Gnuf Poker Review

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The Quick Summary

Gnuf Poker is part of the Microgaming Network and offers some interesting promotions and a wide variety of guaranteed poker tournaments to make this room an interesting alternative if you're getting bored of your current one.

Popularity: 4 of 10 - Fair

Currently the Microgaming Network is ranked 13th in the world with a 7-day average of 1,080 logged on players at any given time according to PokerScout.com. The site is based in Malta and does not accept players from the United States. A quick glance at the No-Limit cash game tables at 6:30pm GMT shows that there are no $200NL 6max or full ring tables available, and only one $400NL 6max table playing. Players at the $100NL level have four 6max tables to choose from but no full ring

Security: 9 of 10 - Excellent

There have been no reported attacks against Gnuf Poker and the Microgaming Network has secured a reputation for being a safe place for poker players to deposit and play. Impressively, Gnuf is regulated by the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority in their country, and all information sent between your computer and their servers is secured by Thawte SSL Certificates. Additionally, Gnuf allows third party auditors to access their shuffling algorithms to ensure that players are indeed playing with a randomized deck of cards on each hand. Finally, Gnuf are protected by an internal fraud control system and client-server encryption for data security.

Player Competition: 8 of 10 - Good

Checking out the four $100NL 6max tables running, this reviewer observed that the games are fairly loose and players really enjoy coming in with rags from mid and late position. The skill level of players, based on this observation session, was pretty poor as it seemed only one player at the four tables knew decent cash game poker theory. The microstakes were full of beginners or maniacs that enjoy giving their money away or winning with improbable draws. Overall, it looks like the site's competition is fairly soft.

Site Software: 8 of 10 - Good

Gnuf Poker's lobby is amongst the best I've seen in the industry. Poker players will really love the tremendous amount of filters you can set the lobby up with so that you can very specifically and quickly find the game you are looking for. This lobby and filter features outperform some of the largest cardrooms in the industry. Past that the software at the table is fairly standard with a regular top-down view and players given lots of room at the tables. One interesting piece of note is that Gnuf is one of the few poker rooms to offer a web-based flash client, meaning you don't have to be at your regular home computer to play (meaning you can play on someone else's computer without installing any software). The flash based client is really slick, and you can even multitable with it which is something that other flash-based card rooms do not offer.

Customer Support: 8 of 10 - Good

My theory for evaluating customer support is to email their support team on two issues and find out how long it takes for them to respond, and evaluate the quality of their response. Gnuf actually emailed me back with my technical issue quicker than any other poker room that I have tested so far. Their technical quality was fairly spot-on and would have assisted me in fixing my (admittedly) fictitious software problems.

Company Ethics: 8 of 10 - Good

Based on Gnuf Poker's strong belief in security as well as their customer support response time, the company ethics score is extremely solid. The quality of the software as well as the impressive amount of promotions and freerolls the company offers to its players lends a good score in this category.

Site Promotions: 8 of 10 - Good

For new players Gnuf Poker offers a very aggressive $100% first time depositor bonus up to $1,000 that poker players can take advantage of right off the bat. Past that there are plenty of promotions in the form of freerolls, a bad beat jackpot, a Sit N Go promotion, and "The Magic Hand" which apparently is akin to a random giveaway at the cash game tables. Finally, there are "loyalty tournaments" which players can use their Gnuf-points to enter in and win money and prizes at the tables.

Overall Review - 7.6 of 10 - Good

Having no prior experience with the Microgaming network or Gnuf Poker before this review, I have to say that I was very impressed with the software's lobby and robust filters. In addition the promotions on the site and its ability to work in a flash environment tell this reviewer this is a site on the rise within the poker industry.