To sign up for an account on Phenom Poker click here: PLAY NOW!
Or use code LMG at signup (LearnMixGames!).
By Kyle Miaso (aka BabyDoooty on Phenom Poker)
In the months going forward I will do my best to provide a monthly fair and unbiased writeup on Phenom Poker, the quality of the website, the games, the stakes, the improvements, what needs to improve, etc.
This website is not affiliated with Phenom Poker. There are affiliate links embedded in the website.
Overall Grades:
Deposits/Withdrawals: A
Bonuses: A
Player Pool: B
Game Selection: C
Software: B
Communication: A+
Can Play in USA: ✅ (Except Washington State. Check your jurisdiction)
During the 2024 WSOP there was a fair amount of hype as well recognized poker players, and Phenom ambassadors, such as Brian Rast, Serigo Adio, Alec Torelli, Eric Baldwin, Ben Heath, and Ari Engel were wearing the Phenom Poker patch during the annual summer spectacle. Most people, not knowing what to expect, were told of the future launch of a new poker site with a focus on the players. After months of testing its software and in preparation for launch, Phenom Poker officially opened its doors October 7th of last year.
Over that time frame the only format of poker games that have been available to players on Phenom are cash games. While there have been occasional $100/$200 heads up limit games and occasionally $25/$50 heads up no limit holdem running, the majority of the traffic has been mid to small games. Ranging from $0.02/$0.05 NL to $1/$2, PLO, PLO5, and BigO from $0.50/$1 to $5/$10, and $0.50/$1 to $20/$40 mix games. Every week the traffic seems to pick up as well.
What is Phenom Poker?
IF YOU TRANSFER USDT TO PHENOM MAKE SURE IT’S ON THE POLYGON NETWORK AND NOT ETHEREUM!
The main difference between Phenom and most other poker sites is that Phenom is a cryptocurrency poker room. Their games use Tether (USDT) on the Polygon Network and at all times the player is in control of their funds. Although they use USDT as the token of choice for game play, you can still deposit using several other cryptocurrencies:
If you are located in the US, Phenom Poker is available to you unless you live in the state of Washington. They accomplish this by letting the player have total control over their funds in their own crypto wallet. Phenom does use KYC (Know Your Customer) as a way to make sure that you are playing against another human being and not a bot or someone attempting to multi account. If you are in violation of these rules you are automatically banned for life.
When a player signs up a wallet is created under their account and only the player can access any funds sent to that wallet. Each time you buyin to a table you send money from your wallet to the table. The table has a “contract” on the Polygon network and each time you cash out the funds are sent back to your wallet. Sometimes there is a few second delay between the buyin or cash out (as your transactions are being recorded on the Polygon blockchain) but besides the miniscule delay it feels just as seamless as all other poker sites.
As someone who has played on the site almost daily and someone who participates in the Discord discussion I do not know of any players who have lost money in this process of transferring money back and forth between their wallet and the tables. Occasionally a transfer from the table to the wallet would get “stuck” but when the table resets (when the table breaks and everyone leaves) or someone from the Phenom team becomes aware of it (through the Discord or contacting support) they have the ability on the backend to release the funds back to your wallet where you have control. In the last month however I have not heard about this happening often. And when it does happen players are promptly refunded from the team at Phenom or when the table resets the USDT is directly deposited back into their wallet.
Probably the strongest thing they have going for them is the open communication they have on the Discord channel. If you have ANY issues they get back to you almost immediately and do their best to fix any question or concern you might have. But the people participating in the discussion are also the founders and developers which means if you ask a question or have a suggestion/problem this is heard right at the top.
Phenom Token/Player Rewards/Rakeback
Phenom has taken a “Player First” approach toward rewards and rakeback. When you initially sign up for a phenom account and start playing you will be earning 15% rakeback. The rakeback you earn is dependent on your tier status and you can earn up to 35% back if you reach their highest tier (Phenom level):
The rake right now compared to their competitors is about the same, however their goal is to get it down vs all other competitors.
Mixed Game Rate:
No limit/Pot limit rake:
Every monday a few things happen with respect to the rakeback. The price of the Phenom token is calculated based on the prior 4 weeks. Once that is calculated, the rakeback that you have earned over the previous week is then converted to the Phenom token. At the time of writing the current price of the token is $0.39. How the price of the token is calculated is shown below:
For example, let’s say that you earn $10 in rakeback over the past week and the price of the token is $0.50. Meaning that previous week you earned 20 Phenom Tokens. There are several things that come with ownership of the tokens but if you are just interested in the rakeback you can, at any time, just convert your Phenom token directly back into USDT. If you decide to convert your Phenom into USDT you CANNOT convert it back. You have to earn the tokens back in one of the two current options (play or referral).
However if you keep your rewards in Phenom there are several other perks. Every Monday Phenom also distributes 50% of net rake back to the players according to how many tokens you hold. The more tokens you hold the more weekly distributions you get. At the time of this writing approximately for every 2000 tokens you have in your Phenom wallet that will get you $1 directly deposited into your Phenom wallet every week. So if you have 10,000 tokens and don’t play for the rest of the year, if Phenom just maintained their current numbers, you would get approximately $260 in distributions by the end of the year.
The number of Phenom tokens is capped at 50,000,000. Meaning that whatever percentage of tokens you have will earn you that percentage of 50% of the net weekly rake the site takes in. And without this being voted on by the token holders this will not change.
You also have voting rights on where to take the company as Phenom will become more of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) once the token holder base grows.
There are only two ways at the time of this writing to earn Phenom tokens. Game play and referring another player. For simplicity, if you refer a player, once they generate $100 in rake you can earn between 10%-30% of their lifetime rakeback and you can either have that deposited to your account in USDT or the Phenom Token.
They have also implemented deposit bonuses in the last month and have one (if not the best) 1st time bonus of any of the poker sites of 150% up to $3000 USDT.
To sign up and get the 150% deposit bonus sign up here: Sign Up!
Game Play
While Phenom is a newer site, it is not just a run-of-the-mill No Limit and Pot Limit Omaha room. They have almost all current and popular forms of poker including NL, pot limit, cap games, limit mixed games, draw games, hi/lo games and others.
Currently the only way to play is in a browser (i.e. Chrome, Safari, FireFox, etc.). They are working on (and should be out soon) with a desktop client. So far I think that both versions of their software are very good. The browser version could probably use a few bigger buttons and the chat needs to be clearer in both versions but with respect to playability they are both very good.
Browser:
Mobile:
In the Discord they have hinted that they are working on a full table refactor that will come with new chat, clear graphics, and other little tidbits. It should be out next month.
While currently they only have cash games, tournaments should be out in the next month or two. If you follow the discord the most asked question is “when tournaments?” I have been told on good authority that the majority of their developers are getting tournaments ready for launch. While I’ve been one of their biggest advocates for what they are trying to do, I do think they needed to have tournaments way earlier. I get that what they are trying to do has never been done with respect to putting a poker site on the blockchain, but in the current poker environment, tournaments are a must! I have it on good authority that they should be released by April..
Phenom also chose to utilize life like avatars for the players that want to go that route. If you choose to, you can create your own Avatar that looks just like you. If that’s not your thing you don’t have to and skip it when you 1st open your account. While this is optional they also have plans in the future to use emotes and other fun options for banter at the table like most of the other poker sites have now implemented.
Media
Their blog features many upcoming releases, including the tournament lobby.
They also have a podcast On The Button/YouTube Channel where they discuss many things including Phenom with their ambassadors usually hosted by one of the founders, Matt Valeo. Communication is definitely one of their strongest attributes.
The Future
As indicated below Phenom has a lot of plans in the future. Every week they seem to roll out something new. From new table design, to deposit bonuses, to new games, and new rewards.
They obviously have a lot in the pipeline, but their next big test is if they can roll out tournaments in a timely and effective manner. If they get this right the sky’s the limit. As someone who is nostalgic about the old days of online poker and the generation that grew up playing it, I’m excited to see the next generation of players and owners grow a new online poker community where the players are put first!
If you found this review helpful and want to register for a Phenom account, register here!
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