Summary

US poker players, rejoice! Finally a proper poker room that allows bitcoin deposits and withdrawals. America’s Card Room (f.n.a. Doyle’s Room) is the flagship brand of the Winning Poker Network (a.k.a. WPN, f.n.a. Yatahay), the second largest US facing poker room in the world. Not only is there plenty of action to be found, with multiple full ring no-limit tables as high as $5/$10, their bonus and loyalty schemes are absolutely, totally sick. Throw in the series of Sunday Million Dollar tournaments, and you have got yourself an exceptional poker room, even without allowing bitcoin deposits. And with instant and free withdrawals facilitated by bitcoin? Why play anywhere else!?  (Unless, of course, you cannot get over the lack of apostrophe in the brand name.)

Opening an Americas Poker Room Account

After downloading the client, a user is prompted to login or open an account. The account opening process requires entering a bit of biographical data including name, address, telephone number, age, username and password, etc. For those used to bitcoin-only funnels, the information required seems a bit much, but for mainstream poker clients it’s par for the course.

Deposit and Withdrawal

After successfully registering, a click on “my account” at the top of the screen the cashier. There are a number of deposit options offered including Visa, MoneyGram and Western Union; withdrawal options include Western Union, MoneyGram, bank draft or a debit card issued by digitalexchange.eu. For our purposes we shall limit our description to the process of depositing and withdrawing bitcoin. It is, in any event, a superior solution when considered from the perspective of processing speed, simplicity, and cost to the user.

For US online poker players used to transacting using a number of clever payment hacks, the free, one hour processing time for bitcoin withdrawals will no doubt make you emotional.

Depositing Bitcoin at America’s Card Room

The process is relatively simple; after choosing to deposit an amount of USD in bitcoin, the representative rate will be displayed, along with ACR’s bitcoin wallet address. The rate displayed is only good for 15 minutes – failure to send the bitcoin within this time period will result in a changed rate of exchange, and a different amount of cash from what was initially displayed. The exchange rate used is apparently a blended average taken from a few different exchanges.

Withdrawing Bitcoin

The process for withdrawing bitcoin is basically the mirror opposite of depositing. A user must simply select the amount to be withdrawn, in USD, and enter a receiving bitcoin address. America’s Cardroom will then take a blended exchange average, and send the equivalent amount of bitcoin to the user. Please note: bitcoin withdrawals should only be requested between the hours of 7:00am and 11:00pm est. This is most likely due to the fact that the process is currently being done manually, by support staff.

Example

1. Player deposits 1.5 bitcoin at a rate of $270, and is credited with $405 in his account.
2. Player does well, and ends up doubling his money to $810! At the same time, the cost of bitcoin has dropped moderately to $260.
3. The player requests a bitcoin withdrawal for the full amount of $810. At the rate of $260 per bitcoin, AMC sends the player 3.115 btc, which appears safely in his bitcoin wallet no more than an hour after the request is sent.

Americas CardRoom Welcome Bonus – 100% up to $1000!

First time depositors are offered a massive 100% up to $1,000 matching bonus. The bonus vests at the rate of $1 for every 27.5 Award Points earned, which comes out to 20% rakeback. When bonus dollars are earned, they can be released into the wallet through the bonus management section, which can be accessed from rewards->bonus. Within this section players will also find details on their bonus expiration date (40 days after reception), the amount released and the amount pending.

Award Points

5.5 award points are earned for each dollar paid in multi-table or sitngo tournament fees. Cash game players are awarded 5.5 points for every dollar in rake contributed to the pot. Rake is allocated to players based on a formula known as “weighted contribution”, which essentially divvys up the rake to players based on their contribution to the pot. So for instance, a small blind who folds preflop will earn less points than a player who calls a reraise on the river. This distribution mechanism encourages a looser style of play.

America Card Room’s Elite Benefits

Rank Points

5.5 rank point are earned for every $1 of rake contributed. Unlike the award points described above, however, rake is attributed to players based on the dealt rake method. According to this method, every player that is dealt cards in a particular hand, regardless of subsequent action, is allocated an equal share of the rake taken from the total pot. So, using the same example described above, a small blind who folds preflop will earn the same number of points as a player who has reraised on the river. Matter of fact, even the player in the cutoff position who folds before contributing anything to the pot will earn the same number of points. This method incentivizes an extremely tight style of play, and is favoured by more professional poker players.

Rank points are used for two different purposes. First, “medals of achievement” and “levels of distinction” are given to players based on the number of rank points earned over the course of a calendar year. We detail the levels in the below table.

RPs	Reward	RPs	Reward	RPs	Reward	RPs	Reward	RPs	Reward	RPs	Reward
750	$10	10,000	$50	40,000	$50	90,000	$100	600,000	$3,600	1.75	$9,200
1,500	$10	15,000	$50	45,000	$50	100,000	$200	700,000	$2,800	2M	$19,200
2250	$10	20,000	$50	50,000	$100	200,000	$2,600	800,000	$4,200	2.25	$9,200
3000	$10	25,000	$50	60,000	$100	300,000	$2,800	1M	$20,000	2.5	$9,200
4000	$10	30,000	$50	70,000	$100	400,000	$3,000	1.25	$9,200	2.75	$9,200
5000	$10	35,000	$50	80,000	$100	500,000	$3,200	1.5	$9,200	3M	$19,200

Rank Points are also used to segment players into different categories, each with different benefits. There are six different categories, shown in the table below.

Rank	Time Frame	Points Required	Combat Point Multiplier
Lieutenant	Monthly	None	1 * RPs earned
Captain	Monthly	750	1.5 * RPs earned
Major	Monthly	3,000	2 * RPs earned
Colonel	Monthly	7,500	2.5 * RPs earned
General	Annual	100,000	3.5 * RPs earned
5-star General	Annual	1,000,000	5 * RPs earned

You will notice that the general and 5-star ranks are granted based on the rank points earned over the course of one calendar year. Players can keep track of both their monthly and annual point totals in the rewards tab of the poker client.

There are a number of different perks associated with each rank, most of which relate to what prizes or cash amounts are unlocked for purchase within the store. And these prizes or cash payments are purchased using combat points. A player earns one combat point for each reward point earned, multiplied by the aptly named “combat points multiplier” displayed in the table above. Of course, the more combat points earned, the more that can be purchased in the store.

Value Summary

Let’s break this down into dollars and cents. In the first month of play, 750 RPs are earned, which correlates to a rake amount of $136. This propels you to the rank of captain, offering you a Combat Point multiplier of 1.5 – rewarding you with 1125 CPs. Excellent!

1. You are now able to purchase $10 in cash from the store.
2. Additionally, as you will no doubt remember from the medal of achievement table above, you have also earned yourself the first medal entitling you to an additional $10!
3. And of course, you are still working on that massive sign up bonus – $1 for every 27.5 points, total of 750 points…carry the one, no that’s not…ah yes, an additional $27 in cash.

So, a total of $47 has been earned from a rake amount of $136, or 35% effective rakeback!

Americas Card Room Promotions

As if ACR’s crazy, sick loyalty program isn’t enough, these guys keep rolling it out with a set of massive promotions. We detail our favorites below.

$5 Million Dollar Guaranteed Tournament

You’ve heard right, from September 13th until the 25th of October, ACM is hosting a series of five one million dollar Sunday tournaments, with a first prize of $200,000. Satellites to the $500+$40 tournament run daily, with a number of freerolls, and different level buy-ins available.

Freerolls on Demand

Think of these $10 freerolls as 270 player sitngos – as soon as the tables fill up the action begins! No more waiting around for a predetermined start time – just drop in and get started as soon as the tables close. What’s more, the top ten point earners in each week receive a free entry to a Sit and Crush tournament, with the top finisher receiving an entry to the Sunday $215 buy in MTT!

Rake Races – The Beast and Sit & Crush

Each week, America’s Card Room allocates a percentage of the rake collected from each cash game and sitngo and distributes it to two different prize pools – The Beast and the Sit N Crush . At the end of the week, the prize pool is allocated to the highest point earners, depending on the size of the pool. Beast winners are also rewarded a Million Dollar Satellite Seat, while Crush rankers are given a seat into the Tournament Package Jackpot Tournament.

Software and Games

America’s Card Room is the flagship brand on the Winning Poker Network, which has pretty decent liquidity. They offer fixed, limit and pot limit holdem, Omaha, 7 Card Stud, Telenisa and 32 Card Poker. Most action can be found at the N;o Limit Holdem and pot limit Omaha tables, While it is hard to find action above $2/$4 NL holdem, there are plenty of 6 way table at and below these limits, as well as very active PL Omaha tables. As can be deduced from the promotions descriptions, there are a lot of juicy tournaments and sit n gos as well, and the cash games naturally increase around these times.

The client itself will look familiar to online poker players. It has the old school tab selection layout allowing for easy, if tired, navigation between game types and limits.

 

Mobile

Alas, players must content themselves to play only on their desktop or laptops – and make sure not to use an apple computer at that! America’s Card Room is download only, and works strictly on windows products.

Customer Support

24/7 email, live chat and toll free phone support. Whatever the issue, whatever the time, you will can get someone on the line.

Bottom Line

Kudos to America’s Card Room and the Winning Poker Network for waking up to the advantages of integrating bitcoin as a payment option for US players. No more waiting weeks for withdrawals, or cashing strange checks that make you blush at the bank teller. No more 5% processing fees, or monthly charges for preloaded cards issued by dodgy companies you have never heard of. Instant deposit, instant withdrawal, no fees, and tons of action from those people still using MoneyGram to fund their accounts.

And did we mention the crazy value that ACR provides its players in terms of cash, prizes and tournaments? It almost makes you feel like you are taking advantage.