In a further effort to become one of the biggest poker sites on the web, as well as the only place currently offering online tournaments and cash games of Open-Face Chinese Poker, TonyBet has just improved its rakeback offer to a huge 25%. This is a massive boost and one that many poker players will definitely take notice of, but just what is rakeback and what does this mean for members of TonyBet?

Well, simply put, rakeback is cash back, earned every time you pay rake. “Rake” is something that the poker room takes, and is how it earns its money. As poker room play involves players playing against other players, the casino doesn’t make money directly, and therefore needs to take a very small cut from all cash pots and from all tournament entries. This is known as “rake”.

Rakeback is the term used to refer to the money that the casino gives you back from your rake. Rakeback is common across all poker sites but you typically won’t find an offer of more than a couple of percent, and many sites, including Pokerstars and Full Tilt, only give you points which can then be exchange for tournament tickets and prizes. 25% rakeback means that for every $10 you pay in tournament fees, or every $1 that you spend in rake during cash games, you will be able to get $2.50 of it back.

There are also extra bonuses added to the TonyBet site that all players can take advantage of. This offers you as much as 1,000 Euros in free cash whenever you deposit and whenever you want to take advantage of it. You can get the bonus, get your free cash, spend it, and then use the same code again to load-up on another bonus. There is no telling how long this bonus will remain on the site though, so it’s best to play through it as quickly as you can so you can get more out of it.

In an effort to help you play through this bonus cash, TonyBet are also launching some extra tournaments throughout the months of July and August. This is known as the OFC Summer Ride Series, and it will begin on the 28th of July, running through to the 30th of July, before beginning again during the same three days in August.

If you want to take advantage of this bonus and do not yet have an account with TonyBet, then simply click the links you can see here on Chinese Poker Real Money, as all of them will qualify you for this reload bonus, as well as their 25% rakeback offer and whatever other welcome bonuses are currently available on the TonyBet website.

As things stand, TonyBet is the only place to play Open-Face Chinese Poker for real money. This has more to do with the difficultly of incorporating the game into standard poker software, rather than because it is not popular. Still, this is not a big issue because TonyBet is an exciting poker room with some great games and, as we shall discover in this article, some great promotions as well.

The beauty of TonyBet being the only place to play Open-Face Chinese Poker is that it is going out of its way to attract new players. This is the golden age, a time when you will find more free cash, more GTD Tournaments and more huge bonuses. There are some regular promotions that we have already discussed elsewhere on this site, but as the summer approaches, some new ones have been added.

OFC Poker Summer Ride

This is a new tournament series that has just been launched to celebrate the summer of 2015, and won’t be around for very long. There is a total of 12,000 Euros added to the pots of three tournaments, and these will be played from the 28th of July, through to the 30th of July. If you have some free time, get ready, if not, be prepared to quit your job because this is a series that can’t be missed for Open-Face Chinese Poker fans*.

The tournaments will run on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, as these are (surprisingly) the busiest times on the TonyBet site. You can buy-in for a lump sum or you can earn your ticket by playing satellites and free-rolls.

*The three tournaments will actually be available at the end of every month this summer, so we apologize if you have already quit your job, but you really should read on before you make snap decisions.

Heads-up Challenge

If you fancy your chances in the fastest game of Open-Face Chinese Poker there is, then try some heads-up OFC Poker on TonyBet. This challenge runs throughout the month and there are leaderboards for the best weekly and monthly players running alongside it. If you can win enough games to top these leaderboards, then as well as all the pots and prizes you will have scooped, you will also win the better part of a 1,000 Euro prize pool.

First Deposit Bonus

As well as these two tournaments, and the ones that have always been there and remain there, TonyBet are also offering all new players a lump-sum to get them started. Simply sign-up and make your first deposit and you will be entitled to anywhere up to 500 Euros in free cash. This is a 100% deposit bonus, so you need to deposit 500 to get 500, but even if you just deposit 50, you will still get an extra 50 to play with. What better way to start your online Open-Face Chinese Poker career?

A couple of days ago we received big news from TonyBet, who announced that their poker room — which is the only place to play Open-Face Chinese Poker — was now available in Denmark. Obviously, this doesn’t affect a lot of our readers and it might even sound like a pointless venture on their behalf, but gambling is huge across the whole of Scandinavia. Norway, for instance, is in the top ten biggest gambling countries in the world, and because offline gambling is restricted there, the vast majority of that gambling is done through online casinos and poker rooms. Also, the game of Open-Face Chinese Poker was invented not too far away from Denmark, in neighboring Finland, after which it spread and took the rest of the poker world by storm.

Historically, the Danish haven’t had it easy as far as online poker is concerned, but TonyBet is just another in a long line of sites that is now willing to embrace this peaceful, poker-loving nation. Just a couple of months ago, some of the biggest Hold’em poker sites also announced that they would be accepting Danish players, whilst 2015 also seems to be the year of the online casino in Denmark, with many of those becoming available as well.

For many years, there was only one gambling company in Denmark that was allowed official permission. Danske Spil is state-owned and until New Year’s Day in 2012, it remained the only gambling company in Denmark. Steadily, that began to change as Denmark adopted laws that more closely resembled those of its neighbor Finland, instead of its neighbor Norway. Since 2012, Ladbrokes, Bet365 and other big companies have also moved into Denmark and have since increased the competition by a hundred times or more. Imagine being obsessed with gambling in a country where your only choices are for state-owned sites that offer limited markets and poor software. This is exactly what it was like for the Danish, so you can imagine their joy in 2012 when this archaic law was overturned and the country was flooded with opportunity.

TonyBet is one of the most exciting gambling destinations in the world right now, and its movement into the Danish market shows just how promising the gambling industry is becoming in Denmark. Not only does TonyBet offer extensive markets across European sports (as an official sponsor of the Lithuania basketball team, it is the best place to bet on basketball outside of the NBA) but it is the only site currently offering the game of Open-Face Chinese Poker through its poker software. We have suggested many times that this would change and that the bigger poker sites would take note of the popularity of this game and follow suit, but that has yet to happen. That is why TonyBet is one of the fastest growing gambling sites in the world right now.

So, if you’re in Denmark, with its clean streets, stunning architecture and bracing air, and you’re spoilt for choice with the sudden rush of gambling opportunities, you now have one of the best new companies to add to the mix.

This is the second part of an article looking at the best and worst poker sites out there, as we prepare for the day when all of these offer OFC Poker, and therefore open their doors to many of our readers.

OnGame Network — 8.5/10

The OnGame network is used by many poker sites. It used to be used by BetFair, until they changed to the iPoker network, and it has also worked its way onto many other top gambling brands. The graphics on this network are good and it never suffers from a shortage of games on the Hold’em and Omaha variants. The Sit and Go’s are what we like best about this network as it has some really good ones, but there are also some interesting multi-table tournaments, free-rolls and steps. There is also a loyalty bonus on OnGame that has helped it to stand out from its rivals for a number of years, despite the fact that it has never achieved the heights of many of these rivals.

The OnGame network is also compatible with both Windows and Mac, and whilst that is the case with most poker rooms and indeed most online gambling sites, it doesn’t apply to all of them.

iPoker Network — 4/10

We tried to get on this network for some time, but had issues from day one. The main one was that it was only available for Windows, and we have a Mac. That was frustrating to say the least, especially in this day and age, but it is not the only issue with iPoker. When we eventually got on the network we found a distinct lack of decent Sit and Go’s, along with a limited number of variants, cash games and tournaments. The strange thing is that iPoker is often preferred by clients and by players. This was the network that BetFair switched to from OnGame, but in our eyes it is far inferior.

888 Poker — 7/10

The 888 brand is widespread. There is a sports book, bingo room, casino, poker room and more. The poker room used to be riddled with flaws and we once watched it crash, only for it to not let us back in and then fold us out of a last-table position. That was frustrating to say the least, and what was even worse was that we received no offer of compensation from 888. However, things have changed in the last year or so.

We were in touch with their customer support for other reasons and found them to be nothing but helpful, and when we returned to their poker site, we also saw big improvements. There are a lot of players here and the tournaments fill up fast.

Party Poker — 6/10

This used to be the most popular poker room in the world, but that changed. First it stopped allowing US players, then its affiliates used it a lot to spam and tarnished its name in the process. None of this was their fault, but they were the ones who suffered. Party Poker is still going strong to this day, but it leaves a lot to be desired and seems to be leagues behind its more popular rivals.

The word through the grapevine is that the biggest poker sites and software developers are working on getting games of Chinese Poker, and OFC Poker in particular, included on their software. We have already explained how this game has taken off in the last few years and we have no doubt that it will be one of the most popular poker variants in just a few years. We’re not the only ones who think that either, as the poker sites are also onboard.

TonyBet is the only site offering this game right now, but that will soon change. With that in mind, just which are the biggest poker sites that deserve your time and attention when they eventually do offer games of OFC Poker?

In this two-part article we aim to review them all.

Pokerstars — 9/10

There is no doubt that this is the biggest and best poker site out there. It is also the site that has the most variants, which means that it could be one of the first to open its doors to OFC Poker.

Pokerstars might not have the biggest bonus, but it has a very good VIP scheme and their Frequent Player Points can also benefit all level of players. There are huge tournaments here, bigger than any other site and there is also a nice mixture of tight and loose and good and bad players. Pokerstars has its detractors, but the same can be said for everything and the truth is that away from TonyBet, you will struggle to find a better poker site and one that offers more to both the seasoned and amateur player.

Full Tilt — 6/10

These days this site is owned by the same people who own Pokerstars, but they used to be rivals. There are many members here, but it doesn’t feel like it used to and Full Tilt has lost a lot of its appeal since Black Friday, after which it went under and then resurfaced. There are some benefits to this site, including the Matrix poker tournaments and the fact that players can buy up to 4 entries into a single tournament, but the benefits end there and Full Tilt has a lot of work to do if it is going to return to its glory days.

PKR — 7.5/10

This is a 3D poker site, and one that is perfect for some players, and terrible for others. If you’re an amateur player, or one that prefers live poker and the slow pace that goes with it, then this could be just what you need. If you like to play the fast poker games and you like to multi-table, then this is not ideal. There is a lot of customization involved here. You can create your own avatar and buy him clothes, traits and even drinks. However, a lot of this is pointless.

The poker itself is good though and there are some nice tournaments. PKR does suffer from limited player numbers, so tournaments don’t fill as quickly as they should and you’ll only really find action on Hold’em games. However, the competition is very loose and very poor, so if you have the patience for it and you also have the skills, then you can clean up playing PKR.

TonyBet is currently the only place to play Open-Face Chinese Poker online for money, and as the number of people playing OFC grows, so does TonyBet. There have been some exciting tournaments and events in recent months, along with some big promotions created in an effort to entice new players to this great game.

As we settle into Spring and look forward to an exciting summer of Poker, it’s worth taking a look at TonyBet, at the promotions and the tournaments running throughout the month.

Promotions

One of the biggest promotions on TonyBet right now is the Open-Face Chinese Poker Heads-Up Challenge. This promotion has a leaderboard which runs throughout the month of June, 2015. The more you play, the more points you earn and the higher up the leaderboard you climb. There is a thousand Euros to be won by those who finish in the top few places, and many players will earn their share of this cash. Only games of Heads-Up Open-Face Chinese Poker will count towards your standing in this leaderboard, and the sooner you get involved, the better.

If you have yet to join TonyBet, then there is a Starter Bonus waiting for you which can help you get acquainted with the site. This bonus offers up to 500 Euros in free cash to all new players, and this can be used to play on any of the SNGs or MTTs available on the site. This is a matched bonus, which means that any amount up to 500 Euros you deposit for the first time, will be doubled.

Tournaments

The Open-Face Chinese Poker Free-Rolls are a mainstay on TonyBet. These have been going more or less since the site began and they will continue to run for some time yet. These all have cash added to the pot, and yet you don’t need to pay anything to enter them. Simply join up and test your skills against scores of other players, because there’s nothing to lose.

With a prize-pool of 1,000 Euros added by TonyBet and beefed-up by the many buy-ins, the On Ya Bike tournament is currently the biggest regular Open-Face Chinese Poker tournament that you will find online. This tournament runs every Thursday and has a 100 Euro buy-in. That may sound like a lot of money for something that only has a guaranteed pot of 1,000, but this site is still very much in its infancy and there are not huge amounts of players flocking to the tournaments like there are on sites like Pokerstars.

If you want something cheaper, but something that also has a very rewarding prize pool, then the Dirty Enduro is worth checking out. This is a daily tournament that begins at 20:30 every evening and costs just 20 Euros to buy-in, with a guaranteed prize of 200 Euros added by TonyBet. The Daily Micro Turbo is also worth a look, although the buy-in and prize is much smaller.

It has been a busy few years for the game of Open-Face Chinese Poker and all of its fans. This game has been one of the fastest growing games ever, and is by far the fastest growing poker variant. Despite being invented jus a few years ago, Open-Face Chinese Poker is everywhere, spreading form Finland and Russia to China, Europe and the United States. Open-Face Chinese Poker has come a long way, but there is still a long journey ahead of it if it is to overtake the likes to Hold’em and Omaha.

As we look ahead to the future of this game, how does the past look for Open-Face Chinese Poker? Below we have listed the biggest milestones for this game since it was invented, all of which have helped to make it the popular game that it is today.

October 2012: Although it’s hard to pinpoint it down to the exact month, at this point in time Open-Face Chinese Poker had made it to the US and was beginning to attract the attention of professional and amateur poker players. The game was introduced a little earlier than October, but this was the month that saw a post on CardPlayer.com, written by OFC pro Jennifer Shahade. Her words would inspire thousands of players to take up this game and without this article, OFC might not be the game that it is today, at least not in the US.

2013: In this year TonyBet decided to shift their attentions to Open-Face Chinese Poker. Owned and run by Tony G, this gambling site had existed for a few years, but they hadn’t really found their identity. Once they adopted the game of OFC as their own, becoming the first online poker site to offer games of OFC for real money, they found their niche and they made it work for them.

Summer 2014: In the summer months of 2014, Open-Face Chinese Poker really took off. During these months it achieved its biggest boost in popularity to date, with many professionals and amateurs discovering the game and raving about it. Shaun Deeb was one of these. A former Hold’em pro, Deeb had tried his hand at many variants and he had done well at most, but as soon as he discovered Open-Face Chinese Poker he refused to let go. These days Deeb is one of the most well-known faces in the offline OFC world. The biggest event in poker, the World Series of Poker, announced there would be no OFC events in 2014, but many other Vegas casinos ran OFC tournaments and cash games, including the Golden Nugget. There were also many high-profile tournaments in other countries including one at the Aviation Club in Paris, and one at the biggest casino in the capital of Finland.

December 2014: This month saw the first World Championship of OFC, which was hosted by TonyBet. The Main Event was won by Mikal Blomlie, whilst the high-roller event was won by Jennifer Shahade, who had already done her bit to help this game grow.

April 2015: This month saw the first OFC Grand Prix event, which was hosted by TonyBet. We covered this event here on this site and have already discussed the positive impact that it had on the game.

These are the main dates, but there were many more milestones, including tutorials released by professionals, articles on major poker sites, big tournaments, cash games and so much more. Open-Face Chinese Poker has come a long way in a very short time, and if it continues at this rate then this will be the biggest game in the world in just a few years.

We have already discussed how the only place to play online Open-Face Chinese Poker is through the TonyBet site, which is based in Lithuania and is owned by Tong G, also known as The Mouth. Believe us when we say that we have been keeping a close eye on proceedings, hoping that things will change and that more options will become available. Whilst we were doing that though, TonyBet was getting better and better, not to mention bigger. They realised that the impetus was on them to take the game of Open-Face Chinese Poker and to make it huge, and that is exactly what they have been doing.

We recently discussed how the TonyBet Grand Prix had been a huge hit, propelling online Open-Face Chinese Poker to the big time. But it’s not all about that single event, just like Texas Hold’em isn’t all about the World Series of Poker, and just like online Hold’em isn’t all about the World Series of Online Poker.

TonyBet had many big events and tournaments before the Grand Prix and they have many more planned after it. Online Open-Face Chinese Poker is here to stay on TonyBet, and if you’re looking to play the only online version of this game doing the rounds at the moment, then this is where you need to be.

There are many great Open-Face Chinese Poker tournaments at TonyBet, and ones that are available on a regular basis. These have increased over the last few months and we have no doubt that in the next few months, there will be even more available.

If you don’t have a lot of money to play with, or anything for that matter, then head for the Daily Free-roll tournaments. As their name suggests, these tournaments are played every single day. They are free to enter and at this present moment, due to the fact that there are not a lot of members on the TonyBet website, there isn’t a great deal of competition here. What’s more, the organisers pump 15 E uros into the pot, paid out to the winner and the placers. If you have the skills then this can be a great way of building up your bankroll, before hitting the bigger and more lucrative tournaments and playing with the real thing.

Those tournaments include the Daily Micro and My First Trike, which offer some of the cheapest buy-ins, beginning at just 1 Euro. Again, as with the free rolls there aren’t a great deal of people playing these tournaments, in fact there are usually less of them here than there are in the free-roll tournaments.

If you want to take it to the next level, then try your hand at the Hardcore Chopper tournament. The buy-ins are a little more, and there is also an impressive 600 Euros thrown into the pot by TonyBet, which increases the pot very nicely. In fact, for just a little more of a buy-in you can get yourself into the On Ya Bike! tournament, which comes with an even greater prize pool, with 1,000 Euros offered by TonyBet this time.

One of the most popular tournaments on the TonyBet website, and one of the best ways to play online right now, is the 150 Euro Daily Guaranteed Super-Speed Bike Tournament. This runs everyday and draws in a fairly decent crowd, with the numbers increasing as TonyBet gets more and more popular. Still, right now Open-Face Chinese Poker is not too big and TonyBet has a long way to go to catch up to Pokerstars and other big poker sites, so with so much guaranteed money on offer, this could be the perfect way to use your OFC skills to win big.

There are around 7,000 Euros in guaranteed cash prizes every week on the TonyBet site, which is why this is the best place to play online Open-Face Chinese Poker right now, and when this game takes off and starts to attract a bigger crowd, it will probably remain as the biggest and the best, growing alongside the fan base as it has done in the last few months.

Open-Face Chinese Poker experienced one of its biggest online events in the last few weeks, with the OFC Grand Prix that was hosted by TonyBet, the leading provider of Open-Face Chinese Poker in the online world. As well as hosting a number of events, it also hosted what became the biggest cash prize in online OFC history.

In fact, the whole Grand Prix was the biggest Open-Face Chinese Poker online event in history, a major milestone for the game and one that will surely lead to bigger and better things. This event reminded us of where Open-Face Chinese Poker came from, where it grew and where it first became really popular, as this event was dominated by the Russian players. Of course, OFC didn’t start in Russia but in Finland, yet when it made it to Russia it really took off.

The High Roller event is where the record was and this event was won by Sergey Rybachenko, a player that is focusing on OFC almost exclusively and has made a big name for himself in this game. He dominated a field of 22 player to win a huge grand prize, one of the biggest cash prizes in the history of online Open-Face Chinese Poker in fact.

With the speed that Open-Face Chinese Poker is advancing at, it is unlikely that Rybachenko will hold onto this record for long, but he may also pick up a few more record of his own as these events get bigger and more widespread.

Other big winners at the Grand Prix included many more Russians, but there was also some variety in the field, and this shows just how popular Open-Face Chinese Poker is all over the world. The Main Event was won by a player with the tag “drinu29”, who scooped just less than 3 million Euros in an event that wasn’t as rich as the High Roller, but did have 41 players, nearly twice as many as joined the High Roller event. This is still a little on the short side, and you would undoubtedly see far greater numbers for Omaha and Texas Hold’em, but the fact that this was a pot of 7,000 Euros, and that over a hundred players got involved during the course of the Grand Prix, not to mention the many who tried to gain access via satellites, is very promising.

As with the other major online events, it’s not just about the tournaments themselves, but also about the overall event leaderboard. As with the Spring Series of Online Poker and the World Series of Online Poker, you climb up this leaderboard by winning tournaments and finishing in the money. The OFC Grand Prix was weighted fairly evenly, so that those who won the major events didn’t necessarily get a free ticket to the top of the leaderboard. This is why the overall winner of the Grand Prix, “deda35” was not even in the top five of the Main Event or the High Roller — the two biggest tournaments during this series.

“Deda35” made it to the top through consistent play. He played 16 of the 17 OFC Grand Prix events and as well as making it to three final tables, in which he didn’t go on to claim the grand prize, he also won a further two. His prize for this is not as great as the ones taken down by the Main Event or High Roller Champions mentioned above, but he will be given a ticket to the OFC World Championship, which is an annual tournament that will is due to be held in Prague during the final month of 2015. From here he can win much money cash than he claimed in this online series, but the competition will be just as fierce, if not more so.

Some of the best news to come out of the OFC Grand Prix hosted by TonyBet is that it exceed expectations. There was an understandable fear with the event hosts that the buy-ins for many of the tournaments would not cover the guaranteed money. This would mean that the tournaments were running at a considerable loss and it would have been bad news for the future of this event and for the future of online OFC on the whole. However, there was nothing to worry about. The Main Event alone received 50% more buy-ins than the guaranteed amount, taking the prize pool from 5,000 to 7,500, and the other events, especially the High Roller, were just as popular.

This is fantastic news for the game and for TonyBet, and it means that if you missed this OFC Grand Prix, you need not worry as you can almost certainly rely on another one being run this time next year.

TonyBet took a risk, but it paid off, and thanks to them the world of online OFC has taken a huge step forward.

OFC Poker has been steadily growing over the last few months. It hasn’t been as rapid of a progression as we hoped it would be, and poker on the whole has taken a step out of the spotlight somewhat, but summer is king in this sport and this summer promises to be a big one for Open-Face Chinese Poker.

As you all already know, TonyBet is not only the biggest and best place to place online Open-Face Chinese Poker right now, but it is also the only place to play it. This website was put together by Tony G, also known as “The Mouth”, a poker professional who has featured on programs such as Pokerstars The Big Game, and other major poker TV shows. Like the game of Open-Face Chinese Poker itself, this website has been a little slow to take off, but the number of players is still growing, with peaks here and there and a great deal of promise for the future.

One of those peaks should come this week, as TonyBet have launched what could be one of the biggest online Open-Face Chinese Poker events to date. Beginning on Sunday the 26th of April, and running through until the 3rd of May, the OFC Grand Prix promises to be the most exciting OFC tournament series to date. To be fair, it doesn’t have a great deal of competition, but we’re thankful to TonyBet for launching something that will definitely test the popularity of this game and will surely force a lot of other sites and tournament holders to take notice.

TonyBet Poker’s OFC Grand Prix, as it is officially known, has a number of events, much like any other poker series. It is not too dissimilar to the Spring Series of Online Poker and the World Series of Online Poker, both of which are held by Pokerstars, although the buy-ins will make it accessible to a larger number of players. The very first event in this series, for example, will cost just 10 Euros to buy into, and this event will come with a prize pool of 1,000 Euros.

In total, TonyBet Poker’s OFC Grand Prix promises a prize pool of over 30,000 Euros, and this is just the money that they are putting in. When you add the buy-ins to this amount, then you have a figure that can rival the biggest and best online tournaments on sites such as Full Tilt and Pokerstars.

There are also four different OFC variants at play during the tournament, which will test the skills of all true OFC players. The first event, the one to kickstart this tournament series, will use the Pineapple OFC variant, which is quickly becoming the most popular way to play this game thanks to poker professionals like Shaun Deeb doing their best to get it out there. The other OFC variants that will be played during TonyBet Poker’s OFC Grand Prix including 2-7 Pineapple, which is only just coming to the attention of many OFC players; Turbo, which is just a speeded-up version of standard OFC; and Progressive Fantasy.

Not all tournaments are accessible to all players, and even 10 Euros (which is about $13) will be out of reach for some of the small stake players. Luckily, there are many satellites that players can buy-in to for just a few cents. These are running now and they have been running for a few weeks. They will run up until the start of the tournament and will also run throughout it, so that you can continue to test your luck and effectively buy yourself a seat to the biggest OFC series ever for next to nothing.

As well as huge cash prizes, the TonyBet Poker’s OFC Grand Prix is also offering players the chance to play at the OFC World Championship, with packages worth up to 1,500 Euros on offer. Here the best of the best will compete to see who can take the OFC crown.

So, if this sounds like just the sort of event that you have been waiting for then check-in to the TonyBet site in time for the first event, which is due to begin on Sunday the 26th of April at 6pm GMT. As mentioned above, this event will cost 10 Euros to buy-in to and it will be followed by two more events on Sunday, with others being played on successive days. The biggest events are due to begin a week from Sunday, on May 3rd.