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Background
In response to Black Friday, the day the US Department of Justice blocked poker behemoths PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, a savvy team of online poker players launched Seals with Clubs as a bitcoin poker destination. The goal of Seals with Clubs was to attract players from around the world including the United States into a secure, nearly anonymous poker room where there payments could not be threatened by any government.
Site Offerings
Cash GamesOn Seals with Clubs, cash games are extremely popular. The website offers cash games in several different formats including No Limit Hold'em, Limit and Pot Limit Omaha, and Limit and Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. The most popular games remain the No Limit Hold'em. The website has seen solid and steady growth with several hundred players online at a time and you can typically always find the type of game that they offer being played anytime.
TournamentsSeals with Clubs, despite its size offers a wide array of tournaments. The most prominent tournament is the "Big BTC" which occurs each Sunday at 6pm Eastern Standard time. The buy in for the Big BTC is 2 BTC with a guaranteed prize pool of 60 BTC which equates to 60,000 seal chips. This tournament in particular can grow in size and lead to a much larger grand prize with the additional entries.
Promotions
Thus far, the best promotion that we have seen at Seals with Clubs is their High Hand Bonuses. Some of the other mainstream poker websites offer a similar promotion, but very few do in the bitcoin community. In this promotion if you achieve quads or better you win 100 to 1000 seal chips immediately. In order to qualify for this promotion you must show your hand however.
RakebackFor local players, Seals with Clubs offers a pretty generous rakeback deal. A player can earn from 2-5% rakeback depending on the frequency and amount of hands you play within the Seal with Clubs website.
Software
There is nothing novel about the software run by Seals with Clubs. In fact, it is no secret that the software is run on Poker Maven by Briggs. This software is clearly dated, however it is very secure and offers all of the general features of a good poker website. Seals with Clubs takes a very vigilant step with regard to your security and specifies this in a very serious privacy policy where the website's management "promises to vigorously defend the integrity of (their) games". We have not experienced any complaints regarding the security of the website.
Deposits and Withdrawals
Seals with Clubs exclusive use of bitcoins makes deposits and withdrawals very easy as bitcoin transactions don't go through a central bank. The deposit and withdrawal time is also pretty quick. You will need to acquire bitcoin prior to playing on Seals with Clubs because in order to play you will need to deposit.
Customer Service
Seals with Clubs is typically pretty responsive to customer service requests through email at admin(a)sealswithclubs.eu. Their response time is typically less than 24 hours and generally directly on point. Additionally, I recommend reviewing the FAQ which should answer nearly all of the questions that you may have.
Should you Join?
Seals with Clubs is one of the pioneers in the bitcoin online poker arena, therefore they have been around before most and generally have the most players. Their rakeback and vip program is run by several prominent online poker players that know how to run a quality website. Seals with Clubs is a good starting place but certainly not the best place to play online poker.
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