History of Bwin Poker
Party Poker is a historic poker network that dates back to the beginning of the online poker boom in the early 2000s.
The Party Network is owned and operated by Bwin.Party, a publicly-traded company. Not surprisingly, Party is an incredibly stable network that has a long and shining history of reliable cashouts and fair player treatment.
Party Network closed its doors to US players before Black Friday, however, it is slowly reopening to US states as a licensed online poker provider. Bwin is a large skin on the Party Network that has an excellent history of value, service, and reliability.
| Network: | Party |
| Skin: | Bwin |
| Website: | https://poker.bwin.com |
| License: | Gibraltar |
| VIP: | up to 40% VIP |
| Sign-up Bonus | 100% up to $100 |
| Extra Promotions: | |
| US Friendly: | No |
| Skrill Loyalty: | Yes |
| P2P Option: | No |
| Rake: | See Below. |
| Rake Calculation Method: | Weighted Contributed |
| Deposits and Withdrawal Options: | Paypal, Neteller, Skrill, Instadebit, Bank Transfer, Credit Card, Moneta.ru, Webmoney, Ukash, Paysafecard, Clickandbuy, Check, Abaqoos, SOFORT and many more |
| Support Details: | Email: support.en@bwin.com |
| Live Chat | Yes |
Traffic and Games
Party caters towards European players, and so traffic peaks during evenings in CET time and on weekends. Despite the heavily European player base, all games run in $USD. Recreational players are common at all limits and game types.
NLHE traffic is excellent, with dozens of tables at every limit from microstakes to lowstakes.
At peak times roughly 30 tables of NL100, 25 tables of NL200, 15 tables of NL400, 10 tables of NL600 and 8 tables of NL1k run. About 1/6th of the NLHE cash game traffic is full ring with the rest being 6 handed tables. NLHE HU traffic is solid, with 2-3 games running and dozens of games waiting at every limit.
Party also offers fastforward poker from NL4 to NL100. Traffic is solid at each game with up to a player pool of around 50 players at NL100 during peak times.
PLO microstakes traffic is decent, with several tables running at each limit from PLO2 to PLO10. Traffic picks up at PLO25 where about 10 tables run during peak times. 4-6 tables run at each limit from PLO50 to PLO200.
Peak PLO traffic at mid and high stakes is good, with 6-8 games running at PLO400 and PLO600 combined and another 5-6 tables running at PLO1k.
Tournament traffic is excellent, with dozens of major tournaments running each weekend. 15K and 10K GTD tournaments of different formats run on both Saturday and Sunday, while Party’s flagship Sunday $200k Guaranteed NLHE and $5000 Guaranteed PLO tournaments attract a much larger player pool.
Several smaller tournaments with guaranteed pools of 1k-3k run as well. SNG traffic is decent as well, with several games running at many stakes and formats.
You can view monthly tournament schedules for Bwin Poker as well as many of our other partners at our blog here.
Software and Tracking
Players familiar with the older Party software will be shocked by how beautiful and functional the new version is. The lobby is incredibly attractive, easy to navigate, and detailed information can be toggled on/off.
Advanced filters are available to find your game of choice and the search function helps locate your favourite fish to play against.
Every standard gameplay option is available, and a huge number of advanced features are available to make multitabling easy.
The software can be toggled to support multiple monitors or give players special notifications in big pots or when they have strong hands.
Custom betsizing sliders as well as keyboard shortcuts are natively supported by the software. Table tiling is customizable and table graphics can be customized to your liking.
Overall, the party software is excellent and multitabling is a breeze.
The Party software is natively supported by Holdem Manager and Pokertracker and a variety of third party tools and customization options are available.
Party also offers a mobile and browser version of its client which can be convenient, but more importantly significantly increases the network’s ability to attract recreational players.
Cashier and Payment Options
Paypal, Neteller, Skrill, Instadebit, Bank Transfer, Credit Card, Moneta.ru, Webmoney, Ukash, Paysafecard, Clickandbuy, Check, Abaqoos, SOFORT, Diners Club Card, Electronic Transfer, Entropay, eps, Fast Bank Transfer, giropay, iDeal, Instant Banking, Kalixa Pay, Mister Cash, MyMonedero, paybox, POLi, Przelewy24, QIWI, Teleingreso, and Ticket Premium are accepted as payment options.
Cashouts are always processed reliably, and usually within a few days to e-Wallets.
Rake Structure and Rakeback
| Blinds | Number of Players | Rake | Maximum |
| NL25 to NL1K | 2 | 5% | $1.00 |
| 3-4 | 5% | $2.00 | |
| 5-10 | 5% | $3.00 | |
| NL2-NL10 | 2-10 | 5% | $1.00 |
Rake at Bwin Poker follows the structure above and is calculated using the Weighted Contributed method.
Bwin offers a First Deposit Bonus of 100% up to $500 clearing at 25%. Furthermore, until the end of August players are eligible for Bwin’s Bonus Builder.
Every other week, players play to determine the amount of the bonus they will grind for the following week. The bonus amount is determined according to the following table:
| Level: | Points: | Bonus: |
| 1 | 5 | $5 |
| 2 | 10 | $10 |
| 3 | 50 | $50 |
| 4 | 300 | $150 |
| 5 | 1.000 | $250 |
| 6 | 5.000 | $1000 |
Players then have the next 7 days to clear the bonus by raking 12 times the bonus amount in points (6 times the bonus amount in rake, making the bonuses worth roughly 17% in Rakeback. The following week players must grind to determine the bonus size they will play for the week after.
The VIP system at Bwin operates with 3 monthly VIP levels. For every $1 in rake generated, 2 Status Points and 2 Market Points are awarded. Status points determine one’s VIP level according to the table below:
| VIP level: | SPs required: | Rake required: |
| Green | 0 | 0 |
| White | 400 | $200 |
| Yellow | 1,000 | $500 |
Bonuses are purchased using market points. Please note that a certain number of MPs need to be generated to release the bonus, however, these MPs are not consumed and can be used to purchase further bonuses.
MPs can be used to purchase bonuses according to the table below:
| Bonus: | MPs to Purchase: | MPs to Release: | Cashback*: |
| €40 | 1,000 | 200 | 40% |
| €125 | 2,500 | 625 | 40% |
| €250 | 3,500 | 1250 | 40% |
| €500 | 5,000 | 2500 | 40% |
Players who significantly exceed the requirements of the VIP Yellow tier can be upgraded onto Bwin Premium. Bwin Premium provides exclusive, higher-value bonuses to its largest rakers.
Conclusion
Party Poker is a historic poker network with a shining reputation in the poker industry. NLHE traffic is excellent and PLO traffic is good, with recreational players being common in all games.
The new software is excellent and the VIP system provides excellent Bwin Poker cashback. Overall, Bwin Poker is an excellent choice for players of all games and limits who are looking for excellent software, massive value and reliable service.
