Chan Poker

One of the world's most famous poker players, Johnny Chan has an impressive 10 World Series bracelets to his name. From humble beginnings, Johnny Chan became one of the best poker players in Las Vegas and won the coveted World Series Main Event in 1987 and again in 1998. Now Johnny is hosting ChanPoker, where players can come and learn from a master and take advantage of generous first deposit bonuses and plentiful tournaments and cash games.

In Texas Holdem, the limits begin at a low $0.15/$0.30 at the Limit tables and climb in regular intervals through to an impressive $500/$1000. Pot Limit and No Limit Texas Holdem begins at $0.10/$0.10 and $0.05/$0.10 and moves in steady increments to $5/$10 and $50/$100 respectively. Omaha begins at $0.25/$0.50 for the Limit and Pot Limit tables and begins at $0.15/$0.25 for No Limit. The Omaha tables max out around the $25/$50 limit levels. The other games follow a fairly similar pattern, with most the limits focused around micro to low level play. The Stud tables max out at $50/$100, whilst the Draw tables only go up to $5/$5 (Pot Limit).

The rake at Chan Poker is in step with the industry standard and generally applied at a flat 5% of the pot, up to a maximum of $3. The lower limit games are raked at 5% but the maximum raked is between $1 and $3 depending on the size of the pot and the amount of players involved.

As part of the OnGame network, ChanPoker regularly draws around 6000 players to its tables during peak times. Player traffic is focused around the Texas Holdem tables (predominantly No Limit) although there is some action to be found at the Omaha and Stud tables. Tournaments and cash games are easy to come by in a large variety of limits, however the majority are focused on the lower limits; designed for budget play. The Draw tables are often sparsely populated, although action can be found during peak and off-peak times.

Players are greeted with a clean and well designed lobby; courtesy of the aforementioned OnGame network. Large, clear tabbed browsing makes game type, table and limit selection a breeze and the table/tournament description on the right hand side of the lobby is detailed and thorough and includes such statistics as players per flop, average pot size and hands played per hour. Pop-up help boxes will be very useful for beginners when navigating the toolbar and the lobby chat is also a welcome addition. When switching between tabs, the refresh rate lags slightly, although admittedly not long enough to cause any real annoyances.

The tables themselves are the standard OnGame fare, with some nice additional design elements courtesy of ChanPoker. The running hand details are displayed below the community cards, allowing players to see at a glance their current strongest hand. Hot keys and check boxes further help speed up gameplay, which already moves rather quickly. Animations are limited, which means gameplay speed is rarely, if ever, interrupted. Running totals of pot size and bets are also welcome, although they are somewhat on the small side and hard to see when placed on the felt background. The static avatars are a nice touch but only for show and the pop out chat box allows players to better follow the table conversation. As mentioned, games move quickly and the turbo options speed things up even more. The instant play feature is also great, allowing play on any computer, be it Apple, Linux or Windows.

ChanPoker has some convenient features and benefits from OnGame network membership in a number ways. These include:

• Hand Histories – Follow your play back to the start.


• Statistics – Generate detailed statistics on your play and improve your game.


• Full Screen – Switch to full screen to immerse yourself in the game.


• Player Notes – Assign icons with your own descriptions to other players.


• 4 Color Deck – Bright, glossy cards made even clearer with this option.

ChanPoker provides an email for all lines of support. Responses are quick and clear.