Global Poker Review

Players Accepted: All (Only U.S. and Canada players can withdraw money)
Players Not Accepted: Residents of countries where online poker is illegal

Founded in February of 2017, Global Poker is one of the newest online poker rooms to burst onto the scene in the US market. They are owned by a company named VGW Holdings, which also owns the popular gambling site Chumba Casino.

The overall theme that you will find on Global Poker is that they heavily cater to small stakes players and beginner players. Most of the games that run, the promotions that are offered, and the software features that are present on Global Poker are all favorable for the recreational poker player.

Let’s now take a closer look at the various major features of Global Poker and how they compare to the competition around the industry. Even though they are currently only allowing payouts for US and Canada players, they have stated on popular internet forums that they plan on going fully global as soon as possible.

Reputation of Global Poker

It is hard for Global Poker to get much of a reputation after less than a year of being in business. However, with a very small amount of issues being reported so far and a partnership from major companies such as PayPal and Facebook, we are confident that Global Poker is doing everything in their power to operate their business in an ethical manner.

There has only been one major reported dispute that happened when a high stakes player tried to withdraw around $50,000 at once and PayPal rejected the transaction. This money was then in limbo for a long time while the sites decided what to do but this was an extremely unique and isolated issue that mostly had to do with PayPal suspecting the person of a crime. This issue has now been resolved and the person was made whole three weeks after the fiasco began.

Formats of Poker at Global Poker

Primary Formats Offered: Cash Games, Sit and Go Tournaments, Multi-Table Tournaments
Primary Formats Not Offered: Heads-Up

No matter what time of day you log into Global Poker you will see many tables of cash games running. Even at 7 am ET on a quiet Sunday morning there will be around 50 players in the No Limit Hold’Em cash games, 20 players in the Pot Limit Omaha cash games, and two players in the Limit Hold’Em cash games. All tables are either six-handed or nine-handed, which means heads-up cash game players are down on their luck on Global Poker before they even begin playing.

Sit and go tournaments on Global Poker are extremely popular and they fill up very quickly, especially if you play at the 10$ limits or lower. Most of the sit and goes that run are six-handed but there are some nine-handed ones that go off as well. Once again, there are no heads-up tables in the sit and go section of Global Poker which is unfortunate for anyone who prefers that two-man format.

Multi-Table tournaments run extremely often on Global Poker and it is probably their strongest poker format. On weekdays, the tournament schedule consists of eight different tournaments that have a prize pool of over $1,000 and the bulk of the schedule runs from 2 pm to 2 am ET. On weekends, the majority of the tournament schedule takes place between 1 pm and 2 am with 18 tournaments per day that have a prize pool over $1,000.

Games at Global Poker

Primary Games Offered: No Limit Hold’Em, Limit Hold’Em, Pot Limit Omaha
Primary Games Not Offered: Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, 7-Card Stud

Global Poker’s overall motto appears to be “Keep It Simple”. This philosophy can be seen in their game selection as well since they offer the three most popular poker games and no others.

The majority of poker tables on Global Poker will feature the game No Limit Hold’Em, no matter which format you are playing. This is the only game on the site that includes the thrill of betting all-in at any given moment for your entire chip stack since this is not possible in Limit Hold’Em or Pot Limit Omaha.

If they had to pick one more game to add to their site, it should probably be Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. This is the most popular game that Global Poker does not currently offer and they already have software in place for Pot Limit Omaha Hi so this addition should not be a huge challenge.

Limits at Global Poker

Min to Max Limits for Cash Games: $0.02/$0.04 to $10/$20
Min to Max Limits for Sit and Go Tournaments: $0.55 to $110
Min to Max Limits for Multi-Table Tournaments: $0.11 to $110

For the most part, Global Poker is a site that caters mainly to small stakes and medium stakes players. However, there are plenty of $10/$20 cash games that run at all times of the day so there is still a little bit of spicy action to be found here.

The majority of multi-table tournaments that run on Global Poker are small stakes since it is pretty rare to find a tournament that costs over 33$ if it is not a weekend. The only multi-table tournament that costs $110 is their Sunday Major $10,000 Guarantee. This is not a good site for players who are high rollers because other sites have many more tournaments with higher buy-ins and higher guaranteed prize pools.

Most of the sit and go tournaments that run on Global Poker cost $10 or less. There is a noticeable jump in how slow the sit and go tournaments fill once you try to go higher than $10. The most popular buy-in level in sit and go tournaments is the $1.10 level since there always seems to be a large amount of them running at all times.

Software at Global Poker

The poker software that is utilized by Global Poker, which can only be accessed with a web browser, is extremely lightweight and loads almost instantly upon command. The reason for this is that the software development company named Cubeia used programming languages such as Javascript and HTML5 to create this poker site. Global Poker is clearly going to be a favorite for players who do not like downloading large files or waiting for outlandish loading times just to play poker.

One of our favorite features of Global Poker’s software is that they offer a ton of different avatars for players to choose from. If these default avatars are not enough, there are additional avatars in your Account Store which can be bought using gold coins! This is a genius way to give some value to their play money currency and keep players interested in playing for it. Many of the most “expensive” avatars are characters from popular movies such as Braveheart and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

The gameplay on the poker tables is smooth and there are no noticeable lags in movement or dealing times. The table graphics are clean, colorful and crisp, so we have no complaints in that department. They could probably benefit from making the game sounds a little less like a 1980’s video game, but that is not really a big deal since you can mute them.

Watching a hand replay is no problem with Global Poker’s software and you can speed the hand up to 2x or 5x the original speed if you wish. All you need to do is wait for a hand to finish and then that specific hand number will be underlined in the chat box. This underline means that the hand number is now a link which is the first step to accessing the replay of the hand. After you click on the link, you will then need to click on the little square box with an arrow through it to open the new tab with the hand replay.

Flaws

The most noticeable flaw with Global Poker’s software is that, compared to other poker sites, there is a lack of gameplay options that you can adjust to your liking. There are a total of nine different gameplay options to choose from which covers all of the sound settings, game settings, and table settings. They clearly need many more of these options to keep up with their competition, although we do give them credit for offering four different table skins even if two of them feature a red tabletop that would be tough to stare at for a long period of time.

A minor imperfection that we noticed is that Global Poker lists the pot size in the upper right-hand corner of each table. We have never seen a site do this before since they usually display the pot size underneath the dealer or in the middle of the table. The issue here is that this number looks like it could represent a bet since it is located right in front of the player two seats to your right, and a new player might perceive it as such in the middle of a hand.

If you have some poker friends who you like to check up on from time to time, Global Poker is not going to make it easy to find them. There is no search feature for finding people and there are also no player transfers allowed here.

The final complaint that we have about the software on Global Poker is that the cash games have no waiting list whatsoever. If you want to sit at a table which is full you have to open the table, wait for someone to get up from their seat, and sit down before anyone else does. This is somewhat ridiculous since most poker sites have been offering waiting lists for over a decade now.

Multi-Tabling at Global Poker

Even though Global Poker operates from a web browser, the possibility of multi-tabling still exists there. You can either have each table be like an internet browser tab at the top of the screen or you can have each table become its own new internet browser window.

The first thing that you need to do if you want your new tables to become their own new internet browser window is to toggle the “Poker Pro Table Mode” option. This option can be changed at the top of the game lobby or in the game settings at any poker table. Poker Pro Table Mode makes the gameplay seem more like a downloadable poker application instead of a web-based application, which is a nice touch in our opinion.

Are you ready for the crazy part? Global Poker lets you play as many tables as you and your computer can possibly handle! You can even make the tables so small that you can fit over 100 of them on your screen as long as you have a magnifying glass nearby.

Competition at Global Poker

One of the most important factors that affect your bottom line as an internet poker player is how soft the competition is on the sites that you frequent the most often. Fortunately, the competition on Global Poker is notoriously easy in every poker format and there are a number of reasons why this is the case.

The main reason why competition is easy on Global Poker is that there are no hand history files which means that tracking software will not work here. Tracking software is a tool that most professional players use, and many of them will choose to avoid a site where they cannot use these legal and powerful tools. Eliminating some professional players from the player pool is a surefire way to make the competition easier.

Another reason that Global Poker has soft competition is that there is not much incentive for high stakes players to play on Global Poker since not many games run at those levels. While there are some weak players in high stakes games, the lack of these sky-high stakes will usually keep most of the best players in the world from signing up.

A final factor that could play into how easy the competition is on Global Poker is that there is no rakeback available. Professional players usually love to hunt for great rakeback deals so that their hourly wage gets a small boost. If there are no great rakeback deals to be found, some volume-heavy professional grinders will take their business elsewhere which makes the games a lot easier.

Global Poker Mobile App

There is currently no mobile app available for Global Poker since it is only accessible through a web browser. However, the creators of the Global Poker software clearly had a plan to navigate around this issue.

Global Poker’s poker platform was programmed using very simple programming tools such as Javascript and HTML5 which keeps it light and easy to navigate from a mobile phone. You should have no problems accessing every poker game available on Global Poker from a popular web browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox from your smartphone.

The only real difference between playing from your phone compared to your computer is that it will be tougher to play a lot of tables at the same time. According to the customer support department at Global Poker, Google Chrome is the web browser that works the best with their poker site.

Rake and Rakeback at Global Poker

The cash games on Global Poker take a 5% rake, while the regular speed and turbo speed tournaments take a 10% rake. Hyper-turbo tournaments take a 7% rake which is a little too much for such a high variance tournament speed.

There is currently no rake back program on Global Poker. We hope that they will fix this in the near future but it goes hand in hand with the reoccurring theme that professional players will probably not like playing here as much as they would on other sites.

Global Poker Sign Up Bonus

The very first thing that you will receive when you make an account on Global Poker is 10,000 gold coins for free! You do not have to make a deposit to receive these coins and you can play poker with this “play money” right away. They used to include two dollars of $weeps cash with this offer but too many people were taking advantage of this by making a ton of different accounts.

Outside of these extra 10,000 gold coins, there is no other sign-up bonus available on Global Poker. This is a shame since even the poker sites that are low on bonus promotions tend to at least have some sort of a real money deposit bonus for their new players. On the bright side, no sign-up bonus means that there are also no wagering requirements that you need to complete before you are able to withdraw your funds.

Other Promotions at Global Poker

Just as there is no real money sign-up deposit bonus, there is also no reload deposit bonus on Global poker available at all. However, there are a couple of unique bonus promotions which include a bunch of different leaderboards to compete for and a long list of poker challenges to accomplish. It is clear that Global Poker does not care what their competition is doing and they want to do things their own way, which brings a fresh flavor of innovation to the online poker world.

Poker Challenges

If you go to your account page, you will notice one of the tabs on the left-hand side of your screen says “Challenges”. These challenges are sort of a game inside of a game where you need to do a certain action in a poker game in order to win a prize.

All of the challenges that are currently being offered on Global Poker involve seeing a certain number of flops in a cash game. Some of these challenges require you to play in gold coin games, and some of them allow you to play in any currency of your choice.

When you complete these challenges, you will normally be rewarded with an entry ticket into a special tournament where real money prizes are rewarded. This is another great way to give a little bit of value to their play money and keep recreational players interested in grinding. However, there is still an 11 cent entry fee on these tournaments so it is not completely free.

The biggest tournament that you can win an entry into is the $5,000 weekly bonanza before every Sunday at 4 pm. All you need to do is see 500 flops in any currency and you can play this tournament for $0.11 worth of $weeps cash, which is a great bargain!

Poker Leaderboards

The leaderboards on Global Poker are a breath of fresh air in an industry that seems to have forgotten about these types of promotions. Not only are there plenty of leaderboards to choose from for real money players, but there are leaderboards for gold coin players as well which sometimes give real money prizes each week to the winners.

Our favorite leaderboard out of the many that Global Poker has to offer is the Weekly Coin Challenge leaderboard. This leaderboard resets every week and rewards the top five players with the best results over eight different tournaments a total of $1,000, with first place receiving $500. The only way to win entry into these eight tournaments is to see 200 flops in gold coin cash games, and then pay the corresponding entry fee in $weeps cash. All eight of these leaderboard tournaments will start on Saturday and Sunday between 3 PM and 4:30 PM ET.

Global Poker Bonus Terms and Requirements

The bonus terms and requirements for Global Poker have nothing alarming or predatory in them at all. Since there are no deposit bonuses there are also no wagering requirements to worry about.

The only slightly annoying part is that by signing up on Global Poker you agree that they can send your Facebook supplied email address a bunch of promotional offers for their site. However, this is not that big of a deal since you can simply unsubscribe from the mailing list at any time.

Customer Service at Global Poker

The customer service team on Global Poker is available 24/7 which is rare for a poker room whose traffic mainly comes from two or three time zones. This shows that they are truly dedicated to their player base from all over the world even though withdrawals are only available in the USA and Canada which is comforting to see from such a young online poker room.

Our main gripe with the customer service model on Global Poker is that they do not currently offer any sort of Live Chat feature. They also do not offer any sort of telephone option either which is disappointing since most poker rooms usually do. If you want to contact the customer service team at Global Poker your only option is to email them at [email protected].

We decided to test out the speed of their only customer service contact method and we were instantly greeted by an automated email response promising a return email from a human being within “a couple of hours”. We were then given a response to our very simple questions within 10 hours which is fairly reasonable.

Global Poker has their own Facebook page as well as their own sub-forum on the popular Twoplustwo poker forums. They will respond to you and try to answer your questions via these two mediums, but the responses will be normally slower than if you just email them.

Deposit and Withdrawal Options at Global Poker

Minimum Deposit: $10
Maximum Deposit: $5,000
Deposit Methods: PayPal
Withdrawal Methods: PayPal

Global Poker is unique when it comes to banking options because they have only one of them, while most poker rooms have at least five or ten. The one option that you can find is the world-famous online payments processor known as PayPal, and it can be used free of charge for both deposits and withdrawals.

Global Poker is one of the only poker sites in the USA that allows PayPal transactions due to a sweepstakes law loophole. PayPal would never do business with a poker site and risk the reputation of their multi-billion dollar company without doing their due diligence on the legitimacy of the site’s business model, so we trust that everything is on the up-and-up with Global Poker.

The way it works is that you make a deposit for anywhere between $10 and $5,000 and you will receive a certain number of gold coins and a certain amount of $weeps cash. Gold coins are essentially a fake currency that is non-transferable, while $weeps cash can be converted to US dollars and withdrawn to your PayPal account at the rate of one dollar per $weep.

The amount of gold coins and $weeps cash that you receive for each deposit depends on how much money you deposited. The general pattern for most of the options is that for every $10 you deposit, you will receive 50,000 gold coins in addition to $10 worth of $weeps cash.

One great feature of Global Poker is that they do not put a limit on the amount of money that you can withdraw from their site at one time via PayPal. There have been reports of completed withdrawals for around $50,000 which is pretty large. The minimum withdrawal is $50 which is completely reasonable.

Warnings

1.) It is extremely important to note that players from all over the world are allowed to make an account and deposit money on Global Poker, but only players from the United States or Canada are allowed to withdraw any funds. There is no way to retrieve your money if you deposit from another country.

2.) If you would like to play poker for fun with a currency that is not convertible to real money, then you can play with the gold coins that come along with each deposit you make to get $weeps Cash. However, there is an option on the list of deposit buttons where you can pay $750 for just 3,750,000 gold coins and no $weeps Cash. Do NOT accidentally click this button and if you do click it be sure to hit the “Back” button to cancel the transaction immediately because it is a giant waste of money for something that has no intrinsic value.

3.) Before you will be allowed to withdraw any money from Global Poker you will need to send in two documents to verify your identity to their customer service email. One form of identification is a valid primary ID such as a passport or driver’s license while the second form of identification is a supporting document that has your address and name on it such as a utility bill or a monthly bank statement.