For American poker enthusiasts, there haven’t been many options for online poker since most sites ceased operation in the US in 2011. Luckily, over the past few years a handful of new sites have begun to offer real money poker in the US. Of these sites, Ignition (formerly Bovada) offers one of the smoothest and most enjoyable poker experiences. Their mobile app in particular has seen a huge amount of traffic since its release, becoming one of the most widely-used poker apps in the US. This review will take a look at the Ignition mobile app and see whether it provides the same quality experience as its desktop alternative.
Games
The Ignition poker app offers cash games in Texas Hold’em, Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo. Although Ignition offers normal cash games, its biggest draw is its fast-fold variant called Zone Poker. Much like PokerStar’s Zoom and PartyPoker’s FastForward, Zone Poker will immediately deal you a new hand as soon as you fold. Because most mobile poker apps – including Ignition – are limited to one table at a time, this is a fantastic way of increasing the volume of hands you get dealt in a session. You’ll rarely feel like you’re ‘card dead’ as you’re bound to get a premium hand sooner or later. Because the player pool is so large, the delay between folding a hand and getting dealt a new one is non-existent. Another great feature of Zone Poker is that all players are anonymous, so you won’t have to worry about players recognising you on the felt or remembering how you like to play certain hands in certain spots. This definitely helps keep things light-hearted and fun rather than intimidating and overly competitive.
Graphics
Ignition’s in-game interface is perhaps its greatest asset. Instead of emulating a poker table, which can end up looking tacky and dated, the interface uses a red background with thin white lines to demarcate the players and the playing area, similarly to how many poker tables use a ‘betting line’. Because all players are anonymous, there aren’t any garish avatars or usernames filling up the screen. The end result of these design choices is a clean and practical aesthetic with minimal visual clutter. The card design is likewise simple and inoffensive, and allows players to choose between a two-color and four-color deck (in which clubs become green and diamonds blue). This useful feature, which is noticeably lacking from most mobile poker apps, helps the player avoid making mistakes based on misreading one of the suits on the screen.
Lobby
The lobby is equally well-done, although it’s not innovative. It’s virtually the same as most other online poker lobbies, using a simple list system which allows you to filter by game type and stake. It uses a gray-on-gray color scheme, which looks sleek and doesn’t strain your eyes. Similar to its in-game interface, it doesn’t bombard you with unnecessary information or unwanted visual distractions: it just shows the stake, limit, average pot and seat availability. Often mobile poker apps suffer from lobbies that are difficult to navigate with a touch screen; luckily, everything has been sized up for the mobile app, so you won’t end up mashing that back button.
Verdict
You’d be hard pressed to find a better mobile poker app in the USA than Ignition. The interface is fantastic both on and off the felt, and the inclusion of Zone Poker keeps things from getting stale. What’s more, all first-time depositors are automatically given a 100% welcome bonus up to $1,000.
