Players Only Review

PlayersOnly poker opened for business in 2006 as the newest member of the Cake Poker network. Instead of starting from scratch, they decided to take advantage of the established player base that Cake offered to get off to a fast start. As a result, Players Only has a good amount of traffic and top notch software.

PlayersOnly Bonus and Rewards System

100% Bonus up to $650

New PlayersOnly members automatically qualify for a 100% match bonus that's good for up to $650 in free cash. All you have to do is sign up and make your first deposit using the Players Only promo code IPB1000. After that, the bonus is released in $10 increments as you earn frequent player points (FPPs) at real money ring games and tournaments.

The FPP system at Players Only.com is pretty straightforward - every dollar you pay in rake at ring games is worth 1 FPP and every dollar you pay in tournament fees is worth 7 FPPs. Each FPP is worth $0.06 towards your bonus and every time you earn $10 in FPPs, $10 of your bonus money is released.

Players Only Gold Chips

The Gold Chip promotion is always running and it rewards players for earning FPPs. As you earn FPPs, your gold chip meter slowly fills. Every time you fill the meter all the way, you earn one Gold Chip. These Gold Chips can then be redeemed for free entry into special tournaments hosted at PlayersOnly.

PlayersOnly Gold Cards

Gold Cards are randomly awarded to players in real money cash games. These cards can be saved or redeemed for entry in daily and weekly cash giveaways. As an added bonus, the first player to collect all 52 Gold Cards will win $52,000. So far two people have already won this prize.

Players Only Software

Because PlayersOnly is based on the Cake network, it is based on the same software as Cake Poker. The graphics are a little different but the overall feel and features are the same. This is good news for poker players because the software was originally built by experienced only poker players who knew what features poker players appreciate.

The PlayersOnly graphics create a dark, rich atmosphere that reminds me of actually playing at a casino. It's also loaded with features like enhanced multi-tabling, four color decks, table sorting, table stats and much more. If you decide to play on Players Only, you won't be disappointed by the software.

Game Variety and Traffic

PlayersOnly offers all the staple poker games you'd expect in a poker room. They spread Texas Holdem, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, 7 Card Stud and 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo in both ring game and tournament form. Ring game stakes start out as low as 2c/4c and go as high as $100/$200.

The traffic still leaves something to be desired but that's to be expected of poker rooms that are still relatively new. PlayersOnly shares traffic with the Cake network so there's a solid player base but traffic can get a little low in the high stakes games. Low and medium stakes players shouldn't have any problems finding games.

PlayersOnly.com Tournaments

Tournament players will be glad to know that PlayersOnly offers all the major tournament types including sit-n-gos, freerolls, freezeouts, rebuys, shoot-outs, satellites and heads-up tournaments. On top of that, PlayersOnly guarantees over $5,000,000 in tournament prizes every month so that there are always big prize pools, even if not many people show up at a tournament. Two of the most popular of these include the weekly $100,000 guaranteed and the monthly $250,000 guaranteed.

Competition

One of the best things about PlayersOnly is its soft competition. The poker room gets a lot of visitors from the sports betting side of things. These people come to bet on sports, see the poker room and occasionally like to try their luck on the felt.

Additionally, Players Only is unattractive to experienced poker pros because it doesn't allow third party statistics programs like PokerTracker. When these people play 12+ tables at a time, they need help keeping everything straight - PlayersOnly doesn't allow that. You can 12 table if you want, but you'll have to do all the work the old fashioned way.

And while PlayersOnly has a decent player base, it doesn't have enough players to make it worthwhile for the big dogs to come in and clean up at 12 tables at a time. Most of the poker players at PlayersOnly are there for the experience of trying out something other than sports betting.

Players Only Support and Security

PlayersOnly.com has been in the sports betting business for a long time and they know the importance of high quality customer support. Poker players can call, e-mail or chat live with support personnel 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

You can also feel safe playing at Players Only because the company has been around for so long. Millions of bets have been placed at PlayersOnly over the years and to this day, PlayersOnly has never tried anything shady. On top of that, they are certified by Technical Systems Testing (TST), a well known organization that tests for randomness and fairness in casinos around the world.

Deposit and Withdrawal Options

Players can deposit with Visa, MasterCard, UseMyWallet and cash transfer only at PlayersOnly. More deposit options would be nice but because this site is open to US players, it is restricted to those three US-friendly methods.

You can withdraw from PlayersOnly by UseMyWallet and cashier's check. Cashier's checks can take up to 4-8 weeks for delivery (which is absolutely unacceptable) so I'd recommend you stick to UseMyWallet only.