A Solid Review of ACR Poker from a Players Perspective

A complete review of the poker room, sportsbook and online casino ACR Poker, covering deposit options, how soft/tough the games are, and legalities.

ACR Poker previously known as Americas Cardroom is an online poker room that also has some casino games but mostly they just focus on poker. One of the great things about ACR Poker, which is part of the Winning Network along with Black Chip Poker and Ya Poker, is that they do serve American customers. ACR Poker is one of the largest poker rooms that serves US customers. They also have an incredible stretch in the limits offered. Players can play big bet games with a big blind of two cents ($2 buy-in) or with a big blind of $100 ($10,000 buy-in). And there is also a decent amount of games available at all of the limits.

Games available on ACR Poker include Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, and Limit/No Limit Hold’em.

Tournament players will be pleased to discover a lively tournament schedule with dozens of tournaments running every hour with buyins that are suitable for every bankroll. Sundays see a big buy-in ($200+) tournament with a million dollar guarantee that attracts thousands of runners.

Legalities

ACR Poker’s games have been certified by iTech Labs to be legitimate. Despite the fact that America’s Card Room serves US customers and many other online poker sites do not, there is really no law against having an online casino that serves Americans. The infamous Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) really just forbids credit card companies and other payment processors from facilitating online gambling purchases. Can any state really claim jurisdiction over the internet in an attempt to assert monopoly privilege over the business of gambling? Despite operating in somewhat of a legal grey area it does seem clear that ACR Poker operates an honest and legitimate online poker room whose games have been subjected to third-party audits to ensure that everything is above board.

Sportsbook

While primarily a poker site, ACR Poker does offer sports betting to their customers and takes bets as low as $1 or as high as $5,000. In terms of what sports you can bet on they offer NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, NCAA, Golf, Boxing, Tennis, NASCAR, Horses and a lot more. Betting on sports can be a pleasant diversion when you want to take a break from poker and I appreciate having more choice and selection in terms of the gambling offerings that a site provides.

Pros

So in terms of the good things about ACR Poker is there are a lot of different games to choose from and limits you can play at. There is action at nano stakes, micro stakes, low stakes, mid stakes and high stakes so whatever your bankroll or where you are playing you will be able to find a game that suits you. Another strong point for ACR Poker is the lively tournament action. ACR Poker runs a ton of tournaments across a wide variety of limits and with fields that are both large and small. Pretty much whatever type of tournament you want to play you will be able to find it on this site and if you are a volume grinder you will be able to play a decent number of tourneys in a day. If you are a cash game grinder then you will also be able to find a decent number of tables to select from at most limits.

The twenty days of free cash is a really nice promotion for lower stakes players. For people playing small buyin games, I am comfortable with saying it is the best deposit offer available right now because if you just make a small $25 deposit you will, over the next twenty days, get an addition $50 to play with.

Another strong point with this site is the rakeback and deposit bonus. Between the two of them, you can be playing with 40% rakeback. Considering that the two other largest US sites offer their regular players no rakeback this is a pretty attractive offer for higher volume players. Furthermore, ACR Poker has two sister sites, Ya Poker and Black Chip Poker, so even after you clear the deposit bonus on ACR Poker you can just clear it on these sites as well.

One really cool thing about ACR Poker is the fact that they have a straddle option. This is something that is very common in live poker but virtually unheard of in the online world, so it is really nice to see this innovation. A straddle is basically a voluntarily blind added to spice up the game and creates more action and if you can find a game where lots of people are straddling then it is generally going to be a more profitable one.

Cons

Overall I felt the games were a little bit tougher than on other US facing sites such as the Chico network and Bovada. They weren’t that different, just a slightly higher reg to fish ratio, probably because the rakeback and beast promotion does tend to attract some higher volume grinders. This is somewhat balanced out by the fact that these regs are playing so many tables at the same time that they aren’t going to be paying much attention to what is going on or adapting very well to changing conditions, but I still prefer to play in games which have more fish. On ACR Poker game selecting and finding the tables that are soft is very important.

The other thing this place could use is more casino games. ACR Poker is primarily a poker site and while they do have some casino games the selection isn’t quite as strong as it could be. They could also improve their mobile app to include all tournaments and cash games.

Promotions / Bonuses

One great promotion that ACR Poker is running for micro limit players is 20 days of free poker. To take advantage of this deal all you need to do is make a $25 deposit or more. From there you get a 100% deposit bonus, which is really a form of rakeback because you clear it by paying rake, but more important you get 20 days of free poker which is worth $50 in cash. So how it works is every day you have to log on and open your free poker box and it gives you usually $2 or $3. Sometimes you can get more. This money can be used for any gambling on the site.

So just by depositing $25, you can end up with $75 to play with. This is actually one of the best poker promotions for small players that is going around. You do have to log in and open your daily free cash box every single day to get the maximum benefit from this promotion.

There are some playthrough requirements on this free cash, but assuming that you do want to continue playing poker it is fine because this will just boost your bankroll and you can clear the play through requirements over time. For anyone with a small poker bankroll, this is really a great offer because virtually every other poker site just gives you a bonus that you clear by paying rake, which is a form of rakeback and usually not a very high one at that. This is actually a 200% match bonus if you go for the minimum $25 deposit. For someone who is playing higher stakes then it is not a big deal but if you were only playing say $5 buy-in games then this is an incredible promotion that will increase your bankroll and help even out the swings that come from playing poker.

For bigger players, ACR Poker does have a 100% deposit bonus up to $1,000 along with this free cash. As mentioned above this comes in the form of higher rakeback. ACR Poker also offers 27% rakeback to anyone who e-mails support and asks. Note your deposit and the rakeback do stack, so you can get both of them at once, albeit at a reduced rate, so the effective rakeback on ACR Poker when playing with both deposit bonus and rakeback is around 40%.

Another promotion for ACR Poker is ‘The Beast‘, which is a weekly rake race for high volume players where you can earn up to $2,500 cash as well as tournament tickets. There is no special qualification to begin you just start playing and if you play enough hands then you win cash prizes. $2,500 is for the highest volume players but you can also get smaller prizes as well. This is a pretty competitive race though and will require a ton of volume if you want to make the top prize.

Mobile

ACR Poker is currently in the midst of implementing a full-fledged mobile solution for their customers. At the moment you can only play $2 jackpot SNGs on their mobile app. So at the moment, it is better to say that the mobile solution is still in development but will be finished soon.

Banking

Players can deposit using Visa, Mastercard and cryptocurrencies. If you are from outside the US Moneybookers and Skrill may also be available. ACR Poker offers the widest variety of cryptocurrency deposits of any online gambling site.

ACR Poker takes over sixty different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Peercoin, Ripple, Tether, Novacoin, Counter Party, Dash and many more. ACR Poker accepts more cryptocurrencies by far than any other online casino or poker room and is a trendsetter in this regard.

Given that governments and banks are increasingly cracking down on online casino deposits, either banning them outright or charging usurious fees just to make a deposit, it only makes sense that cryptocurrencies will increasingly be used to make cashouts and withdrawals from online casinos.

Internet monies like Bitcoin have a lot of advantages over traditional transactions, in that they do not incur any fees and are irreversible. Given that online gambling purchases attract chargebacks at a significantly higher rate than other industries Bitcoin et. al offer a degree of security that credit card purchases do not for casinos and poker rooms. For cashouts, you can also request a check or receive a debit card that works at ATMs and for retail purchases, as well as accessing any of their myriad crypto options.

Support

ACR Poker has a number of support options for their customers. You can reach them over the telephone, through live chat or via e-mail. They also provide an FAQ for their customers which covers a lot of common questions or concerns that people might have and provides a lot of basic information about their games and how they work. The FAQ is a good place to go to get some background information if you have a small issue but aren’t sure it is necessarily something that needs to involve contacting their support staff. My experiences with ACR Poker support were generally positive and I found that when I did have an issue they responded quickly to address it which was nice.

Conclusion

ACR Poker is a very attractive option for US players and even just people from around the world. They’ve got games with buy-ins as low as $2 and as high as $10,000, so there is something for everyone. They also have really attractive rakeback for high volume players, and a nice promotion of 20 days of poker for low stakes guys to boost their bankrolls. While there are still a few things to be improved upon at this poker site when you look at the big picture they are doing a great job and there is a lot to recommend Americas Cardroom.

Frequently Asked Questions

Support and Contact

Support: A fast and very efficient customer support service is offered by the ACR Poker and they will always respond to your queries and questions in a very timely fashion.

Ryan Knuppel Author

Ryan (aka Knup) has been writing sports betting content for over a decade now. He covers anything and everything related to United Stats sports including football, basketball, baseball, golf and more. He has finished first place in several gambling related contests over the years which gives him instant credibility in the betting world. Ryan is a die-hard St. Louis...