World's best heads-up-action
Good volume in all major games
Money transfer between players

Poker Stars Room Review

Poker Stars is the market leader in online poker tournaments and second in ring game traffic. The poker room is positioned today as the online tournament leader because of its tremendous tournament traffic and quick and reliable software.

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Total weighted score
Software + Graphics .
Ring Game Traffic .
Tournament Traffic .
Game Variety .
Rake .
Soft Competition .
Sign-Up Bonus .
Loyalty Bonus .
Promotions .
Support .
Financial Security .
Deposit+withdrawl.systems

World's largest online poker tournaments

Leading tournament software

World's best heads-up-action

Nice VIP program for loyal players

Displayed connection status

HORSE and RAZZ games

World's best heads-up-action

Money transfer between players

World's largest online poker tournaments

No live or telephone support

Tight ring game opposition at the higher limits

Sign-up bonus in $
Deposit bonus in % .
Referral bonus per friend .

$50
.100%
.$0

Poker Stars is the home of the last three World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event winners (Chris Moneymaker, 2003, Greg Raymer, 2004, and Joseph Hachem, 2005), and every year at the WSOP there are tons of Poker Stars online qualifiers in any given event.

PokerStars is the market leader in online poker tournaments as well ring game traffic (took the number 1 spot after US legislation on Oct 13, 2006), and brings in thousands of new real money players on a daily basis. It has a very ambitious weekly program of both fixed schedule and sit-and-go tournaments, where many high stakes games are available. The software is top-notch in terms of functionality, layout, and graphics. With such a large player base, the opposition ranges from soft to very high quality - and there are lots of opportunities to compete with top players for anyone interested in improving their skills. In addition, the customer support is well above average.

Overall, PokerStars is very professionally managed with a real "feel for poker" and offers a nice VIP program for loyal players. Real money player statistics are as follows: Dec, 2006: 12,000-16,200 ring game players at peak hours; 90,000-120,000 tournament players at peak hours.

PokerStars' software has a great look and feel. It is fully customizable. You are able to upload your own images for the background and can change the table size of all the poker games. There are 3 style of card graphics to choose from as well as 11 'themes' for the overall appearance. It boasts top-notch security and always runs fast and smoothly.

The poker room is today positioned as the online tournament leader because of its tremendous tournament traffic and quick and reliable software. There are often tournaments with over 1000 players and, and the biggest guaranteed tournaments often draw over 5.000 players or more, without any platform problems. The software has special tournament features. For example, it ensures that there is an even balance of tables for the duration of the tournament, and also prevents tactical slowing down of tempo with individual time banks (after the time bank is up you must act in the normal allotted time or else the hand will be folded) and at the end of tournaments by playing all tables "one hand at a time," to prevent tables from waiting out the others in an effort to escape the dreaded no-pay "bubble" placements.

The player has a great overview of his or her stand in the tournament relative to all other players. PokerStars set itself apart as an industry pioneer when it introduced note support on other players, but even more so when it launched playing statistics functions.

There is good lobby information with view flop percentages, etc. PokerStars supports personal uploaded images at the tables, which makes playing more personal (and quite hilarious). Mac users can play at PokerStars using Virtual PC emulation, available from Microsoft. The PokerStars client must be installed on a PC and the PokerStars folder copied to the Mac. The software is frequently updated, to provide maximum safety and reliability for players without any significant downtime.

PokerStars' ring game traffic is lower than tournament traffic. Nevertheless, it ranks number one in the world in traffic. At peak hours, the traffic is currently being counted at 12,000-16,200 real money players (Dec, 2006). A relatively large amount of the players are European and Australian, which makes the site very busy at all times of the day.

The traffic at PokerStars' is the highest in the industry. At peak hours, the traffic currently reaches 90,000-120,000 real money tournament players (Dec, 2006). PokerStars has greatly benefited from the "first mover advantage" in the multi-table tournament area. It displays a dedication to staying at the top by offering a lot of special promotion events and the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker), which is hosted annually during the summer.

PokerStars has a great game variety, with the world's leading heads-up action and highest volume in most major games, including both Hi and Hi-Lo versions of Omaha as well as Seven-Card Stud. The site also offers No-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo games, HORSE, HOSE, 2-7 Triple draw, 5-Card Draw and RAZZ. PokerStars started the micro-limit tables trend when they introduced games for as little as $0.01/$0.02 in Hold'em and Omaha Hi. At these micro-limit tables there is no rake! The sit-and-go tournaments have a 10-minute increase in blinds, instead of the 10 hands limit practiced at many other sites. The players also get $1,500 worth of chips. This gives more play for the money and better odds for the good players. The Hold'em tournament tables seat 9 players, as do the No-Limit and Pot-Limit Hold'em and Omaha ring game tables. Fixed limit ring game tables seats 10 players. One more aspect of PokerStars that makes the site unique is that players can play any type of Poker in tournament form, as opposed to most sites that usually only spread Omaha and Hold'em in tournaments.

PokerStars' rake is slightly below the industry average, with better offers at micro-levels and somewhat better at the highest stakes. All no-limit games are raked at 5% with a max of between $1 and $3 per hand depending on the number of players dealt cards at the table. The rake taken at fixed limit tables also varies depending on the limits and number of players dealt cards in the hand. The average rake is 5% with slightly better rates at the highest stakes tables and reasonable max rakes at every level.

The ring games at the higher limits tend to be pretty tough at PokerStars and the viewed flopped percentages at these limits are fairly low meaning tighter than the industry standard for the same limits. On the positive side, there are many games to choose from and also plenty of decent/good players know how to exploit the tighter games. For example, at the 9-player No-Limit Hold'em tables ($1/$2 and up) the view flop percentage is often in the mid 20s and low 30s. In Omaha, there are some loose games with view flop percentages up in the 40s and 50s, sometimes even in the 60s (at $1/$2 and up). Due to the steady influx of new players in combination with great game variety, the ring games have become softer and softer. Today there is no problem finding suitable competition for all skill levels.

The tournament player quality is of a more varying level than the ring games and tends to be much softer. Of course there are mostly strong players in high stakes sit-and-go and the main fixed schedule events. However, a lot of non-experts take part as well because, as the online tournament leader, PokerStars attracts many new tournament players as well. In short, the competition has pretty average toughness in the ring games, with much softer opposition in most of the tournaments.

If you make your first-ever real money deposit, PokerStars will give you a 100% bonus up to $50. Use the bonus code "FirstSep2006" to begin earning your extra cash. To earn this bonus, you will simply need to play on PokerStars and collect the number of Base FPPs equal to 10 times the bonus amount. You have six months after your first deposit to earn all the FPPs you need to cash out your bonus. Visit the First Time Deposit page for full details. This promotion ends on December 31st.

A Frequent Player Point (FPP) is awarded for each raked hand and five FPPs are awarded for each $1 paid in tournament registration fees. The FPPs can be redeemed for entries in weekly and monthly special tournaments and other promotions, as well as at the very well maintained member's store.
In addition, PokerStars offer a VIP program where it is possible to reach 5 different levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Supernova. Your status depends on how many VPP points (VIP Player Points) you reach on a monthly/yearly basis and comes with various benefits. For example, the higher level a player reaches, the faster the FPPs are earned, meaning it is easier to clear bonuses and be eligible for more merchandise and VIP tournaments.

PokerStars has overall very good email support, quick and knowledgeable. However there is no live or telephone support.

24/7 Support: Yes
Website FAQ: Yes
Support features: Email
Email confirmation: No
Speed: Very fast
Knowledge: Good
Friendliness: 90%
NETeller payout time: 8 hours
Withdrawal smoothness: 85%

Overall, PokerStars has good promotions for the regular player and gives quite a lot back in the form of promotions as well as loyalty bonuses (see above). There are frequent re-deposit bonuses where you typically get 20-25% bonus match of deposits up to $600 for $100-$120 bonus. There are a lot of special event tournaments, which can be found at the home page. Typically, they offer satellites for most major land based tournaments, such as the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker. There are tons of freerolls but they are of pretty low value in general because they are only satellites to weekly freeroll finals.

Deposit options:
VISA (Delta, Electron, Gift and Prepaid), MasterCard (Gift and Prepaid), NETeller (minimum deposit only $25 and free instaCASH for US and Canadian players), FirePay, eChecks, CentralCoin, Diners Club International, Solo/Maestro/Switch (available to UK players only), Cashier's Check/Money Order/Bank Draft (min deposit $100).

Cash out options:
NETeller, FirePay, CentralCoin and eCheck. Avg. NETeller pay out time: 8 hrs