I was recently approached by Johnny Black Poker to see what we thought about their site and tables. I hadn't seen or heard of them before, but when I went over to the site I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. The layout of the site is good and easy to navigate your way round. All the promotions, bonus offers and tournaments are all in an easy to navigation bar along the top.

The Download
The download was a decent size (14.5mb) and was ready for me to sign up to an account within a couple of minutes.

The minimum deposit is $20 and you can use the following methods to deposit your money:

* Neteller
* Debit/credit card
* Wire transfer
* Money Bookers
* Eco Card
* ePassporte
* Paysafe

I normally find that Neteller or Credit card are the most popular and easiest ways to move your money in and out of a poker room. Many credit card companies are now charging you interest from day 1, as it is classed as cash and not a purchase., so be careful.

The Tables
I have made a deposit to the site and had a bit of a wander round before deciding on a 5/10 NL cash table. Within a few hands of playing I was up a couple of $'s and decided to move over to a SNG game. The play on the SNG was a lot more reserved than the cash tables; but I found people really nice, although they didn't say much, there were not the kind of people that give you verbal abuse when you catch a nice hand. The graphics on the table are really neat and remind me a little bit of the tables on the playtech network. You can choose the avatar that you play, the style of deck of cards and also has some really nice in game commentary telling you the winning hand. I have read that they actually took photographs at their local casino to use on the site. If you do find the commentary annoying you can turn it off easy enough in the options menu.

There are plenty of tables to choose from and they offer regular freeroll tournaments to help boost your bankroll and help you improve your game. If you don't want to play for real money straight away, then you can play on the play money tables. I only tend to use play money tables to help get used to the layout and after a few games or hands will change to the real money tables. After all that's why most of us play and game play is always a bit different when real money is at stake.

Bonus Amounts

There are 3 main levels of bonus that Johnny Black Poker offer:

1. Make a deposit of $201 or more using bonus code BIG BONUS and receive a 100% bonus when 15 x the bonus amount is made in Poker Points within 90 days.

2. Make a deposit of $200 using bonus code 200 and receive a $200 bonus 3000 Poker Points are earned within 60 days.

3. Make a deposit of up to $100 using bonus code ONE and receive a 100% bonus when 1500 Poker Points are earned within 30 days. Minimum deposit is $20

Other Bonus' and promotions:

Happy Hour bonus

Enter the bonus code "HAPPYTIMES" when you make a deposit between 14:00 & 17:00 for a 10% reload bonus of up to $100!

As soon as you have earned 10 times the bonus amount in Poker Points within 30 days, you will get the bonus automatically credited into your account. Simple as that!

You can also earn poker point, which then allow you to enter in to the freeroll games and win real ££'s

My Thoughts

I think this site is a bit of a gem. I really like this site and so far the play on the tables really seems to suit my type of play. If you're new to poker or you are an experienced poker player then I would recommend you try out this site. There are plenty of games ready to you to jump right in and play and has a really good unique feel to the site, yet feels familiar very quickly. I think it will definitely suite your level of play, no matter if you are used to a local home game with your mates or if you want to try your hand at a multi table tournament (MTT) and work your way through the tables.

We have a freeroll game on the 13th December 2007 @ 7pm look for the game in the lobby section: ukpokertalk.co.uk & ukpokerreview.co.uk with a password of "chips"

For full t&c's please refer to the site you sign up through and never bet more than you can afford to lose. Overall enjoy and Happy gaming