PokerStars vs. Cake Poker

Vs.

Sign-up Bonus

Cake Poker: 100% First Time Deposit Bonus up to $500

Vs.

PokerStars: 100% back, up to $50

Verdict: You can get a lot more return on your first deposit at CakePoker.com.

Promotions

Cake Poker: $100K Gold Card Event: with a 100-player capacity and 100 winners, there are no losers in this tournament.

New Depositor $500 Freeroll: all newly depositing players will receive one ticket. These freeroll tournaments run weekly on Saturdays at 2:00 pm EST. Ticket is good for any Saturday. Cake promotions are updated monthly. Check CakePoker.com for the current month's promotion(s)

Versus

PokerStars: Has a wide variety of promo's with it's newest being the PokerStars 2x promo which offers double the usual promos for new players. They also have the Sunday Million, WCOOP, and various tournament leaderboard promotions.

Verdict: CakePoker is obviously on the ball and eager to keep their promotions fresh and new. However PokerStars always has some kind of great promotion to offer players.

Tournaments

Cake Poker: Multi-Table tourneys, Sit & Gos, Heads Up tourneys, Re-Buys & Add-ons, Freeze-outs, Shootouts, Satellites, Freerolls

Vs.

PokerStars: Single- & Multi-Table tourneys, Heads Up tournaments, Sit & Gos, Freerolls, Turbo tournaments, Re-buys, Private tournaments, Satellites

Verdict: The only noticable difference between these two is the Private tourneys PokerStars offers.

Games

Cake Poker: Texas Holdem, Omaha, Omaho Hi Lo, Stud, Stud Hi Lo

Vs.

PokerStars: Texas Hold 'em, Omaha, Stud, Omah Hi/Lo, Stud Hi/Lo, Five-Card Draw, 2-7 Triple Draw, HORSE, and Razz

Verdict: The variety of games offered at PokerStars is better than those offered by Cake.

Stakes

Cake Poker: Micro-limit, low-limit, medium-limit

Vs.

PokerStars: Micro-limit, low-limit, medium-limit, high-stakes, and no-limit

Verdict: PokerStars offers higher-limit stakes.

Points

Cake Poker: Saturday Gold Chip Guaranteed: buy-in 5 Gold Chips; Gold Card 500: earn Gold Cards to win miles around the race track to add $500 to your bankroll weekly.

Vs.

PokerStars: Spend your VIP points on merchandise including clothing, poker accessories, books & DVDs, VIP tournaments.

Verdict: Because PokerStars is so high-profile, they also offer lots of merchandise for VIP points redemption.

Traffic

CakePoker: As the site grows, so does the traffic. Cake shares skin with Sportsbook and BetUS. US players welcome.

PokerStars: This site has peaked player quantity with over 100K+ players, and all these players are playing under one site, not sharing skin with any other site.

Verdict: PokerStars traffic compared to that of Cake is like comparing the traffic of New York City to that of Omaha, Nebraska.

Competition

CakePoker: Lots of fish swim here.

PokerStars: Strong players; strong competition.

Verdict: The two offer both ends of the extreme; which do you prefer is the question.

Rake

CakePoker: anywhere from $0.08 to the $5.00 cap

PokerStars: $0.50 max per game

Verdict: With all the players at PokerStars contributing to the same site, the rake is significantly lower than sites that share players, like Cake.

Rakeback

CakePoker: You can get rakeback on Cake Poker at a rate of 33%. Sign up for a rakeback account at cake here.

Vs.

PokerStars: Rakeback is not an option at PokerStars.

Verdict: If you want rakeback adn are trying to decide on playing at Cake or PokerStars it looks like your choice has just been made.

Deposit Options

Cake Poker: MasterCard/VISA, Neteller, Ecocard, Use My Wallet, eWalletXpress, money bookers

PokerStars: Visa/MasterCard, Diners Club International, Visa Electron, Neteller, moneybookers.com, Solo, Delta, Maestro, WebMoney, EC ELV, Online Bank Transfer, Local Bank Transfer, paysafe card, Instant e-checks, Click and Buy

Verdict: PokerStars will receive your deposit pretty much any way you want to use-they even take Diners Club!

Software

Cake Poker: 4 tools: Chat, Stats, Info, and Notes; allows you to choose your character avatar from photo-realistic images; Hand History

PokerStars: 15 different languages available, player notes, player stats, hand history, lobby options, resize tables, play on multiple tables, choose your background themes, allows image uploads for avatars

Verdict: Although PokerStars seems to offer a lot more options, if you don't have to have as many bells and whistles, Cake software does offer a decent skin.