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Carbon Poker 2012 Review - In DetailBelow you will find my detailed Carbon Poker review, fully updated for 2012. First the different types of games are covered, then the software and (important!) the bonuses available. You can find my summary and usual 'Planet Mark's Verdict' at the bottom of this page.
Screen Shots - Click To Enlarge Carbon Poker are currently the largest online poker site accepting US players. They are the biggest site on the Merge Poker Network, a group of brands who share a common software back-end and pool together their players to offer more games and tournaments. With peaks rapidly approaching 10,000 players, this site have enough liquidity to offer a great range of games, generous incentives and some great promotions too! What I like best of all about Carbon is their software - which keeps the games fun and friendly by allowing players to trigger animations by typing certain words into the chat box. As all poker players know, a fun game can be very profitable indeed! Click Here To Check Out Carbon Poker For Yourself Now! Carbon Poker Review 2012 - Spotlight On Cash GamesCash games, especially at the lower to mid buy-in levels are thriving at Carbon, with heads-up, 6-max and the 9-player full ring tables each with a long list of active games. NL Holdem is of course the main game, with blinds starting at 2c / 4c and a choice of tables up to $3 / $6 - there are higher levels than this, your best bet for these is the US evenings and at weekends. A big attraction at Carbon Poker are the bad-beat jackpot tables. Get beaten holding quad-8's or better and you could scoop a big prize (with runner up prizes for your table). The jackpot is regularly several hundred-thousand, and has been over the million mark in the past. You pay slightly bigger rake at these tables to build the jackpot. In addition to the Holdem variations, you can find a busy Omaha selection (both High and Hi-Lo) plus Stud in several formats and Draw (including Badugi). Mixed games are also offered though they are quiet outside of peak times. One thing to note about the cash games (well, games at Carbon in general) is that they are far more 'recreational' in nature than at the old US sites. While you do find the occasional multi-tabling grinders, the vast majorty of players just want to have some fun! Carbon Poker Review 2012 - Spotlight On TournamentsOnce a poker site reaches a critical mass of players, their tournament listings can expand rapidly - in terms of buy-ins, game types and structures. Carbon Poker have now reached that point, and while the majority of tournaments have smaller buy-ins, the choice (and number of higher stakes games) is growing all the time. Sundays sees the showcase $100,000 guaranteed, which has a $109 entry fee (plenty of satellites to win a seat!). Other bigger buy-in events come in the form of weekly satellites for live events, which pay out their $12k+ prizes in cash. There are also a number of higer buy-in games through the week, including the $200 entry, $20,000 daily high-roller events. For the rest of us there is a packed schedule of smaller guarantees, with rebuys, turbos, PLO and 1R1A events all competing for your attention. If you were used to multi-tabling tournaments then I recommend running Carbon and Cake together for more choice (you can see my head-to-head comparison of Carbon and Cake Poker here). If you just enjoy a few tournaments at a time then Carbon offer a great - and growing - schedule! What is best of all... as the number of players at this US friendly site continue to grow, the tournament schedule is going to get even better.
Carbon Poker Review 2012 - Spotlight On Sit N GoesAs regular readers will know, I have a separate list of SNG-specific site reviews. For now I'll give you the highlights which include: Soft games, turbo, hyper-turbo standard speeds, knockout variations, a nice selection of heads-up SNGs and best of all - some of really good Double or Nothing SNGs! Read my Carbon Poker SNGs review here. Carbon Poker Review 2012 - Software And PlayabilitySoftware is a big plus for Carbon Poker, I rate this as one of the best poker clients around. While most of the design and navigation will seem familiar to anyone who has played online poker before, there are a couple of differences which are worth noting. First up the 'animated smileys' which you can trigger from the tables by typing special words and phrases into the chat box are great! These range from simple smiles to complex animations (head-banging panda, huge pile of dollar bills and a shark eating a fish should give you the idea). Now, some people will mock these animations and not get involved. That is fine with me, what they do is make the games fun for the recreational players - and we all know that fun games are profitable games, right? Second, I like the colorful icons which identify the games in the lobby. You will get used them in no time and be able to spot your favorites as soon as you log on - compared to manually going down the list of games at other sites this is a big plus. There are some small reservations here - the cards and bet amounts could be a little bigger for example - however, all-in-all this is one of the most playable sites around, top marks from me! Carbon Poker Review 2012 - Bonuses, Incentives And PromotionsYou'll get a lot of bonuses at Carbon Poker, who do look after their regular players really well. I'll split this section into 3, first the intial welcome bonus, then the ongoing rewards and last a word about the large number of 1-off and special promotions. As a SNG Planet reader you can claim our fantastic exclusive welcome bonus, which is a 200% match on your first deposit (max. $600) and a free $11 SNG entry token on top. All you have to do is use Carbon Poker Coupon Code SNGPLANET when you register your account. Ongoing benefits come in 3 types. First are regular reload bonuses, which give you top ups for depositing more into your account. With a little money management this is basically a freeby for those who are playing at Carbon anyway. Second is a loyalty scheme which is very good indeed, this gives daily cashback, allows you to buy bonuses with the points you collect during play and has special tournaments for the different tiers. As you rise in the ranks you will collect points faster and faster - bringing even more cash bonuses! Finally there are leader board contests every month for SNG and tournament fans, if you are a higher volume player these can add a lot of extra cash to your account. Promotions are always tricky to cover in a review, since by their nature they are one-off! What Carbon Poker do is to tie their special promotions in with sporting events or holidays. Many of these are 'challenges' in which you have to complete certain goals to move up the payment ladder. There are also plenty of opportunities to qualify for big live poker events at Carbon. I'd rate the promos as 'very good' and the combination of bonuses, ongoing rewards and promos together as 'excellent'. Click Here To Check Out The Latest Carbon Poker Promotions For Yourself! Carbon Poker Review 2012 - Summary And Planet Mark's VerdictOne thing that stood out for me recently playing at Carbon Poker is that there are a lot of non-US players at the tables, in addition to the large numbers from the US. This shows that even with the choice of just about every poker site, worldwide players still choose to play at Carbon! There are some great reasons for this with cool software, big bonuses and a good (and growing) game selection. As 2012 goes on the number of games and tournaments on offer should grow further - making Carbon a great place to play. This is by far the best US-friendly poker site - with nobody else coming close. Check out Carbon Poker now, and start taking advantage of those bonuses and soft games!
More Carbon + US Poker Articles - Best US-Friendly Poker Site (main page for US sites with the latest news, reviews and comparisons)- SNG Sites For US Players- Carbon Poker SNG-Specific Review- Cake Poker Review (the only other US site which even comes close!)
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