Global Poker Review

Global Poker is a social poker platform available in almost all US states. It has been gaining a lot of online traffic since it was launched in 2017, so I decided to register and verify my account, take those complimentary Gold Coins, and try my luck at the platform’s range of games and tournaments.

Here is what I have found.

Global Poker Summary

This operator welcomes players from 49 US states — all of them except for Washington. So if you are 18 or above and live in the continental part of the US, the Global Poker door is wide open to you.     

At Global Poker, you can play poker and casino games. Depending on your buy-ins, you can choose among different poker variants, including:

• Classic No-Limit and Fixed-Limit Hold’Em
• Pot-Limit Omaha
• No-Limit Crazy Pineapple

On the flip side, Global Poker also offers Surge Poker, Sit’n’Go, and Jackpot Sit’n’Go Tournaments. So, if you are a new player, you can start familiarizing yourself with poker by sitting at the table and observing others play. 

Upon registration, I received 5,000 Gold Coins, which I could use on games right from the start. Gold Coins have no monetary value, but you can still use them to play the games. Since this poker room follows the sweepstakes model, no real money is involved. This has been done to comply with US laws. 

However, you can use the real cash to buy one of the GC packages and receive free Sweeps Coins, which you can later exchange for real money.

• Note: To obtain Sweeps Coins, I had to verify my account by submitting the necessary documents. Then, I purchased a $20 GC package, which granted me 40 SC. 

Scrolling up and down on the operator’s easy-to-navigate platform, I encountered not only multiple banners promoting various tournaments, championships, and games but also sections containing detailed guides and manuals on how to play each game on offer. 

Global Poker even has a Poker School section containing almost 200 articles to elevate your poker skills. They range from beginner, ring game, and guest blogger articles to tournament articles. Lee Jones, a man who has been an avid poker player for more than 30 years, shares his thoughts through a series of blog posts. Another cool section includes Poker Lounge, a Global Poker community of prominent winners.

The operator didn’t leave anything to chance — in fact, it even came up with a guide showing you how to create, verify, and manage your account, as well as how to purchase Gold Coins and redeem them. 

Global Poker advocates responsible gaming and offers multiple options that will help you not go overboard. You can keep track of your play by not spending too much and employing gameplay management tools. These include session reminders, daily limits, and self-exclusion. 

I also found out that Global Poker doesn’t support HUDs (Heads Up Displays). Therefore, if you are used to building a database inputting your hands and tracking other players’ history across the site, you might want to go somewhere else. 

Is Global Poker Legit?

The Global Poker platform is a legit place for numerous reasons. First and foremost, it holds the license from one of the toughest gaming regulatory bodies — the Malta Gaming Authority. It is owned by VGW (Virtual Gaming Worlds) GP Limited, while VGW Games Limited operates its sweepstakes promos and games. 

Considering that there are many American-friendly online gaming platforms — not all of which are legit and reliable — it’s no surprise the legitimacy of Global Poker has been questioned as well. Nevertheless, this operator wants its games to be fair and transparent to players, which is why it talks so openly about its license on the website.

The platform was audited by iTech Labs in 2017 and 2021, thus confirming all of its games are RNG-powered using a Mersenne Twister Random Number Generator with background cycling. Furthermore, its sweepstake model is patented at the US Patent and Trademark Office. 

Global Poker follows a strict KYC policy to verify the players’ identities. The operator will ask you to provide a photo ID and proof of address to verify your account. It even goes the extra mile by utilizing a source-of-funds check. It is to confirm that the money used for purchasing GC packages comes from legitimate sources. 

To comply with US gaming laws and regulations, this operator has laid down the rule that no purchase of GC and SC or payment of any kind is necessary. 

Global Poker Deposit Bonuses and Promotions

Welcome Bonus

After spending only $20 on their first GC purchase, new account holders will be rewarded with a $40 worth of GC package. This promo includes 200,000 Gold Coins and 40 free Sweeps Coins but only after account verification. 

After you’ve created an account, there are four ways to obtain Sweeps Coins:

• By receiving them as a free bonus upon purchasing GC
• By entering and winning one of the giveaway competitions on the Global Poker Facebook page
• By claiming them as a daily bonus after logging in (don’t forget to verify your account before that)
• By mailing a letter to Global Poker — participants can receive five Sweeps Coins by sending a request on white paper and following the mailing instructions in legible handwriting.

Tournaments and Championships

The patrons will be surprised by the number of daily and weekly multi-table tourneys Global Poker features across the board. These include: 

• Sunday Scrimmage — This is a weekly tournament with a pool of SC50,000 and SC218 buy-ins. Those who want to observe poker action can afford it for only SC2.20. 
• Golden Scrimmage — This is another weekly tournament where the prize pot goes to the whopping GC20,000,000. Apart from winning Gold Coins, the winner will be featured in the poker room’s Hall of Fame and receive a T-shirt, a cap, and an enamel pin. Buy-ins for this tournament are GC110,000.
• Bonanza — To qualify for this Sunday tournament where the prize guarantees 5,000 Sweeps Coins and buy-in is SC0.11, you need to see 500 flops during the week. However, GC players are not required to do this, and they are allowed to participate in this tournament for the same buy-in amount. Those who fail to see 500 flops can participate in a satellite tournament called Daily SC500 Bonanza, where you have to see 50 flops with the same buy-in.
• Gold Rush — To be eligible to participate in this tourney, you’ll have to compete in a daily, weekly, and monthly leaderboard. It requires you to accrue points by playing GC ring games. For instance, you’ll earn five points on the leaderboard by winning a hand with a pot of GC100 at blind levels 10/20. 
• Daily Hundo — This daily tournament requires playing at least 25 hands in GC ring games. The players can opt for SC1 buy-in to win guaranteed SC100 or SC5 buy-in for the guaranteed SC500.

Global Poker proudly features four quarterly championships, each of which has an animal as a mascot. They are:

• Rattlesnake Open
• Grizzly Games
• The Goat
• The Eagle 

Participants compete for more than SC1,000,000  and a couple of GC millions. Aside from those, the winners get custom-made trophies, T-shirts, and avatars, among other things. Buy-ins for these tourneys go from SC3.3 to SC218. 

Global Poker Payment Methods

Even though playing online poker is not legal in many US states, Global Poker operates on a sweepstakes model, which makes it legit. This operator uses a virtual currency called Gold Coin, which is worthless outside the platform. Moreover, you can’t exchange it for real cash.

So, you might be wondering — how can I deposit money? That’s the catch. You can’t. Upon registration, you will be rewarded with GC5,000, allowing you to play, access the tournaments, and familiarize yourself with the basic poker rules while keeping your bankroll intact. 

However, if that is not enough to continue with your games, you can purchase one of the GC packages. By doing this, you’ll receive FREE Sweeps Coins as a bonus, which can later be exchanged for real cash (SC1 = $1). For instance, if you buy a $10 package, you’ll receive 50,000 Gold Coins, plus nine complimentary Sweeps Coins, which is equal to $9.

Unless you verify your account, you will have limited purchasing amounts. In that case, you’ll be able to buy $3,000 over 30 days. The users with verified accounts can purchase up to $12,000 over the same period. Verifying your account also accelerates the redemption process, gives you the possibility to acquire higher amounts of GC, and offers the opportunity to win real prizes.

You can redeem your Sweeps Coins within the Prize Redemption section. They can be withdrawn to your bank account, your Skrill account, or via Prizeout in the form of a gift card. Once more, to do this, your account needs to be verified.

• Note: It takes 48 hours for your request to be processed in Global Poker, plus up to five working days until the money becomes visible in your bank account. 

Sweeps Coins are valid for 90 days, after which they automatically expire. Before requesting a prize redemption, a player must have at least SC50. New York and Florida residents have a maximum redemption limit of SC5,000 for the prize won on one spin or play. The daily maximum redemption limit is capped at SC10,000.

Since you can only buy packages of Gold Coins and redeem Sweeps Coins, the only way to do it is via: 

•  American Express debit/credit card
•  Mastercard
•  Skrill

Another great thing is that this poker room allows you to purchase GC packages directly from your bank and sends your redemptions straight to it. There are no Global Poker fees for claiming your prizes. 

Global Poker Games

Global Poker is predominantly a poker room featuring only a few casino games. Here, you can choose among Ring Games, Sit’n’Gos, Jackpot Sit’n’Gos, and Surge Poker. Additionally, grinders can play Caribbean Poker and Bounty Poker. 

Ring Games

The Global Poker room offers ring games such as:

• Texas Hold’Em
• Crazy Pineapple
• Omaha H/L
• Omaha

They come in no-limit, pot-limit, and fixed limit formats. The rake Global Poker takes for all the games (Texas Hold’Em, Omaha, and Crazy Pineapple) is set at 5% of the pot. 

If you prefer playing poker at full speed, Surge Lightning Fast Poker might be the right thing for you. It is available daily from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. ET.

Global Poker offers a new ring game called Amplifier for the players who want to boost their winnings. Check out the Games section to find out more about it. 

Sit’n’Go Tournaments

I was pleased to see various Sit’n’Go tournaments at the Global Poker platform, where players can participate with buy-ins ranging from SC0.5/GC1,000 to SC10/GC20,000. These tourneys are currently only available for Texas Hold’Em. The operator offers a 3-handed turbo Jackpot Sit’n’Go with a chance of winning 200x your buy-in. 

Most of these Jackpot Sit’n’Go Tournaments follow the so-called “the-winner-takes-it-all structure,” except for the Sit’n’Go featuring the highest jackpot win (200x). Here, the winner takes 75% of the prize. The second place takes 15%, while the third one takes 10%.

Casino Games Available at Global Poker

If some players wish to rely on luck for a change, this platform offers 14 slot titles exclusive to Global Poker. You can play the following games:

• Diamond Panther                 
• Lightning Nudge
• Lucky Show
• Western Gold
• Big Goreela
• Super Hot 7s
• Hypernova
• Dragon’s River
• Triple Golden Double Stars
• Duskmoon Faire Jackpot
• Triple Golden Double Eagles
• Hallows Wilds
• Crusaders Gold
• Santa’s Riches

Two of these are progressive jackpots — in fact, jackpot buffs can have fun playing Big Goreela and Western Gold. Besides slots, the website features other casino games, such as Blackjack, Premium Blackjack, and Caribbean Poker. Upon opening the Slots or Blackjack sections, you’ll come across in-depth explanations on how to play each slot and blackjack game. 

Global Poker Mobile App

Global Poker is keeping up with the trends, which is why it has developed a native app called Global Poker Clock. The app is free of charge and can be downloaded through App Store and Google Play. It will help you set the blind levels or the number of players in your game. You will also get to switch among tournament structures, thus replicating the Global Poker Experience no matter where you are. 

Those who don’t want to download the app can always access the website through any major mobile browser since it has been optimized for Android and iOS operating systems such as iPhone and iPad. 

Global Poker Customer Support

In this day and age, when live chats and 24/7 customer and phone support are a must, Global Poker falls short of it. The live chat option is nowhere to be seen across the platform. 

So, when facing issues, you can contact the reps either through email ([email protected]) or through the Facebook page since they are quite active there. Additionally, there is an extensive FAQ section that you might consider going through first. 

Hopefully, Global Poker will work on introducing a live chat option down the road.

Conclusion – Should I Play in Poker Global? 

After conducting this review thoroughly, I can say that Global Poker has more pros than cons. Being among the few legal sweepstakes online poker rooms in the US and holding the license of the Malta Gaming Authority speaks loads about its legitimacy and trustworthiness. Besides, focusing almost completely on poker games and featuring only a few casino ones only facilitates the redemption and purchasing process. Players also praise the quality and volume of the game titles, quick loading times, and mobile-friendly platform.

However, there is always room for improvement. Payout time might be a bit slow for those players who can’t wait to take what they have rightfully won. I also hope the platform will implement live chat support and a few more banking options, including Bitcoin.

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