The operator in New Jersey made the first step, but as legal online gambling expands through the US, so does the impact of the Borgata Online Casino. To keep up with its competitors, the operator provides the Borgata Online Casino app, which enables mobile play on both iOS and Android-powered devices alike. In this review, we take a close look.
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Borgata Poker is a legal NJ online poker site powered by bwin.party.
It operates on the same software as PartyPoker, enjoyed by players all over the world. It shares network liquidity with sister site PartyPoker NJ.
When online poker first launched in New Jersey back in November 2013, the Borgata/Party partnership quickly vaulted to the industry’s top spot and remained there for the better part of two-and-a-half years.
The tides have since turned, and today, Borgata/PartyPoker comprise the least trafficked network (out of three) in New Jersey. But that hardly means the seats are cold, especially during prime-time hours.
Cash-game liquidity hovers around an average of 80 players during the seasonal uptick, and between 65-75 players at off-peak times. The network spreads a fairly even mix of cash games, tournaments with a wide range of buy-ins, and Sit ‘n Gos (SNG).
Online Poker: | Borgata Poker |
Borgata Poker Bonus Code: | PLAYNJ |
Bonus Description: | $20 bonus without a deposit, up to $600 bonus on first deposit |
Available To: | Adults 21 or older, located in New Jersey |
Last Verified: | Oct. 1, 2019 |
New players receive a $20 welcome bonus upon registering for Borgata Poker. Use bonus code PLAYNJ to get this exclusive offer.
You’ll receive the funds as follows:
New real-money depositors receive a 100% up to $600 first deposit bonus. The bonus releases in 10 % increments and clears at a very healthy 50% cash-back rate, which is well above par relative to industry standards.
Players have 45 days to clear the bonus. That may prove too short a window for casual players, as a $600 deposit will require a $1,200 rake commitment. But anyone with more than a passing interest in the site shouldn’t find the requirements too difficult.
Borgata Poker is also known to offer spot reload bonuses.
Traffic - 82
Depth of Game Selection - 90
Software - 85
Customer Support - 80
Promotional Value - 95
Summary
Borgata Poker may not feature the highest liquidity in NJ, or the best customer support, but it's worth checking out on the merits of its welcome package alone. Players receive $20 free and a 100% match, up to $600, on first deposits. The match bonus clears at an unprecedented 50% rakeback rate. Borgata also hosts a sea of one-off promotions and a fairly diversified tournament schedule.
Borgata Poker is available for Windows andMacs. There is a no-download version, which operates in Java.
The site also offers mobile platforms in Android, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
Borgata Poker offers five cash games.
They are:
The majority of SNGs are in No Limit Hold ’em, but there are a smattering of Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo games as well.
The tournaments, too, consists mostly of the no limit variety, with a few Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo multi-table tournaments (MTT) sprinkled in.
Players on Borgata Poker may deposit cash at the Borgata’s casino cage.
Other options include:
Players may withdraw via cash at the Borgata cage. Checks, bank wires, electronic checks, Neteller and the Borgata prepaid card are also available as cashout options.
Borgata Poker offers five VIP tiers.
They are based on the number of points earned in a month or quarter:
The number of VIP points required for a $5 Borgata comp (rakeback percent in parenthesis):
It’s worth noting that these are the best conversion rates available from the iRewards Store.
The number of VIP points required for a $25 online bonus:
The number of VIP points required for $25 in cash:
Higher tier players receive invitations to exclusive tournaments. There are also other perks for players that give regular action.
You earn two VIP points, referred to as iReward points, for every $1 in rake paid.
The contributed method is used to determine the amount of rake attributed to a player. When entering SNGs and tournaments, you are awarded two VIP points for every $1 in house fees paid.
You can exchange iReward points for a variety of items, including poker and casino bonuses, comps at the Borgata’s brick-and-mortar venue in Atlantic City and cash.
You can also use iRewards points to purchase electronics, gadgets, and sports items, although the exchange rates on these items are generally poor— typically less than 10%, even for Black Label Elite members.
Borgata Poker offers all the standard support options found on other NJ online poker sites.
Players that game on offshore sites run the risk of being burned. That simply won’t happen on legal and regulated NJ online poker and casino sites, which are required by regulators to show that it can provide a safe and secure environment.
The sites are governed by the same regulatory body that has presided over Atlantic City casinos for 40 years: the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement.
October 19th brings the $100,000 Guaranteed Saturday Series to the Borgata Poker Room in Atlantic City. This Deepstack No Limit Hold’em event starts at 11 am and has a $350 + $50 buy-in.
Did you know that Borgata Poker offers over 70 daily online tournaments from Monday through Saturday? Buy-ins range from $2 to $215, with guarantees starting at $150 and going up to $10,000. You can play in a 6-Max Hyper, Bounty 6-Max Turbo, PLO 6-Max, among others. There are also featured Daily Specials, with similar buy-ins. For the complete list of daily events, check out the calendar here.
Over on the casino side of things, you’ll find 14 new games, including one new Blackjack variations called Blackjack Multi-Hand. New slots include Black Knight 2, Da Vinci Diamonds Dual Play, Dragon Gems, Narcos, Secret of Atlantis, Slingo Fortunes and Sea of Tranquility.
Not yet. Right now you can only play against other players in the state of New Jersey. The international players on PartyPoker’s website are not accessible — only those registered on PartyPoker NJ and currently situated in New Jersey.
No. But the Borgata is now owned by MGM, which is one of the dominant operators in Nevada. So it’s fully possible that we could see the Borgata — or a sister brand — open an online poker site in Nevada.
Borgata Poker’s ties to the most popular live poker room on the east coast (The Borgata in Atlantic City) enable it to host myriad tie-in promotions.
These are most often spread by way of online satellites into live Borgata Poker Open events, which run quarterly.
Borgata Poker has also offered players opportunities to win free hotel stays and luxury experiences at the Borgata. Players can also exchange their earned iRewards points for Borgata comps.
High rollers will notice that Borgata Poker spreads some of the biggest cash games in the NJ online poker market, with available No Limit Hold ’em games are running as high as $25/$50. On the flip side, full-ring and 6-max games are available at stakes as low as $0.01/$0.02.
There is no one specific player type that Borgata Poker targets. Instead, tournament buy-ins and cash game stakes run the gamut from low to high.
The site does struggle to get off SNGs, and part of the reason for this is low liquidity. So SNG aficionados might be best off elsewhere, which is a shame as the site boasts one of the most eclectic blends of the variant.
Borgata Poker does feature an array of social options, including Missions, Achievements, a friend’s list and messaging. Thus, players who prefer social interaction and friendly competition may be attracted to the site.
Value hunters will love playing poker tournaments on Borgata Poker, as the site’s MTTs are subject to frequent overlays. Sometimes, the overlays are big enough to cover player entry fees.
Players can win their way into live Borgata events from online, with qualifiers running for as little as a few bucks. Like tournaments, many of these satellites are subject to overlays, offering rare value opportunities for players.
For whatever reason, Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo games are rather popular on Borgata Poker. For players who tire of No Limit Hold ’em games, they shouldn’t have too much difficulty finding a PLO Hi-Lo game, especially during the prime-time hours of 6 pm-12 am.
The current online poker apps for NJ all do their best to mimic the desktop versions of NJ’s regulated online poker rooms. For the most part they succeed in this quite well, though the selection of available tables and tournaments is far more limited.
Playing on multiple tables simultaneously is now an option, but only on one poker application. The touch interface is perfectly useful for poker play, but if you intend to use any kind of chat options you will miss having a keyboard.
This page covers mobile poker apps. Get the rundown on NJ online casino mobile apps here. Check out NJ mobile sportsbook apps here.
Poker Apps | iOS | iOS size | iOS min. version | Android | Android size |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
WSOP | Yes | 74.3 | 6.0 | Yes | 23.9 |
888 Poker | Yes | 59.5 | 6.0 | Yes | 30 |
Party Poker | Yes | 46.5 | 8.0 | Yes | 61.1 |
Borgata Poker | Yes | 51,8 | 8.0 | Yes | 20.7 |
PokerStars | Yes | 148 | 8.0 | Yes | 80.2 |
Pala Poker | Yes | 78.5 | 8.0 | Yes | 38 |
Poker Apps | Cash Games | Sit & Go's | Lottery Sit & Go's | Tournaments | FastFold | No Limit Texas Hold-em | Fixed Limit Texas Hold-em |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WSOP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
888 Poker | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Party Poker | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Borgata Poker | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
PokerStars | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Pala Poker | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Although all six apps allow for free money play, the only one that seems to get “fun” games off on a somewhat consistent basis is PokerStars. And even then, players will have much better luck finding a free play cash game than a tournament or sit & go.
As far as real-money games, No Limit Hold’em games are the bread and butter of all NJ online poker mobile apps. Other games are offered, but the selection is even sparser than it is on desktop clients.
PokerStars is the only app that offers Pot Limit Omaha games. Borgata/Party offers limit games but they rarely get off.
Other mixed games like Omaha Hi/Lo and Stud games do not appear to be fully integrated into NJ-based online poker apps.
Prior to PokerStars’ official launch in New Jersey, WSOP.com held a narrow edge over Borgata Poker for the state’s best online poker app. Now, it’s the PokerStars NJ app that wins out, by more than a little.
PokerStars has integrated its online casino and poker offerings into one comprehensive application, with poker taking center stage.
Not only does the app provide the most robust selection of account management features – which includes access to the cashier, VIP Store, and settings page – but the PokerStars NJ mobile app simply feels more polished than what the competition has to offer.
It’s also the only app that has integrated multi-tabling, non-hold’em variants and lottery sit & go’s. And thanks to the large lobby icons and sliders, finding a game of preference rarely takes more than a couple of swipes.
As for gameplay, PokerStars NJ comes closer than any other NJ operator to simulating the desktop experience on mobile. It also usually features the most traffic for non-guaranteed tournaments.
PokerStars is partnered with Resorts Casino in New Jersey.
Of all the poker apps this was probably the second most fun to play on, but mainly because WSOP/888 possesses inherent advantages in liquidity compared to Borgata/Party. This more than makes up for the missing features in the software, of which there are a few notables.
While mobile poker functions identically between 888 and WSOP, the WSOP app has the better tournament selection of the two (although this could vary from day to day). No complaints about the tournament lobby — it may not be the prettiest layout but it’s more than efficient.
On the other hand:
While the cash game and sit-and-go sliders work fine, it would have been nice if WSOP incorporated functionality that allowed players to see these lobbies. As is, players have to just hope a game of their preference is running.
This is a pretty severe oversight and may cause some players to run away in frustration.
The nearly identical software that 888 Poker and WSOP use is a little less functional than the apps for Borgata and Party.
Rather than seeing the tables by name (and the number of people there) you have to just specify the type of game you are looking for with a number of sliding bars. This makes getting a good cash game tricky at times. Also, 888 and WSOP do not have any kind of fast-fold game options on mobile.
Though there is a wide range of Sit & Go options, you may have trouble finding one that is viable. As with the cash games, you must choose parameters and then hope there is someone else interested, and many of the sit-and-go tournaments that are more popular on the site don’t seem to be available on the app.
Regular multi-table tournaments, on the other hand, work perfectly and are excellent.
The app built for the mobile Party Poker room is the same program as Borgata. Since they share liquidity across the board, players will have a similar experience with both programs.
PartyPoker recently revamped its interface, and the result was a better user experience. Party’s app is solid, and we’d recommend that players who wrote it off when it was plagued by connection errors (especially on iOS) give it another go.
Be warned, however: Players who aren’t a fan of hold’em cash games or multi-table tournaments won’t find much to their liking. This is more a byproduct of the network’s low liquidity than the app itself.
If anything, the app supports a fair number of game formats, including fast-fold and fixed limit. Too bad its dedicated sub-menus and advanced filtering options are virtually wasted.
As with the NJ online casinos, the choice between Borgata and Party will mostly come down to which rewards program you are already in.
At one point, registering for tournaments was unreliable, but it appears the operator has ironed out most of the kinks.
More good news: Borgata’s numerous daily freeroll tournaments now appear on the mobile tournament list. This will come as a pleasant surprise to those who may have disregarded the app when they couldn’t sign up for the freebies.
As solid as other New Jersey poker apps have become, the PokerStars NJ mobile offering still blows them out of the water. That’s not to say the app is a model of perfection, as server lag and unresponsiveness are still minor issues. But in terms of overall game selection, account management, design and aesthetics, PokerStars NJ wins out.
Currently, the app offers cash games (no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha), tournaments, sit-and-go’s and the widely popular (and mobile friendly) Spin & Go’s. Zoom Poker is listed in the app lobby, but games tend to only run when there is a “play [x] amount of cash game hands” promotion running.
The PokerStars’ app features a smart feature that recommends games to players based on their playing tendencies. Players can easily bypass these recommendations by clicking on the large icons and using the sliders and filters instead. We did find it a bit odd that players aren’t permitted to specify an exact buy-in for cash games, but otherwise, the ring game sliders fit the bill.
Tournament registration was a breeze. The app lists buy-in, prize pool, format and date info for multiple tournaments right from the main tournament page. All players have to do is find something they like and click “Register.” If the tournament lobby proves too cluttered (which is often the case during the evening) players can weed out tournaments via nine different filters.
Players can also register for and participate in freerolls from their mobile devices.
Pala Poker’s mobile application is available for Android and iOS devices. The Apple version is available from the App Store, while the Android version can be accessed by following the download link on Pala’s website under the “download & play” page.
At around 80 megabytes, the iOS version is fairly bulky and takes a few moments to download, depending on internet connection speed. The Android version is around half that size.
Expect to wait between 10 and 20 seconds for the application to load, with the iOS version being slightly faster than the Android one.
Game offering is identical to what can be found on the desktop application: cash games include no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha, with stakes ranging from $0.10/$0.25 to $1/$2. Unfortunately, there are no micro or high-limit stakes. Six-handed SnG tournaments are available, with buy-ins from $5 to $20.
There are also a number of scheduled multi-table tournaments available on any given day, most with a guaranteed prize pool between $50 and $250 and buy-ins in the $0.50 to $10 range. A few freerolls are available, too. Almost all tournaments start at 4 p.m. or later.
Overall, the application is responsive, functional, and does not lag behind its desktop counterpart.