Rio Poker

Rio Poker Room
Las Vegas Free Poker Games
Rio Poker Tournament Schedule
Rio Poker Club
Rio Senior Poker Tournament 2020
Rio Poker Tournament

If you’re among the thousands of players that have been wondering about the future of the World Series of Poker at the Rio, wonder no longer. According to both an article on CardPlayer and tweets from WSOP VP of Corporate Communications Seth Palansky, the WSOP will not be moving for at least two years.

Palansky Confirms 2020 WSOP at the Rio

One constant rumor that’s been floating around Las Vegas for years now is the pending sale of the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Vegas blog Vital Vegas has been claiming for a while that the sale of the Rio is underway.

World Series Of Poker. Online Poker with Huge Rewards - 30% - 75% rakeback for every player! 100% First deposit bonus up to €600 - Built-in HUD No Bots Community Focused.

They have also been claiming that the World Series of Poker will be relocating to the new Caesars Forum that’s scheduled to open in 2020. This rumor has persisted and people have been regularly questioning WSOP officials as to whether the 2020 WSOP will indeed move.

The most prestigious tournament in professional poker gets underway in Las Vegas this week.
At Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino Las Vegas, every room is a spacious suite! Book your stay and leave your inhibitions at home.

WSOP VP of Corporate Communications Seth Palansky put that rumor to be over Twitter on September 13th when he stated that he can “100% confirm @WSOP will take place at the Rio in Las Vegas in 2020.”

This can be looked on as good news for those wanting to lock down plans for next summer and bad news for those that are sick of dealing with the Rio.

Palansky Also Confirms 2021 WSOP at the Rio

Erik Fast of CardPlayer Magazine followed up on this story with Palansky and spoke with him about the WSOP rumor. When asked why Palansky could confirm that the 2020 WSOP would be held at the Rio, he revealed that the booking of facilities for the WSOP is done years in advance.

Palansky continued telling Fast that “people should feel confident that the 2021 WSOP will be at the Rio as well. He then confirmed that these things are booked years in advance and then addressed whether new ownership at the Rio would impact those plans.

He admitted that a new owner at the Rio could change things if the new owner decides not to honor contracts. Palansky then said that the new Caesar’s Convention Center really wasn’t a realistic option for the WSOP. He stated that the WSOP is not incredibly profitable and that the Convention Center would be better suited for short-term conventions rather than a two-month ordeal.

WSOP Feels Rio Still a Good Fit

For those that want to believe that the WSOP would love a new home, Palansky revealed otherwise. He stated that “we love the Rio” and continued praised the property for their cooperation in helping them to set up the event.

He then concluded the interview stating, “even if the property were to change hands, you think a new owner wouldn’t want to have the WSOP there, based on what it’s brought into the property for all these years? It’s a known quantity in a slow time period for convention business and the city in general.”

Some Will Not Be Pleased by This News

For those of you that are hoping for a new home for the WSOP, don’t hold your breath. Even if the Rio is sold, it appears that WSOP officials are looking to continue their relationship with the property. This is surely disappointing for those that have problems with the Rio as a venue.

Over the years there have been many complaints regarding parking, security, and general player safety. Every summer you hear stories about assaults and robberies in the property amongst other issues that some feel are inherent to the casino.

For at least the next two years, players will have to continue tolerating the Rio. After that, we may see a change in venue, but it may not be the Caesars Forum as has been assumed in the past.

bottom corner

Run It Once Poker, an offshoot of Phil Galfond’s Run It Once training site, launched in February 2019.

The room immediately succeeded in generating a significant level of buzz thanks to its various innovative and unique features which sets it apart from other online poker rooms including:

Dynamic Avatars – You can select the avatar you want from the 11 available character, but your opponents at the table will see you as a random avatar. Additionally, each player’s avatar changes based on their recent play history.
Splash the Pot – Money randomly added directly to the pot so you get rewarded faster.
Legends – Further rewards with a traditional weekly cashback program.
StreamR – This innovative rewards program pays players for live-streaming their action at RIO Poker tables.
HeroIQ – Built-in HUD.
SNG Select – Classic and “Lottery” sit and gos.

Run It Once Poker also has an AutoSeat blind lobby with fixed buy-ins that makes it fast and simple to get to the tables

And as a way of protecting its players from all of the sharks out there RIO Poker:

Rio Poker Room

Prohibits all third-party tools including HUDs
Limits the number of tables a player can play at one time (this speeds up the games too!)

The project was first revealed two years ago as Galfond felt that the online poker sites at that time lacked “transparency” and he was looking for a “fair, honest, transparent” poker site.

Initially, the site was supposed to launch in Q1 2017. However, the project was delayed for various reasons.

The online poker room is licensed in Malta and regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority. The company also holds a license from the UK Gambling Commission in the United Kingdom.

Welcome Bonus

Like most online poker rooms, Run It Once too has a welcome bonus for all new players.

RIO matches 100% of deposits up to €600 for 30 days. The bonus is released incrementally as indicated in the following table. For example, if a player deposits €250, he/she will be credited €5 for every €25 rake they contribute. Once the €100 bonus is cleared, they will receive €10 for every €57.10 for the next €100 batch and so on.

Run It Once Welcome Bonus Structure

Bonus Progress	Rake	Bonus
€0 – €100	€25.00	€5
€100 – €200	€57.10	€10
€200 – €300	€66.50	€10
€300 – €500	€100.00	€10
€500 – €600	€200.00	€10

What makes RIO’s Welcome Bonus more appealing is that there is no expiration date to clear the bonus as long as players play at least 1 hand every 30 days. Additionally, all deposits in the first 30 days count towards the bonus and not just the first deposit.

The site initially launched with a standard bonus in the industry i.e., RIO matched first deposit bonus up to €600 with 100% but only the first deposit counted towards the bonus. However, this was later changed to an unlimited number of deposits following the players’ feedback.

No deposit code is required for the Welcome Bonus.

Run It Once Welcome Bonus

Bonus Code	No Code Required
100% Match Up to	€600
Bonus Clear Period	Unlimited (as long as players play a hand every 30 days)
Last Verified	February 2021

Rake Structure

Run It Once Poker charges 4 – 5.75% rake for cash games, with rake cap from 0.50 up to 3.75, depending on the stakes and the number of players playing at the tables.

At No Limit Hold’em, rake is 5.75% at the micro stakes 5.5% at the low to mid-stakes, and it drops to 4% at the NL2000 tables, the highest stakes available. At PLO, it is fractionally lower—4.5% at micros, going up to 5% at PLO50 to PLO5000, then back down to 4% at high stakes.

Run It Once Poker Rake Structure

Las Vegas Free Poker Games

Stakes (100bb buy-in)	NLHE	PLO
€4	5.75%	4.50%
€10	5.75%	4.50%
€20	5.75%	4.50%
€50	5.75%	5.00%
€100	5.50%	5.00%
€200	5.50%	5.00%
€500	5.50%	5.00%
€1,000	5.00%	4.00%
€2,000	4.00%	4.00%

In general, when compared with other sites, the rake on RIO is notably higher at similar game and stakes. However, with its generous rewards scheme, the “net rake” is much lower than its competitors.

Splash the Pot

Run It Once Poker offers two types of rewards—Legends (see below) and its unique Splash the Pot.

Splash the Pot (STP), as the name implies, returns 51% of all rake taken at the table in the form of extra money dropped randomly to pots. This “splashed” pot is based on the size of the pot on the previous hand. This additional money can vary from 1 big blind up to, on very rare occasions, 1000 big blinds. The winner of the hand takes the extra money.

This innovative way to distribute the rewards has been very well received in general and has been appreciated by all types of players for its innovative take on rewards. According to the company, STP helps it to achieve some of its objectives around rake including rewarding all types of players equally and eliminating unclaimed rewards.

In addition to the RIO’s primary rewards program STP, the room also offers a secondary rewards program called StreamR that encourages players to stream their play on Twitch in exchange for 50% to 110% in additional rakeback based on the number of viewer hours accumulated in a month.

StreamR has a four-level program where players on Level 1 which has been designed to be fairly easy to achieve will need 200 hours of “watch time” for 50% net rakeback. Similarly, Level 4 will require 20,000 hours of watch time and players will be rewarded 110% rakeback.

Legends

On top of Splash the Pot, there is also the Legends rewards program. The more you play, the more you get in cashback, as you move through five tiers: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades and Legends.

Each of these tiers consists of five levels except for Legends, which has unlimited levels. As you complete every level, you are rewarded cash direct into your account, plus a level-up boost (free points towards unlocking higher levels).

You earn one point for every €0.05 in rake paid.

The entry-level “Clubs” tier starts at 10% rakeback, achievable for anyone who earns at least 60 points, equivalent to paying just €3 in rake.

These cash rewards increase as players generate more and more points, thus incentivizing players to put in higher volume—something that stands in stark contrast to the overall industry.

The final tier “Legends” guarantees €900 in cash rewards for every 90,000 points (€4500 in contributed rake) you accrue during a week.

Legends Rewards Program

Tier	Cashback	Streak Reward	Max Cash Reward	Splash the Pot	Total
Clubs	10%	0.50%	11%	30%	41%
Diamonds	12.50%	1.25%	14%	30%	44%
Hearts	15%	3%	18%	30%	48%
Spades	20%	6%	26%	30%	56%
Legends	30%	15%	45%	30%	75%

Promotions

Besides offering a generous rewards program, Run It Once Poker also runs promotions on a daily basis, effectively increasing the value of the rewards up to the equivalent of 80% rakeback and sometimes even higher. There have been direct rakeback promotions, bigger pot “splashes”, rake races and more.

As of February 2021, the operator runs leaderboards across all its games every week. Many of these do not have much competition so can offer some great extra value for players.

The company also plans to run a table starter cashback program, encouraging players to start the table and keep them running.

Cash Games

The site offers a limited range of game offerings, with No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha 6-max cash games starting at €4 buy-in (2c/4c) and going up to €1000 (€5/€10).

The room does not yet offer other game types and formats including tournaments and sit & gos. However, the company recently posted an update on the site’s progress suggesting that the development process for sit & go’s is “well underway” but the company has not provided a timeline yet. The addition of sit & go’s will be the room’s first major post-launch addition.

Tournaments

In November 2020, the operator launched SNG Select. This offers both standard sit and gos, called Classic, and lottery sit and gos, called Cub3d. Cleverly, it uses the same player pool for both games. This means that games go off quite fast, even during quiet times.

Regardless of which you choose, the games are three handed and winner takes all, although if you are playing Cub3d there are special “Glitch” random prizes that can be triggered, rewarding you a prize even if you lose. Bongo bingo liverpool.

Classic Buy-in	Classic Prize	Classic Rake	Cub3d Buy-in	Cub3d Prize	Cub3d Rake	Cub3d Glitch %	Glitch Prize
N/A	-	-	€0.25	2-1500x	4%	7.23%	€0.25-€12.50
€0.90	€2.49	7.78%	€1	2-1500x	7%	9.24%	€0.25-€50
€1.80	€4.98	7.78%	€2	2-1500x	7%	10.11%	€0.60-€100
€4.50	€12.57	6.89%	€5	2-1500x	6.20%	9.76%	€2-€250
€9	€25.38	6%	€10	2-1500x	5.40%	9.77%	€2.50-€500
€16.50	€46.65	5.76%	€25	1.5-1500x	3.80%	24.23%	€12.50-€2500

Software

Run It Once has its own in-house software offering many of the unique features designed for both the recreational and professional players. Most notably the Dynamic Avatars system, where each opponent has a random avatar that takes on a unique expression based on the player’s recently observed play style.

The cash game lobby is blind with fixed buy-ins, a common trend now in the online poker industry. Play is entirely anonymous, there is no chat box, though a canned chat system is available allowing players to express themselves with a shortlist of emoticons and phrases. Also unique is the player color-coding system, which accents each avatar’s shirt with the chosen color.

There is also a prohibition of all third-party tools including HUDs, cap on multi-tables to up to 6 tables, unique sit out policy.

Online casino no registration. The client is still in beta mode and will remain in this phase until the platform is “nearly flawless,” according to Phil Galfond, the founder of RIO. The room has been releasing frequent updates adding new features on a monthly basis including resizeable tables, ability to download hand histories, improvements to hotkeys, new table backgrounds and new table layouts, new card options, visual tweaks, etc.

Run It Once Poker is available to both Windows and Mac users.

Mobile App

At the time of writing, Run It Once Poker has not yet revealed a mobile app yet. But it is expected, RIO will an app for Android and iOS users in the near future. There is no word on whether there will be a browser-based client.

Banking Options

Players can deposit on Run It Once Poker through a variety of options including VISA and MasterCard, Neteller, Skrill, ecoPayz, Paysafecard, MuchBetter, AstroPay Card, bank transfer powered by Trustly. However, depending on the player’s location, these payment methods may vary.

RIO is also expecting to accept cryptocurrencies including Bitcoins soon but it is still waiting for the regulators to add those options.

RIO Site Availability

RIO operates internationally under a Malta license and accepts players from dozens of countries. This includes Canada, South America much of Europe including Finland, Netherlands, Russia and Germany. It is available in the UK too, thanks to RIO’s UKGC license.

However, the site is not available in certain key jurisdictions including the US, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Czech Republic, Romania, Estonia, Greece, and the European segregated market made up of the shared player pools in France, Spain, and Portugal.

The operator is understood to have applied for a license in some of these countries including Denmark and Sweden.