4/14/2022»»Thursday

Nj Online Poker Reviews

4/14/2022

PokerStars is the most widely recognized brand in the online poker world.Unsurprisingly, many people were excited when its parent company, Rational Group, teamed up with one of Atlantic City’s casinos in order to obtain a New Jersey online gambling license. The process took longer than expected, but in March 2016, PokerStars NJ finally became available to residents of the Garden State.

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100% up to $1,500 Deposit Bonus Offer
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  • The top poker room in Atlantic City, Borgata, teamed up with online poker stalwart partypoker to launch separate NJ online poker sites with shared player pools.

888 Poker NJ is a regulated online poker site in New Jersey that operates under the Bally’s internet gaming license.

Players should note that 888 Poker does not share liquidity with the international site of the same name, nor does it share traffic with 888 Poker-branded sites in Delaware.

It does, however, share liquidity with WSOP NJ, across a variety of cash games and tournaments, including lower-limit cash games and Sit ‘n Gos (SNG). The duo also combines to offer $130,000+ in guaranteed tournaments each week. Not to mention, 888 uses its same proprietary Dragonfish platform in New Jersey that it does across the Atlantic.

Reviews

Due to a lack of brand recognition in the US, 888 Poker struggled when it first launched in the New Jersey market in late 2013. That all changed when it entered into a compact with sister site WSOP NJ (which also uses 888’s platform) in January 2015. In the months that followed, the new network grabbed the market’s cash-game-traffic lead.

Even the entry of PokerStars in March 2016 couldn’t grind the WSOP/888 train to a halt, as the network still manages to capture significant cash game market share — sometimes more than PokerStars.

How much traffic? Cash-game volume averages around 500 players with a 24h peak of around 850. It ticks up when WSOP NJ beefs up its promotional schedule ahead of the live series in Las Vegas.

WSOP/888 also boasts a fair amount of tournaments, highlighted by its $100,000+ Weekend Warriors schedule, in addition to many nightlymajors. Most of the major tournaments are either re-entries or feature rebuys and add-ons, but 888 does offer several exclusivefreezeouts at the smaller stakes.

Sign up at 888 Poker and get $20 free no deposit poker bonus; no 888 Poker promotional code is required.

888 online poker bonuses

888 Online Poker Bonus Code:None -- use links
Join Bonus:$20
First Deposit Bonus:100% up to $1500
Launch Date:Nov. 21, 2013
Available To:New account made by players who are 21 or older, located in New Jersey
Last Verified:Oct. 8, 2020

Free $20

New players who successfully register an account on 888 Poker NJ will receive the following:

  • A credit of $10 in free play for select casino games on 888 Casino. 888 will automatically credit your account.
  • A credit of $4 worth in bonus money that shall appear in your bankroll. You can use it at 888 Poker and 888 Casino.
  • Six tournament tickets, with a value of $1 each, for use as entry tickets to poker tournaments only at 888 Poker.

The no deposit free poker bonus expires in seven days and is subject to a 30x wagering requirement. You can only get one bonus (e.g., you don’t get one at 888 Casino and then another at 888 Poker).

What’s nice about this offer, is that there are no playing requirements associated with the cash portion of the bonus. Also, you will be able to withdraw any winnings from the tournament tickets immediately.

That said, you must use your tickets quickly, as they expire within 14 days.

100% match up to $1,500 deposit bonus

When you sign up, you are also eligible for a hefty welcome deposit bonus. You will receive a 100% match bonus, up to $1500, on your first deposit.

The bonus clears at a rate of $10 per 100 points earned. All players earn twopoints per $1 paid in rake and tournament entry fees — that works out to 20% rakeback — on top of what they receive from the site’s loyalty program.

You can cash out any cleared $10 increment of your bonus immediately, and any winnings from the bonus funds can also be cashed out.

Reload bonuses

888 Poker NJ does not offer many reload bonuses — although its partner WSOP NJ does.

888 Poker NJ online casino review

888poker NJ Quick Review
  • Traffic - 85

  • Depth of Game Selection - 86

  • Software - 88

  • Customer Support - 85

  • Promotional Value - 94

88

Summary

Traffic on 888poker NJ gets a huge boost from a liquidity sharing pact with WSOP.com. Now, players have a wide array of cash games, tournaments, and freerolls to choose from. The interface is a little antiquated, and we do wish there were more cash game formats, but these are minor quibbles. The high monetary cap of 888's first deposit bonus is just icing on the cake.

Software and mobile app

888 offers Windows and Mac platforms to New Jersey customers. There are also a fully downloadable poker apps for Android and iPhone or iPad.

Poker games available at 888 Poker NJ

Cash games

888 Poker NJ offers:

  • No Limit Texas Hold ’em
  • Pot Limit Omaha

All Omaha games are 6-max. Hold ’em games are either 6-max or fullring, although the full-ring games only run at lower stakes.

Available stakes range from 1-2 cents through $10-$20. The most popular stake appears to be 25-50 cents, with stakes near that blind level nearly as popular.

There are lobbies for other cash-game formats, but they do not appear operational at this time. We doubt that this will change as the NJ market isn’t big enough to support too many alternative formats.

Sit ‘n Gos

Sit ‘n Gos (SNG) are only available in No Limit Texas Hold ’em and Pot Limit Omaha. Six-max, full ring and heads-up games are available. Speeds include turbo, superturbo and standard.

Table stakes run the gamut from 11 cents to $250, although the games that run are typically on the lower end of that range.

SNG players are best off playing during the prime-time hours of 7 p.m.-1 a.m. local time, as that’s when the most games are running. But in reality, they might be best off taking their action to WSOP NJ, as not only does that site share partial SNG liquidity with 888, it also offers a monthly SNG leaderboard promotion.

The platform also offers four-handed BLAST tournaments. These are Super-turbo Texas Hold’em Sit and Go events.

The prize pool for each BLAST Sit & Go is determined based on a draw at the beginning of each tournament. Prize amounts can vary from two to 10,000 times the buy-in, adding a bit of fun to the mix.

BLAST events begin like a traditional tournament, but there’s a big twist. Once the tournament starts, the BLAST timer starts a countdown. When time runs out, all players are all in each hand until there’s a winner.

Multi-table tournaments

Unlike most sites, 888poker NJ offers near round the clock tournament action. The only times multi-table tournaments (MTT) do not run are after 1 a.m. and before 4 a.m. Granted, the tournaments that run during off-peak hours don’t exactly offer huge prizepools, but at least they’re guarantees.

During prime time, 888 supports a solid major schedule. On weekdays, nightly majors feature buy-ins ranging from $10 to $100 and guarantees that run up as high as $10,000. Nightly majors start at 7 p.m., with the last one kicking off at midnight.

The weekend schedule is even moreimpressive, featuring no less than 10 Warrior-branded tournaments, combined, guarantee up to $140,000. Buy-ins for these events tend toward the larger side, ranging from $50 to $500. All of these tournaments permit re-entries.

Any freerolls you’ll find on 888poker will likely be in Texas Hold’em, but that’s pretty standard across most online poker sites. For more, check our dedicated page here:

Play Online Poker Games with Friends

If you prefer playing online poker with friends only you can set up private cash games and tournaments on 888poker in the Play with Friends tab. It’s a very simple process and no setting up of a private club or anything is required.

Banking

Deposits

You may deposit cash at the Bally’s Casino cage. Visa and Mastercard are also accepted. Although credit card transactions incur a cash-advance fee and Visa has a low rate of acceptance at all New Jersey online poker sites and casinos.

That said, those who have trouble with credit or debit cards may try to use them to deposit at Neteller. Other, more recommended methods of making a deposit include:

  • Bank transfer (ACH): High approval rating and immediate turnaround.
  • Online banking transfers: You must have the bill pay feature on your bank account.
  • PayPal: The popular third-party processor now accepts payments on NJ-regulated online gambling sites.
  • PayNearMe: You can pay cash at eligible 7-Eleven for use on 888 Poker NJ, which is good if you don’t have a bank account.

Cash Outs

As an 888 player, you may withdraw cash at the Bally’s Casino cage in Atlantic City. 888 will also send an electroniccheck to a player’s bank account or mail a check. Checks by mail do take longer than other methods, which is roughly seven to 10 business days.

Neteller provides a debit card, which you can use at ATMs or retailers that accept Discover. Finally, if you use PayPal for your poker deposits, you can withdraw via the same method.

You may be asked to provide proof of your banking account before being allowed to withdraw. This is a safeguard designed to protect the site and you from fraud.

Typically, the verification process will task you with uploading a scan of their valid ID (such as a driver’s license), a bankingstatement or utilitybill to the site.

Player rewards

888 offers a generous VIP program. All VIP payments are paid in straight cash, though they may be claimed in the 888 Poker platform. The rates are determined by the amount of rake paid in a month.

As an 888 player, you carry over this status into the next month:

  • Blue: 0/5% rakeback
  • Iron: 50/8% rakeback
  • Bronze: 200/10% rakeback
  • Silver: 3,000/15% rakeback
  • Gold: 6,000/20% rakeback
  • Platinum: 20,000/35% rakeback

Note: You won’t have to play that much to achieve at least 10% rakeback, although getting to the higher tiers may prove a challenge.

How to earn status points on 888 Poker NJ

You earn points at a clip of two points per $1 paid in rake and tournament entry fees, meaning that to achieve Silver status, you will need to generate $1,500 for the site.

As a platinum player, you will need to rake $10,000 — a challenge indeed, but that benchmark is still lower than what other sites require.

Customer service

888 Poker offers all the standard support options, including a quite extensive FAQ section that’s on its website. Players with more involved problems may want to go one of these alternative routes:

  • Email: An agent will typically respond within 24-48 hours.
  • Phone: Best bet for both service and availability (24/7).
  • Livechat: Speedy response times but availability is limited (3-11 p.m. daily).

Security and fairness

New Jersey poker rooms are subject to regular and rigid oversight from the state’s gaming regulatory body, the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement. All legal NJ sites, 888 Poker included, must institute safeguards designed to verify and protect player identities and funds.

Now, because of that, the registration process is typically more intense than it is on an offshore site. But those extra few steps go a long way toward ensuring the site never dupes its players.

And, in the rare instance that they do feel they were treated unfairly, they can always bring it up with NJ regulators directly.

888 Poker NJ FAQ

Who should play on 888 Poker?

888 is beginner-friendly, offering a wide variety of low-stakes cash games. Fields tend toward the softer side relative to other NJ online poker sites.

There are myriad low-stakes tournaments to choose from as well, some of which are freezeouts. This stands in some contrast to sister site WSOP, where the majority of guaranteed tournaments are either re-entries or adhere to the rebuy and add-on format.

Part-time grinders, who only have time to play at night and on weekends, will have a good selection of higher-profile tournaments to choose from, with nightly majors featuring guarantees ranging from $750 to $10,000, and weekend events guaranteeing as much as $50,000.

For pros, 888’s loyalty program may prove a selling point, but they may get somewhat frustrated by the inconsistency in which mid- to high-stakes cash games run.

SNG players, too, might find that their time is best spent elsewhere, as not many games of this format run during the day, and 888 does not support a monthly SNG leaderboard.

How does 888poker NJ stand out from the competition?

If it didn’t share liquidity with WSOP NJ, 888 wouldn’t have all that much to offer NJ players, as standalone site traffic is on the low side. Fortunately, the reality of the situation is muchrosier.

Traffic on 888 is now solid enough to support a wide variety of cash games and high-profile tournaments, with guarantees running as high as $50,000 for its biggest Sunday major (Ultimate Warrior).

In addition, 888 outperforms its sister site WSOP NJ in a few key areas.

Is it worth joining 888 Poker’s loyalty program?

At 888 Poker, you begin earning rakeback from the moment you play your first real-money cash game hand. You only have to rake $100 a month to receive 10% rakeback as cash.

Earning the site’s top monthly tier (Platinum) will take some effort, but if you are a serious player, the 35% rakeback you will receive will be well worth the trip.

How does the deposit bonus at 888 rank?

Compared to other NJ online poker sites the monetary cap of 888’s first-time deposit bonus and second deposit bonus is higher. We do wish it cleared at a faster rate, but there’s no denying the overall value of this promotion.

Three areas where 888 Poker could do better

  • Promotions: Or should we say the lack thereof.
    The fact is that after an aggressive launch, 888 has pareddown its promotional schedule considerably. Currently, there isn’t much to discuss. And when 888 does run a promotion, it runs one at a time.
    With that, its one-off events do tend to be quitelucrative, especially for those looking to build a modest bankroll.
  • Diversity: 888’s cash-game lobby leans toward lower-stakes games. $1/$2 and higher games run occasionally, but they’re not as prevalent as on other sites. Not to mention, the overwhelming majority of hands are decided over No Limit Hold ’em. Pot Limit Omaha games do run but finding one can be a crapshoot.
    888 does feature Stud, Omaha Hi/Lo, and Fixed Limit lobbies, but not only are they vacant, but they don’t even appear to be operational.
  • Events: Of all NJ online poker sites, 888 is the only one that doesn’t run a tournament series. This is somewhat frustrating, as PokerStars tends to run a series at least once a quarter and even WSOP NJ runs a variety of low- to -mid-sized tournament events.

PokerStars NJ new player offers

$30 free play

You must deposit $20 or more in order to claim this bonus. This means that in the most optimal scenario, you’re going to get a 150 percent match on your payment.

Keep in mind the following restrictions: $20 can be used for cash games, while the remaining $10 is for tournament play exclusively.

100% matched deposit bonus up to $600

PokerStars has an attractive first-deposit bonus of 100%, up to $600. You must use code STARS600 to take advantage of this offer.

This bonus is unique in that its full value can be claimed over the course of three consecutive deposits. Here’s an example:

  • First deposit $200, earn a $200 bonus;
  • Second deposit of $100 and have your payment matched dollar-for-dollar again;
  • Third deposit of $300 and receive a $300 bonus.

Nj Online Poker Reviews 2019

Please note that issuing a withdrawal request will prevent you from claiming any unused chunks of this bonus. The promotional money will be released to you as you earn VIP Player Points, at a rate of $10 per 100 VPPs.

You get 5.5 VPPs for every dollar paid in rake, which means that you’re essentially getting a 55 percent rakeback deal – a ridiculously good offer by industry standards.

Nj Online Poker Reviews

Finally, all first-time depositors receive a tournament ticket for a special Depositors Freeroll, which is valid for 60 days. The guaranteed prize pool usually oscillates around the $200 mark.