Absolute Poker

Absolute Poker, also known as AP, is one of the members the new CEREUS Network along with UltimateBet. Absolute Poker is one of the more highly frequented poker sites, especially for American poker online players. Absolute Poker is a good option for American players with a large variety of games and stakes, a solid deposit bonus, and great customer support.

American poker players should be excited about Absolute Poker’s merge with the CEREUS Network. Despite past legislation to shut poker down in the United States, the CEREUS Network has made a commitment to American poker online. Their affiliation with notable poker professionals, Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth, further strengthens their position on American Online Poker and should ease any concerns on the subject. Americans still have many poker rooms to choose from with sites such as the CEREUS Network, Full Tilt, and PokerStars.

Players who have not previously deposited at Absolute Poker should take full advantage of their 150% up to $500 initial deposit bonus. Make sure to use the Absolute Poker bonus code FTRAP when signing up to receive the maximum possible bonus. As an added bonus, you will also become eligible to play in two monthly added events totaling $500 in free money. Players must earn a certain number of Status Points to clear the bonus. Status Points are cleared by playing in real money ring games, tournaments, and/or sit & go’s. Five dollars of the bonus is cleared per 100 Status Points earned. A player must earn as much of the bonus as they can before it expires within 60 days of their first deposit.

The main lobby will come up after downloading and installing Absolute Poker. Navigation through AP’s games is done at the main lobby. For cash game players, there is plenty of action from the micro-stakes up to their mid-stakes Limit/NL Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha games. Other games such as Omaha Hi/Lo, Stud, Stud Hi/Lo, and Razz are not heavily populated past the $1/$2 level. Absolute Poker has recently introduced mixed games such as HORSE and HOSE to their online repertoire but these games are extremely hard to find anywhere above $0.50/$1 blinds.

Absolute Poker has a vast selection of scheduled events and sit & go’s for tournament players. Just like their ring games, there does not seem to be a lot of traffic in their bigger buy-in SNGs while the $20 and under games seem to get plenty of play. There are many different formats including 1-table, multi-table, and heads-up as well as different styles including Turbo, Ultra Turbo, and Deep Stack SNGs. AP does offer non-Hold ‘Em SNGs but once again, just like their cash games, they do not get a lot of action.

In the “Tourneys” section of the lobby, players will find high-stakes tournament action. Their featured tournament is a weekly $500+$30 buy-in $100K Guaranteed tournament with the winner taking home approximately $40,000. There are also decent amounts of smaller buy-in events which run daily such as the $1 buy-in $5,000 Guaranteed tourney and their Sniper series which are bounty events. There are many Sniper events including the $3K, $4K, $30K, and $40K Guarantees suiting players of different skill levels.

The Absolute Poker software has undergone many changes recently and it has come to have one of the best software interfaces in the business. The Main Lobby allows players to easily navigate through tabs and find their favorite games. You can also take advantage of their lobby filter which allows you to zero in on certain games and stakes. There are three basic table views to choose from as each gives quite a different look than the others.

All tables are resizable. Simply click any side of the table window and drag to make the tables bigger or smaller. To make multi-tabling easier, there are quick resize buttons on the top-right of each table to cascade, tile, or stack all tables. While playing, you will notice quick-play buttons which allow you to choose an action before it is your turn. Multi-tablers can focus on more important things using the quick-play buttons. Finally, the table graphics are simple yet effective. There is no unnecessary motion and the games do move quite quickly allowing for 100+ hands per hour at their short-handed tables.