At its launch, Club Dice Poker had so many shortcomings that many players who gave it a first glance have since shied away from giving it a second. And yet this aversion isn’t exactly fair considering how dramatically CD has cleaned up its act.

Whereas CD Poker used to only offer Holdem and Omaha, it now supports a full spread of poker variants - and, whereas the room's software was at one time riddled with glitches, it has since reworked its program into one of the Internet’s most navigable and comprehensive packages.

So why does CD still suffer from some of the lowest player turnouts of any online poker room? Honestly, there is so very little to find fault with.

CD Poker's freerolls rank among the largest anywhere and even include a $100 Million Final Table event and a $12,000 World Series of Poker satellite tourney. Of course, most online-poker players aren’t stupid, and CD’s traffic volume does, in fact, rise to upwards of 10,000 members during these premier offerings. But, in light of the fact that more established sites like Party draw eight times that number during their off-peak hours, 10,000 people taking a free crack at going to the WSOP almost seems absurd.

And yet the saddest part of CD’s conundrum is that only 2,000-2,500 of those who make its special events actually show up for its non-event tables. This, more than anything else, has contributed to the room’s bad reputation for tighter games and lower rakes.

The only thing we can think is that there must be 8,000 or so people out there who feel there’s something immoral about CD’s "Bad Beat" and "Best Hand" bonuses – which are given out every week, instead of being held until a member’s accrued a nearly unattainable number of points.

But, even if the above-mentioned 8,000 players are rich enough to enjoy throwing away CD’s regulars-only magnanimity, we think they should at least consider all the unique features it has to offer. Its live-chat support messenger and optional casino tab, for instance, are both incredibly helpful and allow players to do things they probably didn’t even know they had a use for.

Ultimately, then, we here at GP Poker think it’s high time our readers to give CD the second chance its been working so hard to earn. Sure, we're not quite ready to induct it into our official hall of fame just yet. But we do appreciate its moxie and are therefore awarding it our blessing with an 8.1 rating.