Seals with Clubs is an innovative idea for online poker that spawned from the US government’s “Black Friday” crackdown on online poker operators servicing US citizens. Seals is the world’s most popular Bitcoin poker room and was formed by an elusive bitcoin advocated that goes only by ‘freemoney.’
These two, along with thousands of other players who were sick of getting their funds seized or waiting for long cash outs, stepped out of the box big-time when it came to creating SWC. Their room first began accepting players in August of 2011 and continues to cater to 400+ real money cash game players at peak times, according to PokerScout.com.
Bitcoin Poker – The Future?
Bitcoin is a virtual currency with no central bank that can be used anonymously. Seals with Clubs uses Bitcoin as their sole currency at the tables and does not accept real money deposits in Dollars, Euros or Pounds. Deposits and payouts are done solely through Bitcoin addresses and are processed in a few hours, at the most.
Seals with Clubs has broken the barriers of traditional online poker rooms and is a true innovator of not only Bitcoin poker but Bitcoin gambling in general. However, with fully anonymous poker Bitcoin comes some concerns. Collusion and cheating are much easier to accomplish, due to the anonymity of the accounts and the ability for one user to create an unlimited number of aliases.
The Seals with Clubs’ team warns players about this, letting them know that they are playing in the “wild west of online poker.” At the same time, they assure players that they will do everything they can to stop collusion or cheating at the site. I know the site chairman and poker pro Bryan Micon personally and my poker writers have tried the software first-hand and have the opinion that Seals with Clubs is a properly-run room, with collusion being at a minimum.
Check out our COMPREHENSIVE Guide to Bitcoin Gambling and enjoy the Seals with Clubs Review.
Playing Poker at Seals with Clubs
While most online poker rooms need a long list of personal information to play for real money – Seals only requires a username and password. Players can also give their email address for password recovery, but this is not required. This allows players full anonymity while playing at Seals with Clubs.
Software
Seals with Clubs currently has some dated software, but it has all the basics players need to play online poker. Multi-tabling is simple, and the software is stable. Tables can easily be resized, and there is a four color deck option. However, unlike most US facing online poker rooms Seals offers an android app to play poker on the go. The room has an active beta test for their new PC client which is constantly being updated and improved.
Traffic
The Bitcoin Poker market is new but is rapidly growing. While the player base is still small, it has steadily increased in the less than two years the room has been open. Player numbers are larger than many other poker rooms have opened during the same time span. Notably, none of these rooms are Bitcoin only, making Seals with Clubs steadily climbing player numbers even more impressive.
The room currently averages around 300 real money players online during evenings. On the weekends, this can swell to 400+ players.
Games and Limits
Chip dominations on Seals with Clubs are set at a fixed rate of 1/1000 of Bitcoin. This does not change or fluctuate, despite Bitcoin’s frequent changes in value.
Stakes range from the micros to middle stakes and are offers in full ring, 6-max and heads-up tables. The most popular game is No Limit Hold’em, with Pot Limit Omaha a close second. Other games include Omaha Hi\Lo and Limit Hold’em.
Seals with Clubs has a wide range of skill levels at their tables. Many experienced players frequent the room after reading about it on poker forums. Bitcoin fans, who are flush with coins, are the room’s fishier players.
Seals offer daily freerolls for players and a weekly “Big BTC” 60 Bitcoin Guaranteed Tournament every Sunday. In addition, each hour Seals offer a 500 chip guaranteed tournament for players, which has a $45+5 buy-in and often has overlays. Sit N’ Goes are available but haven’t gotten the traffic to go consistently.
Deposits and Withdrawals
Transferring coins through the Blockchain network via Bitcoin addresses is free and instant. This is the same for deposits and withdrawals on Seals. Funds will almost instantly be available when depositing and withdrawals will normally only take a few hours to be processed.
VIP Program: Krill
Players will automatically be entered into the Seals with Clubs VIP Program as soon as they play a real money cash game or tournament on Seals.
The Krill VIP Program has 15 “Waves” which are tiers of rewards players can earn for playing at Seals. The Krill Waves VIP program is one of the best VIP programs on the internet for poker players – at its highest tier – players can earn 50% rakeback.
Seals offers Krill’s Wave 15 rakeback percentage, 50% to players who start games on the site. All 6-max play will receive 50% rakeback, along with players who play two and three handed at full ring tables.
All of these bonuses are especially wonderful, considering that Seals with Clubs already offers the lowest rake in all of online poker.
Support
Seals with Clubs has email support at admin@sealswithclubs.eu. Most emails are answered within 24 hours, and the service staff is tremendously helpful for players both new to the site and new to Bitcoin. Their extensive FAQ on the site is also a terrific resource for players.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Seals with Clubs are an impressive option and one of the coolest innovations in online poker. Their super fast withdrawals crush any other US facing room by a large margin. Add in a lucrative VIP program and the lowest rake in all of online poker and players have at least an awesome site to try out. One wonders where Seals with Clubs will be a year from now as their player base has already grown tremendously since their inception in 2011.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.