This spring, a new name appeared in online poker — VangPoker. The room is trying to combine all modern trends: cryptocurrencies payouts, use of blockchain, focus on the Asian market, software with built-in statistics and a diverse tournament schedule.
The lobby interface and table design at VangPoker will seem extremely familiar – visually, the room is almost indistinguishable from GGPoker. The similarities do not end there: newcomers will see a similar set of games, similar bonuses and even leaderboards.
But will the new room be able to attract players and fight for a significant market share? To answer this question, we played at VangPoker and are sharing our impressions. We tried to evaluate all aspects – registration and payments, software, game selection and field, as well as rakeback and current bonuses.
VangPoker Registration Process
You can create an account in a few minutes with a standard sign-up process.
- Enter your email or mobile number on the sign up page
- Enter the code from the verification message
- Create a password (8 to 16 numbers and letters)
- Enter referral code GT ✍️
And that's it! There are no verification requirements and you can play completely anonymously. Access is open from most countries, which is typical of several new
If you specify GT as a referral code, you getaccess to all the site's promotions, plus you will be able to participate in exclusive promotions from GipsyTeam, for example, our 3,000 step race.
Depositing at VangPoker
The cashier, on the other hand, only opens in the browser and offers a single deposit method – Tether USDT on the TRC-20 network. Before specifying the amount, you can select a bonus that will be activated after the deposit. By default, a welcome bonus of 200% up to 600 is selected.
Withdrawals are made in the same way and the payout commission is 1 USDT, regardless of the amount.
There are P2P transfers to other players by mail, nickname or mobile number. In the sending form, you can choose not only USDT, but also cash dollars, tournament dollars or tickets. Everything works, we checked it ourselves.
Downloading and Setting Up the VangPoker App
Those who have played on GGpoker will find it easy to understand the layout: the lobby structure and the appearance of the tables are completely identical. The layout settings tab is also a near-replica of GG design.
The Sounds, Buy-in, Time Bank sections look familiar.
Built-in HUD
The VangPoker client does not save hand histories and is not yet compatible with poker trackers—but there is a built-in HUD that displays up to 12 parameters. It is disabled by default, but can be enabled in the corresponding settings section.
There are 2 display modes:
- Simplified (check the Simplified box at the bottom of the window). Shows VPIP and number of hands, as well as 3 stats to choose from. You can choose different stats to display preflop and postflop.
- Detailed (Complete checkbox) Displays all available indicators.
Stats are displayed only for players who are still in the hand. If a player has folded, his stats can be viewed by clicking on his avatar.
Interestingly, the statistics of opponents are recorded even if you open a table and watch the hands, without participating in them.
Multi-Tabling Functionality
There are several features in the VangPoker app settings that make playing on multiple tables easier:
- In the Table Window tab , you can set up rules for the table layout (tiled, horizontally or vertically to each other), as well as alignment (left or right edge, "glued" to the top or bottom, centered).
- The Use Hotkey tab allows you to set hotkeys. They are disabled by default.
- In the Betting tab , you can set up a betting slider: in BB for open raises, in percentage of the bank for subsequent streets.
- There is also a Smart Focus feature (brings a window to the foreground when it is a player's turn) and group drag-and-drop of windows.
Our Review of the VangPoker Software
For a recently launched room, the VangPoker program functions quite stably. During the game on 1-2 tables, the software works without issues, switching between windows is easy, the client response time is short.
However, attempts to play on 4+ tables during the test drive revealed some shortcomings:
- In Bomb Rush mode (fast poker) on 3-4 tables there are freezes. Action buttons do not work from the first click. There is no such problem at other tables (12 Spin&Gem tables worked perfectly).
- During a game of Chinese poker, the High Hand Jackpot banner froze once. Because of this, part of the opponent's hand was not visible. Restarting the table helped.
- In OFC during fantasy one of the cards disappeared. Had to lay out the hand without it.
- Twice during the test the client crashed during a game on 3 tables when trying to close the tournament lobby. The restart took no more than 10 seconds, so the cards were not folded.
- Sometimes the animation in the client speeds up significantly, which leads to controversial or simply funny situations. During our test drive, the hero went all-in on the turn against an opponent who showed exactly the same hand. There were no potential boosts, so the hand was guaranteed to end in a split. And so it happened – everyone got half the pot, but the river card did not appear on the table. A check in the hand history showed that everything was fair, and the river was dealt. The card just did not appear.
Update. The described bugs were encountered in the first two days of the game. Then there was a client update, after which these problems were no longer observed!
What Games Can You Play?
VangPoker has a standard set of disciplines for 2025. There is classic and fast cash, an extensive MTT schedule by the standards of a young room, Spin&Gem tournaments with jackpots, as well as Chinese poker.
Cash Games:
Classic tables are in the Hold'em and PLO tabs. Hold'em has tables up to NL500, Omaha only PL10. Almost all the action is concentrated at NL25. At peak hours, from about 11:00 to 17:00 GMT time, there are up to 30-40 players.
In fast poker, only NL25 and PL25 regularly fills up, on average 35-40 and 15-18 players respectively. At the tables, you can already see regulars playing 2-4 tables for the sake of the leaderboard, due to which, the number of unique users at those stakes is approximately 2 times lower than the counter shows.
What we noticed during the test play:
- You can sit down at regular cash tables with a 20bb stack, and at fast poker – 40bb.
- At regular tables you can choose a seat initially and change seats during the game.
- Bomb Rush tables feature bomb pots. In these hands, each player pays an ante of up to 3bb, and there is no betting preflop. The frequency of bomb pots is not specified.
- There is a button Sit out on BB. You can leave a specific table or all at once.
Are there enough soft players?
During Asian prime time (afternoon and early evening GMT time), there are many weak opponents from Hong Kong and Taiwan at the tables. They are easy enough to get an edge over, the standard HUD is enough to find and exploit leaks.
The peak of traffic is approximately from 11:00 to 15:00 GMT. At this time, 20-25 players gather at regular tables at NL50, and 10-15 at NL100.
From about 14:00 GMT, the field becomes more European, and from 18:00 the crowd has many Brazilians. A mix of weak players and regulars meet at the tables.
Among the field, there's a nice balance of soft competition and nitty opponents. More often than others, there are weak regulars who prefer high VPIPs to fight for the daily leaderboard.
It's easy to make money against low-stakes opponents by playing classic ABC poker.
The influx of fans is provided by freerolls, where prizes are paid in cash dollars. 12 tournaments are held per day with a total prize fund of 1,350.
Playing Squid Game Poker
The room also has a familiar format of tables from GG – Squid Game. There you need to "catch squids" by winning pots (1 bank – 1 squid). The last player left without a squid pays the other participants a certain fixed amount for each squid.
In addition to the classic mode, there is an extreme and endless mode, with more complex rules. Initially, the format seemed doomed to oblivion: during the week of the test drive, which fell at the beginning of April, the player counter next to the Squid Game table never left the zero mark.
But by the middle of the month the "squids" came to life. Up to 15 players gather at the only available stakes — NL10.
Chinese Poker
Open Face Chinese is the second most popular poker variant in the room. It is available in heads-up and 3-max formats.
Basic rules
- All tables are played with a 54-card deck with 2 jokers.
- The minimum purchase is 400 points. At the minimum stakes (0.05) you need at least 20.
- Fantasy is played in the Ultimate format: in re-fantasy, you are always given the same number of cards as the first time. With jokers, this makes the game very active and extremely dispersive. Getting hit by an opponent who lays out fantasy 8-10 times in a row is a common thing.
There are as many players at the 5 cents per stake tables as at NL25: during the day you can see 5-10 players in 3-max at the 0.20 and 0.5 limits. And there are always 1-2 heads-up tables at 1-2 dollars per stake.
Tournaments
An extensive tournament schedule is one of VangPoker's main trump cards. Usually new rooms cannot boast of anything except rare evening tournaments without guarantees. VangPoker has had a rich grid with tournaments from $1 to $54 from the very start. Two Daily Main Events are held daily: for $25 and $54. The guarantees are realistic – mainly for 20-40 entries, so overlays, if they happen, are no more than 10% of the prize pool.
The level of play in tournaments is as low as in cash. The structures are not as smooth as, for example, in PokerKing, but they are not turbocharged either. In combination with a large number of weak or tight opponents, a careful exploit becomes very profitable.
In deep stacks there is an opportunity to realize the advantage postflop. And in the late stage there are many opponents who completely ignore ICM and print us value with their mistakes.
Freerolls
Every 2 hours there are freerolls with open registration. $1,350 is in the guarantees across the freerolls each day.
| Start time | 10:30, 12:30, 02:30, 04:30, 06:30, 8:30, 20:30 (GMT) | 10:30, 12:30, 14:30, 16:30, 19:30 (GMT) | |
| Prize fund | $50 | $200 | |
| Payments | 1st place | $15 | $58 |
| 2nd place | $9 | $32 | |
| 3-5 places | $4 | $16 | |
| 6-9 places | $2 | $8 | |
| 10-15 places | $1 | $5 | |
The prize zone in all tournaments is 15 places. Payments are made in cash dollars, which can only be used at cash tables.
Spins (Spin & Gem)
The lobby offers tournaments for $0.25, $1, $3, $5, $10 and $20. In practice, activity above the buy-in of $1 is almost zero. For example, to use 3 tickets for $5, we had to wait 15-20 minutes until opponents were found. This is confirmed by information from the lobby: next to all stakes except $0.25, almost always zero players are displayed.
Spin & Gem has its own bonus subsystem. When choosing a multiplier, a drum with three symbols also spins. It brings gems: at $0.25, $1 and $3 — blue, at $5, $10, $20 — yellow.
By collecting stones, the player moves along a map with fixed rewards. Each color has its own map. Alas, the rewards are so insignificant that there is no particular point in chasing them.
Here's an example from our test play of Spin & Gem:
- 100 blue stones were collected by playing 26 tournaments at 0.25 and 7 at 1.
- The payout was ~$0.05.
- The next reward is given for 250 stones. It is equal to ~$0.1.
- The total prize for completing the map is ~$5.25. To do this, you need to collect 3,000 stones.
VangPoker Rake
The rake structure at VangPoker is similar to the GG Network, but at some limits the fees are lower.
Regular NLH tables:
Regular PLO tables:
Chinese Poker:
Bomb Rush:
In MTT the rake at all limits is 8%. Important note about the rake at VangPoker: PVI is not used . All games award 100 loyalty points for every $1 of rake.
VangPoker Rakeback (Loyalty Program)
VangPoker has a linear loyalty program with direct payouts. The starting level gives 10% rakeback, the maximum – 40%. Rakeback accumulates during the week, on Monday it can be collected.
VIP levels from the first (Bronze III) to the ninth (Gold I) are lifetime. Diamond levels (from 22% to 29% rakeback) are given for 30 days, and Elite Master (from 30% to 40%) – for 365 days.
UPC Staking
In addition to rakeback, for each completed level the player receives UPC. This is a cryptocurrency token in the ERC-20 network. It can be stored in the account or sent to staking for a reward.
Staking is essentially a bank deposit. Tokens are locked for a certain period of time during which they cannot be used. When the period is over, they are returned along with the reward. This procedure helps the blockchain maintain its own security and stability.
During the test, we managed to raise the loyalty program level and get 5 UPC. Soon after, the room launched weekly staking.
How it works:
- On Monday and Tuesday you can stake UPC for the current week.
- From Tuesday to Saturday, staking is closed – it is no longer possible to add unused or new tokens.
- Rewards are credited on Sunday and Monday. They are paid in USDT to the account.
- If you check the Auto-Stake box, all available tokens will be automatically staked on Monday.
There is no detailed information yet about how else tokens can be used and how they will affect the work of the poker room.
Promotions and Bonuses
The welcome bonus gives 200% of the deposit amount (up to $1,200). You have 90 days to wager it. This period starts from the moment of your first deposit.
The bonus is cumulative. Any number of initial deposits totaling up to $600 will be added up and wagered together.
The bonus is paid out in dollar for every 500 points (corresponds to $5 rake). The money is not paid out automatically, but accumulates, and must be collected in the client in the My Promo section.
During the test drive, no problems with rake accounting were noticed. In cash, points are awarded immediately after the distribution, and in tournaments – after the end.
Missions for Beginners
VangPoker has a set of missions for newbies, they are very similar to similar tasks on GGpoker. The promotion includes 30 daily missions. The more missions you complete, the more prizes you get.
Despite the fact that the missions are daily, the timer does not restart after completing the task. Therefore, there is enough time left for more difficult tasks.
For example, during the test drive, during the first session, I managed to complete about 10 tasks, so that I had accumulated 240 hours to complete the eleventh.
In total, we managed to complete 15 stages. Here are the tasks they contained:
- Watch any game for 5 minutes
- Play 50 hands of NLH
- Play 100 hands of Bomb Rush NLH
- Play 10 Spin&Gem
- Play 30 hands of OFC
- Play 50 hands of PLO
- Play 100 hands of NLH
- Catch a multiplier of at least x5 in Spin&Gem
- Play 200 hands of Bomb Rush NLH
- Play 200 hands of Bomb Rush PLO
- Play in any Daily tournament
- Get Pocket Aces in Bomb Rush NLH
- Play 30 Spin&Gem
- Going to showdown with trips or a set in Bomb Rush NLH
- Play 80 hands of OFC
- Get into ITM in any tournament
Daily Log-On Gift
Once a day, each player is given the chance to spin the Wheel of Fortune. Players can win a small amount of tournament or cash dollars, as well as MTT tickets worth between 3.2 and 25.
How to play the Wheel of Fortune:
- Log in to the VangPoker application.
- On PC – open the lobby start tab (with the house icon). On phone – open the Promo tab.
- Click on the Wheel of Fortune banner.
The promotion budget is $30,000. The page has a timer until the next attempt and a progress bar that shows how much of the prize fund has already been paid to players.
Hand History
VangPoker has a browser-based hand tracker called Record. In terms of functionality, it is a copy of PokerCraft. The start page displays the latest prizes and awards. There are separate tabs for each discipline.
For Hold'em and Omaha, you can view hands, session charts, and stats. For Chinese poker, you can view the best combinations in fantasy and regular play.
The Completed Tournaments tab contains the results of all tournaments held in the room.
Record supports hand dumping. The downloaded file displays the hand history in the same way as when exporting from PokerCraft. They can be converted and imported into Hand2Note.
What Our Final Review of VangPoker?
Few rooms can boast of such a smooth launch process as VangPoker. Familiar software, simple registration, open access for most countries helped to gain good starting traffic, after which the site's creators quickly began to hold promotions for regulars and give gifts to amateurs. The main question: will the room be able to maintain the pace of development and increase the user base?
Our impressions:
- Registration and verification are excellent . Fast, convenient, requires a minimum of personal data, no need to send documents.
- Payments are fine . There is only one method in the cash register (USDT), but it is the most popular among those who have already mastered crypto. TRC-20 is convenient to use, you do not have to pay a large commission.
- Bonuses and promotions are great . There is a bonus with an additional 20% rakeback for regulars and many gifts and rewards for amateurs.
- Software – good . The client is convenient and intuitive, there are useful functions for multi-tabling. There were no bugs after updating the client.
- The field is excellent . A good balance of regulars and amateurs, often weak opponents from China, Korea and Japan.
- Traffic is bad . The counter of 3,000+ users in prime looks nice, but it should not be misleading. In cash, there is no stable game at any of the limits. The exception is NL25, but even there there are always 20-25 players, half of whom multi-table. And the tournaments from the daily schedule barely reach AFS 40-50.
- Rakeback is great . Simple system without hidden coefficients. It is easy to correlate the volume of the game with the payouts and predict the profit from the rakeback.
At the start, VangPoker is one of the most convenient rooms for playing with relaxed amateurs without high competition for free places at the tables. An important advantage here is also the most detailed built-in HUD among all available rooms. And you can also analyze the game and track the results using the tracker.
But you won't be able to play only in this room if you want to play a large number of hands. The maximum is to add a couple of good tables to the main load.
Local MTTs can be added to the download for those who prefer low AFS, play with buy-ins up to 25 and have a good attitude to the GG network software. The tables will easily fit into free slots in the download and will not seem like a foreign body.
- Increased first deposit bonus
- Increased rakeback and reloads
- Help with deposits and cashouts
- Access to private freerolls
- Round-the-clock support
