Noble Poker is
one of the Poker family of online poker rooms which includes,
among others, CDPoker. The iPoker rooms utilize software
developed by Playtech, a relatively new player in the online
poker world. Just like PartyPoker and their "skins," these
iPoker rooms share the same tables (even the table names
are identical) and the same players. For this reason, you
may only be logged into one iPoker room at a time.
Noble Poker offers three types of poker games (Texas Holdem, Omaha
and Omaha Hi-Lo). NoblePoker does not, however, offer 7-Card Stud.
Compared to many other poker rooms, Noble Poker has smaller ring
game stakes that range from penny stakes to just $5/$10 max for no-limit
and $10/$20 max for limit. NoblePoker's multi-table tourneys frequently
attract anywhere from several dozen up to 100 or 200 players (or
more for their daily freerolls and WSOP satellites), 6 and 10-player
sit & gos, as well as heads-up
tourneys. The MTTs start with $2000 in chips for each player and the sit & gos
start with $1000.
Noble Poker money transfer options include Visa, MasterCard, NETeller,
FirePay, OnDemandFunds, Citadel, Moneybookers, EcoCard, Paysafecard, 900Pay,
UseMyBank, Click2Pay, bank draft, and Wire Transfer.
NoblePoker is offering a great initial deposit bonus, read below to learn
more about Noble Poker's fantastic bonus offer (no bonus code needed!).
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Noble Poker.com Software
Interface/Usability
document.write;document.write; Noble
Poker has the unique option of allowing the player to view the tables
in either the common Top View or in the seated player's point-of-view called
Side View. Both look nice, but the Side View is especially neat. It has
3D animated character that actually move and speak their actions. If you
haven't seen this before, it's worth a look.
 The Noble Poker table window is quite large in the default Side Chat mode
with the extra chat window to the right of the table view (see Top View
image above). There is a Table Chat mode that gets rid of the extra side
chat window and instead provides a small chat box within the table window.
In Top View, this chat box is locked in the bottom-left corner. In Side
View, it is a small, moveable chat box. There are a couple of problems
with this small chat box, however. It covers up a good portion of the table
view and, more importantly, it doesn't allow you to type into the chat.
Compare the NoblePoker Side View image above to the Side View image for
the CDPoker review.
With the Noble Poker graphical hand histories showing images of all the
cards, the histories look pretty, but functionally, I found them to be
awkward to read and use (perhaps because I've gotten used to the textual
hand histories). At this time, NoblePoker offers no easy way to retrieve
specific hand histories, although the Noble Poker website claims you can
request your complete game history by writing to NoblePoker customer support.
This can be frustrating for studious players that like to review their
past hands on a regular basis.
Notes regarding multi-tabling:
Only Top View allows for playing more than one table at a time. And Noble
Party Poker Bonus Codes allows for up to 3 tables to be opened. However, NoblePoker has effectively
ruined the usefulness of this ability by not allowing all the tables to
be viewed simultaneously. Instead, you are still limited to one table window
but there is a tab in the upper-left corner of the window for each open
table (see Top View screenshot above). Switching tables is done by clicking
its tab, but since you may only view one table at a time, this makes multi-tabling
all but impossible. Just playing two tables, I found myself often caught
in two different hands on two tables struggling to make quick decisions
as I did not know what was on the board or what had taken place until I
clicked that table's tab.
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Noble Poker.com Poker Room
Action
Noble
Poker does not have much action at the ring games yet. Noble Poker
is not the constant circus-like action of PartyPoker with its 50,000+ players,
but fairly playable. I could usually get a poker seat at a 6-max $0.50/$1.00
or any $1/$2 no-limit table without waiting and there are always active
tables at the smaller stakes. The NoblePoker tournaments have a fair bit
of action and you will usually see the tables at the most common stakes
fill up without waiting very long. Noble Poker does have many empty tables,
though, and NoblePoker has some growing to do before you could log in and
sit down to active tables without having to wait.
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Noble Poker.com Customer
and Technical Support
Noble Poker has numerous email addresses for support, but the main one
is support@noblepoker.com. Noble Poker also have a 24-hour support number,
866-847-4348, that operates 365 days a year. Also, there is an Online Support
button in the NoblePoker Lobby window that offers live online support.
I have used the email option and I've found that Noble Poker support was
helpful and able to give me the answers I needed, though, it took them
anywhere from 2 hours to 7 hours to reply.
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Noble Poker's Ease of Game,
Ease of Making Money, Fish Rating
NoblePoker has a fair mix of poor and good players. There is the usual
set of fishy, passive call stations chasing straights and flushes and such,
but also some solid players setting traps and slow-playing in the ring
games. You can find good games at Noble Poker if you're patient and don't
mind occasionally waiting a short while to sit at an active table with
the stakes of your choosing. Once NoblePoker attracts a larger player base,
Noble Poker could be a great addition to your suite of fishing holes.
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Noble Poker.com Bonus and
Promotions
At this time, document.write;document.write; Noble
Poker offers one of the sweetest first-time deposit bonuses around.
With your initial deposit, NoblePoker will match 100% up to a $700 bonus!
Earning the bonus sounds a bit complicated (though, likely not too difficult
to accomplish -- just hard to explain). See the document.write;document.write;
Noble Poker website here for details, but basically, the bonus is based
on the number of raked hands contributed to, and the stakes of that game.
The bonus calculation only includes real money online poker ring games - not tournaments
or play money games. At the lowest stakes acceptable - $.25-.50 blinds,
you earn a "Crown". Once you've participated in 125 hands at these stakes,
you would earn 125 Crowns, and then be awarded a bonus of $10. The bonus
is paid out in $10 increments, as soon as you hit 125 Crowns. This bonus
is awarded daily. You can earn your bonus faster by playing larger stakes,
ie - at $1-2 blinds, you earn 3 Crowns per hand, thus earning your bonus
3 times faster.
This is an incredible bonus program, and probably will not be offered for
very long. The thing about the bonus is, there is no way to check your
progress of raked hands yourself. The NoblePoker web page claims that players
will receive weekly statements detailing their progress on earning the
bonus, but I have never received one. Perhaps this is one of the features
that is still in development. You can, however, use Noble Poker Online
Support via the Lobby or email their support to get this info about earning
your bonus.
All of the iPoker network rooms have what's called an iPoints program indicated
in the Cashier, but clicking on it says simply "coming soon" with no additional
information provided.
Visit document.write;document.write; Noble
Poker for a list of other promotions (such as Bad poker Beat and Top Hand
of the Day bonuses).
Noble Poker has the makings of a good poker room. The bonus is awesome.
And, as with all the iPoker rooms, the animated, talking 3D avatars are
a fun diversion from the norm, but NoblePoker still needs to finish what
they've started. Once Noble Poker completes the features that are still
under development (and change their multi-tabling convention, i.e., a different
window for each table!), perhaps they could attract more players.
Summary (7.08)
World-exclusive $800 sign-up bonus at 100% deposit match only via PokerListings! Noble
Poker is the leading poker room in the new 'iPoker network' initiative by PlayTech.
The games are loose with lots of casino players and there are high value promotions
(especially considering the moderate volume of players). Noble Poker and the
iPoker network has been successful in quickly building a strong network, with
the strategic backing from the world's second largest casino software provider.
Noble Poker's software has an innovative and good interface, with both standard
2D view and 3D view (side view with avatars) and colorful graphics. The functionality
is good and the early minor glitches in the software are fixed now. There are
Holdem and Omaha (High and High-Low) ring games, as well as heads-up, sit-and-go
and multi-table tournaments.
Software and graphics (5)
Noble Poker's software and players base is part of iPoker, which in turn is developed
by PlayTech. The graphics are nice and clear and the functionality is good. Noble
Poker and has buddy list function, game history function, player notes,
lots of options for music/sounds/graphics/etc, pot- and no-limit ring games,
live floor managers and all types of tournaments. On the negative side, there
are some small glitches making the playability less than perfect and the playing
tempo is too slow with high time allotment for players. As soon as traffic has
been built up and some small software updates are done, this will be a quite
nice room to play at.
Ring game traffic (4)
Noble Poker and the iPoker network have about 200-350 ring game players at peak
hours in August 2005.
Tournament traffic (5)
The traffic at the tournaments is higher than at cash games when real money traffic
can reach somewhere around 400-700 players at peak hours in August 2005.
Game variety (4)
Noble Poker has moderate game variety with Texas Holdem and Omaha Hi-Lo and High,
which are available in both limit, pot-limit and Texas Holdem in no-limit as
well. Table stakes are from $0.5/$1 to $20/$40 in the fixed games, with $0.25/$0.50
up to $5/$10 in pot-limit and no-limit versions. (The fixed limit Omaha games
have a bit lower maximum limits) There are both heads-up, sit-and-go and fixed
schedule multi-table tournaments.
Rake (6)
The rake at Noble Poker is actually better than the average online. The general
policy is the standard 5% rake taken in increments up to $3. But on several types
of tables there are lower max rakes. On fixed limit tables up to $1/$2 there
is a $1 max rake. More importantly all tables with 2-3 players have a max rake
of $1 and tables with 4-5 players have a $2 max rake - which also includes no-limit
and pot-limit short handed games! There is a "no flop - no drop" policy for hands
not reaching the flop.
Soft competition (7)
Noble Poker has quite soft games. Most of the volume is in the no-limit Texas
Holdem games where the view flop percentage is normally is the 40-ies or 50-ies.
The players are also quite passive, so it is quite easy to be a winning player.
The potential for the iPoker network to build soft games is very good as they
recruit from the PlayTech online casino base and with aggressive marketing.
Sign up bonus (8)
World-exclusive bonus deal to PokerListings users of up to $800 sign-up bonus
at 100% deposit match. Bonuses are paid in $10 increments and paid out on a daily
basis, which is also very good. Standard promotion is 100% deposit match up to
$700 bonus. There is a 90 day time limit to reach the required hands. For each
played hand (getting dealt cards) in a raked pot a player earns 1-4 crowns depending
on table limits. $0.25/$0.50 blinds give 1 crown and $1.00/$2.00 blinds and up
give 4 crowns. 500 crowns will give $10 bonus. Hence in order to clear all of
the $900 bonus you need to have earned 45,000 crowns, which equals 11,250 participated
hands at a $1/$2 game.
Loyalty bonus (6)
There is a "crowns system", whereby players get entered into special free rolls
and can get high value re-load bonus offers.
Promotions (9)
Special $800 bonus at 100% match for our users, see above. $2,500 private monthly
free roll exclusively for players from PokerListings. To qualify for our priate
free roll a player needs to reach the first 100 crown points during the month.
Free roll is held first week-end the following month and invitation/registration
is automatic. Overall there are a lot of promotions at Noble Poker as they are
building up volume with their new network. There are quite a few free rolls.
There are high hand and bad beat prizes. Recruit-a-friend earns you $25 per qualified
friend, which is quite meager though.
Support (4)
Great options with 24/7 telephone support as well as live online and email support
at Noble Poker. Noble Poker was recently acquired by Empire Online. Empire Poker
is not known for good support, therefore we have downgraded Noble Poker until
we see that they maintain the quality level they had before the take-over.
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Dan
Grove- forum
