Carbon Poker

Carbon Poker Overview

Carbon Poker is one of the more popular skins on the Merge Poker Network. Carbon Poker, once poker.com, renamed itself and started fresh with Merge Poker. There are more than 40 skins currently on the Merge Network. Most of these skins are legal US poker sites. Carbon Poker is fully certified by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. They offers a nice mix of games with 2-7 Triple Draw, Badugi, and Five Card Draw and their player base continues to grow constantly.

Smaller poker sites like Carbon Poker are great for American Poker Online since they give American poker players more options to choose from. While sites such as FullTilt and PokerStars currently garner the most amount of play, it is important that other sites continue to build and grow like Carbon Poker and the Merge Network. Hopefully there will be a larger number of legal US poker sites as smaller sites gain credibility.

After opening Carbon Poker’s main lobby, a player will notice that it offers almost every poker game they can think up. Starting with cash games, their NL Hold ‘Em games span from $0.02/$0.05 blinds up to $50/$100 blinds. Limit and Pot Limit Hold ‘Em run up to $50/$100 blinds also. No Limit games, where most of Carbon Poker’s action is found, run as high as $1/$2 stakes. Even higher stakes heads-up games can be found. It can be difficult to find a high stakes ring game, but there are usually 2-3 $5/$10 and $10/$20 games running at any given time. Carbon Poker offers both Pot Limit Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo. Unfortunately, these games have not taken off and it can be tough to find a game even at smaller stakes.

Carbon Poker Bonus and Promotions

Carbon Poker offers one of the industry’s largest deposit bonuses. You can cash in on Carbon Poker’s 150% bonus up to $1,000 by entering the Carbon Poker Coupon code FTR200 as your bonus code. Be sure to use this Carbon Poker bonus code as the bonus offered to standard players is nearly half this one. Carbon Poker bonus clearing is pretty easy. You just need to play real money cash games, SNGs, and/or tournaments. VIP Points will be earned as players pay rake and fees in these real money games. These VIP Points are the key to unlocking the bonus. This bonus is great for small-stakes grinders because it is released into your account in $5 increments. A $1 in bonus money is cleared by earning 75 VIP Points. This is not much since 10 VIP Points are earned for every $1 in rake or fees paid. One final note on the bonus, it does not have an expiration date, but you will forfeit any remaining bonus if you make a withdrawal from Carbon Poker.

Carbon Poker Games and Traffic

The largest variety of online poker games can be found at Carbon Poker. In addition to Hold ‘Em and Omaha, they also spread Stud, Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, 5-Card Stud, 5-Card Draw, Triple Draw, Badugi, and mixed games such as HORSE and HOSE. Not many players play these games but the player base is sure to expand as the poker room grows. Finally, Carbon Poker allows players to create private and custom tables that can be password protected.

Their sit & go’s and tourneys also have trouble filling since they are one of the newer legal US poker sites. Many different sit & go formats are offered such as short-handed, turbo, double-up, and bounty games. Their small stakes heads-up SNGs get plenty of action in both Hold’em and Omaha. Sit & go players probably won’t find enough games at Carbon Poker, but their games are definitely fishy. Their scheduled tournaments are highlighted by their $109 buy-in Sunday $50K Guaranteed. This event runs at 3PM EST each weekend and can pay out more than $15,000 to the winner. Players with smaller bankrolls shouldn’t have a problem finding tournaments. There are plenty with buy-ins between $1 and $20 that run daily, including rebuy and deep stack events.

Carbon Poker Software

The Carbon Poker software is very sleek and clean. Even though they are a new site, Carbon Poker features some options that other poker rooms do not carry. One of the more interesting aspects of the software is the “Rabbit Hunt Cam” which allows players to take a peek at the river card even after folding. A “run it twice” feature is also available allowing players to see two boards, turn, or river cards when players are all-in. The lobby itself is basic and easy to use. There are tabs on the top of the screen which allow players to navigate between games and even a filter to help players zero in on certain table types and stakes. You can also sort the lobby by clicking any of the columns such as players to flop or hands per hour. Finally, right-clicking a table makes it “sticky” keeping it at the top of the lobby at all times.

Players may resize the tables and there is a one-click mini view which would allow most computer monitors to hold up to nine tables without any overlap. Also available is a tile, cascade, or grid function. The grid function is a great way to four-table. At the table, there is an instant hand replayer which allows you to view past hands to gain even more information on your opponents. Lastly, there are plenty of quick-action buttons which help those who enjoy multi-tabling.