William Hill Poker Review
William Hill Poker uses the iPoker poker platform where it is one of the leading sites. William Hill, founded in 1934 is a highly reputable and established brand on the online gaming market as well as having over 2000 physical betting shops, located largely in the UK and Ireland. Its headquarters are in London, while its online operation headquarters are in Gibraltar. William Hill employs around 17000 people throughout its organization.
Poker Competition:
The competition on William Hill is around normal for online poker. iPoker is currently the third biggest poker site and as such we might expect the competition to be tougher but a lot of pros in the past were put off playing on the network due to software issues. Although these issues have largely been addressed not all the pros have returned, keeping the competition relatively soft in comparison to the other bigger poker platforms.
Competition is still pretty tough however at the middle and higher stake cash games in both Texas Hold’em and Omaha but the smaller stake games are noticeably weaker than at other major poker sites. However Multi-Table Tournaments are definitely where the competition is easiest, many recreational players like to play these for a shot at winning big money so if you’re a good player you will have a substantial edge in these games. Sit N Go competition is reasonable, for lower stake games the competition, in general, is pretty weak, at medium and higher stakes you can still find good games but you need to implement good table selection.
Poker Software:
William Hills’ poker platform has a very sleek modern look to it. There’s everything you would expect from one of the leading poker sites.
Detailed Poker Software Features:
My Account: Here you can see an overview of all your account. On the top right hand of the window, you can view your balance, see an option to contact Online Support, and access detailed Help via the Help button. The My Account section has 4 tabs
- My Account tab: Here you can view your VIP Level, transaction history (deposits and withdrawals), total points and tournament tokens, bonuses, pending withdrawals, player transfer (transfer money to other William Hill players), view your cash, and tournament table history. The last option in this tab is called settings but it’s, in reality, an option where you can decide how you want your location displayed to other poker players. Here you can select any country you like and name any city, it doesn’t have to be where you are actually from, or even name your own location in the ‘Other location’ option, or if you like choose not to show your location at all. As you might imagine some of the locations on display can be quite humorous, since players can choose to display any location they like it would be wise to not assume anything about your opponent based on their displayed location.
- Deposit tab: Here is where you can fund your account. William Hill has numerous options, some like Visa, Mastercard Skrill, and Neteller are available in all countries where players have access to play on William Hill, others are country dependent.
- Withdraw tab: Here is where you can withdraw funds back to one of your deposit methods.
- Promo Code: If you’ve got a promotional code here is where you need to enter it.
Settings: You can customize your poker playing experience here in fine detail. It’s made up of several sub-sections which we describe below.
- Lobby: Choose how the William Hill lobby displays after you log in.
- Table: Here you can set general table settings and settings for table actions. You can set things here such as ‘Remember table positioning’, which ensures next time you open tables they will be in the same desktop location as the last closed table. ‘Auto Center’, ensures your position on each table is the same, making multi-tabling smoother, ‘View Hand Strength’, a convenient option just in case you misread the actual strength of your hand. We recommend checking all these general options as we think they assist your game.Actions, here you have 4 options, whether you select them or not is a matter of personal preference. ‘Display Warning for Large bets’ sounds like a good idea but in practice, we find it an annoyance. Auto Muck, if you choose this then you don’t get the option to show your cards, you might want to uncheck this if you like to show your bluffs or if you want to show to players that you weren’t bluffing. Table frame color, this puts a frame around the active table window, can help your game when you multi-table. Two further options are available where you can select to auto top-up in cash games, thereby always ensuring you have an adequate stack at the table. You can also configure William Hill’s betting buttons to suit your style of play.
- Avatar: Avatar’s range from human and animal characters to flags and random things like robots. Choose one to represent your poker-playing persona.
- Chat: Here you can set your chat options: We recommend checking ‘Show Dealer Chat’, ‘Show Summary’, ‘Show Card Images’, and ‘Show Player Actions’ so you can see as much information as possible in regards to what’s happening at the table. Whether you should choose to ‘Show Player Chat’, ‘Show Observer Chat’, and View chat bubbles depends on whether you enjoy watching other players chat and if you like chatting yourself. The tactical advantage to this is you can gain information on your opponent’s thinking and current state of mind; the downside is it can be a distraction from actual gameplay.
- System: Important options here are ‘Store Hand History Locally’ and Auto-open tournament lobby. It’s very important to check ‘Store Hand History Locally’, especially if you use hand tracking software like Holdem Manager or Poker Tracker.
- Sound: Here you can choose what sound settings you like. Checking sound is a good idea as it gives you an audio cue as to what’s happening at the table, also we recommend checking Timebank sound as it gives you an audio warning that you need to act on a table before your time runs out. Clicking Dealer sound is not really necessary in our opinion. There’s a slider to set the audio to your desired level.
- TimeBank: Here you set when time bank is activated. Default is only when you have chips invested, we recommend changing it to automatic activation as you might need it at times preflop.
- Toast Notifications: Get notified when it’s your turn to act on your desktop. These notifications only work when the table is minimized. Also, toast notifications are disabled if the ‘Take focus from applications’ or ‘Take focus from other tables’ option is selected.
- Widgets: You can choose here whether you want to see the widget bar, located on the right-hand side of tables. Widgets include mini casino games. A theme cloud to give your tables different looks. Newsfeeds to keep up with the latest happenings in the poker world. Tournament Lobby on tournament tables.
- Multi Tables: Here you have four options to tailor your multi-tabling experience to the way you like it. We recommend trying the various options and seeing what works best for you.
- Cards: You can choose from 4 different colors for the back of the cards and also whether or not to have a 4-colour deck. We recommend selecting a 4-color deck as it makes it easier to distinguish which suit is which.
- Casino games: Options for casino gameplay.
News & Offers: Here you can check out all the special online poker promotions such as Welcome Packages, Sng and Rake Races, and the latest live tournaments you can qualify for.
Search Old Buddy: For backward compatibility, William Hill poker software allows you to add your old buddies to the new friend’s section.
Other features include referring a friend for up to a $500 bonus for you, Contact Us, Help, and Online Support.
Resizable Tables: Tables can be sized whatever way you like, from minimum dimensions of 505 x 373 pixels up to the size of the computer screen. The table can be automatically tiled or cascaded by using the icons available in the top right-hand corner of any open table.
Games Offered:
- Texas Hold’em
- Omaha Hi
- Omaha Hi/Lo
- Fixed Limit 7 Card Stud and 5-Card Stud Hi and 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo
- Razz Limit
- Heads Up games
- Play money games
Special Game Features:
William Hill offers its version of Jackpot Sit N Gos called Twister. In Twister, you receive a random prize from twice up to 1,000 times the buy-in giving you a chance to win a huge prize in a matter of minutes for a small investment. For those that love their poker fast, William Hill has the popular Speed Poker where folding in advance instantly takes you to a new table and a new hand allowing you to play hundreds of poker hands an hour on one table alone. You can also access several fun casino games from the poker client such as Blackjack and Roulette. For avid multi-tabling poker players, the software allows you to play up to 16 tablets at a time.
Poker Tournaments:
William Hill has a great selection of tournaments suitable for most budgets, though during the week it’s mostly small stake tournaments and some medium stake tournaments. Sunday is the big day, the largest prize pool being the €75 Big Sunday with a guaranteed prize pool of €100,000. The biggest buy-in however is the €30,000 Sunday Masters which comes with an entry fee of €150. There are also many big live poker tournaments that you can qualify for, such as the Irish Open.
Freerolls: William Hill Poker has a large selection of freerolls, the regular $25 booster which run around the clock roughly every 3 hours give you a chance to get a bankroll started for free.
Cash Game Rake Structure
The rake structure table below applies to USD, GBP, and EUR tables. Rake structure varies according to the type of game, no limit/pot-limit versus limit, number of players playing in the hand, and size of the blinds. There is a ‘No flop, no drop’ policy, which quite simply means if the hand finishes before the flop no rake is charged.
Pot limit & No Limit – €0.01/€0.02 up to €0.02/€0.04
| Number of Players | Rake per Pot | Max. Rake |
| 2-10 | €0.01 for each €0.15 in the Pot | € 1.00 |
Pot limit & No Limit – €0.05/€0.10
| Number of Players | Rake per Pot | Max. Rake |
| 2 | €0.01 for each €0.15 in the Pot | € 1.00 |
| 3-10 | €0.01 for each €0.15 in the Pot | € 2.00 |
Pot limit & No Limit – €0.10/€0.20 up to €0.25/€0.50
| Number of Players | Rake per Pot | Max. Rake |
| 2 | €0.01 for each €0.20 in the Pot | €1.00 |
| 3-4 | €0.01 for each €0.20 in the Pot | €2.00 |
| 5-10 | €0.01 for each €0.20 in the Pot | €3.00 |
Pot limit & No Limit – €0.50/€1.00 up to €5.00/€10.00
| Number of Players | Rake per Pot | Max. Rake |
| 2 | €0.05 for each €1.00 in the Pot | €1.00 |
| 3-4 | €0.05 for each €1.00 in the Pot | €2.00 |
| 5-10 | €0.05 for each €1.00 in the Pot | €3.00 |
Limit – €0.02/€0.04 – €0.05/€0.10
| Number of Players | Rake per Pot | Max. Rake |
| 2-10 | €0.10 for each 0.25 in the Pot | €0.04 |
Limit – €0.10/€0.20 Number of players Rake
| Number of Players | Rake per Pot | Max. Rake |
| 2-10 | €0.01 for each €0.25 in the Pot | €0.10 |
Limit – €0.25/€0.50 up to €0.50/€1.00
| Number of Players | Rake per Pot | Max. Rake |
| 2-10 | €0.02 for each €0.50 in the Pot | €0.40 |
Limit – €1.00/€2.00
| Number of Players | Rake per Pot | Max. Rake |
| 2-10 | €0.02 for each €0.50 in the Pot | €1 |
Limit – €2.00/€4.00
| Number of Players | Rake per Pot | Max. Rake |
| 2 | €0.02 for each €5.00 in the Pot | €1.00 |
| 3-4 | €0.02 for each €5.00 in the Pot | €2.00 |
| 5-10 | €0.02 for each €5.00 in the Pot | €3.00 |
Limit – €3.00/€6.00 up to €10.00/€20.00
| Number of Players | Rake per Pot | Max. Rake |
| 2 | €0.40 for each €10.00 in the Pot | €1.00 |
| 3-4 | €0.40 for each €10.00 in the Pot | €2.00 |
| 5-10 | €0.40 for each €10.00 in the Pot | €3.00 |
Limit – €20.00/€40.00
| Number of Players | Rake per Pot | Max. Rake |
| 2 | €0.75 for each €20.00 in the Pot | €1.00 |
| 3-4 | €0.75 for each €20.00 in the Pot | €2.00 |
| 5-10 | €0.75 for each €20.00 in the Pot | €3.00 |
Customer Support:
Customer support is excellent, with email telephone and instant chat support available, if anything the operators on the instant chat are a little bit too proactive.
Poker Promotions:
First deposit bonus of up to $2000. This is one of the most generous first deposit bonuses out there. It’s a 200% bonus, which means if you deposited $1000, you receive a $2000 bonus. Of course, the bonus is not given straight away, you are given the bonus in $5 chunks for every 425 points (William Hill Points) you earn, you have 90 days to clear the bonus. You don’t have to deposit $1000, you can deposit a smaller amount and you still receive a 200% bonus.
Security:
Security is excellent on William Hill. You have a huge company with billions of assets operating on one of the largest poker networks, so in effect, you have a double layer of security.
Conclusion:
William Hill has access to a big playing pool with quite a number of recreational players who like to bet on sportsbooks also play poker. As a result, it has relatively soft games, especially its multi-table tournaments. We would like to see rake to be a bit less but the bonuses available compensate for this. So if you want to play on a site with plenty of action but also have enough recreational players then William Hill is an excellent choice!
