A Real Player’s Review of Bodog Poker

Ah, Good ol’ Bodog.  I played on this site back before it even existed. At one time the site was only called Bodog. But then, Black Friday occurred and Bovada was created to serve US customers.  For 5 years, they served only US customers while Bodog served the rest of the world.  In 2016, Ignition acquired Bovada and now we are back to just Bodog again.

Over the past few years, I have played hundreds of thousands of hands on the Bodog network.  With all that experience, I have become intimately familiar with every feature and minutiae of gameplay on the site.  No one is more qualified to give you the particulars of this site.

So what is my opinion of Bodog?  If you don’t mind the anonymous games, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel!

Overall, with the loosest games possible, super fast payouts, and top notch customer service, I highly recommend that players create an account on Bodog asap. Don’t forget your rod and reel!  (okay, bad joke

Without a doubt, the folks at Bodog, have built their entire business around the recreational player.  Numerous features, or should I say lack of features, will become rapidly obvious to any serious player.  It appears obvious to me that the network was very careful in selecting features for their sites. They wanted just enough to keep the recreational players happy but made an obvious effort to avoid things that would allow strong poker players to prey on the fish.

1. No long term opponent tracking: Since opponents are anonymous, there’s very little point in taking notes.  Once you leave the table, everything is reset and your reads start at 0 when you sit down at a new table.  However, all is not lost.  You can track session stats by using Hold’em Indicator or Bodog Card Catcher, both of which are allowed on the network.

2. Value: Bodog offers very little in the way of added value.  Poker reloads or any other type of high value promotions are extremely rare. However, you do accumulate poker points from cash game play.  These points can be cashed in for tournament tickets or bonuses for the casino.  I have roughly done the math and it amounts to about 3% “rakeback” when you buy tournament tickets.  Of course, if you have a high ROI in tournaments, it can be much higher.  There are also small ongoing promotions that you can take advantage of.

• Bad Beat Bonus: If you lose with a full house of Aces full of Kings or better, you get a bonus of 100 times the big blind up to $1,000.

• Royal Flush Bonus: If you get a Royal Flush using both hole cards in NL Hold’em, you get 50 times the big blind up to $200.
• Casino Bonuses From Poker Points: A new feature.  You can now use your poker points to buy a casino bonus.  You get considerably more value from this type of bonus, but you have to clear it in the casino.
• Refer-A-Friend: Every time you refer another player to the site, you will get a bonus. Also, there is no limit to how many bonuses you can obtain!

If you want a site that offers more value try America’s Cardroom, Black Chip Poker, Winner Poker, or 888 Poker. Another recreational site you may be interested in is Unibet. Take a look at my review of the best poker sites in the world, for more details.

3. Hand histories only after 24 hours: You will have to wait a couple of days before you can review your sessions.  However, once you are able to download your hands, all hole cards are exposed.  I personally love this as it allows me to form vacuum ranges against my opponents as well as know what they were holding in all situations.  This especially great the times you are re-raised and forced to fold. Did I get bluffed or not?

4. Customization Features: The ability to customize your skin is very limited.  After the network switched everything over to server-side awhile back, you can no longer use your own custom skin on Bodog.  This was a big bummer for me, but at least their standard skins are pretty dang attractive.

5. Added entertainment value only features: This includes winning hand animations, all-in percentages, fold and show, and rabbit hunting.  The animations are actually pretty cool, if you make a strong hand, lightning bolts will flash or cards will fall from the sky. And if someone loses with pocket Aces, there is an animation showing the cracking and turning to dust.  Rabbit hunting is when you get to see the next card that would have come, had you continued on in the hand.  I don’t personally use the feature, as all it does is tend to annoy me when I see that my hand would have improved, had I been a fish and called.

6. Mobile Gaming: Bodog allows you to play on your phone or another mobile device, anywhere in the world!

7. No Auto Rebuy: I don’t mind not having auto rebuy, however, if you happen to lose your entire stack then you have just a few seconds to rebuy before you are sat out.  I would say that about half the time I try to reload, I unable to act fast enough or the software lags a bit, and I end up missing a hand.  I am sure this is annoying to recreational players as well and think it’s something that should be addressed by the network.

8. No Rakeback: Back before the site went anonymous, Bodog did offer rakeback.  This is now a thing of the past.  However, any loss of value will not be a deal breaker for most serious players.  Since the games are softer, nearly everyone will enjoy an increased win-rate.  This fact, along with the relative lowness of the rake compared to other sites, will see almost everyone having a higher hourly rate than on many other sites.

9. Short Stack Friendly: With a low 30 big blind minimum buy-in no rathole timer, you will find Bodog a great place to work on your short stacking game.

10. 4 Table Maximum For Cash Games: This is another feature put in place by the network to discourage the sharks from preying on the fish.  While you can’t get as many hands per hour as other poker sites, the fact that there are no mass multi-tabling rakeback pro nits present ensures that you will be able to find plenty of action on your tables.  Long term, I have averaged around 240 hands per hour while 4 tabling on Bodog.  Note: There is no restriction on the number of multi-table tournaments you can play, however, single table tournaments count toward your cash game total.

The network continues to grow and the recreational players seem to keep coming back for more.  All other poker sites could learn a lot from these guys.  I think they might be the poker site of the future, which is fine by me or anyone who loves winning money.

What are all of the deposit options?

• Debit Card
• Bitcoin
• Be sure to check the Bodog site to see if any options are being added.

Is there a cash out fee?
The fee schedule is as follows:

• Bitcoin- Free.  Min: $20 Max: $9,500
• Check by Courier- 1 free per moth, $50 after.  Min: $50 Max: No limit
• Bankwire- 1 free per moth, $50 after.  Min: $1,500 Max: $No Limit

I am a tournament player, is Bodog a good choice?
Bodog offers huge player fields that are extremely soft and with huge guarantees every single day for affordable buy ins.  This is my favorite place to play MTTs, and if you give them a try, I am sure you will be hooked.  Expect to have your highest ROI possible on Bodog! Take a look at their schedule of guarantees:
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GTD Prize Pool|Buy-In|Starting Chips

• $3,000 | $55 | 5,000
• $1,500 | $33 | 10,000
• $2,000 | $82 | 10,000
• $3,000 | $33 | 10,000
• $2,000 | $55 | 5,000
• $500 | $7.70 | 3,000
• $4,000 | $33 | 5,000
• $25,000 | $55 | 5,000
• $10,000 | $109 | 2,500
• $4,000 | $22 | 5,000
• $8,000 | $55 | 10,000
• $1,000 | $3.30 | 10,000
• $10,000 | $109 | 10,000
• $2,500 | $11 | 10,000

How About PLO?
The action is crazy good for PLO.  Tons of games from the tiniest micros all the way up to $2000PLO.  In my opinion, this is the place to play Omaha.

Will My HUD Work?
Yes! You can either use Hold’em Indicator or your normal Hold’em Manager/Pokertracker with the help of a card catcher. Or, if you decide not to use a HUD, you can still download the hands and review them later in both PT4 and HEM2, by using a hand converter.

Is  There A Sportsbook?
There sure is. You can bet on just about every sport in the world!

What about a casino, can I play blackjack or slots?
Bodog has a really sophisticated casino that has almost every game ever imagined. The great thing is that there is only one wallet throughout the site, thus no need to transfer back and forth between accounts.