The site offers a news page with updates on the latest happenings on the SwC Poker site and within the community. SwC Poker also lets fans and players connect with the community online. The main Swc Poker site links to a YouTube Channel, a Facebook account, a Twitter feed, a Reddit thread and a message thread on Bitcointalk.org.
The site offers a downloadable version of its software, which lets you play from your PC desktop.
SwC only does business in bitcoins, a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. All deposits and cash-outs are done this way – no traditional currency is ever used. All accounts are completely anonymous – SwC Poker believes that the online poker experience should be like a live cardroom where players can be as anonymous as they wish.
The site says they cannot guarantee there will be no cheating, but they do promise to fight any collusion, cheating or unfair game manipulation. The site also allows uncensored chat (may not be in English), but it can be revoked at management’s discretion.
Gaming Choices
The Big BTC is held every Sunday night and is the largest bitcoin poker tournament on the site. The buy-in is 0.5 BTC (500 chips) and a prize pool of at least 20 BTC is guaranteed. That means you could go home with 20,000 chips on Sunday night. The local start time is posted in the tournament lobby each week.
A variety of different poker games are offered on the SwC Poker online site. Here is a look at a few of them:
Chinese Poker – Chinese poker games have grown immensely in popularity the last few years, so SwC plays it in several ways, including Regular Chinese Poker, Open Face Chinese and Open Face Chinese Pineapple.
Texas Hold’em – This is what people usually think of when they think of “poker.” This version started the poker craze worldwide and keeps players coming back for more. Texas Hold’em is played in no-limit, limit and pot-limit variations.
Omaha Hold’em – This is a fast-action variation of Texas Hold’em where players receive four cards instead of two. It can be played as a limit, no limit or pot-limit game. Variations include Omaha-Eight-or-Better and Big O.
Stud Games – These include Stud Hi, Razz and Stud Hi/Low 8-or-better.
Draw Games – These include 2-7 Triple Draw, NL 2-7 Single Draw, Pot Limit 5 Card Draw, Badeucy and Badacey.
Mixed Games – These include HORSE, Triple Stud, 7 Game, 8 Game, 9 Game, 10 Game, 12 Game and Dealer’s Choice.
Cash game rules allow one hand per player. Multiple players in the same home are welcome, but not at the same cash table. Limit games have a four-bet cap when the action goes multiple ways and no cap when the action is heads up.
Bonuses
A leaderboard lists the top players each week and offers prizes to those top players:
1st: 500 Chips
2nd: 300 Chips
3rd: 200 Chips
4th: 100 Chips
5th: 50 Chips
SwC Poker’s reward system is called “Krill.” You can get Krill every time you are dealt to in a raked hand based on a specific calculation done by SwC Poker. The more Krill you collect, the higher Wave you will achieve, which earns you a higher rakeback percentage and access to more freerolls. Krill is cumulative, never resets and is updated regularly. The Krill rakeback is paid weekly.
Table Starter Rakeback – If players start a game and keep it going, Swc Poker will reward them with 50% rakeback. The bonus is paid weekly each Monday, and the number of players at the table does not matter – just the players who are dealt cards are considered.
SwC Poker also runs an affiliate program, which can benefit players who refer new players to the site. They pay affiliates 20% of the managed gross revenue for life, with affiliate earnings paid weekly.
Dealers
SwC Poker does not offer live dealers – all poker games are online and not with live dealers.
Deposits and Withdrawals
Deposits are credited after one confirmation. The site does not list specific withdrawal specifications, but says that because they use bitcoin, they can securely, anonymously and quickly process chip transactions. They do not require any documentation for transactions.
Players’ funds are never used for company operating expenses and are held in several wallets for security reasons.
Positives
SwC Poker focuses only on poker and does that well. They offer an incentive-based weekly leaderboard that encourages players to continue to rise to to the top. Several varieties of poker are enough to keep people interested and playing, and the weekly Big BTC tournament offers a nice payout that will attract many players.
Another nice feature of the site is a counter at the top of the home page lets you know how many people are on the site when you are logged in, how many people are actually playing and how many tables are active.
SwC Poker also provides a detailed explanation of rules for each of the poker games they play. This gives beginners a nice place to start and keeps experienced players refreshed on the rules.
Drawbacks
While the site has decided to focus only on poker, that means that many other online bitcoin game choices are not available. If a player wants to stretch himself or herself to try new games, they will have to go to other sites to do so. Specializing in one type of game is not a bad strategy because you can focus all of your attention on doing that game well, but it does mean that your audience will necessarily be limited.
Conclusion
For the online bitcoin poker-playing community, SwC Poker offers several specialized varieties that will be attractive. The weekly leaderboard system is a great incentive to keep players coming back to try to improve their ranking with the goal of earning more chips. The weekly Big BTC poker tournament offers a huge payout that had the potential to attract many high-quality poker players to the site.
