Online Poker Reviews

DOYLE'S ROOM REVIEW (DOYLESROOM.COM)

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100% Doyle's Room Super Bonus Code: BTF1000. We've secured an exclusive deal with Doyle's Room to our new players a special Super Bonus: 100% extra up to $1,000, which is 5x the standard cap. This is the largest bonus Doyle's Room offers and is only availability to our players. Please note that you much use any of our links to Doyle's Room or bonus code BTF1000  in the "How did you hear about us?" field at signup otherwise you'll receive the standard amount.

  For US players, the initial Doyle's Room deposit options include major credit cards, MoneyGram, cash transfer, or bank wire. My first recommendation would be the credit card option for ease of use and lack of fees. While you make have to call in to the initial certification process the long-term benefit of an expanded cashier makes it worth it. Poker rooms supporting US credit extremely scarce in the current market so this is certainly a major positive for Doyle's Room. Players actually purchase prepaid phone cards with a major credit card and the funds are immediately transferred to the poker room.

Other options include the MoneyGram or cash transfer services, both of which offer service via online transactions or brick-and-mortar service in many grocery stores or pharmacies. The final option for Doyle's Room, bank wire, is a viable service but required visiting your bank branch in order to have it sent. Be sure to contact Doyle's Room support for the transfer instructions for these methods.

Overall:  4/5

Doyle's Room is the namesake online poker site for my favorite poker legend, Doyle Brunson. Amazingly, Doyle's Room is now on its fourth network since its inception. Their current home, the Yatahay network, has always accepted US players, hosted an extensive cashier, and offered a different "3D" software package. Unfortunately, it's always existed in the shadows of the monolithic US poker rooms and thus has always been hindered by paltry players numbers.

With those former dominant sites recently exiting the US market Doyle's Room and its parent network have experienced a boon in traffic, which in turn improves the entire package. Barren cash game numbers have picked up considerably with 40-50 active no-limit games common during peak times up to the $1/2 level. As is the case with other US poker rooms Doyle's Room tables are also looser than average, which is just as important as player quantity.

Overall, the main strengths of Doyle's Room include good customer service, fairly loose loose tables, the Doyle Brunson image, and a unique first-person software view. It still certainly can't boast the cash game or tournament numbers of the larger US poker rooms but Doyle's Room is certainly a viable option in a dwindling US market. The constant network switching has certainly been a source of frustration for Doyle's Room players but the end result (being able to serve all US players) makes it tolerable.

Bonus (100% up to $1,000) and Promotions:   4/5 

As mentioned at the top of the page, Doyle's Room is offering our players an exclusive increased Super Bonus with the highlight being the 100% deposit bonus. The maximum bonus cap has been raised to $1,000, which is actually 5x more than standard players receive. Please note that you'll need to use one of our links to Doyle's Room or bonus promo code BTF1000 in order to be eligible. This is one of the better deals online for larger depositors as $1,000 is competitive with some of the highest total-dollar bonuses.

The play-through requirements for the Doyle's Room Super Bonus are straightforward if not incredibly generous. Players have 40 days to earn bonus money and it is released into your real money account in $5 increments. Instead of a convoluted player point system Doyle's Room simply goes by raked hand count. A full raked hand is considered to have $1 taken as rake with partial points being given for smaller rakes. With 150 raked hands being required per $5 of bonus I estimate that $1/2 players should earn about $1-2 per hour per table.

The other main promotion at Doyle's Room is the $65,000 monthly rake race, which is surprisingly one of the most generous and easy to break into online. Players automatically earn points through cash game or tournament play and the top 350 players are given cash prizes and the end of each month. The top 100 all receive prizes over $100 with the top 12 all receiving over $1,000. With the overall Doyle's Room traffic still at a modest level it's fairly easy for regular players to earn at least a lower-level prize from this promotion.

Fish:   3.5/5

One of the biggest surprises that I ran into was both the maniacal and weak play at Doyle's Room. I assumed that most players who chose to join a legend-endorsed site without a lot of advertising would probably know a thing or two about poker. Of course, some of them do. However, the ring games are pretty loose, even up to the higher limits. The Doyle's Room software runs quickly and there are multiple raise buttons built in, both of which I feel contributes to the loose play.

I also suppose they think that they can play Doyle's aggressive style in low limit online play which simply doesn't work. Doyle himself will tell you that you should be playing the opposite style of the rest of table, which would be a conservative game at most tables on this site. At Doyle's Room you'll run into a lot of draws, a lot of trash hands, and a few learned players.

The play at no-limit ring games tends to support a combination of aggressive and weak players so don't try to limp into a lot of pots from early position as you'll probably just end up folding or paying more than you wanted to see a flop. As seems to be the case with most poker rooms still open to US players the Doyle's Room tables tend to run on the soft side overall with flop percentages exceeding 25-30% for full 10-player cash games.

Tournaments:   3.5/5

For years the main tournament draw of Doyle's Room has been the weekly Bounty event, in which Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, and Mike Caro compete with bounties on their heads. While larger poker rooms can easily boast a larger quantity of professional players Doyle's Room is one of the few to actually guarantee an opportunity to play with a few of them every week. Players are awarded immediate prizes of $150 for knocking out any of the bounty players.

Speaking from personal experience, it's always a huge thrill to draw one of the most respected poker legends of all time at your table. I've been fortunate enough to play with Doyle a few times and he's always been extremely friendly and welcoming. While I've never collected his bounty it simply feels different to battle with Doyle as opposed to some sponsored young gun from the more prolific poker room. The tournament itself has a guaranteed prize pool of at least $5,000 and numerous satellites run throughout the week for the Doyle's Room Bounty.

The rest of the Doyle's Room tournament schedule is still a work in progress with overall player numbers still developing. The addition of Doyle's Room to the network and the recent influx of US players has certainly helped provide an average of 4-5 tournaments per hour and several guarantees per day. The best values are probably in the daily $3,500 guarantees with a $25 buy-in, the $7,500 Saturday guarantee with a $50 buy-in, and the $15,000 Sunday guarantee for $150. The bigger tournaments draw 100-200 players with many of them offering rebuys and add-ons. Doyle's Room doesn't have stellar tournament offerings but they're certainly improving with some worthwhile guarantees for a few thousand dollars throughout the day.

Software:   4/5

As with other poker rooms on Yatahay Doyle's Room does little to change the 2D default software skin, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Overall, the software is perfectly functional without many advanced features or unnecessary bloat. The typical bird's-eye view works well enough and will look immediately seamless and familiar to anyone who has played online poker in the past 5 years. The table, card graphics, and animations are all sharp and tables can be resized on-demand. Game speed at Doyle's Room is above average with about 60-70 hands per hour being the average for full 9-handed games.

The former "3D" first-person mode at Doyle's Room was once the main selling point of the network but has now been removed entirely. This once-cutting-edge software allowed players to choose from a handful of 3D-rendered avatars such as robots, cowboys, and aliens to represent themselves at the table. Doyle's Room players actually looked through their avatar's eyes at the table, cards, and the collection of other avatars at the table. While still an interesting novelty that can be enabled at any time the years haven't been kind on the simple graphics, environments, and choppy animations. The 3D version was fun to play a session with occasionally but most Doyle's Room players will appreciate the new streamlined 2D mode.

US Payouts:  4.5/5

The Doyle's Room cashier has always been fairly extensive and that continues to be the case after the switch to Yatahay. Doyle's Room probably offers every viable US withdrawal option in paper checks, ACH transfer, bank wire, or cash transfer. I've withdrawn via paper check on the new network and have always received them by standard mail within 7-10 days. That's an excellent turnaround time in the current market and there are no fees involved. An interesting withdrawal method at Doyle's Room is by debit card actually issued by the poker room. The only negative to their payout system is the limitation of one withdrawal per week.

Customer Service:   5/5

Doyle's Room does seem to take customer service seriously and their number of options combined with my personal results earn them a top score. Of course, you can go the standard way and send them a direct e-mail with a typically quick response time. However, I find their live manager chat to be a much better in-game option. From the lobby you can click a link to chat with a representative in a private window or you can go directly to the Doyle's Room support for a live chat option. Finally, they do encourage players to call their toll-free number for support. I've used this a couple of times and have always had my issue resolved quickly without hassle. Very few poker rooms actually offer live telephone support so I am always sure to recognize those that do.

Player Traffic

When Doyle's Room first announced that they were moving to the Yatahay platform I had visions of the same-old ghost town that has been the bane of the network since its inception. Fortunately, the sizable Doyle's Room player base coupled with the fact that they're one of the only games left in town for US players has really reenergized the player numbers. During peak hours it's common to find 50-60 active no-limit Hold'em games up to the $2/4 level, which was unheard of in prior years. The largest guaranteed tournaments also draw almost 200 players. Those may not be eye-popping numbers but it is an excellent improvement. 

Best Features

Increased sign up bonus. I give Doyle's Room credit for offering a 5x bonus specifically to our players.

The Bounty tournament. The potential of playing with a living poker legend alone always makes this event worthwhile.

Loose tables. As with most other networks still allowing US players Doyle's Room features much looser-than-average tables.    

Game Selection: Hold'em, Omaha, Stud, Draw

Limits: Limit: 5c/10c up to $5/$10    No-Limit: 5c/10c up to $5/$10

Deposit Methods: Credit cards (via purchasing phone time), MoneyGram, cash transfer, bank wire.

Minimum Deposit: $20

Tips: The players at Doyle's Room are most likely fans of the self-titled poker legend. Unfortunately, they don't seem to understand that you can't play his super-aggressive style online against faceless opponents. You'll often have 2 or 3 of these players trying to run over you at any given table. Don't let them! Stick to your game and make them pay when you have a premium hand.

Many players at Doyle's Room seem to take every possible opportunity to draw to a hand so I rarely suggest slowplaying your medium-strong hands. On the converse, when you do hit a real unbeatable monster on the flop this type of player is great to slowplay. There is nothing sweeter than having the nut full house when someone hits their straight or flush draw on the river. You'll get all the action you want and you'll love it.    

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