The Honest Donkhouse Review

Donkhouse (also known as ze Donkhouse) is a totally free to play online poker platform where you can host cash games and single-table tournaments among your friends. It’s owned and operated by just one person; his name is Rob and he’s committed to providing users with a fun, free platform to compete at online poker.

How Does Donkhouse Poker Work?

It’s incredibly easy to get started plaing at Donkhouse. All you have to do is create an account for yourself, and get involved in Groups.

To register, all you need to input is your email, username, and password. Then, Complete the CAPTCHA and you’re ready to go.

Create a Group

Once you’re logged in, click on your username and select Groups. Here, you’ll see the Create Group button; click on that and enter your Group Name.

Now that you have a group, you can invite members. In your newly created group, scroll down to Members and you’ll be able to invite your friends by clicking on the Invite New Members button. There is no limit to the number of friends who can join.

You can enter either their username or the email that they used to sign-up for Donkhouse. Remember – usernames are case sensitive.

When a player has accepted your invitation, you’ll see them in your Members list. Beside each player’s name, there are buttons that will kick them out of the group or make them an admin.

Create a Table

From your Group lobby, Click on Create New Table. After you’ve named your table (it must be two or more letters long), you can choose a game type, set your stakes, decide how many seats you want to have, and make loads of different customizations.

Playing a Game

Getting started in a game is not entirely straightforward but, after you’ve done it once, it’ll be like second-nature to you.

• When you join a game, click on a seat
• Click the refill button in the upper left-hand corner of the screen
• Then click on Sit In
• When more than one player has selected Sit In, the first hand will begin

Donkhouse Poker Variants

At Donkhouse.com, there are many different types of online poker games to play. At the time of writing this review, the full list is as follows:

• NL Texas Hold’em
• Pot Limit Omaha
• Donkem
• PLO High-Low, Eight-or-Better
• PLO High-Low, No Qualifier
• Five-Card PLO High-Lo, 8 or Better
• Six-Card PLO High-Lo, 8 or Better
• Short Deck
• Five-Card PLO
• Six-Card PLO
• Irish Hi-Lo Omaha, 8 or Better
• Dealer’s Choice

These options are great for players who enjoy Texas Hold’em and PLO. So those of you who like your Draw Poker games and Seven-Card stud might want to look elsewhere.

What is Donkem Poker?

“Donkem” isn’t a variant that you’ll see at any other online poker sites, so the term has probably piqued your curiosity. I’ve got all the information about this fun poker game right here.

Donkem Poker is the signature game at ze Donkhouse. This is a 3-card PLO variant where players are required to use exactly two of the cards from their hands.

On the flop, there are two cards and the turn sees another two cards dealt. On the river, just one card is dealt. There is also a super-river but no action takes place here.

It’s a really fun variant, as you don’t often see 3-card PLO games that often. If you and your friends are looking for something new, it’s certainly worth checking out.

Donkhouse Poker Tournaments

If you want to play a tournament with your friends at Donkhouse, it’s pretty simple. When you’re creating or editing your game, select Advanced Options.

Scroll down to Blindes and Antes, and you’ll be able to “increase the blinds every [ ] minutes”. These are the intervals you would set for various types of tournaments:

• Standard: increase blinds every 10 minutes
• Turbo: increase blinds every 5 minutes
• Hyper-Turbo increase blinds every 3 minutes

Advantages of Playing at Donkhouse

When it comes to playing online poker using Donkhouse, the main advantage is the sheer amount of customization options available. In most home game platforms, you’re only given a few different variants to choose from and the customization options aren’t very in-depth.

In addition to setting the buy-ins, stakes and timebank, there are plenty other customizable features. These are just some of the options that you can enable while playing at Donkhouse Poker:

• Allow up to 6 straddles
• Enable up to 15 bomb pots
• Allow double boards
• Allow running it twice
• Allow rabbit hunting

Suggesting New Features

If you’re a player at Donkhouse and you’d like to see new features on this play money platform, you can suggest something for other users to vote on. Visit the Feature Requests page, scroll down to the bottom and click on Submit New Request. Your request will go on a list that the Donkhouse.com community can upvote.

Every player gets three upvotes every three days. If your feature suggestion is chosen, then you’ll get 10 extra upvotes.

Donkhouse will implement suggestions from the top of the list on an ongoing basis. You can keep track of the updates in the site’s blog.

Graphics and User Interface

Ze Donkhouse isn’t the prettiest or most lavish online poker site out there, but it’s got everything you need for a fun experience with your friends. When you’re in a game, everything is very basic, and the screen only features the bare necessities.

When you need to raise, call, fold or go all-in, everything you need is right in front of you. It’s easy to tell what position you’re in and whether you’re on the button, the big blind, or the small blind. However, it doesn’t get more sophisticated than that.

Of course, it would be great if there were a way to customize the look of your table beyond day mode and night mode. I prefer the look of night mode, as makes the screen seem a lot less bare. However, I understand that, as a play money poker platform that’s run by just one person, there may not be the capability to add different skins or chip designs.

When playing on this platform, everything runs very smoothly. You won’t experience lag while playing games, mainly because the interface is so simple.

Donkhouse.com on Mobile Devices

Like any good, modern online poker website, the Donkhouse site is playable from mobile devices. You can play in either portrait or landscape mode, but portrait might require you to strain your eyes a bit.

Customer Service and Community

Players will really enjoy being able to interact with the people who run the site so easily. The team is always on-hand to speak to players, whether you tweet them @DonkhousePoker or email them at donkhousepoker@gmail.com. 

If you’d like to get in touch with other players at Donkhouse, there is a Discord channel, but it’s not particularly active.

On occasion, you’ll get a notification from someone looking to join a game or someone who wants players for their own game. This doesn’t happen very often, though, and it would be great to see the Donkhouse Poker team encourage a bit more of a community spirit.

Ze Donkhouse Overall

Ze Donkhouse provides players with a simple and functional platform on which to play poker games online. It’s not the best-looking software out there and there are no promotions to take advantage of, but the world is your oyster when it comes to creating the exact kind of poker game that you and your mates want to enjoy.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Donkhouse.com grows in the future. There is lots of potential for this site to be the go-to solution for online home games, and it will be interesting to watch its expansion in the poker world.

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