Gus Hanson's PokerChamps.com is a relatively new site on the scene,
ready and willing to take on the online poker world. And why not? After all,
Gus Hanson is a tremendous tournament player and 3-time World Poker
Tour champion. Unfortunately, PokerChamps does not follow in his
footsteps...
Once you launch the PokerChamps software (and every time after that),
you are given 7 seconds to choose a visual format. This was extremely
confusing to me, and I had to relaunch the software around 10 times before
understanding how it worked. Basically you have the choice of 1-screen,
2-screens, 4-screens, a resizable screen, and if your monitor allows, a
6-screen. Each screen is basically another invocation of the lobby, where
you can then go see the tournaments section, the ring section, play games,
etc. Thus, you can multi-table only a maximum of 4-tables at once unless
you have a massive monitor. Also, you cannot easily go back to the lobby or
check out the tournaments, sit-and-go's, etc. since you are only allocated
the space given. Also, if you decide you want to switch the window format
you're in, you have to exit, and launch the software again. PokerChamps
tried being unique in this regard, but failed miserably.
The interface of the software differs a lot from the trend the majority of sites
use. Again, PokerChamps gambled in being different, but failed; their
buttons are very small and strange-looking, menu's and options are in
strange locations and with obscure graphics.
The cashier is not done through the software, but from their website - thus
to simply check how much money you have, you have to click on the cashier
button in the software, which then launches their website. You then need to
click on another link, which will then launch a pop-up window which is the
cashier area. To top it all off, you then need to log-in with your username
and password again! All this to go to the cashier.
The population of the site is very small. The vast majority of players were
playing either the 'fun-money' tables, or the penny tables in real money
(.25/.50 NL and down). I had to wait a while just for somebody to join my
$1/2 NL table...
On the upside, PokerChamps does have a lot of freerolls available to
players - I believe they were running almost hourly from what I could see.
The site also has a friends list, where you can add friends, and it will show
when they are online, and where they are playing.
Overall, I do not recommend depositing at PokerChamps. I give them props
for trying to be unique, but unfortunately th
