Noble Poker is one of the Poker family of online poker rooms which includes, among others, CDPoker. The iPoker rooms utilize software developed by Playtech, a relatively new player in the online poker world. Just like PartyPoker and their “skins,” these iPoker rooms share the same tables (even the table names are identical) and the same players. For this reason, you may only be logged into one iPoker room at a time.
Noble Poker offers three types of poker games (Texas Holdem, Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo). NoblePoker does not, however, offer 7-Card Stud. Compared to many other poker rooms, Noble Poker has smaller ring game stakes that range from penny stakes to just $5/$10 max for no-limit and $10/$20 max for limit. NoblePoker’s multi-table tourneys frequently attract anywhere from several dozen up to 100 or 200 players (or more for their daily freerolls and WSOP satellites), 6 and 10-player sit & gos, as well as heads-up tourneys. The MTTs start with $2000 in chips for each player and the sit & gos start with $1000.
Noble Poker money transfer options include Visa, MasterCard, NETeller, FirePay, OnDemandFunds, Citadel, Moneybookers, EcoCard, Paysafecard, 900Pay, UseMyBank, Click2Pay, bank draft, and Wire Transfer.
NoblePoker is offering a great initial deposit bonus, read below to learn more about Noble Poker’s fantastic bonus offer (no bonus code needed!).
Noble Poker.com Software Interface/Usability
document.write;document.write; Noble Poker has the unique option of allowing the player to view the tables in either the common Top View or in the seated player’s point-of-view called Side View. Both look nice, but the Side View is especially neat. It has 3D animated character that actually move and speak their actions. If you haven’t seen this before, it’s worth a look.
poker onlineThe Noble Poker table window is quite large in the default Side Chat mode with the extra chat window to the right of the table view (see Top View image above). There is a Table Chat mode that gets rid of the extra side chat window and instead provides a small chat box within the table window. In Top View, this chat box is locked in the bottom-left corner. In Side View, it is a small, moveable chat box. There are a couple of problems with this small chat box, however. It covers up a good portion of the table view and, more importantly, it doesn’t allow you to type into the chat. Compare the NoblePoker Side View image above to the Side View image for the CDPoker review.
With the Noble Poker graphical hand histories showing images of all the cards, the histories look pretty, but functionally, I found them to be awkward to read and use (perhaps because I’ve gotten used to the textual hand histories). At this time, NoblePoker offers no easy way to retrieve specific hand histories, although the Noble Poker website claims you can request your complete game history by writing to NoblePoker customer support. This can be frustrating for studious players that like to review their past hands on a regular basis.
Notes regarding multi-tabling:
Only Top View allows for playing more than one table at a time. And Party Poker allows for up to 3 tables to be opened. However, NoblePoker has effectively ruined the usefulness of this ability by not allowing all the tables to be viewed simultaneously. Instead, you are still limited to one table window but there is a tab in the upper-left corner of the window for each open table (see Top View screenshot above). Switching tables is done by clicking its tab, but since you may only view one table at a time, this makes multi-tabling all but impossible. Just playing two tables, I found myself often caught in two different hands on two tables struggling to make quick decisions as I did not know what was on the board or what had taken place until I clicked that table’s tab.
Noble Poker.com Poker Room Action
Noble Poker does not have much action at the ring games yet. Noble Poker is not the constant circus-like action of PartyPoker with its 50,000+ players, but fairly playable. I could usually get a poker seat at a 6-max $0.50/$1.00 or any $1/$2 no-limit table without waiting and there are always active tables at the smaller stakes. The NoblePoker tournaments have a fair bit of action and you will usually see the tables at the most common stakes fill up without waiting very long. Noble Poker does have many empty tables, though, and NoblePoker has some growing to do before you could log in and sit down to active tables without having to wait.
Noble Poker.com Customer and Technical Support
Noble Poker has numerous email addresses for support, but the main one is support@noblepoker.com. Noble Poker also have a 24-hour support number, 866-847-4348, that operates 365 days a year. Also, there is an Online Support button in the NoblePoker Lobby window that offers live online support. I have used the email option and I’ve found that Noble Poker support was helpful and able to give me the answers I needed, though, it took them anywhere from 2 hours to 7 hours to reply.
Noble Poker’s Ease of Game, Ease of Making Money, Fish Rating
NoblePoker has a fair mix of poor and good players. There is the usual set of fishy, passive call stations chasing straights and flushes and such, but also some solid players setting traps and slow-playing in the ring games. You can find good games at Noble Poker if you’re patient and don’t mind occasionally waiting a short while to sit at an active table with the stakes of your choosing. Once NoblePoker attracts a larger player base, Noble Poker could be a great addition to your suite of fishing holes.
Noble Poker.com Bonus and Promotions
At this time, document.write;document.write; Noble Poker offers one of the sweetest first-time deposit bonuses around. With your initial deposit, NoblePoker will match 100% up to a $700 bonus! Earning the bonus sounds a bit complicated (though, likely not too difficult to accomplish — just hard to explain). See the document.write;document.write; Noble Poker website here for details, but basically, the bonus is based on the number of raked hands contributed to, and the stakes of that game. The bonus calculation only includes real money online poker ring games – not tournaments or play money games. At the lowest stakes acceptable – $.25-.50 blinds, you earn a “Crown”. Once you’ve participated in 125 hands at these stakes, you would earn 125 Crowns, and then be awarded a bonus of $10. The bonus is paid out in $10 increments, as soon as you hit 125 Crowns. This bonus is awarded daily. You can earn your bonus faster by playing larger stakes, ie – at $1-2 blinds, you earn 3 Crowns per hand, thus earning your bonus 3 times faster.
This is an incredible bonus program, and probably will not be offered for very long. The thing about the bonus is, there is no way to check your progress of raked hands yourself. The NoblePoker web page claims that players will receive weekly statements detailing their progress on earning the bonus, but I have never received one. Perhaps this is one of the features that is still in development. You can, however, use Noble Poker Online Support via the Lobby or email their support to get this info about earning your bonus.
All of the iPoker network rooms have what’s called an iPoints program indicated in the Cashier, but clicking on it says simply “coming soon” with no additional information provided.
Noble Poker has the makings of a good poker room. The bonus is awesome. And, as with all the iPoker rooms, the animated, talking 3D avatars are a fun diversion from the norm, but NoblePoker still needs to finish what they’ve started. Once Noble Poker completes the features that are still under development (and change their multi-tabling convention, i.e., a different window for each table!), perhaps they could attract more players.
Summary (7.08)
World-exclusive $800 sign-up bonus at 100% deposit match only via PokerListings! Noble Poker is the leading poker room in the new ‘iPoker network’ initiative by PlayTech. The games are loose with lots of casino players and there are high value promotions (especially considering the moderate volume of players). Noble Poker and the iPoker network has been successful in quickly building a strong network, with the strategic backing from the world’s second largest casino software provider. Noble Poker’s software has an innovative and good interface, with both standard 2D view and 3D view (side view with avatars) and colorful graphics. The functionality is good and the early minor glitches in the software are fixed now. There are Holdem and Omaha (High and High-Low) ring games, as well as heads-up, sit-and-go and multi-table tournaments.
Software and graphics (5)
Noble Poker’s software and players base is part of iPoker, which in turn is developed by PlayTech. The graphics are nice and clear and the functionality is good. Noble Poker and has buddy list function, game history function, player notes, lots of options for music/sounds/graphics/etc, pot- and no-limit ring games, live floor managers and all types of tournaments. On the negative side, there are some small glitches making the playability less than perfect and the playing tempo is too slow with high time allotment for players. As soon as traffic has been built up and some small software updates are done, this will be a quite nice room to play at.
Ring game traffic (4)
Noble Poker and the iPoker network have about 200-350 ring game players at peak hours in August 2005.
Tournament traffic (5)
The traffic at the tournaments is higher than at cash games when real money traffic can reach somewhere around 400-700 players at peak hours in August 2005.
Game variety (4)
Noble Poker has moderate game variety with Texas Holdem and Omaha Hi-Lo and High, which are available in both limit, pot-limit and Texas Holdem in no-limit as well. Table stakes are from $0.5/$1 to $20/$40 in the fixed games, with $0.25/$0.50 up to $5/$10 in pot-limit and no-limit versions. (The fixed limit Omaha games have a bit lower maximum limits) There are both heads-up, sit-and-go and fixed schedule multi-table tournaments.
Rake (6)
The rake at Noble Poker is actually better than the average online. The general policy is the standard 5% rake taken in increments up to $3. But on several types of tables there are lower max rakes. On fixed limit tables up to $1/$2 there is a $1 max rake. More importantly all tables with 2-3 players have a max rake of $1 and tables with 4-5 players have a $2 max rake – which also includes no-limit and pot-limit short handed games! There is a “no flop – no drop” policy for hands not reaching the flop.
Soft competition (7)
Noble Poker has quite soft games. Most of the volume is in the no-limit Texas Holdem games where the view flop percentage is normally is the 40-ies or 50-ies. The players are also quite passive, so it is quite easy to be a winning player. The potential for the iPoker network to build soft games is very good as they recruit from the PlayTech online casino base and with aggressive marketing.
Sign up bonus (8)
World-exclusive bonus deal to PokerListings users of up to $800 sign-up bonus at 100% deposit match. Bonuses are paid in $10 increments and paid out on a daily basis, which is also very good. Standard promotion is 100% deposit match up to $700 bonus. There is a 90 day time limit to reach the required hands. For each played hand (getting dealt cards) in a raked pot a player earns 1-4 crowns depending on table limits. $0.25/$0.50 blinds give 1 crown and $1.00/$2.00 blinds and up give 4 crowns. 500 crowns will give $10 bonus. Hence in order to clear all of the $900 bonus you need to have earned 45,000 crowns, which equals 11,250 participated hands at a $1/$2 game.
Loyalty bonus (6)
There is a “crowns system”, whereby players get entered into special free rolls and can get high value re-load bonus offers.
Promotions (9)
Special $800 bonus at 100% match for our users, see above. $2,500 private monthly free roll exclusively for players from PokerListings. To qualify for our priate free roll a player needs to reach the first 100 crown points during the month. Free roll is held first week-end the following month and invitation/registration is automatic. Overall there are a lot of promotions at Noble Poker as they are building up volume with their new network. There are quite a few free rolls. There are high hand and bad beat prizes. Recruit-a-friend earns you $25 per qualified friend, which is quite meager though.
Support (4)
Great options with 24/7 telephone support as well as live online and email support at Noble Poker. Noble Poker was recently acquired by Empire Online. Empire Poker is not known for good support, therefore we have downgraded Noble Poker until we see that they maintain the quality level they had before the take-over.