THE CAKE POKER NETWORK

The Cake Poker Network was first conceived in 2004 when, to use their own words, “a small team of passionate poker players set out on a mission to design a better poker site”. In 2006 the dream became reality as Cake Poker launched. With a stated goal of providing unique promotions and a better gaming experience the Cake Poker Network quickly attracted both players and operators. Four years later the Cake Poker Network now comprises over forty separate skins with a dedicated group of players. The company is licensed and regulated by the Government of Curacao, Dutch Antilles.

Cake`s independently developed software looks good and runs well. They offer a good selection of tournaments and ring games where you will find plenty of weaker players. With an excellent rewards system including rakeback, the Cake Poker Network is well worth checking out – a fact proven by their sizable and expanding player base.

There are many skins on the Cake Poker Network, but we recommend you stick with the flagship site Cake Poker. Too many of the other skins are unreliable and move to different networks far too often. As far as we’re concerned there are no skins that are better than the main Cake Poker site. And by signing up via Pokerology.com you’ll receive a 33% rakeback deal and generous bonus – paid directly to you by Cake Poker. Sign up to Cake Poker today!

SCORE SUMMARY

• Software & Features
  
• Player Traffic / Ease of Competition
  
• Cash Game Action
  
• Multi-Table Tournaments
  
• Sit & Go Selection
  
• Bonuses / Promotions
  
• Customer Service
  

PRO’S & CON’S

Nice smooth software
Allows new screen names
Good value tournaments
Increasingly popular
Incompatible for Macs
Too much skin instability

THE CAKE POKER NETWORK REVIEW:

Software & Features

The Cake lobbies are laid out in a clear and simple fashion and as a result are very easy to navigate. The ring games are identified by stake and type and have the industry standard information, i.e. players to flop, average pot and hands per hour, displayed to the right. The tournament section displays the date, name, game, limit, buy-in, state and number enrolled. As usual further details can be obtained by highlighting your game of interest and opening the individual tournament`s lobby.

Tables are resizable and you can choose between two views classic or simple. The classic view shows a poker room complete with table, chairs and male and female 3D avatars – they’re well designed and look much better than at many other online poker rooms. The simple view lives up to its description showing only a table with players identified by name alone. If you like the classic view but not the avatars simply turn them off in options. The betting options are uncomplicated, single clicks allows you to choose to min raise or bet either half-pot, pot or go all-in, or you can use the slider.

It’s worth mentioning that the Cake Poker Network is at present the only online poker network that allows players to change their screen-name and thereby preserve their anonymity. Players may change their screen name once every seven days.

Recommended Cake Poker Skin: Play at Cake Poker

Player Traffic / Ease of Competition

The Cake Poker Network has managed to build a good sized player base with traffic ranging between around 3,000 to 6,000 players at peak times. The Cake network has long had a reputation for some of the softest games to be found online. Whilst the games are a little more difficult than they were a couple of years ago the reputation still holds true with plenty of fish to be found in both tournaments and ring games. This may be down to the presence of several sites on the network that run sports books alongside the poker software.

Find the fish: Sign up to Cake Poker

Cash Game Action

There is plenty of action to be found on the Cake Poker Network ring games. Cake offers no-limit hold’em games from $0.02/$0.04 through to $500/$1000. There is no shortage of players for micro-stakes through to $3/$6 and perhaps a little higher. If you are wishing to play heads-up then you will probably find players at much higher stakes, $200/$400 or even higher. Cake also offers fixed limit hold`em and has a reasonable number of tables running at any time. Players seeking low limit games should have no problem finding action up to $2/$4 and at peak times players can be found at most limits.

Cake also offers Omaha and Omaha8 and although these games do not attract the same numbers as the hold`em tables there are no shortage of players if you are looking for low to mid stakes games. At peak times there are also usually a few tables of higher stakes action available.

If you fancy your chances against the poker professionals the Cake Poker Network has several no limit hold`em tables designated as “Pro Tables”. These are $5/$10 or $10/$20 and the pro players can usually be found there from around 7pm ET onwards.

Choose your game: Sign up to Cake Poker

Multi-Table Tourneys (MTTs)

You’ll find a good range of MTTs with buy-ins to suit most bankrolls on the Cake Poker Network. There are plenty of low through to mid stakes tournaments available at all hours and during peak hours there are several daily tournaments with buy-ins over $100.  As is to be expected the focus is on no limit hold`em but there are Omaha and Omaha8 tournaments scattered throughout the schedule. The usual online poker tournament formats are available and there are abundant satellites to the higher buy-in games.

The Cake Poker Network has a $100,000 guaranteed tournament, buy-in $150+$12, every Sunday and a $250,000 guaranteed, buy-in $250+$18 once a month. Many of the players in these big games have satellited in and so the fields are not as strong as one might expect given the buy-in – making them a juicy prospect for those with the bankroll to play them.

Take your seat for glory: Start playing at Cake Poker

Sit & Go (SNG) Selection

The Cake Poker Network offers a wide range of Sit & Go tournaments in the usual formats of turbo and super-turbo alongside regular SNGs. Cake also offers plenty of ‘Step SNGs’ to qualify for their $100,000 and $250,000 guaranteed tournaments. The Steps have only four levels and start at $5+40c and $4+20c respectively making them excellent opportunities to enter a couple of big tournaments extremely cheaply.

The SNGs on the Cake Poker Network are not overly busy so depending on the time of day and the stakes you wish to play there may be a little waiting time before your game begins. That being said the competition is not that tough so there is definite value to be found in their games.

Get in on the action: Join Cake Poker

Bonuses / Promotion

The Cake Poker Network offers a good range of promotions. Frequent player points are awarded according to the amount of rake you generate and these points are converted at intervals into Gold Chips. These Gold Chips can then be used in several ways. Choose between entering tournaments, spending them on merchandise from the online store or simply convert them into cash. Gold Chips also go towards forming Gold stacks. The Gold Stacks promotion has fifty levels that you advance through by accumulating Gold Chips. At each level a reward is issued, the first ten levels award Gold Chips and the higher levels award cash. Ring game players are also eligible to win Gold cards. Once a table reaches a pre-determined amount of rake a Gold Card is released. These Gold Cards can be exchanged for cash, prizes or to enter various special tournaments.

With rakeback available at many sites on the network these promotions make Cake great value for money. There are also the usual promotions for entry into the major live poker events. As Cake is a network promotions may vary according to the skin you are playing through. We recommend the Cake Poker, which is the flagship site on the network. By signing up to Cake Poker via Pokerology.com you’ll receive 33% rakeback and a $600 sign-up bonus.

Get your $500 welcome bonus today: Sign up to Cake Poker

Customer Service

At present the Cake Poker Network only offers support via e-mail. The service does operate 24/7 and responses are usually prompt and helpful. We would like to see a live support option but the current service is good within its limitations.