Chili Poker is one of the more popular poker rooms on the iPoker network, which is one of the biggest and busiest places to play poker online.

Chili Poker has been around since 2004 and prides itself on its ethics and integrity. They have offices in the U.K., Malta, and Costa Rica, and state that this allows them to provide the highest level of service to their clients.

There are a lot of well run poker rooms on this network and what separates them is their level of concern for their players, and Chili Poker notably has been known to be a little hungrier than most and willing to make the extra effort to win and keep your business.

First Deposit Bonuses

After you’ve chosen your gift from us, Chili Poker presents you with several options to select from when it comes to choosing your initial bonus for making your first deposit with them, going beyond the standard fare of just doubling your first deposit like most other poker rooms.

If you only have a small bankroll then you can choose the $100 bonus as long as you make at least an initial deposit of $20. For those who are looking to deposit $100 or more, they will double your initial deposit up to an extra $600.

If you use Moneybookers as your deposit method, they will also double your deposit but instead of 100% they up it to 150%.

They also have a fourth option where you can get up to $300 in bonus money but choose to have it freed up faster than normal. All in all they provide a great selection of choices here designed to ensure everyone gets the most out of their initial bonus.

Promotions

Chili Poker claims that they are the “spiciest poker room around” and that no other poker room rewards its players as much as they do, which is a pretty spicy claim, but they do back it up.

The key to understanding how good their offers are is to take into account that the players that you go up against there are from dozens of poker rooms on the network, however they only hand out their goodies to Chili Poker players which is a much smaller group. So on this basis their claim may indeed be true. They do have some really nice freerolls, aimed at first time depositors and experienced players alike.

Beyond that they have a live game poker tour called the Deep Stack Open which they state is the only poker tour within the means of the average player, a Sit and Go challenge where you only need to play 40 in a month to qualify for, and more.

You can also receive $40 in bonus money for each referred friend, consisting of $10 up front and another $30 when your friend accumulates 800 frequent player points.

Chili Poker VIP Club

Everyone is enrolled in the VIP Club at Chili Poker, where you start out with a “white card” which is level 1 and then based upon your play at their tables you can work your way up the 5 other levels to the “ultimate card.” As you ascend each level, the rewards get progressively more lucrative, where you earn more and more frequent player points per hand or tournament with each successive level. You also earn even more special treatment as you move up the ladder, including being able to play in special freerolls, getting access to VIP support, and playing against Liz Liu.

Competition

The iPoker network has always been famous for its softer competition and this is still the case, and they really stand out now given that the action at so many other poker rooms has tightened up so much, it’s not easy to find loose juicy games anymore, but this is not the case at Chili Poker. Given that ease of completion is probably the most important factor in choosing a poker room, this is especially important. If you’re a newer player this can make all the difference between winning and losing money, and if you’re more experienced then this will allow you greater poker profits.

There’s no question that Chili Poker is an excellent choice as far as soft competition goes, with relatively easy cash games at the small and mid stakes, particularly easy sit and go’s and multi table tournaments. In fact if you like to play tournaments at all you’re going to love this poker room.

Player Traffic

The iPoker Network is the busiest around and brings together the players of dozens of poker rooms, so you’ll have no problem finding action at Chili Poker. The only poker rooms around that have significantly more traffic than Chili Poker are Poker Stars and Full Tilt, however the competition is considerably tougher at those 2 poker rooms and when you take both quality of traffic and lack of skill into account, Chili Poker and the iPoker network get top marks.

Like a lot of poker rooms, the traffic drops off during off-peak hours, but particularly at the lower stakes, it’s no problem finding action day or night.

Poker School and Staff

Chili Poker’s Poker School is just in the beginning stages with some good poker instructional material up there already with more to come, and they feature renowned poker professional Liz Liu as their ambassador. This is the only poker room where you get the chance to play against Liz. You can even ask Liz a poker related question and she will answer you back. They also have the “poker shrink" Tim Lavalli at your disposal who is at the ready to provide sound advice to you on the mental side of the game.

Software

As is the case with other iPoker rooms who share the same program, the software at Chili Poker is of good quality, its solid and reliable and easy to use. The filters in the lobby are particularly worth mentioning, you can set them to select the game types and stakes and the filter will remain on in future sessions for you so you don’t have to keep adjusting it. For those who prefer simplicity, the avatars can be turned off to allow for a very clean table where you can focus more on the action. The action buttons are easy to use, and things run very smoothly overall as they should.

Deposits and Withdrawals

You can make both deposits and withdrawals with the following: Visa, MasterCard, Moneybookers, Bank Wire, Neteller, Ukash, and Western Union. They also offer their own dedicated MasterCard debit card which you can obtain once you reach the top 3 levels of their VIP club where withdrawals can be put directly on it, making the process even easier. Their bank transfer withdrawal option is particularly nice, where they can conveniently transfer your withdrawals directly into your bank account in a matter of days. As a rule it’s pretty easy to get your money into a poker room, it’s the ease of getting it out that separates the good from the not so good, and Chili Poker is among the best in this regard.

Support

The support at Chili Poker is excellent and they feature 24 hour a day live chat support in addition to their telephone support which is toll free worldwide. Email support is also provided although given the ease and promptness of their chat this is the preferable method.

Residency Requirements

Chili Poker itself does not specify any countries of which they do not accept players, however the iPoker network specifically prohibits players from the United States.

Conclusion

The most important consideration in choosing a poker room is how easy it is to make money there, which requires both weaker players and lots of them. Of course you want to look at what else a poker room has to offer, including generous bonuses and rewards, prompt and reliable support, easy to use software, their refer a friend program, their convenient deposit and withdrawal options, and perhaps most notably, their care and concern for all their players, from the biggest to the smallest.
Chili Poker has it all, combining the intimacy of a smaller poker room with the traffic of a huge poker network, and is an outstanding choice overall as a place to play poker and in particular a place to win money at poker.