North American customers who point their browsers at Bodog’s old URL now find themselves face to face with a new name in place of the familiar Bodog site: Bovada.lv. The site promises that Bovada is the “Same Operator” but with a “New Name and Look.”

Here’s a detailed look at the ins and outs of Bovada Poker, the newest member of the steadily-growing number of American-facing poker properties online.

You start your adventure with Bovada by downloading the poker client and logging in. The gaming lobby is easy to use. Notice that the poker gaming software at Bovada is compatible with both Windows and Mac computers as long as you are running a version of the operating system that Bovada recommends. A nice feature of the software is the ability to check your account balance and a breakdown of your bonus progress right in the gaming window at any time.

The lobby offers direct access to the tournaments run by the site. You can find a host of customizing options on the lobby. Change the settings according to your preference. The tables offered on Bovada’s platform are anonymous. This means that players can be identified only by certain numbers, not names. Hence, players cannot track the records of their opponents or predict their moves.

Bovada’s cash game poker traffichits a peak of about 4,000 players on average over the past few weeks. One of the reasons for the explosion in new members is that Bovada is one of just a few places that American poker players can play as of this writing. As legislation concerning poker online in America develops over the new few months and years, expect the peak traffic at Bovada to increase. The Merge Network is really Bovada’s only competition in the American market, but even if other sites begin to legally face American poker play, the competition will probably be good for Bovada’s numbers. Competition is the driving force behind the online poker industry, and is usually good for every site involved.

Bovada'sloyalty program, like most online poker loyalty deals, requires their players earn a specific amount of poker points. You earn these points when you play cash poker games at Bovada. These loyalty points determine the release of your welcome bonus, and you can trade them for merchandise, tournament fees, or good old-fashioned cash money. As of this writing, the points for cash exchange is set at 100 PTS for $1 of real money added to your bankroll.

The welcome bonus comes in the form of a first deposit bonus. New players at Bovada can expect a 100% match bonus worth up to $1,000 on their first deposit. Aside from this welcome bonus, the promotional program at Bovada is slim pickings, made up mostly of freeroll tournaments and hints of reload bonuses that the site never goes into further detail about.