America’s Cardroom rebrands to ACR Poker + upgrades software

On Wednesday, July 5, 2023, America’s Cardroom went live with its rebrand to ACR Poker. The new website is www.acrpoker.eu. Users who type the old URL “www.americascardroom.eu” into their browser bars are automatically redirected to the new website. Besides just the name change, there were major updates to the poker software.

ACR Poker is one of the best online poker sites serving US customers as well as users from all over the world. It is the flagship of the Winning Poker Network.

Graphical changes

The old red, white and blue theme of America’s Cardroom poker client is gone, replaced by a purple and green color scheme. This, along with the removal of the word “America” ​​from the site’s new name, is likely an attempt to appeal to a wider international player base.

The logo has also been changed. It’s now monochrome text “ACR Poker” next to a stylized white star.

The website has also been updated to reflect this new design aesthetic. Instead of a hamburger menu that opens from the top right corner of the browser window, you can now access different parts of the site from the top menu, which brings up links to individual pages when you click on a menu item.

Changes to the cash game

The cash game lobby has been redesigned to separate all tables by stake level. They are also divided into four sections at the top of the lobby: Hold’em, Omaha, 5 Omaha and Other Games.

By default, you will only see those tables that have at least one player. However, each bet level has a “New Tables” button that you can press to bring up empty tables that you can sit down at first if you don’t mind starting a new game.

If there is a game of a certain type that has only one person seated, then you will not be able to see or join an empty table of that type. At the top of the lobby is a button to toggle whether you want to see full games.

Filtering available

It is no longer possible to sort ring game tables by clicking on a lobby column. Instead, you should use the lobby filters, which you can access by pressing the orange arrow button near the upper right corner of the lobby.

The new filters are basically a redesign of the filters from the old version of the software. Although the placement and structure of the new filters are different, most of what you’re used to is still there, albeit in a new form.

You can still choose to exclude certain table sizes and require a minimum number of seated players at the tables presented to you. Likewise, you can narrow down the game format to the betting structure and bet levels you prefer. Finally, if you wish to include or eliminate such variations as pot bombs and hat games, you can easily do so with a single click of the mouse.

Changes to the waiting list

You i can choose to sit at any particular table you’ve got your eye on by pressing the green “Join” button next to its listing in the lobby. However, it is no longer possible to put yourself on a waiting list for a particular table.

Instead, all tables with the same blind levels and format use a single waiting list. Whenever there is a space available for this game, participants will be directed to it, starting with the first person on the list. This is pretty much exactly how it works in live poker as well.

Reasons to adjust cash games

Looking at all the changes to how cash games now work, we can conclude that these changes were made to protect recreational players. Preventing sharks from sitting at more than one table at a time and implementing waiting lists, each covering several tables, makes it harder for pros to target their weaker opponents.

Steps like these were probably necessary because the Winning Poker Network has earned a reputation for offering some of the toughest cash games in the US online poker market. Hopefully, more fish and casual users will be attracted to the virtual tables.

The tournament lobby has been updated

If you thought the changes to the cash game lobby were huge, wait until you take a look at the tournament section. It is now divided into three segments: Hot, Yours and Unmarked Zone.

The hot section of the tournament lobby is mainly for contests that were previously fixed at the top of the lobby. These are the featured MTTs that the room wishes to show to all users.

The Yours section contains all the tournaments you are registered for. You can also manually add a tournament to this part of the lobby by clicking the plus sign to the left of the list of tournaments in the unmarked area of ​​the lobby. The game will move to the Yours section and you can remove it by pressing the minus sign located on the left.

The unmarked part of the lobby is the “main” tournament lobby, showing all upcoming events, whether they’re major guaranteed tournaments or freeroll satellites or anything in between.

Filters abound

You can access tournament filters in much the same way as cash games: by pressing the arrow symbol in the upper left corner of the lobby. However, MTT filters are more complex and powerful.

You can filter by buyin, guaranteed amount, tournament status (ongoing, completed, etc.), format, speed, and several other criteria.

MTT Sorting

In addition to the filtering capabilities of the software, you can also sort the results by clicking on a column in the tournament lobby. There are four criteria you can sort by: tournament name, start time, buy-in and number of registered players.

It is possible to enable up to three of these sorting options at the same time. First, the displayed games will be sorted according to the main criteria you have selected. Within the same value, the second selector will be used as a tie-breaker and likewise with the third (if you have set one).

Lobby for individual tournaments

As before, there is a main tournament lobby showing the list of games taking place and upcoming, but each individual tournament also has its own lobby. Double-click an event to view its specific lobby, which will pop up in a new window.

In a major departure from the industry standard, ACR designed these lobbies as rectangular interfaces that are taller than they are wide. Various tabs can be opened to view specific information pertaining to the tournament.

You can use a scroll bar to navigate up and down through each lobby. It is also possible to make the lobby window taller or shorter. However, you cannot expand or contract their width.

This new way of doing things could potentially make it easier for you to keep a tournament-specific lobby on screen without having to cover up more important windows. It will take some getting used to though.

Odds and ends

The SNG lobby has been redesigned to look a lot like the new tournament lobby. However, the jackpots continue with the old formula of choosing your buy-in level, how many games you want to join and hitting ‘Register’ to get started. The betting feature in ACR, which used to be part of the tournament lobby, now has its own section in the poker software.

The actual poker tables themselves haven’t changed much. They’re a little more square than the previous round incarnations, but the player avatars, action buttons, and chatbox look very close to how they looked before. The most noticeable modification is the new ACR Poker logo on the table.

The playing lineup hasn’t changed much either. The same varieties of cash games, sit-n-go, jackpots and tournaments are still present. It’s likely that network management didn’t want to bite off more than it could chew, and therefore chose to clear up the software upgrade first before experimenting with new game formats.

Player reactions

So far, it seems like a mixed bag as far as player reactions to the new software are concerned. In cases like these, we believe that mixed news is good news because there are bound to be a bunch of issues with any software update this big, and we expect most issues to be resolved through patches in the near future. Comparing player comments after this latest update to reactions to WPN’s last major update in May 2019, it looks like the developers did a better job this time around.

Below are selected posts from real users regarding the July 5 software update on the Winning Poker Network:

Try the new ACR software today!

If you’ve been putting off creating a new account at America’s Cardroom, then maybe this rebrand along with some nice new poker software is just the push you need to give it a try. With our exclusive ACR promo code PRB10FREE, you’ll get $10 free to check out the games and still qualify for a 100% up to $2,000 bonus on your first deposit. Click the button below to register:

To learn more about the site before signing up, check out this in-depth ACR Poker review page. ACR has several subsidiary sites and they have all switched to the new software. You can read our reviews of them here: Blackchip Poker, True Poker, Ya Poker (non-US).

For information on other internet poker opportunities for Americans, see this guide to US offshore poker.