Boasting to be the largest poker network in the Russian Commonwealth (CIS), Pokerdom is aimed at Russian-speaking players who are serious about poker.
Compatible with Windows and Mac, you can either download Pokerdom straight to your laptop or play via your browser. And if you’re a fan of gaming on the go, there’s also an Android and iOS mobile app.
This company puts a big emphasis on being a fair platform, which bans software aids and blocks bot accounts. But if you’re willing to cough up for a little extra and get their paid software, you can benefit from a helping hand in the form of opponent statistics.
If you’re interested in finding out first-hand what action Pokerdom can offer you, use promo code POKERSCOUT to get all the best bonuses and offers.
How to sign up for Pokerdom
To sign up for Pokerdom, you have to be at least 18 years of age. And if the age limit for gaming is higher in your region, that’s your limit here too.
As well as the usual sign-up via email option, Pokerdom lets players sign up using social media accounts. Western platforms Facebook and Google are supported, along with the Russian-facing Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, Mail.RU, and Yandex.
Signing up is a quick process – especially if you use your social media account – but remember to enter your real information. Proof of identity is required when you want to withdraw your winnings.
When you sign up, you also get to choose your account’s currency. Choose wisely, because you can’t change it. Euro, US Dollar, Rubble, and Kazakhstani Tenge are all on offer here. And don’t worry about playing at tables with a different currency to the one in your account – there’s an automatic conversion that takes place so you can play wherever you like. Keep an eye on the exchange rates at the top left corner of the homepage.
Restricted countries include:
Pokerdom sign-up bonuses
Pokerdom has a cohort of loyal CIS players, but that doesn’t mean it leaves its new players out in the cold. Sign up using the promo code POKERSCOUT to make sure you’re getting the best deal.
New Players Super Speed tournaments
At the start of 2018, Pokerdom introduced New Players Super Speed tournaments. You get 15 tickets to these freerolls when you make your first deposit. And the prize money up for grabs is a sweet one million RUB.
These tournaments have an all-in shootout format, adding a gambling element to your poker game. If you use all of your tickets, you’ve got a 98.5 percent chance to snag a cash prize. We like those odds.
There’s a New Players Super Speed tournament every second day at 19:00 GMT+3, and you’ve got 31 days from when you deposit to use your tickets.
Sure this isn’t as guaranteed as a bonus with a play-through rate. But it’s a hell of a lot easier to figure out than keeping track of how much more you have to spend/win to get your extra cash.
Pokerdom traffic overview
Pokerdom might not have even nearly the same volume of traffic as the world’s biggest online poker rooms like PokerStars, but it does attract a solid following in its key markets.
Although people from some of Europe’s major poker-loving nations can’t play here, it still holds its own and has a fairly decent number of players, particularly during peak Eastern European times.
If you’re looking for a comparison, a good place to start is the iPoker Network. The Pokerdom numbers generally top the iPoker ones by about 10-20 percent, with a notable 50-percent spike in total cash game players.
Cash traffic
The cash traffic on Pokerdom is particularly strong. Considering its size, total cash players is that category where Pokerdom punches above its weight. It usually hits figures of in and around 1,000 players, with a seven-day average of around 850 and peak daily figures of approximately 1,600.
So if you’re in the market for solid cash game action, this is where to get it.
Pokerdom games
Many online poker rooms pare down their game selection these days, leaving them with the classics. Hold’em and Omaha, and maybe a wildcard variant, if you’re lucky. Pokerdom has bucked the trend, offering its players a bevy of game types.
Pokerdom cash games
If you have a few minutes to spare for a quick cash game session on your phone or you’re settling into a multi-tabling marathon, you’ve got lots of options at Pokerdom. Stakes are in a range of currencies and have a decent range of minimum/maximum blind levels:
- 1/2 RUB to 2,000/4,000 RUB
- $0.02/$0.04 to $25/$50
- €0.02/€0.04 to €20/€40
Beginners might lament the absence of $0.01/$0.02 micro stakes tables, but the variety is still good enough that it shouldn’t put too many people off.
Depending on the game type, you can choose to play at heads-up tables or take on up to nine opponents.
Here’s what you can find at Pokerdom:
- Hold’em No Limit
- Hold’em Limit
- Hold’em Pot Limit
- Omaha No Limit
- Omaha Limit
- Omaha Pot Limit
- Omaha Hi-Lo No Limit
- Omaha Hi-Lo Limit
- Omaha Hi-Lo Pot Limit
- Open Face Chinese Pineapple
- 7-Card Stud
- Razz
- 32-Card Draw
- Badugi
- Texas 6+
Pokerdom multi-table tournaments
Although Pokerdom is particularly good for cash games, multi-table tournament fans should find enough to keep themselves occupied here.
They’ve got freeroll tournaments with cash prizes, high-roller tournaments with steep buy-ins to match, and lots in between.
Global Cup of Online Poker (GCOOP)
The GCOOP tournament series is this poker room’s flagship series and it’s a monster. Across a couple of weeks, you can expect tens of millions of Rubles in guarantees, Bitcoin prizes, and hundreds of tournaments with buy-ins starting from just 200 RUB.
For example, in 2018, GCOOP V had 50,000,000 RUB in prize money and 1 Bitcoin for the player who ranked highest on the series leaderboard. There are also real-life trophies delivered to the winners of the biggest tournaments.
And for those who aren’t exactly high rollers, there were daily cash game missions and satellites for big events.
GCOOP players can choose from Omaha, Hold’em or OFC tournaments at heads-up to 9-max tables. Megastack, bounty, turbo, freezeout, and knockout events all feature in the schedule.
Sunday Chance
One of Pokerdom’s biggest regular tournaments is Sunday Chance. As the name suggests, this tournament takes place every Sunday, kicking off at 19:00 GMT+3. It has a 1,000,000 RUB prize pool and you can buy in for 2,750 RUB.
XXL Phoenix Event
Every day, the XXL Phoenix Event has a 250,000 RUB guarantee and a buy-in of 9,999 RUB. It kicks off at 21:00 GMT+3 and is aimed at players who hit the felt regularly. The 9,999 RUB buy-in won’t break the bank for most players, but there are also daily satellites with buy-ins starting at just 49 RUB.
Other poker offerings on Pokerdom
The rest of the offerings at Pokerdom will be familiar to anyone who frequents online poker rooms. They haven’t tried to rock the boat in any way. Instead they’ve introduced tried-and-tested games that poker players already love.
Windfall tournaments
Windfall Tournaments are fast-paced three-handed sit & gos. The randomly determined prize pool can reach up to 100x your buy-in. You can buy in from 10 RUB up to 5,000 RUB, so there’s a budget for any player. The blinds are raised every three minutes, so you can’t afford to relax for too long playing this game. You’ve also got a chance to win up to 20% of the Windfall Jackpot instantly, which can reach in excess of 1,000,000 RUB. Apart from the top prize and the jackpot, these are winner-takes-all tournaments.
XXL Phoenix Event daily missions
Win your way into the 250,000 RUB XXL Phoenix Event when you complete these missions. Like poker missions on competitor sites, these are focused around scoring particular hands at Hold’em ring game tables. Complete a mission and get a satellite ticket to tournaments where you can win your XXL Phoenix Event ticket.
Bad beat jackpot
Take the sting out of a bad beat at Hold’em and Omaha tables with Pokerdom’s Bad Beat Jackpot. A solid 30% of the jackpot goes to the person who suffered the bad beat, while the player who wins the hand also gets rewarded with 20%. Those tables are always fairly busy, so chances are if you do get a bad beat, you’ll end up with quite a nice chunk to soothe the pain.
Pokerdom rewards program
What poker player doesn’t love cashback? Well, this is what’s on offer in the Pokerdom Cashback loyalty scheme.
Added to the site in April 2018, this gives players 5-50 percent in cash back each week. Quite simply, you get 1 PlayPoint for each 1 RUB you pay in rake. Then every Monday, you get your cashback credited directly to your account.
The lower level of cashback is relatively easy to score. You’ll get 10 RUB in cashback when you earn 200 points in one week.
Just remember that if you fall between the cracks of a loyalty level, you only get cashback for the lower level and your remaining points aren’t carried over to the next week. So it’s worth keeping an eye on how many points you need to earn to get to the next one to avoid disappointment.
This might not be quite as generous as some of what the competitors are offering, but its refreshing to have a straightforward loyalty scheme with no extra hoops to jump through to get your reward.
Pokerdom deposit/withdrawal options
As Pokerdom’s target audience is players based in CIS countries, the banking options here incorporate lots of CIS regional options. Having said that, international players can avail of the big name card companies too, as well as cryptocurrency Bitcoin deposit and withdrawal options.
You can find all your deposit and withdrawal options under the Cash tab in the poker room lobby, and this is where you can also see your transaction history.
And if you have a pal on the network, you can also make player-to-player transfers.
Deposits
You can deposit using Visa and MasterCard, along with CIS-targeted options like Qiwi, Yandex Money, and Promsvyazbank. E-wallets are also an option here, with Skrill and Neteller also available. Plus you have the option to deposit using Bitcoin.
Minimum deposits are 400 RUB, $5, or €5 and impressive maximum deposits of 2,000,000 RUB, $40,000, and €30,000, depending on the currency of your account. The majority of payment methods don’t charge a fee for depositing, with the exception of a few of the mobile options. There you can be charged as much as 20 percent.
Withdrawals
Like the deposit options, there are lots of familiar withdrawal options available at Pokerdom whether you’re from Russia or elsewhere. Plus you can make withdrawals to MasterCard, which is not always available at competitor poker rooms.
When you’re making a withdrawal, you’ve got to use the same method you used for depositing. This is fairly standard practice due to gaming license restrictions, but it’s worth keeping in mind nonetheless.
If you’re withdrawing to Russian bank accounts, your transaction could be pretty much instant. If you’re withdrawing to accounts further afield the process can take as much as 14 business days.
The minimum amount you can withdraw at one time is 500 RUB, $10, or €10 and the maximum is 300,000 RUB, $5,000, or €5,000. These limits can change depending on what method you choose, so make sure to check your method before you make a monster withdrawal.
Lots of the withdrawal methods don’t have any fee associated with them, but a few charge between 1-3 percent.
One thing to note is that if your total rake generated is less than 20 percent of the amount you’ve deposited, Pokerdom reserves the right to charge you 10 percent in fees from the amount you withdraw.
The won’t be a problem for most players, but it’s worth keeping in mind if you’ve just had a particularly big win as a newish player.
And remember that Pokerdom can charge withdrawal fees if you withdraw more than four times in a month.
If you’re withdrawing over $1,000, you’ll need to verify your identity by sending in a photo of your ID card, passport, utility bill and/or your bank card.
Pokerdom support
Pokerdom has a pretty solid support network, which includes:
- Live chat
- Email: [email protected]
- International phone line: +7 (499) 677-59-82
- Russian Federation freephone: +78007756471
- Belarus freephone: 8 820 0011 02 49
- Kazakhstan freephone: +778003332648
- Kazakhstan mobile phone line: +771727275585
The website’s FAQ is very comprehensive too and is an easy way to tackle any common questions on how to use the software, create an account or make a deposit. For newbie players, there’s also a good how to play guide on the game types available at Pokerdom. These guides are let down slightly by the fact they don’t have any accompanying videos or images but are easy enough to follow despite that.
Conclusion
Pokerdom is already one of the main destinations for CIS players looking for solid cash game action. This site is aimed at poker lovers. People who know their Razz from their Badugi. It’s still suitable for recreational players but doesn’t have added gambling elements that many sites now work in to appeal to a mass market.
This is an old-school poker room that doesn’t rely on gimmicks. But if you’re new to online poker, the action here might be slightly intimidating.
So if you’re serious about poker and serious about ring games, in particular, this could be your new favorite site.