VCpoker.com has been getting a lot of new press recently and this has been helped by them hosting the student poker championships. This is very good marketing, as everyone who plays poker knows that up and down the country nearly every UK University has some form of poker club. You will find that many of the people on our forum www.ukpokertalk.co.uk are students who are members of their university poker groups, or play regular online at one of the many sites. This helps us review the top poker sites for you.

So I popped on over to www.vcpoker.com to see what all the fuss was about. I wasn’t disappointed; their site was very simple to navigate round, easy to read and they offer plenty of help. This includes on not only understanding what hands will beat what, but also how to play certain hands and different types of tournament available on the site; more on this later.

The download
Downloading the required software was very simple, it took less than 1 minute to download and install the software. Signed up to a new account (which didn’t require a deposit to be made) and I was away playing on the play money tables. Very easy and had no trouble or complications, very easy step by step instructions. If you do get stuck though, there is help at hand 24/7; either on the phone or online via a chat window.

The tables
The play money tables only offer are re-buy in tables, unlike pkr.com who offer play money tournament tables, where you can win an actual table. So there is no chance to get the feeling from winning a tournament or to practice how to play a tournament. In all fairness though not many people I have spoken to find the play money tables of any use when it comes down to learning how to play for real. They are good for total newbies who want to learn the basics of how the game works, but it’s not really why you signed up, the real reason was for the real money tables.
The real money tables offer all of the normal games you can think of. The buy in ranges from $1 to $500, so no mater what you fancy there will be someone ready to play against you. You can play in: Single Tournament, Multi Table Tournament, Satellite Tournament, Speed Tournament, Re-buy Tournament and the VC Poker Cup. All the tournaments on offer are fully explained on the site, so you know what you’re getting in to. They even offer the chance of winning $10m in an online tournament.

Bonus Amounts
As with every other poker site out there VCpoker.com is no different in offering you a sign up bonus, which has qualifying conditions attached. However they also offer you a regular bonus of up to 15% once you have qualified for your sign up bonus, which is something I haven’t come across before. The sign up bonus offers up to $750. Full details and t&c can be found on their site and may vary from time to time.

My thoughts
I like the site, it is very easy to follow and also plenty of help from both the 24/7 help or by reading up on the “Poker School” area of the site, which will help you understand different types of poker and how they are played. When I had a brief go on the play money tables though, I found them just about the same as any other site with nothing special to tempt me in to playing on their tables over any other site, well apart from the chance of winning $10m. I did like the fact that they offer satellite games, which allow you to qualify for higher stake games, who knows you could even win your way through to the WSOP. Well worth a look on the site and if you are looking for a good all round site to learn poker on then this is certainly not one to be missed. It’s not a site I feel I would play on regular, but I may pop back from time to time to see what’s happening.