It seems like more and more online poker rooms are adding online casino extensions to their poker rooms.  This may be in the form of a full blown online casino or maybe just a few online casino games such as mini roulette, black jack, video poker and some of the other more popular online casino games.  Titan Poker and PKR, two of the more prominent online poker rooms have launched full blown online casinos, while many other poker rooms such as Carbon and the rooms on their network have launched some sidegames that players can play if they get bored of the casino.  The casino not only brings in more money for the online poker room, but it also gives players more variety and choice if they just feel like gambling a little bit.  It’s actually surprising that Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, the two largest online poker rooms have decided not to branch into the online casino spectrum, but instead are focussed on providing players with the best online poker experience possible.

So What Is Cake Poker Doing in Regards to Casino Games?

Cake actually recently added some different games that are similar to online casino games, but they are played as an online poker format.  These games include tournament blackjack and Cake war.  The problem with these games is they require others to play them as well, but it doesn’t seem like there is much interest so its hard for the games to get off the ground.  Here is a brief overview of the games:

Tournament Blackjack

Tournament blackjack involves playing against other players so there is actually no house advantage.  Instead players must have more chips than their opponents after the final round of the tourney blackjack game.  The tournaments have a set number of hands and it is the goal to have the most chips at the end of the last hand.  Needless to say a lot of strategy can come into play making tournament blackjack a great alternative to poker.

Cake War

This is a Cake Poker invention and is a very interesting game.  Each player is given a bin of cards from 1-10 to start the game.  There are then 10 rounds where a dealer card is turned up in the middle of the table.  Each player then selects which card from their bin they would like to bet in order to try to win the card.  The highest card bet takes the dealers card, but if two players bet the same card they cancel each other out and the next highest card wins.  At the end of the tenth round, whichever players cards add up to the highest total wins the game.  This is another game that is played against other opponents, but it is moving towards casino games because it is a bit similar to casino war.

Cake Pokers Casino

In simple terms Cake Poker does not have an online casino and does not even offer online casino games.  If you are interested in learning more about online casino games click here.  Casino games are a lot of fun and can provide a great break from the thinking and strategizing of online poker.  Sometimes people just want to gamble and that is what casino games are great for.  It makes good business sense for poker rooms to offer casino games to their players, so I expect a shift in this direction very soon.

The Cake Poker Network continues to grow every day with many new rooms being added such as Doyles Room and Power Poker.  Each of these new Cake Poker Network skins brings in new players and this helps the network continue to grow.  The network is now the tenth largest poker network online and they will likely be moving up this list in the near future.

The Cake Poker network averages about 2000 cash games players and 4000 tournament players online at any time during the day.  At the moment there are 39 different Cake Poker network skins who all share players in order to ensure that the players at each one of these poker room can always find a game to their liking.  The main Cake Poker skins include BetUS, Cake Poker, Doyles Room, Players Only Poker, Power Poker, Red Star Poker and Sportsbook.com.  Each of the Cake Poker network sites not only share players, but they also share many promotions such as the gold card and gold chip promotions that are unique to Cake Poker skins.

The Cake Poker network will continue to grow over the coming years because the software is solid, US players are allowed and the major poker rooms on the network are committed to growing their brands and succeeding in the online poker industry.

Cake Poker is giving players a chance to party it up in style with celebrities, professional poker players and some playboy bunnies at Hugh Hefner’s playboy mansion.  Each prize package is worth $3K and includes $1,000 in travel expenses and spending money, $1,000 for the VIP Mansion event and $1,000 for the $50K tournament that will take place at the Mansion.

Satellites are running until June 20th with a $100 + 9 rebuy tournament on Sunday at 5:30pm EST.  There are $6 + $0.06 satellites into this rebuy event every day up until the 20th.

This is your chance to party it up in style with all kinds of celebrities and athletes in the legendary Playboy Mansion.  Use your VIP access to have the time of your life.  Not to mention all proceeds go to charity so even if you aren’t on your best behaviour you can still come away feeling good about yourself.

Also, if you win a prize package you can give the $1000 in spending money back in order to get a second ticket to the VIP event for a friend.  It’s nice to have a wingman at the mansion.

Sign up to Cake Poker today using Cake Poker sign up code “THE500″ to start winning your place.

I wanted to look at the Cake Poker bonus in a little more detail in order for you to see the benefits of signing up with Cake Poker sign up code – CAKEBC500.

As you know the Cake Poker bonus is a 100% matching bonus up to $500.  The bonus is released in $10 increments and you have 90 days to clear as much of the bonus as you can.  Also, to clear the bonus you must earn FPP’s, with each FPP being worth $0.06 of your bonus.

In tournaments you earn 7 FPP’s for every $1 you pay in tournament fees.  Since, each FPP is worth $0.06 of your bonus, for every $1 in tournament fees you pay, you earn $0.42 back in cleared bonus amounts.  This is actually quite high in the industry, as you can see by looking at easiest to clear poker bonuses.

Now in cash games you earn 1 FPP for every $1 in rake at the table.  This is the same whether you play 9-handed, 6-handed or heads up.  So as you can see the easiest and most economical way to earn FPP’s is playing at 9-handed tables because there are more players, so there is a greater chance of there being a large rake without you having to contribute anything to the pot.  If you play 9-handed and you are a completely average player in terms of aggression this means that you earn 1 FPP for every approximately $0.11 that you personally rake.  Which equals out to 9 FPP’s for every $1 you personally pay in rake.  As you can see for a normal player, cash games earn your more FPP’s per $1 that you pay to the house.  Also, for a tight player, cash games are definitely the way to go, because you will be earning FPP’s even if you are folding almost every hand.  If you earn 9 FPP’s for every $1 you personally contribute to the rake than you are earning $0.54 back in cleared bonuses for every $1 that you personally rake.  If you are a super tight player, this amount could be much higher, even possibly over $1, in which case you would be earning money without having to win any hands.

Cake Poker is giving 6 players a chance to play in the 2009 Irish Open in Dublin for absolutely free. 

From February 15th up until the final satellite on March the 15th Cake Poker will be running satellites to the final event via gold card daily lottery satellites.

The final on March 15th will have a 250 player field, which will battle down to the 6 players who will earn their tickets to Ireland.  Each Cake $7K prize package includes a 3500 Euro seat, four nights accomodation at the CityWest Hotel and $1400 in traveling expenses.

The Irish Open is being held April 10th to April 13th and would be a great experience for any player!

Sign up at Cake Poker now using our Cake Poker sign up code to fight for your chance to play in Ireland!

On the last Sunday of every month at 5pm EST Cake Poker hosts it’s biggest ever guaranteed tournament, the $250K guaranteed.  The buy-in for this event is $250+$18.

These huge guaranteed tournaments are helping cement Cake Poker as one of the top online poker rooms around.  The $250K can compete with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker’s Sunday guaranteed tournaments, and the results are now included in the CardPlayer Online Player of the Year Standings!  These huge tournaments and this recognition by CardPlayer are both big steps for Cake Poker and its players to becoming recognized as a top room.

If you haven’t played at Cake before, I highly recommend you at least play through your initial deposit bonus by signing up at Cake Poker now, using the Cake Poker sign up code CAKEBC500.

Cake Poker has been added as the 6th poker site to be included in Card Player’s player of the year standings.  Cake has joined other powerhouses in the online poker industry, PokerStars, Full Tilt, Absolute Poker, Ultimate Bet and Bodog as the poker rooms where it is possible to earn OPOY points.

Cake’s weekly $100K tourney and monthly $250K tourney will count towards the Player of the Year standings.  The conditions for a tournament to be counted towards the OPOY standings is that it must have at least a prize pool of $100K and at least 100 entrants.

To learn more about the OPOY check out the complete 2009 OPOY rules.

Also just to note, only Cake is counted, not the entire Cake network.

To get started putting together your run at OPOY sign up to Cake Poker today using our Cake Poker Sign Up Code CAKEBC500.

Cake Poker gold cards are awarded to players taking part in Cake cash games.  Basically, what happens is every time a table reaches a predetermined amount of rake a gold card is randomly taken out of the vault and if the gold card matches one of your hole cards, even if you folded during the hand, you are awarded that gold card and it is added to your collection.  Therefore, playing in a gold card hand can happen at any time, even on your first hand, but the more time you spend at the tables, the greater chance a gold card will be issued.

Different gold cards hold different values based on the card and series.  The cards that are more rare and harder to obtain have a higher value.  Check out the gold card odds chart.  The odds range anywhere from 1 in 7 to a super rare 1 in 5,000,000.  Safe to say the Ace of spades is quite valuable.

Your gold card collection can be viewed in your Cake Poker rewards section and don’t worry there is no time limit on using your cards, as they don’t expire.

Speaking of using your cards, there are a bunch of ways your gold card collection can help you.  The gold card daily lottery is one way to use your gold cards.  It’s very simple.  Every day Cake poker chooses a gold card and attaches a prize to it such as instant cash, or tournament tickets, etc.  If you have the card that is chosen in your collection, then you can redeem it for the days prize.

The gold card 500 is a race every month of Cake Poker, where each gold card received is worth a set amount of miles in a race.  Also, the lower the limit you receive the card at the more miles you earn, because there is less opportunities for you to receive gold cards.  This keeps it fair and allows players at any limits to win.  The player who gets the most miles in the month wins $500.  There are also prizes for 2nd through 10th, with 10th being the lowest at $110.

If you see your gold card collection growing quickly, then maybe there is hope for you to win the $52K gold card jackpot.  The first player to collect all 52 cards in the series wins the jackpot.  I assure you this is no easy feat, and only the most dedicated Cake poker players have a real shot at winning this prize.

There are also a few other ways to use your gold cards, so make sure you check them out here.

Don’t have a Cake Poker account?  Well use our Cake Poker sign up code and get started earning your very own gold cards.  Win the jackpot and report back here .

Simply put a Cake Poker gold chip is what you earn when you reach a set number of Frequent Player Points by playing at any Cake Poker ring game or tournament. 

Every time you are dealt a hand at a ring game and the rake of that hand equals or exceeds $1, you FPP’s equal to the amount of rake.  For example if the rake is $1.50 you earn 1.5 FPP’s.  As for tournaments, you earn 7 FPP’s for every $1 in tournament fees that you pay.

Now for how these FPP turn into the gold chips.  Every month begins by your first 120 FPP’s turning into a gold chip.  Then the subsequent gold chips are earned with fewer and fewer FPP’s until your 5th gold chip just requires 70 FPP.  The 6th gold chip is then free, and 7th and beyond all remain at 70 FPP.  Check out the table from Cake Poker below:

Now that you have your gold chips you can figure out how to use them.  There are always gold chip tournaments that you can enter on Cake to increase your gold chip totals.  Then every week or so there is a big tournament with a gold chip buy-in.  These tournaments range anywhere from $5000 guaranteed to $15000 guaranteed, just for using your gold chips.

You can also purchase Cake merchandise from the Cake shop for as little as 100 gold chips.  The Cake shop has a lot to offer, with XBOX 360′s, Ipods, Poker Books, and even entry into live tournaments.

To earn some of your own gold chips, sign up at Cake Poker using the Cake Poker Sign Up Code.

Cake poker has a ton of ways to get your money onto their site, but not all of these options allow cash outs as well.  Lets take a look at some of the most common deposit methods, what their limits are and if they also allow withdrawals through that same means.

The best way to deposit onto Cake poker is through one of the methods that allow withdrawals.  These methods include Moneybookers, Neteller, EcoCard, UseMyWallet and eWalletXpress.  Of these 5 options only UseMyWallet and eWalletXpress allow USA deposits and withdrawals, but players from other countries can use any of the above.  All the above methods have a $25 deposit minimum.

Players (including Americans) can also use more traditional means such as Visa or Mastercard to deposit, each of which has a $50 minimum.  Diners Club International is another common options with a $25 limit.  However, none of these methods allow withdrawals.

There are also plenty other country specific deposit options, but none of them allow withdrawals.  You can see the entire list here.

Cake’s maximum deposit is $500 per day, $1000 per week and $2000 per month.

If you are going to make a deposit make sure you use our cake sign up code, ‘THE500′ to ensure you get the best deposit bonus possible!