5000 20 18 y
SnG's regular 1500 10 hands - -
turbo 1500 5 hands - -

Freerolls - There are 6 freerolls offered by Ladbrokes every day. Of these freerolls there are 5 €50 freerolls in nl hold'em (2x) razz, PL omaha and omaha H/L. Usually there are several thousands of entrants with only 130 places paid. There is also a €200 freeroll in nl hold'em: 10.000 entrants and 130 places paid…

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Software

The Microgaming software runs very smoothly and has a clean look to it. It definitely is some of the better software in the poker industry. Take a look at the screenshots in the right column for a good impression of the Ladbrokes poker software. You'll notice that the screenshot of 10 tables on the 30"monitor shows customized tables.

Lobby - The lobby provides enough filtering options (depending on the view you use) to find the game of your liking. It offers the option to use two different views.

Poker tables - Tables are resizable in normal view, having a minimum resolution of 480 x 360 pixels and a maximum (default) resolution of 800 x 600 pixels. If you don't happen to like the look of the tables then you can customize it. How exactly you can do this is explained in this forum thread at twoplustwo.

Multi-tabling - There are several options such as a customizable bet slider and auto reload. This facilitates multitabling, which can be done up to a maximum of ten tables at a time. There are AHK-scripts written for Microgaming software to assign commands like betting and folding to your mouse buttons to facilitate multi-tabling.

Tracking software - Microgaming software can be used in combination with tracking software like PokerTracker (only ring games) and HoldemManager.

Promotions

First deposit bonus - Ladbrokes currently offers a massive 2000% up to $1000 first deposit bonus. This means that you will be eligible for the full bonus as soon as you deposit a minimum of $50 or your local currency equivalent. You have to earn 50 Poker Points for every bonus dollar. You earn 10 points for every dollar you raked in either cash games or tournaments and therefore this bonus comes down to a nice extra 20% of your rake paid back. The bonus is valid for 45 days after which you can fill in a claim form to get your bonus. If you did not manage to completely clear the full bonus by this time, then you can claim a lower predetermined amount (either $50, $100, $250 or $500). At games with blinds of .01/.02 one does not earn Poker Points.

Loyalty bonus - All real money players earning player points at Ladbrokes are Ladbrokes Poker Player Club members. This membership has several levels which come with extra rewards such as freerolls and cash bonuses at every higher level. At the lowest level, you can cash in player points at a rate of 10% cash back (100 points per dollar). At the highest level (when you earn 10.000+ player points per month) this will be supplemented with a cash bonus for an extra 20% return on your paid rake as well as freerolls, exclusive invites to poker and sporting events and more.

Low rake at nano stakes - Very interesting for 2 and 4 nl players is Ladbrokes' rake structure: a maximum amount of only ten cents in rake is taken from the pot. This is low compared to other sites offering these stakes where the maximum amount raked will mostly be $2 or $3 (although the pots at these stakes are very unlikely to be big enough to reach this maximum amount of rake, it will often become a multitude of 10 cents).

Update: I received an e-mail yesterday from Ladbrokes. All the poker accounts at different rooms I've got bring quite some promotional e-mails which I'm very trained in deleting without reading by now. Not this one though. It read "We've put $50 in your account" as the subject. You know, that's a catchy subject. So I read more and they told me I could make an extra $250 by coming to play poker at their tables again and earning 4500 player points (it's been almost 2 months now). Being the skeptic I am I immediately checked my account and there it was: a little over €30 more than I last left there. While all this might not be directly of use to you, I think it tells something about how Ladbrokes values its players and isn't scared of giving something away once in a while. Oct. 8th 2009

Visit the website of Ladbrokes Poker >>

Cashier

Ladbrokes offers a number of deposit options including Neteller, moneybookers, PayPal, MasterCard and more. Withdrawals using Neteller were always quickly (within 2 days) credited to me. Your account will be in your local currency. I think it is important to take notice of the fact that Ladbrokes poker is part of Ladbrokes plc. Their finances are completely detached from Microgaming and therefore Ladbrokes has got nothing to do with the financial problems at that network which hurt a lot of players (bankruptcy of Tusk, lots of players waiting for withdrawals to get paid by Eurolinx).

Support

Ladbrokes support is excellent. They can be contacted by e-mail and telephone.

In summary

Ladbrokes is an excellent poker room to start playing poker from the bottom up because of the nano stakes games offered in which very little rake is taken. Every player playing at least 4 nl will benefit from earning Poker Points and at higher Player Club levels also from freerolls and cash bonuses. For new players the first deposit bonus will add an extra 20% of their paid rake back in their pockets. Ladbrokes offers multi-table tournaments with a very good structure and relatively smaller fields. It can therefore be an interesting poker room for multi-table tournament players to add to a multi room schedule. The promotions, good software and excellent support make Ladbrokes definitely an interesting site for cash game players. This also includes full ring players, although they might only find a decent amount of traffic at peak hours (evening CET).

Download the Ladbrokes Poker software for free if you think that Ladbrokes might be the poker room for you based on this review.


Further reading at First Time Poker Player:


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