Grosvenor Poker
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Grosvenor Poker Review 2024
Operating as a room on the iPoker network, Grosvenor Poker offers a comprehensive range of online poker cash games and tournaments to suit players of most bankrolls.
Grosvenor Poker excels in its unique provision of online satellites to live poker events held within Grosvenor’s bricks-and-mortar casinos, throughout the UK.
All players are eligible for loyalty bonuses at Grosvenor Poker, with rakeback of up to 40% for the most active poker players, while even casual players get a minimum of 20% rakeback returned to them.
Network promotions like Twister Races and regular big tournament series are a core part of the iPoker offering and Grosvenor Poker customers have full access to these. Additionally, several regular promotions are exclusive to Grosvenor Poker players, including rake races, freerolls and tournament leaderboards.
About Grosvenor Poker
Grosvenor Poker is the the online poker room of land-based UK casino chain Grosvenor Casinos and has been in operation for well over 10 years. It is owned by the Rank Group Plc, who also own and operate the Mecca Bingo chain.
Previously on the now shuttered MPN network, Grosvenor Poker migrated to the iPoker Network in 2020. Prior to being hosted on the MPN network, Grosvenor Poker had originally started out as an iPoker room, making the 2020 return the site’s second stint on the Playtech owned network.
Grosvenor Poker is only accessible to players from the UK and Ireland.
Cash Games
Running 24/7, No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha cash games are the main games on offer. Most of the action is at micro and low stakes, with some mid-stakes tables, but little high stakes action. Prior to Covid lockdown the biggest tables you could expect to find running were the €5/€10 tables, but network liquidity growth now enables some €10/€20 games to run and even €25/€50 from time to time.
You will also find fixed limit holdem cash games on Grosvenor Poker, with stakes starting at €0.02/€0.04 and rising to as high as €20/€40. However there is less demand for limit poker and these dont always run.
Cash games are all 6-max, with the exception of heads-up (two player) tables.
The site also spreads a fast-fold cash game variant, which they call Speed Poker. In this variant, as soon as you fold your hand you are immediately whisked away to another table with new opponents to start another hand. Speed games are offered from as low as €0.02/€0.05 to a max of €0.50/€1, however as this is one of the least popular formats on the network, there is often not much action at all on these tables.
There are also tables offering 6+ poker cash games, which is a short deck poker game. The lower cards (2,3,4 and 5) are removed, leaving only 36 cards in the deck. Unlike in regular poker, the hand rankings for 6+ differ, with a flush being valued higher than a full house, because statistically, it is harder to make a flush than a full house.
Regular cash game players are well rewarded at Grosvenor Poker, with two rake races per month, each with prizes totalling £6,250, shared between the top 100 rakers. There is one race that runs for the first half of the month and another that runs for the second half. Players need to opt-in to participate.
Tournaments
Players on Grosvenor Poker have access to both iPoker network tournaments and bespoke events only available on Grosvenor Poker.
Daily Schedule
Network tournaments form the main part of the daily schedule, with a variety of multi-table tournaments (mtts) available in different formats with buy-ins starting as low as €0.10. Progressive Knockouts (PKOs) are one of the most popular tournament formats at Grosvenor Poker. The site’s flagship daily and weekly tournament, the Main Sweat/Sunday Sweat also features a PKO format. For poker tournament purists, there are also plenty of regular “vanilla” mtts on the schedule as well.
Sunday Events
As per most online poker sites, Sunday is the day with the highest traffic on Grosvenor Poker and it’s when the biggest tournaments of the week take place. Guarantees are increased for most mtts on Sundays and it’s also the day that multi-flight events, such as the newly introduced mystery bounty weekly special conclude.
Online Series
Since Covid lockdown, online tournament series have become a more significant part of the iPoker network offering, with a big online series every couple of months and usually something smaller, but still significant in the months in-between.
Customers of Grosvenor Poker not only have access to network series, they also have exclusive online festivals that mirror their live brands, including an online GUKPT festival and National League events.
Live Event Satellites
Perhaps the biggest feather in the Grosvenor Poker cap is its provision of online satellites to the live poker events that take place within its 55 casino estate. These live events include the prestigious GUKPT, which has been running since 2007 and is now in its 17th season. The National Poker League, 25/25 events and the annual Goliath event are the other core tournament brands that Grosvenor operate live.
The online qualifying approach is simple and effective, with daily satellites taking place that award live tournament credit as prizes. Players can accumulate winnings and use them to buy into any of the core live tournament brands on offer across the Grosvenor Casino estate, which includes over 30 live poker rooms. The daily satellites have varying buy-ins and varying prize pools and the tickets won will never expire!
Jackpot Sit N Go - Twister
The jackpot Sit n Go format on Grosvenor Poker is called Twister. These are fast paced 3-handed on-demand tournaments that feature a random prize pool. Most of the time you will be playing for 2x or 3x the buy-in, but sometimes the RNG delivers much bigger prizes, with the top prize being 1000x the buy-in.
Rather uniquely, there is also a version of Twister that not only awards a random prize pool, but also gives players an opportunity to win an Age of the Gods jackpot. Age of the Gods is a slots game that features linked jackpots and it is these jackpots that such Twister tables are linked to. The jackpots can be massive sometimes.
Twister is available for €1, €2, €5, €10, €20, €50, €100 and €200 buy-ins, while Age of the Gods Twister can be played for €1, €5 or €10.
Loyalty Bonus
All Grosvenor Poker players can earn up to 40% rake back via the Grosvenor Poker Loyalty Club. It is a straightforward program. The more you rake, the higher your loyalty status, the higher the loyalty status, the more rakeback you receive at the end of the month. The minimum amount is set at 20%, but this rises to 40% for players who rake £5,000 or more in a calendar month.
| Loyalty Status | Rake Required | Rakeback |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | £0 | 20% |
| Silver | £20 | 24% |
| Gold | £100 | 28% |
| Platinum | £1000 | 34% |
| Diamond | £5000 | 40% |
Sponsored Player Leaderboards
Although once more extensive, Grosvenor Poker still has some sponsored pros who represent the brand on the live poker circuit, including Jamie Nixon, Katie Swift and Andy Hills, who collectively form Team Grosvenor. They represent Grosvenor when playing in live tournaments in the UK and across the globe, such as the WSOP and WPT.
-NEWS JUST IN-
In January 2024, Grosvenor Poker annouced that Scottish pro Ludovic Geilich had joined Team Grosvenor. With over $3m in live winnings to his name, the GUKPT Edinburgh Champion will be aiming at further success on the UK's premier poker tour.
Team Grosvenor pros also frequent the online tables and both Jamie Nixon and Katie Swift host a monthly leaderboard. Jamie's Leaderboard event takes place every Tuesday at 8pm, with a £11 buy-in and is open to all players.
Katie’s Leaderboard is a women only event and takes place on Wednesday evenings at 8pm, also with a £11 buy-in.
Points are awarded based on finishing position in each weekly tournament and at the end of each month the top 14 players on each leaderboard share £500 worth of Grosvenor Poker live tournament tickets. Additionally, The top four players on each monthly leaderboard take part in an 8-player final, where they fight it out for a National League main event entry and prize pools of £1,000-£1,500.
Payment Methods
Players can fund Grosvenor Poker accounts in a few different ways. The accepted payment methods are:
- Visa (debit)
- Mastercard (debit)
- PayPal
- PaySafeCard
- Apple Pay
The minimum deposit is £5 for all payment methods, except PayPal, which requires at least £10 to be transacted. Debit, but not credit cards are accepted and winnings can be withdrawn back to the same card, with quick withdrawal processing for most payment methods.
The Verdict
The iPoker Network has been resurgent in recent years and now ranks as one of the busiest places to play online poker. Tournament series keeps getting bigger and bigger, with the 2023 year ending Winter Elite Series boasting a network record €7m in guaranteed prize pools.
The daily tournament schedule is well devised with lots of variety and lots going on, especially at peak traffic times. Accessibility is excellent, with a download client, apps for Android, iPhone and iPad in addition to a browser based client.
Cash games are mainly at lower stakes and although there are fewer variants than on the bigger sites, No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha enthusiasts are well served. The lack of liquidity in the Speed poker format is a downside and one wonders whether iPoker would be better off killing that product entirely, as it is one of the few negatives things about the site.
Qualifying opportunities to the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT), the Grosvenor National League and the Goliath is the key USP of Grosvenor Poker, positively differentiating its offering from the many other sites on the iPoker Network. It is a shame that the site is restricted to players from the UK and Ireland, as it could easily attract an international customer base with access to some of the best live poker events in Europe at Grosvenor Casinos.
