William Hill

William Hill is one of the most popular and successful bookmakers in the UK. However, they’ve cottoned on to the fact that gambling no longer just means having a cheeky flutter on the nags – now they’ve moved into online poker.

Overview

While some sites go for flashy gimmicks, William Hill has opted to keep things simple. The design is classy, the graphics are clean and crisp without being too fussy and the overall impression is that someone has thought this through properly.

Conclusion: It’s very easy to use in addition to their casino or sportsbetting functions and overall you’d be hard-pressed to ask for much better.

Software

William Hill is another site that has found refuge on the iPoker network, a network developed by leading casino-software developer PlayTech. With a solid database of players along with slick graphics and easy site navigation, iPoker has become an obvious choice for many poker sites. In particular, William Hill has managed to slick-ify their layout and graphics even further with their mysteriously lit rooms and blue felt, not to mention the funky leather low back stools that look great but would undoubtedly be uncomfortable to play poker on (not that comfort matters in the virtual world).Another major plus of William Hill’s software is that it is fully integrated – only one account is needed for casino, sportsbetting or poker. This is bad if you’re prone to tilting off your bankroll at blackjack but very good for other reasons – see Donks or Not? below.

Conclusion: Reliable and steady, it’s easy on the eye and simple to steer your way to some juicy action.

Traffic

As part of the booming iPoker network there’s no shortage of action, both in tournaments and cash games. There are $16m worth of guaranteed tournaments on the network each month and plenty of players looking for a piece. At peak hours expect 10,000 players in the ring games and even more in tournaments.

Conclusion: Promotions like the Monthly Million mean large numbers of players and huge prizes. There’s plenty of takers in cash, Sit n Goes and MTTs.

Donks or Not?

As William Hill Poker has casino and bookmaking sides to their operation there are plenty of gamblers who appear to have seen poker on the TV once and want to have a go. Games are generally loose, especially in the lower buy in events. There’s plenty of action in the PLO as well as the Hold’em games.

Conclusion: The higher up the levels you go the tougher the games become. It’s still pretty fishy in the lower reaches though.