Coin Poker March 2 Update Leaves Players Angry

CoinPoker updated its poker software on March 2, 2026, and players are upset at the changes. They include higher rake caps, a new software client that many feel is a step backward, a pause in welcome bonus clearance, and confiscation of users' CHP token balances. Some players have vowed to abandon Coin Poker and seek out a new online poker home.

Background

Toward the end of February 2026, Coin Poker began sending emails to users touting upcoming changes to its poker platform. Typical was the following message:

Email Send to Coin Poker Users

From the excited tone of the announcements and the fact that multiple messages were sent to customers, people began to look forward eagerly to the March 2 launch date. It was clear that this was no mere minor upgrade but a complete revamp of the way things are done at Coin Poker.

Players Blindsided by Unexpected Developments

The team at Coin Poker delivered more or less what they promised; yet, they also did many things that upset longtime users. Here's a breakdown of some of the elements that left players less than thrilled:

100% Rakeback for March

CoinPoker promised 100% rakeback for the entire month of March. However, it was soon revealed that users were led to believe one thing and then delivered another.

100% direct rakeback on all games will be possible only until March 16. From then until the end of the month, only tournament buyins will receive direct 100% rakeback, and cash game rakeback will come in the form of leaderboards, splash pots, and other promotions.

Coin Poker claims that giving back 100% of the rake in this manner is 100% rakeback, but anyone who understands the definition of rakeback knows that this is not the case. Many poker rooms host leaderboards, happy hours, bonuses, and other promos that effectively refund back to players a portion of the rake they paid. However, these offers aren't advertised as “rakeback,” and indeed they are not rakeback. At best they are “rakeback equivalent.”

Rake Increase

Besides pulling a fast one on its customers with its misleading “100% rakeback” deal, Coin Poker has altered the structure of its rake to take more money from its players going forward. This new rake structure is already up on the Coin Poker website.

While the percentage of rake taken from the pot in big-bet games remains the same at 5%, the maximum rake caps have been increased. In some cases, they are double what they were before.

For instance, in a six-player NL10 game, the maximum rake used to be $0.70 per hand, but this has increased to $1 per hand. It gets worse as you go up in stakes. At NL200, the old rake cap used to be $3: pretty competitive. It's now double that at $6.

Welcome Bonus Disruptions

While it is returning 100% of the rake it collects back to the players, Coin Poker has understandably suspended its poker welcome bonus for new players. This bonus offer will return in April.

What's not understandable is that customers whose existing bonuses were set to expire in March or even later saw their bonuses canceled entirely on March 1. A superior way of handling the situation would have been to suspend bonus clearance for the month and then resume it starting in April with an extra 30 days added to the bonus expiration date.

CHP Retirement

A feature of the cardroom almost from its inception, the proprietary CHP token is going the way of the dodo. People who purchased CHP demonstrated a show of faith in the Coin Poker platform by being willing to back it with their hard-earned cash, but it seems their faith was misplaced.

All CHP balances have been converted into USDT bonuses, which will be earned out at a 33% rakeback rate starting April 1. It's not clear what exchange rate will be used for the CHP to USDT conversion.

Coin Poker has essentially turned real money balances into bonus balances: certainly not something that users signed up for. Anyone who was able to withdraw CHP to an outside platform now possesses an asset of dubious value because there doesn't seem to be any use for CHP at present.

Indeed the market price of CHP has declined in the past month by around half, going from above $0.05 per token in early February to around $0.027 at present. At least it has recovered significantly from a few days ago when they were priced at less than a cent apiece.

CHP Price Over the Past Month

New Software

The software at Coin Poker has not been merely updated; it has undergone an almost complete replacement. The old poker client, originally developed by TGLab, has been retired, and in its place is software that looks like a clone of popular Indian online poker site PokerBaazi.

The new software seems to have a lot of elements to it, including colorful icons and many areas to click to bring up different interfaces:

New Coin Poker Software

However, there are plenty of users who prefer the more spartan layout of the old CoinPoker lobby:

Old Coin Poker Software

More serious than just aesthetic preferences, though, are major issues with the new software. Plenty of users have reported that it consumes tons of system resources, making multi-tabling a challenge and leading to lengthy intervals between lobby and tournament info refreshes.

The settings interface appears to not be accessible from the poker lobby; rather, you have to have a table open to get at the settings. One of these settings, posting the bb upon joining a table, is enabled by default whereas almost all individuals prefer to wait for the big blind. Many have also reported problems with the auto-top up and waitlist features.

Coin Poker's provably fair RNG (random number generator), which allowed users to type in phrases to contribute to the outcome of the shuffle, appears to be no more. Coin instead now uses a traditional online poker RNG. We're pretty sure that there's nothing fishy about this; mainstream RNGs reliably deliver unpredictable series of outputs. But it is odd that such a unique selling point of the old Coin Poker, and one that was heavily publicized as a key fair gaming element, should now be so unceremoniously retired.

Other Gripes

We've just touched upon the major concerns posed by players at the new Coin Poker. There are many others that have been raised but that space does not permit us to describe in detail. They include:

• Removal of popular freeroll and “centroll” tournaments
• Lack of any downloadable hand history
• Winning bets in the attached sportsbook canceled
• Problems logging in to the poker client
• Player notes feature sometimes deletes notes unexpectedly

Community Reactions

As can well be expected, the online poker community isn't taking the changes at Coin Poker lying down. Many have voiced their opinions on popular discussion forums. We have included below some of the most relevant comments and posts from real-life Coin Poker customers:

Any Hope Left for Coin Poker?

There have been historical instances of internet poker sites backtracking on unpopular changes, and Coin Poker representatives have made some encouraging noises about listening to player feedback and the impending arrival of a new rewards system.

However, the sheer number of complaints raised by customers over the past few days implies that Coin Poker won't be able to get out of this bind with any quick fix. We'll be monitoring the situation going forward to see if Coin Poker can reverse its mistakes, but so far, it's not looking good.

Find a Better Place to Play

Unless and until Coin Poker reverses some of the mistakes it has recently made, we urge our readers to find another place for online poker. Among the best U.S.-friendly internet poker operators is Ignition Casino. When you open an account through our links, you'll qualify for a 150% up to $1,500 poker bonus and a similar bonus for casino games.

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To learn more about Ignition first, read this Ignition Poker review. For additional insight into U.S.A. poker options, check out this offshore poker guide for American players.

March 8, 2026 – by Max Golden, Editor-in-Chief