Important Note: BettingUSA.com has concerns about the legality and long-term safety of player funds at GlobalPoker. At this time, we strongly recommend not playing at GlobalPoker.

Global Poker Quick Facts:

• Available in: 48 states (Michigan and Washington State excluded)
• Licensed by: Malta Gaming Authority
• Poker formats offered: Ring games, tournaments, SNGs, jackpot SNGs and fast-fold
• Poker games offered: Texas Holdem, Omaha and Crazy Pineapple
• Ring game stakes: 0.05/0.10 to 10/20
• Tournament buyins: 0.25 to 500+

Global Poker Bonus Code

Global Poker offers a small variety of new customer bonuses and ongoing promotions for existing customers. You do not need to use a Global Poker bonus code to claim any current signup offers.

20 Sweeps Coins Verification Bonus

First up, new customers receive a 20 Sweeps Coins promotion for verifying their identities. Players can claim this bonus by signing up for an account, logging in and visiting the “verification” menu item to submit a picture of a government-issued ID and a selfie for identity verification.

Global Poker will send an e-mail within 24 hours confirming everything went well and then award the 20 Sweeps Coins bonus.

In our experience, Global Poker completed the verification process and awarded the 20 Sweeps Coins bonus in under five minutes.

New Customers: 20 Sweeps Coins Bonus

Players who sign up for an account at Global Poker and make a first purchase of $20 receive 200,000 Gold Coins and a bonus of 40 Sweeps Coins. This is roughly equivalent to a bonus worth about $20 in cash prizes.

Here’s the pricing structure of Gold Coins as of this review:

Global Poker New Player Freerolls

All new customers who sign up for an account and make a purchase qualify for a token to enter the 1,000 Sweeps Coins new player freeroll. The tournament takes place every Saturday at 3 PM EDT and is open to new players only.

Players who can’t make it to that weekend’s freeroll can use their free tournament token to enter either of the following two freerolls on subsequent Saturdays.

Global Poker Gold Rush

For social poker players, the Global Poker Gold Rush promotion offers a way to reward and recognize players who have a knack for amassing Gold Coins in ring games.

The Gold Rush promotion consists of three leaderboards for daily, weekly and monthly performance in Gold Coin ring games. Players who accumulate the most points to earn a spot on each leaderboard are awarded with up to 500,000 Gold Coins for reigning supreme.

Global Poker awards 100,000 Gold Coins every day, 500,000 Gold Coins every week and 2.5 million Gold Coins every month as a part of the Gold Rush promotion.

Weekly Sweeps Coins Bonanzas for Active Players

Every Sunday, Global Poker hosts a 5,000 Sweeps Coins guaranteed tournament for players who saw 500 or more flops that week. With a buyin of just 0.11 Sweeps Coins, this tournament provides a good bit of value for tournament players.

For less active players, Global Poker also hosts a daily 500 Sweeps Coins guaranteed tournament for players who saw 50 or more flops on any single day. This one too has a buyin of just 0.11 SCs.

How Global Poker Works

Global Poker looks and feels like a regular poker site in most respects, but it’s not. So, how does Global Poker work?

In short, Global Poker uses a sweepstakes business model based on two types of in-game currencies so it can offer real-money payouts in states that haven’t yet legalized online poker. The key differences are primarily related to buying in and getting started while the actual playing experience is largely similar to traditional online poker.

Poker players get started by signing up for an account just like any other US online poker site. It is important to use accurate information when registering because Global Poker will eventually need to verify the identity of each user before their first prize redemption.

Global Poker Software and Features

Once players complete the signup process and buy sweeps coins, the Global Poker software feels like any other poker site. Simple lobbies for ring games and tournaments will look familiar to anyone with previous poker experience.

One key difference between Global Poker and most other poker sites is it is entirely browser-based. There is no option to download a client for any desktop or mobile device. In all cases, users visit GlobalPoker.com to log in and play through their web browsers.

Graphics and features are on the simple side. Spacious tables and a lack of distractions keep the focus on the cards and the action.

• Pre-selected actions: Players can pre-select actions that will be taken when it is their turn to act. For example, players can choose an automatic fold when it is their turn to act if they have a poor starting hand and someone has already raised pre-flop.
• Four-color decks: Global poker supports four-color decks to more easily identify suits and potential flush draws.
• Pre-selected bet/raise amounts: In no-limit games, players can hit buttons to instantly place ½ pot, ¾ pot, 1x pot raises, and 3x big blind and 5x big blind bets.
• Auto top-ups: Players may enable this option in ring games to automatically buy back in for a pre-ordained amount when their stack falls below a certain level at the table.
• Muck winning and losing hands: This option allows players to automatically discard without showing their cards if they win or lose a pot without a showdown.
• Tournament information display: Tournament tables are imprinted with the current blind level, a countdown timer until the next level, and the player’s current position in chip count.
• Color-coded player notes: Clicking or tapping the name of any player at a table opens a simple notepad feature that players can use to take notes and attach color-coded markers to other players’ avatars.

One minor annoyance regarding these features is all settings must be reconfigured upon entering each play session. A simple improvement on this end would be for Global Poker to save all settings for each player’s account so they do not have to be frequently reconfigured.

The biggest miss is arguably a lack of waiting lists. Players who see a full table they would like to join can only sit back, observe, and actively watch for a seat to open up.

Global Poker Screenshots

Global Poker Ring Games

Global Poker offers six-handed and nine-handed ring game tables for Holdem, Omaha, and Crazy Pineapple in no-limit, pot-limit and fixed-limit formats.

The majority of the action occurs at the no-limit Holdem tables, but players can also find a decent selection of pot-limit Omaha tables. Fixed-limit games and Crazy Pineapple are ghost towns for the most part.

Traffic is higher than for any other US-facing poker site on the market today. The no-limit ring games are the busiest and tend to be populated at stakes ranging from 0.05/0.10 up to 10/20 even during the day.

Players reported lower traffic levels in 2019, but Global Poker seems to be picking up again since then. In our experience, we have found at least one active table at every stake level, even up to 10/20. The lower-stakes games usually have a few tables to choose from.

Competition is noticeably soft at the lower levels with many players observed open limping, calling, and checking their way down to the river. Competition is noticeably tougher at the medium to higher-level games, which is to be expected.

Ring game rake is a flat 5% for all stakes with rake caps based on the size of the game. A common complaint among players is that shorthanded and heads-up tables do not get enough of a break on the rake charged, which can make heads-up play expensive and discourages players from starting up tables at the medium to high-stakes levels.

Here’s the full rake structure taken from a Global Poker support page:

Global Poker Fast Fold Surge Poker

Global Poker introduced fast-fold poker with the launch of Surge tables in late 2019.

When players join Surge games, they are all put into a single pool and whenever someone folds, he or she is instantly moved to a new table to begin a new hand. This eliminates waiting time between hands and allows players to see three to four times as many starting hands.

For example, if a player is dealt 7-2 offsuit, he or she can fold and instantly start a new hand at a new table rather than sit there and wait for the action to get to him or her. The result is a high-paced ring game experience.

Global Poker initially launched low stakes Surge tables for players at the 0.05/0.10 and 0.25/0.50 levels with plans to expand the lineup as demand grows.

Global Poker Tournaments

The tournament scene at Global Poker offers a mixed bag of Holdem, Omaha, and Crazy Pineapple games in a variety of structures.

Players can join regular freezeout tournaments, guarantees, satellites, rebuys, and variations of each such as turbos, hyper-turbos, deep stack tourneys, six-handed multi-table tournaments, sit-n-go tournaments (SNGs), and jackpot SNGs.

Daily guarantees provide opportunities to compete for small to medium-sized prize pools throughout the week. The Sunday Scrimmage serves as Global Poker’s biggest weekly tournament with 50,000 Sweeps Coins guaranteed every week. Global Poker also hosts the occasional tournament with even bigger guarantees, such as one that recently ran with 100,000 Sweeps Coins guaranteed.

SNGs run daily with buyins ranging from 0.25 to 218 Sweeps Coins. Variations include turbo SNGs, heads-up SNGs, six-handed contests, nine-handed contests, and the occasional 27-handed multi-table SNG. Tournament fees (rake) are set at a flat 10% or lower across the board.

Global Poker Mobile App Review

Global Poker does support mobile play, but only through the mobile-friendly website. iPhone and Android users simply point their browsers to GlobalPoker.com to log in and play as normal.

The mobile experience will get the job done, but it is not as intuitive or handy as an actual app would be. All screens are resized and rearranged to better fit mobile screens, but it is mostly just a simple resizing of the imagery rather than an actual mobile-first experience. Thus, some players may find themselves squinting at the screen to see the action on the table.

Selecting bet amounts can also be troublesome when playing via mobile. Global Poker does provide a vertical slider for mobile users, but even with that, the potential for mis-bets is high.

In summary, the Global Poker mobile experience is workable but not ideal.

Global Poker App Screenshots

Global Poker Deposit Options

Gold Coins are much easier to purchase than we expected, given Global Poker’s status as a sweepstakes poker site. Players may purchase Gold Coins via several options that provide instant transactions:

• Online Banking Bill Pay: Online bill pay uses the customer’s existing online banking feature to authorize a deposit to Global Poker. Players choose their bank from the list, log in using their existing online banking account, and confirm the transaction all without sharing any private banking info with Global Poker.
• Credit and Debit Cards: Global Poker accepts Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express.
• Skrill: Skrill is an e-wallet that allows customers to load funds to Skrill via numerous methods. From there, players can send money from Skrill to Global Poker.

Global Poker redemption times vary from a couple of business days to a week or more, with little apparent rhyme or reason. Players report it can take longer than expected to redeem cash prizes, but most seem happy with transaction speeds – especially via direct bank transfer.

That said, players in New York and Florida should beware: Global Poker limits the maximum prize for any individual event to $5,000. That means anyone in NY or FL who wins a big prize will see it reduced to $5,000 due to local laws regarding sweepstakes. Additionally, Global Poker reserves the right to limit redemptions to $10,000 per day.

Global Poker License

Global Poker is licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA). A license from the MGA involves submitting a business plan, financial audits, technical audits for randomness, the ability to comply with all regulations, and more.

Global Poker Customer Support

Customer support at Global Poker is notoriously slow, but they do eventually get around to helping all players with issues. Global Poker representatives hang out on the Two Plus Two forums and often respond to feedback from players, which is encouraging.

Global Poker Responsible Gaming

Global Poker offers time-out periods for players who feel they need to take a break from all gaming. During timeout periods, players are unable to enter any ring games or tournaments or to purchase Gold Coins.

Time-out periods can be set for 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, 180 days, or “indefinite.” Players who wish to self-exclude permanently or take a time out for a different period may send an e-mail to support@globalpoker.com.

Expert Opinion: Is Global Poker Legit?

BettingUSA is not ready to put its stamp of approval on Global Poker. Although it appears to have a clever business plan to avoid running afoul of US law, there are no guarantees authorities will always see things the same way. In addition, Global Poker’s Malta gaming license doesn’t hold the same weight as a license from a US state regulator would.