888 Poker Review

888 Poker is the card room associated with the famous 888 online casino and its parent company, 888Holdings. You may have heard of this poker site when it was named Pacific Poker, though the website changed its name to 888-Poker back in 2002. Even though it’s associated with the largest Internet casino on the planet, you’ll find a lot of places to play poker online, so I wanted to give a full review of 888 Poker.com.
Readers will leave this page knowing the background of 888 Poker and why they would want to play cards at this site. All the common information, including the payment options, games selection, licensing information, and software choices will be included. I’ll also focus on technical and practical aspects of that software, because the pokercam and 3D poker are two major reasons gamblers want to try 888 Poker. Before we get into the technology review, let’s start with the basics. 

About 888Holdings and Pacific Poker

Pacific Poker went online in 1997, when online gaming software reached a technical level that many gaming platforms launching. Pacific Poker was successful, but management chose to rebrand the product as "888 Poker" in ’02 in order to set itself apart from a number of other alliterative poker site names. By 2005, 888holdings had its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange with the easy-to-identify stock symbol "888". Because it’s a publicly traded company, 888Holdings left the U.S. market when the United States Congress passed the restrictive UIGEA bill, which made operating online gambling sites (and especially transferring gaming money electronically) dangerous for operators.
Turning away players from the USA may have closed the door on one major revenue source, but 888holdings has opened a whole lot of other doors along the way. At the time of this writing, 888casino is available to poker players in 176 nations worldwide. You’ll find the casino is translated into 22 different languages, though the poker software supports only 14 languages, including English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Dutch. Like many UK-based gambling operations, the poker room is licensed in Gibraltar.

888 Poker Software

888Poker.net is the free play version of 888Poker’s pay-for-play main site at 888Poker.com.
Unlike many British gambling sites, 888 Poker has proprietary software. This means 888 Poker offers its own unique interface, which allows it to stand apart from many competitors. While many of the Playtech and Microgaming sites look and play the same (though they’re often quite nice), 888 Poker offers a poker experience unlike any other on the Internet. That isn’t some idle boast. Here’s why.

888 Pokercam

The "Pokercam" technology makes 888 Poker the first card room in the world to offer live video feeds of your opponents. These aren’t virtual people I’m talking about, but real head shots of the people sitting at your electronic table. Obviously, you’ll need a computer set up to interface with 888 Poker’s pokercam software, but most computers these days come standard with a video camera, so that shouldn’t be much of a problem. Most people using the video cam will want to download the video interface software, but you can play inside the browser if you want. This option may not offer all the features, but you will be able to see your opponents and they’ll be able to see you.
That’s an exciting breakthrough for online poker technology, because even the most die-hard computer poker players are likely to feel as if something has been lost in a card game where reading your opponent and sensing tells is a real part of the strategy. The Pokercam gets you one step closer to playing poker as it was meant to be played, where you can stare down your opponent and see the sweat on their brow.

888 Poker Software Features

Other features include a multi-play mode that gives you the ability to play up to 16 tables at once, along with a replay function which allows you to see previous hands with one click. At a time, some players complained that you could only see the last hand played in some of the games, but as I understand it, 888 Poker’s staff has expanded the hand history function in recent months.
Among the useful adds to the poker room interface are nice introductions for brand new poker players or those who are old hands at poker, but aren’t that familiar with computers and the electronic hookups needed for online poker. 888 Poker offers a one-click tutorial function for such people, plus a number of video tutorials to learn how to play games.

888 Poker Video Genie

888 Poker also offers a video genie which appears at random moments of gameplay to offer bonuses, prizes, and mini-games for the players. What happens when the 888-poker genie appears is a real life, charming British female appears on-screen and holds up a sign saying, "I’m the 888 Genie". She’ll offer everyone at the table $8 for their trouble, then try to interest them in mini-games and other playful activities. You might make a fool of yourself for the video cameras (and everyone at the table), but you might win poker sets, memorabilia, or even cash. The 888-genie is a fun way to interact with the casino staff and walk off with prizes while you do it.

888 Poker Money Options

888 Poker caters to poker players in scores of countries, so they offer a big range of poker pay options. Major credit cards and debit cards are allowed, while the money transfer companies are too many to name. You can use electronic payment companies for your local area, such as Abaqoos (Hungary), Giropay (Germany), and Moneta (Russia). You also have your choice of the big international pay companies, such as Neteller, Paypal, or Skrill (Moneybookers).

888 Poker Games Selection

Most tournaments, sit-n-go events, and cash games offered at 888 Poker use some variation of the world’s most popular poker game of the moment, Texas Holdem. Other games offered include Omaha, seven-card stud, 7-card stud hi-lo, and Omaha hi-lo. As you might expect, you’ll find softer players and people just wanting to "have fun" at many the Hold’em tables, especially at the lower bet limits, while the stud and Omaha players tend to be more serious types.