Victor Chandler is a well-established online sportsbook and casino operator, who also owns the poker room where I do most of my playing.

Their bonus system is quite an exceptional one (frankly that is what made me sign up with them in the firstplace) and their promotions are also top-of-the-range.

At signup, you'll receive 100% bonus on your deposit up to $600, but most of the promotions keep changing all the time so I suggest you access their promo page for the latest on that.

One feature I grew to like at VC is their action points system. For every hand you play at a real money table, you receive a certain number of action points which you'll be able to later use to enter tournaments or to receive gifts for. (the biggest gift available for action points, is a car, but you need around 60 million or so of them to get it).

Regardless, the action point system is set up in a way that you end up receiving a 5-10% refund on the rake you generate.

Now for the important part: competition. I've read somewhere that the VC speciality of the house was fish and their chips, however, that is not what I personally experienced once I signed up. The competition is rather tough with many really skilled players on the prowl for possible fish. Building up my bankroll proved to be quite a painstaking and lengthy process, and often times I had to exit stage left in a hurry to protect my stack from oncoming sharks. If you're looking for easy money, VC poker is probably not the best place for you.

There are enough players out there whenever you decide to drop in for a game, and most importantly there are no bots used, all players are real people like yourself. Most of the real money play happens at the low-limit, low-stakes tables, as it does in most of the other poker rooms we've tested.

The software they use was developed by Tribeca Tables Software (the same one Doyle uses) and graphically, it looks a bit behind what you'll find in other top poker rooms. Despite its dated look, it works just swell, and it won't let you down in key situations. As a matter of fact, I got disconnected once (because of some local network problems, and not because of their software) when I had two Ks in the pocket and one on the board. Needless to say, the amount of foul language that went down in front of my screen was nowhere near reasonable limits. I managed to reconnect soon enough only to find that I had actually won that hand and the money had already been added to my stack. That was quite a pleasant surprise.

The sounds the soft uses are well implemented and in-place, they never get annoying, so you can play VC poker with the sound on all the time.

Security is one of the stronger points of the room. The site requires 128-bit encryption for the transactions you'll make there, and, as I said before, all players at the tables are real humans. Again, I haven't abused their support service, I only needed them once (when creating my account) and I used the online chat-with-the-manager feature to sort out my problems. The help was fast and absolutely effective, I couldn't find anything wrong with it whatsoever.

Players who already have a VC Casino account can access the poker room without any further fuss. This is the reason many reviewers pointed out the influx of fish is due to, however, as I stated, there are not a whole lot of them frolicking around. The site supports all major currencies, though the in-game currency is US dollars. Cash out is also fast and won't give you any trouble.

The games that the poker room offers, range from the customary Texas Holdem and Omaha ( Hi and Hi-Lo) through 7 Card Stud to Badugi. All of these games are available in fixed limit, pot limit and no limit versions.

The play money feature they have, is a no-nonsense, fast and effective way to get a taste of the action, though play can sometimes (more often than not) degenerate into a lottery type, everybody all-in preflop gambling game, because of the lack of discipline many players show.

The sum-up verdict for VC poker: an otherwise solid, but not an easy-money poker room.

Starting March 2007, VC poker has finally decided to update its aged software I criticized beforehand. The new software is a graphically much-improved Playtech iPoker software with a bunch of new and extremely useful, not to mention interesting, features.

The new soft allows for mini-table views (up to 8 tables at a time) thus making bonus redemption easier by virtue of the much-increased action-point flow (when you play at 8 tables at a time)

One interesting addition is the blackjack button accessible from every table. Click on that and you’re instantly taken to a blackjack table.

Your own play history is more accessible, and the max bet warning system is downright useful...

To top it all off, the choice of colors is great and pleasant to the eye too.
Thumbs up for the new VC poker software.

(you need to create your separate VC poker account though, you can no longer access VC poker with your VC casino or VC bet account - old VC poker accounts work just fine)