Software Changes at Noble
Noble, and the rooms on the iPoker network have undergone some significant software updates since my last visit. Gone are the two distinct views of the tables. Instead there is one view that is offered, and it's a bit on the unflattering side if you ask me. Not quite up to par graphically with the rest of the world, and that includes uBet and the "chair-only" sites.
Leaving the graphics behind, the state of the network is currently in the range of 3,200 players at the tables during my visit. This puts iPoker rooms squarely in the category of small poker rooms.
The Games and Limits They Deal
The room still deals the same games, Holdem and Omaha (Omaha 8oB as well). There are fixed, pot and no limit holdem tables, Omaha does not have the no limit betting option. They don't deal Stud, or any of the other more exotic games, so there won't be any Noble Poker HORSE tournaments any time soon.
The tables come in 2 sizes, short tables of 6, and long tables of 10. I prefer ten man long tables. Some rooms use 9 man tables, like Absolute. While you can still play basically the same hands, the blinds are cranked up a notch because they come around just a little bit faster. Over the course of hours this does add up. So, Noble gives the patient players a bit of a break with the traditional ten-player tables.
There was reasonable action at the tables. Not every limit of every game was being dealt, but you could choose from several different tables at some of the lower limits. The higher limits had action as well. Table selection was certainly not the greatest, but, if you were loooking for a game you could find one.
Limits, by the way, start in the pennies and rise up to $50/$100 for holdem and $10/20 for the pot and no limit games. There was action at the $30/60 holdem tables during my visit.
I saw one of the cash game tables with a "lock" on it, making it a private password protected game. I didn't see an obvious way to create a private game, but it didn't matter, I was off to the tournament tables anyway.
Tournaments
Sit and Go tourneys are the fast fun version of holdem. Here is where the iPoker network, and Noble Poker do offer some interesting things to their players. They hold a set of jackpot Sit and Go Poker Tournaments.
Some of the games have set jackpots for players who win a set amount of consecutive tournaments. Other games have progressive jackpots which climb over time if players fail to win them. While I was there the Maui series prize pool was $29,000.
For more information on them, you can read over my Jackpot Sit and Go Tournaments article.
Also in the tournaments section were tabes that were dealing Heads Up games. The tournaments were all one on one, as opposed to having 4, 8 or 16 players in a "bracket" like the National Heads Up Poker Championship. That's fine.
The rake on a heads up cash game table can be outrageous, so it's good to see a one on one tournament section at the room.
The software at Noble has the basics, as well as an interesting statistics section that you can use to keep an eye on your tendencies. The chat is bubble chat above the player at the table as well as in a chat box, so you can see who is saying what a bit more clearly. And, there is still sound at the tables. Players still have "voices" that announce the action, "Fold", "Call" and "I'm All-in".
Besides the poker rooms, the software features a basic set of casino games. I can see this being standard everywhere shortly. The casino games include blackjack, craps, american roulette and a couple of video pokers.
I think the strong suit of this room is the Jackpot Sit and Go tournaments they offer. I haven't spent enough time in the room to develop a feel for the tables, but with player counts in the 3,000 range it looks as though you should get to know your opponents rather quickly here.
There's no reason to change the overall grade of Noble Poker, even though things change with time, I still give this room . . .
Noble Poker's Overall Grade: B
This page was last updated on April 12, 2006.
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