Equity Poker Network

The Equity Poker Network, also known as EPN, is a US-friendly poker network, which opened up its doors in November of 2013. The network has grown in record time and currently ranks in the top 30 poker sites and networks in the world traffic wise. The network managed to attract several larger partners such as Pokerhost and 5Dimes initially, with 5Dimes having left the network to start their own in November of 2014.


History

EPN launched their poker network in November of 2013 after having launched their partner website in March the same year. The network gathered a handful of partners in the eight months time and officially launched. The network decided that they would accept players from the US right from the start, to be a competitor to the few US friendly sites and networks left in the industry, such as the Winning Poker Network, Bovada and the Merge Network.

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The network was started by Clive Archer, who is an industry veteran and previously started Action Poker and worked for BetOnline. With his unique approach to the industry and with his many contacts, the network quickly attracted lots of attention.

The flag-ship site of the network is Full Flush Poker, which is also a skin owned by the network. It was the first site to go live on the network, with the other partners following quickly after. The biggest partner who was there from the start was the US-friendly bookmaker 5Dimes, who left the network only a year later to start their own network.

After a few months of operation, EPN had already managed a massive growth and had a good player base which got games running on all stakes. With the integration of US-friendly Pokerhost, the network experienced even more growth and became a very popular place for US players and rest-of-world (ROW) players to play.

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Around six months into operations, the first smaller skins started shutting down. Unlike other networks where players wouldn’t receive their money if a skin couldn’t make money, EPN managed to take over the skins and integrate them into their own site Full Flush Poker, which allowed the players to continue and to have their money secured.

By November 2014 the player-base was at its highest for the network, when 5Dimes decided to leave the network to create their own. Many players feared that the network would lose a decent amount of traffic, but the decline in traffic was nothing noteworthy and the network continues to thrive to this day.

What has attracted so many partners to the EPN is their unique way of running the network. Usually when you join a poker network as an operator, you only receive a certain part of the rake, with the rest of it going to the network as royalties. With the EPN it is different, as the operators pays a fixed monthly fee of $10,000 a month and gets to keep 100% of the rake, which for larger operators makes it easier to make money and will also benefit the network in the long run.


Equity Poker Network Software

The Equity Poker Network uses a third-party poker platform provided by Playsafe Holding AS, which has been providing poker software to the poker industry for several years. The software used by EPN is the same software as the Chico Poker Network is utilizing, which has caused some people to believe that it is the same software, despite the fact that they aren’t.

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The software might not be exclusive to the EPN, but it doesn’t really matter as it is more prone to having updates done to it on a regular basis, being shared between two different poker networks. That being said, the software is not anything extraordinary and doesn’t have the prettiest look or feel to it.

The tables looks a bit outdated and the games runs slightly slower than what you can expect from other networks, but it does what it needs to do. You can easily play multiple tables in the client, the sounds are not annoying and you have the features you need such as notes, four-colour deck as well as tile and cascade tables.

The software works both on Mac and Windows, allowing players from all platforms to play on the network. It’s not possible to play from your phone and tablet, but it might be available in the near future.

The software is being updated on a regular basis with new features and bug fixes, improving the experience on a regular basis for the players who enjoys playing. While it may not be the newest or best poker client out there, it is definitely better than what you can find in many sites or networks.


Equity Poker Network Games

The Equity Poker Network doesn’t offer many different variations of poker for their players, but have focused on providing the most popular games only. Smaller networks like this doesn’t need tons of different games, but instead focus on getting games running on the games players primarily wants to play. EPN offers the following games for their players:

  • Texas Hold’em
  • Omaha
  • Omaha Hi/Lo

You can find the games on all the stakes you could want to play, as well as in Fixed Limit, Pot Limit and No Limit. The variants are also available in tournaments and sit n go’s, ensuring you can always find a game in the variant that you want.

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Tournaments

The Equity Poker Network is still a relatively small and new network, which means that their tournament schedule is not the best or highest valued one in the industry. That being said, it still offers what most players wants and still offers value in terms of guaranteed prize pools and overlays.

The EPN guarantees around $1 million in prizes every month, with their biggest tournament being the Sunday Special tournament with $15,000 guaranteed. You will find several guaranteed tournaments every single day, as well as freerolls and regular tournaments running around the clock.

EPN sometimes hosts special tournaments with higher guaranteed prizes, such as their Birthday Bash tournament, which had $50,000 guaranteed in the prize pool. The skins offers a tournament calendar on their website, where you can see the biggest guaranteed prize pool tournaments running on a daily basis, making it easy for you to plan when to play.

EPN makes regular changes to their tournament schedule, integrating new tournaments and adding higher guaranteed prize pools to the existing tournaments, ensuring that the value is always as high as possible for the network.


Other Considerations

Rake

The Equity Poker Network charges an industry standard rake of 5% in cash games and up to 10% for tournaments and sit n go’s. The rake depends on which kind of game you are playing, how high the buy-in or stakes are and many other variables.

For cash games the rake has a cap of $1 to $3, depending on if you are playing Heads-up or on a regular table as well as on the stakes you are playing. The rake cap’s are still in the lower end of the industry, making it a great place to play for cash game players.

Promotions

EPN offers players a wide variety of different promotions, having something for the recreational player as well as for the regulars. Some skins shares promotions, while others creates their own based on the kind of players and markets that they have, but overall they are quite similar.

Players will all be receiving points they can exchange to cash through a VIP system, giving them up to 40% in rakeback returns. Furthermore players will have access to freerolls, get first deposit bonuses and reload bonuses as well as free tournament tickets, which can provide them with returns of over 100%.

Other promotions are being created every single month, which includes leaderboards and similar promotions, so players have something to grind for.

Security and Fairness

To ensure that all games are fair and completely random, the Equity Poker Network uses a Random Number Generator (RNG) for all their games. The RNG creates a random shuffle for each hand of poker being played and is triggered by user actions to continue the shuffle. This means that no one can know which cards are coming and thus cheat in any sort of way.