The Winning Poker Network
The Winning Poker Network is the second-largest available to US players. This network has a long history. It started in 2001 as True Poker, before allowing partners as part of the ‘Yatahay Network’. Its current format as the Winning Poker Network started after Black Friday. The WPN poker sites include big names such as America’s Cardroom and Black Chip Poker, as well as many smaller skins.
For US players, the tournament schedule is the biggest of any network. There are regular tournament events on WPN, plus a weekly million-dollar guaranteed tournament. Cash games now include the popular short-deck game 6+ Hold’em.
With deposits in more than 60 cryptocurrencies plus credit cards and transfers, you’ll have many ways to take advantage of the Winning Poker Network deposit bonuses. Here is how the information on WPN is laid out:
- Network and Software Overview
- Individual Sites or ‘Skins’ on the Winning Poker Network
- Poker Games and Variations
- History of the Winning Poker Network
- Wrap Up: Reasons to Choose WPN?
Winning Poker Network Overview
With more than 2,000 cash game players at peak times, WPN is a clear second in the rankings for US players behind the PaiWangLuo Poker network. There are games with huge buy-ins ($50/$100 blinds) as well as a large number of micro-stakes games.
Software used by WPN sites was first created in 2001. While this has enjoyed many design upgrades and new features, it remains retro in look and feel. You’ll get to choose an avatar from a long list of entertaining cartoon-like images when you play.
There are a lot of ‘skins’ on this network. The biggest and most reputable of these are owned by the Winning Poker Network themselves. These include America’s Cardroom, Black Chip Poker, Ya Poker and True Poker. These are located and licensed in Costa Rica. Many smaller WPN skins, often with country-specific branding, also run.
All games are tested for fairness by iTech Labs. This independent auditing company plays millions of hands and have certified the deal as completely random.
Payment Options at WPN
Many US poker networks now allow deposits and withdrawals in cryptocurrency. While most allow Bitcoin plus a few other popular coins, the Winning Poker Network welcomes 60 different cryptocurrencies. Your deposit will be instantly converted to dollars, which you’ll use at the tables.
Other deposit options include credit cards, money transfers and player-to-player transfers.
WPN scores well in rankings of poker site payment speeds. You can withdraw using cryptocurrency if you deposited this way. The main alternative is a paper check, which WPN will have couriered to your door. There is a $65 fee per check, which is waived once per month.
International players can use a selection of eWallets for both deposits and withdrawals.
Winning Poker Network Skins
There are two types of site on the Winning Poker Network. These are the big sites, which are owned by the network, and a number of smaller sites, which most players have never heard of. With the main ‘skins’ having a good reputation, there is little benefit to joining via an unknown brand.
America’s Cardroom
This is the best-known brand. It has a long history and returned online after a break in 2011, taking over Doyle’s Room in the process. This site started the dual leader board promotions; ‘the beast’ and ‘sit n crush’. You’ll find regular promotions, and free tournament tokens (spread over many days) in addition to the $1,000 welcome bonus.
Black Chip Poker
Another long-running site, Black Chip is marketed to more ‘serious’/higher-volume players. They offer rakeback as an alternative to their regular benefits system. Games and leader boards are shared with America’s Cardroom – including the generous $1,000 welcome offer.
Other big-name skins on the Winning Poker Network are True Poker and Ya Poker. The latter is focused on Latin American markets.
WPN Poker Games and Variations
For this review I opened up True Poker. With the exception for promotions and whether or not the site offers casino games and sportsbetting, everything else should be the same from one skin to next. Compared to the other US networks, Winning Poker stands out in two ways in terms of games. First, the tournament schedule is huge compared to the other WPN poker sites. Big online events (the ‘Online Super Series’) and regular $1m guaranteed Sunday tournaments are the highlights. Second, WPN like to innovate with new poker variations and ideas.
On the Winning Poker Network you’ll have the choice of holdem, omaha, 7-card stud, 32-card poker and Telesina. The stakes start at .05/.10 for holdem and .01/.02 for omaha. It’s interesting that holdem is not available at .01/.02. Maybe they’re taking advantage of the popularity of holdem, while trying to encourage players to try out omaha for cheap?!
If you prefer tournaments, one word of caution – clicking the tournament link opens a new window. This is unnecessary, and annoying since you can’t close the original window without closing the site entirely.
Buy-ins for tournaments will range from freerolls to $200, and you can choose from variations including guarantees, satellites, freerolls, live event packages, knockouts, shorthanded, turbo, hyper turbo and deep stacks. True Poker has a lot of SNGs, but it doesn’t look like they receive a lot of traffic to them.
You can also access the casino and sportsbook from the lobby.
All in all, the network has a good selection of games and stakes, but they lack the traffic to keep these games running consistently. That’s the biggest mark against them, hands down.
Tournaments
No other US site has as many tournaments, or as many different structures as WPN. These include ‘The Venom’, a Sunday Major with a $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. You will find qualifiers to live events including the WSOP, a packed schedule of low and mid buy-in games, plus regular tournament events. The events are headed by the semi-regular ‘Online Super Series’ games. These last around one week and have many big guaranteed prize pools.
Cash Games
Both micro-stakes players and high rollers are catered for on this US poker network. No-Limit Hold’em dominates. You can choose short stack or deep stacked games, and the usual two, six and nine-player formats. PLO does get busy, though for PLO8 and Stud, you’ll need to log in at peak times to get much action.
6+ Hold’em
A recent addition to the network, this format removes the cards 2 through 5 from the deck. So far, this is proving to be a popular game, with strategy and hand-ranking differences giving players a fresh challenge.
Sit N Goes
Aside from qualifiers to live and online events, the Sit N Go selection is quiet on this network. Games start at just $1.50c, and include turbo, hyper turbo and double-or-nothing variants. You can also play lottery Sit N Goes with random jackpots. These are three-handed games, where the prize pool is determined after the game starts.
Lobby and Table Features
The lobby is simple enough to use. At the top of the screen you have tabs for each game, variation and limit. You can also open up a filter which lets you narrow down your search to table size, buy-in, stakes and number of seated players.
Regarding the tables, the themes look good. There are 7 themes you can choose from. I like them because they’re not too cartoony or bright. Instead the colors are dark with smooth gradients. I prefer these tables because they’re not too distracting. They’re great for grinding all day.
The options you’ll find here are standard – things like 4-color decks, sounds, preferred seating, rebuy and top off options. You can stack, tile or cascade your tables too.
What I like most is the hand history replayer. It’s on par with PokerStars. You can review all of your previously played hands, and even upload hand histories. That’s a neat feature you won’t find elsewhere.
Other than the hand history replayer the only unique feature that stuck out to me is the option to straddle.
Last thing – poker tracking programs are compatible and allowed on Winning Poker skins.
What I Like
What I like about the software on WPN is that it’s easy to use and looks good. There are plenty of games, variations and stakes to choose from too. But my favorite part is the hand history replayer, and the ability to upload entire hand histories for review.
What I Don’t Like
Easy – skins on Winning Poker need to add a native Mac download. There’s no reason not to have one, and I would bet that it affects their traffic.
Software Compatibility
The skins on the Winning Poker Network only have software for PC users to download. They don’t have a flash or java version either. That’s crazy in this day and age, considering that iPhone and iPad poker has grown year over year. OSx has an 8% market share according to Wikipedia , and combined with the iPad a 15% share of the computer market. There’s no reason not to have a native Mac download.
Needless to say they don’t have any mobile poker apps.
History of the Winning Poker Network
The lineage of WPN poker sites which lead to the current setup starts with True Poker back in 2001. At the time, the 3D software provided by this site was innovative. Unfortunately, not enough players signed up to keep the games busy. The owners opened up a network (called Yatahay), allowing other sites to join. This helped the site grow, and eventually the 3D software was replaced by the classic look still found today.
In 2011, the current management took over. America’s Cardroom was bought back online to take the players from Doyle’s Room after that site closed. Since then the network has been steadily growing – taking over the number two spot in the US site rankings. You will find more than 1,000 cash game players at peaks. Tournament players add many times this amount, especially when the major events are running.
Wrap Up: Reasons to Choose the Winning Poker Network?
The main winning poker network skins have an excellent reputation for prompt payouts. These WPN poker sites also excel when it comes to rewarding loyal players. Each major skin has a VIP loyalty scheme, where you work through tiers for bigger rewards.
Tournament players will enjoy the biggest events, highest guarantees and busiest schedule of an US network at WPN. If you prefer cash games, then there are always hundreds of tables running – plus new formats to keep the games fresh.
With many ‘unknown’ smaller skins on this network, I do recommend sticking to the bigger and more reputable WPN poker sites.
