It has been released that the Cake Poker network was bought by the owners of Lock Poker, which is currently a skin on the Merge Gaming network.  Lock Poker is planning to rebrand the Cake Poker network to Revolution Gaming.  This may initially sound like a step backwards for Cake Poker, but when you look closer at the deal it becomes apparent that this is the right move for all involved.

Lock Poker has grown tremendously over the past couple years and by their own admission they have “outgrown” the Merge Gaming network.  Acquiring the Cake Poker network allows Lock Poker to forge their own path to success, which they have shown an ability to do over the past couple of years.  Cake Poker will become a skin on this larger Revolution Gaming network, which will provide players with greater liquidity, a better tournament schedule and more other poker players with which to start games at various stakes.  Basically Cake Poker will be hopping on the Lock Poker train to success.

The Cake Poker network was in need of a new direction and this deal will allow Cake Poker to give up the reins and focus on their online poker room and moving to different markets outside of North America.  With Lock Poker heading the Revolution Gaming network Cake Poker will immediately be involved with the largest online poker network that accepts US players as Lock Poker claims to have 40% of the Merge Gaming networks players.

Lock Poker is also planning to run many more player friendly promotions and provide a higher rakeback percentage than their players were receiving on the Merge network.  The Merge network put the kibosh on the LOCKOPS online poker series last month and many believe that this pushed Lock Poker’s hand towards acquiring the Cake Poker network faster than they may have otherwise.

For both Lock Poker and all of the Cake Poker skins this is an exciting time and a good move for both the business and the players involved.  You can expect to hear much more on this for the next month with Lock Poker officially changing the Cake Poker network to the Revolution Gaming network on June 1st.  You can learn more about downloading either site at pokerdownload.co.uk a great site that provides detailed downloading information and interesting room reviews.

For those of you interested in other online poker bonuses in order to build your bankroll should really take a close look at the Everest Poker bonus option.  Everest Poker offers all new players a $200 welcome bonus for making their first deposit at Everest Poker.  That’s right, there is no matching percentage.  A deposit as little as $10 will still receive a bonus of $200.  This post will investigate the offer further and see just how great the bonus offer at Everest Poker is.

Everest Poker Bonus Code

In order to receive the $200 bonus you must use Everest Poker bonus code WELCOME into the bonus section of your Everest Poker account within 14 days of creating an Everest account.  This is the best poker bonus code you can find online because it comes directly from Everest Poker, which guarantees that the bonus will be paid.

Everest Poker Bonus Clearing

Your $200 Everest Poker bonus starts in your Everest Poker bonus account and it is converted into real money by earning SUMMIT points playing at the Everest Poker tables.  For every SUMMIT point you accumulate you clear $0.06 of your bonus.  The $0.06 is immediately added to your account.  There is no waiting to accumulate $20 worth of SUMMIT points before seeing any of your bonus.  The bonus is cleared in small $0.06 increments which should keep a steady flow of bonus cash headed to your account.

Earning Summit Points – Cash Games

Summit points are earned based on the number of seats at the table (but not the number of participants).  Then the amount earned depends on the amount raked during that hand.  Here is a quick overview:

Summit points per $1 raked

2-handed table: 3.5 SUMMIT points
6-seat table: 1.4 SUMMIT points
10-seat table: 1 SUMMIT point

Max Summit Points

2-handed table: 3.5 SUMMIT points
6-seat table: 4.2 SUMMIT points
10-seat table: 3.0 SUMMIT points

From this the best way to clear your Everest Poker bonus at the cash game tables is by playing very tight at 6-seat or 10-seat tables.  If for every $1 raked, you contributed $0.10 at a ten-seat table then you receive $0.60 of your bonus for every $1 you contribute to the rake.

Earning Summit Points – Tournaments

You earn 8 SUMMIT points for every $1 that you pay in tournament fees at Everest Poker.  This means that every $1 you spend in tourney fees at Everest you earn $0.48 of your bonus.

Conclusion

The Everest Poker bonus is one of the best bonuses in the online poker industry because you receive the $200 bonus regardless of your initial deposit amount and the bonus is very easy to clear.  In fact if you played very tight at a 10-seat table you could likely clear the bonus while contributing less than the bonus amount to the rake.  This could be a very positive expected value venture for players that can succeed while playing tight.  Try it out and see if you can make some extra money for your Cake bankroll.

According to Poker News Daily Cake Poker is no longer accepting players residing in the state of Kentucky.  This stems from the fact that 141 gambling related domains were seized from their owners by the state of Kentucky in September.  The domains seized included domains from some of the top poker sites including PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, but also including Cake.

The court stated that companies the ceased taking customers from Kentucky would be left alone in terms of future legal action.  The Merge Gaming network was the first to stop accepting players from Kentucky, but allowed their current Kentucky players to continue to play.  Cake has recently followed suit.

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