What Are Club Poker Applications

Club poker apps are a world apart from "classic" poker rooms. Some say the players there are weak, the winnings are double-digit, and the grass is greener. If you're completely unfamiliar with the concept of "poker apps," this article will help you understand.

What are club poker apps?

Club apps are mobile platforms where anyone can create a poker club with its own rules and let only the people he wants in. Nowadays it is the closed clubs that are popular online, where you can get in only through agents. Several clubs can unite into alliances.

Let's consolidate the basic concepts:

A club poker app (poker app) is a mobile poker site. Example: PokerBros, PPPoker, Upoker, KKPoker.
The club is an analogue of the poker rooms we are used to. Different clubs have their own cash tables and tournaments - somewhere they play more expensive, somewhere they like Omaha, somewhere they allow, for example, only the compatriots. Examples: Prime Mania on PPPoker, Paradise Elite on PokerBros, Beijing Sky on Upoker.

An alliance is an association of several clubs (roughly speaking, a poker network). They may have a common cash game and tournaments. Examples: Pinoy Donks on PPPoker, WeLovePoker on Upoker.

An agent is a person or organization that acts as an intermediary between the club and the player. A player cannot join a closed club without an agent, as well as make a deposit, withdraw his winnings or get rakeback. Any financial transactions clubs conduct through agents.

How are apps different from classic rooms?

The differences are not as many as you might think, but they seriously affect the gameplay.

Playing for chips

In the applications there is no real balance, only contingent chips. Thanks to this PokerBros, PPPoker, Upoker and other apps can be downloaded for free on Android or iOS directly from the official stores, as there are no financial transactions on the site. The whole game is played in "chips", the settlement of which takes place outside the app.

Since apps don't have their own cash register, the burden of actually settling between players falls on the shoulders of agents. First, you give money to an agent, and he makes a request to buy chips, which will be credited to your account. 

Financial transactions through agents

This is an integral part of all club applications. In a regular poker room you manage the cash desk yourself - make a deposit, withdrawal or transfer funds when it's convenient for you. In the case of club apps, you work through agents.

"Why do we need agents? I could buy these chips myself!" - is a perfectly logical thought that might come to mind. But it is the agent who guarantees a fair settlement between players in the club.

Imagine a hypothetical situation. Today you were playing NL100 at a 6-max table and won 200 chips from each opponent ($1 chip value). Since the calculation can't take place at the application's site, you write to each of your opponents in your personal message: "Hey, I beat you 200 chips, you owe me $200 at 123456789". What's the chance you'll get your thousand? - The question is rhetorical.

HUD with converters only

In euro rooms HUDs are either banned or allowed and work fine.

It is worth mentioning that the applications do not welcome the use of auxiliary software or preflop charts, but there is no direct prohibition in the rules anywhere. That's why many regulators use them, and no one has been blocked yet.

Mandatory insurance, VPIP restriction

As stated earlier, club owners can set whatever rules they want. By design, club apps were created only for recreational players who play poker for fun.

Therefore, in order to comply with the spirit of the original idea, some club owners may create tables with a minimum VPIP (percentage of hands with which you compete for the pot), or with the obligation to take "insurance of all-in" (from which the organizers get additional rake).

This is not a common practice, but it is not found in the usual euro rooms.

Complete anonymity

The club app doesn't ask users for any personal information - when registering, you only need an email address and a password. In all apps, except KKrockeg, you really don't need to be verified. KKpoker requires full verification, as it operates under an official Isle of Man gaming license.

In regular roums they will demand everything, up to your passport photo. Plus, no one is immune to outright weird background checks on income, as it was in 2021 at PokerStars.

Game only on smartphones or emulators

99% of the classic rooms are desktop poker programs, most of which have mobile versions. In the case of club applications it is different: they are exclusively mobile products, and their interface is designed only for the phone. Occasionally club applications have a version for PC (for example, PPPoker).

What are emulators and what are they for?

Emulators are programs that allow you to create a mobile virtual device on your PC. Simply put, you kind of run an Android device on your desktop and enable mobile apps.

Emulators allow you to run multiple applications and thus multitable. Each emulator requires a separate account, so one person can have several of them in an application. 

Multi-accounting in club poker

According to the rules of club apps, it is not forbidden to own multiple accounts and play from them at the same time. This gives rise to conspiracy theories and distrust among users, but in vain.

It is forbidden to play at one cash table or in one tournament from several accounts. The security service quickly catches offenders, confiscates winnings and bans them. This is because the staff has information about users' hardware address, IP, and geolocation.

Why create multiple accounts in club applications? It is inconvenient to play several tables on one emulator. That's why additional accounts are created for convenient multitabling, with one table running on each of them.

Pros and cons of playing in mobile apps

Pros:

Weak opponents. This is the main advantage of mobile applications - all the inconveniences with registration, installation of emulators and deposits are overlaid by the abundance of opponents, who play for fun and give regulars double-digit winrates. Of course, it's not like in the "golden years" of online poker, but it's much easier to select the game.

The possibility of extensive marketing. The apps can be officially advertised on any social networks, from where they attract newcomers and amateurs, especially from Asia and Latin America.

Minimum deposit through agents from $100. This is an indirect advantage, which allows midstakes tables to fill up steadily with weak players, ready to drain the entire deposit in an evening.

Exotic disciplines like Omaha with two boards, Pusoy (Filipino poker) and many others.

High rakeback with no additional conditions. The rake in almost all clubs is 5% with a cap of 3 bb, and rakeback from 30% and above. And it doesn't require any dancing with tambourines, as, for example, on PokerStars, where everything depends on a profitable challange (will they give it to you or not).

Cons:

Resource-intensive emulators. Not every PC can pull even 3 emulators at the same time. If you play on an old laptop, then we advise you not to even try to multitablize in applications.

Lack of license. It sounds scary, but it doesn't really change anything. Club applications are not formally gambling operators, so they do not need a license to work. But the check the RNG they all pass - for example, PokerBros and PPPoker received a license RNG from an independent laboratory Gaming Labs (the same has PokerStars).

Peak hours are different everywhere, but mostly at night. This is not really a disadvantage, but it can discourage many people. The most popular clubs are Asian, Latino and American.