PokerRoom Review

(Note, US players not allowed since Oct 1, see more below).

PokerListings.com player exclusive $300 at 50% deposit match! Collect 7 player points per $1 bonus. There is a 60 day requirement and the bonus is released in a lump sum when completed. Deposit $600 to get the maximum bonus. PokerRoom is one of the online poker pioneers with a software of unique and sleek design and good funtionality.

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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

Available in Java and download version

3D environment in download version

Statistical analysis of hands per each game type

Mobile poker

Casino games

All-in probability statistics during play

Mobile poker

Poker school for beginners

Live hand odds for all-in situations in tournaments

Statistical Analysis of hands per each game type

Scattered lobby info (has to click on each table to see view flop percentage, average pot and hands per hour)

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

$100
.20%
.$0

Due to US legislation to prevent credit-card companies from collecting payments for bets, PokerRoom has determined to suspend all their real money gaming business with US residents.

PokerRoom.com is one of the online poker pioneers. The software has a unique and sleek design and good functionality. There is both a downloadable version and a java client. The downloaded version is sleeker and more reliable, but the java client works very well too.

The focus is more on six-handed tables than most other top rooms. PokerRoom.com is one of the best choices for Mac users who want play the java version without any special installs. PokerRoom.com offers great statistical analysis of your game and an open database of the hands played at the site.

Traffic used to be very concentrated to the Hold'em and tournament areas, but nowadays there is plenty of action at any game. The sign up bonus is huge coming from our site, but the rake is slightly higher than industry average (partly due to all short-handed games). The games are sometimes very juicy and loose and fast games can be found even up to $5/$10 No-Limit Texas Hold'em, which is impressive.

Real money player statistics in December 2006 show 4,500-5,400 ring-game players at peak hours and 20,000-27,000 tournament players at peak hours.

PokerRoom.com has high-end software with its clean, sleek graphics, multi-platform compatibility and reliability in uptime. On the negative side, many players do not like the "playability" on PokerRoom.com, as it does not lend itself particularly well to multi-table action (buttons too close, easy to time out, hard to see winning hand, etc.).

The software is available as both a Java applet and as a standard Windows download. The Java version is a great feature for Linux and Mac users who otherwise need a Windows emulator. The Java version is also for certain users who cannot download programs to the computer.

The statistics functionality on played hands in the various games is good, with extra features such as hourly win/loss rate and big bets won or lost. There is a random delay in the automated pre-selected actions a client can take, not to give away any extra information via an immediate check. Another nice feature is hand match up percentages in all-in situations during play.

The lobby information is a little tricky to use, as you need to click on each table to get the full statistics. There is a lobby chat where all logged-in players can share thoughts. PokerRoom.com also allows all their players to download poker games for mobile phones, called "Mobile Poker".

The software also allows players the option to create private tournaments where you can choose your own buy-in, starting time and more. A nice feature is that you can create team tournaments, where teams consisting of five to 10 players can be created by a "Team Manager" and can participate in leagues. The software is updated regularly to ensure safety and stability.

The traffic at peak hours is currently 4,500-5,400 real money ring games players (Dec, 2006). The high limit tables in particular have grown very much since last year.

The traffic at the tournaments at peak hours reaches currently between 20,000-27,000 real money players (Dec, 2006). There are big daily free rolls, which draw very large crowds.

PokerRoom.com has great game variety. Traffic is still somewhat concentrated to Texas Hold'em but getting more and more diverse each day. Games that are available are Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Omaha Hi, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud Hi and Five-Card Draw. All games are available in No-limit, Limit and Pot-Limit except for Seven-Card Stud which is played as a Limit only game and Five-Card Stud which does not come in a No-Limit version.

The rake at PokerRoom is above average when viewed as a percentage of the pot but shares the average maximum of $3.00 per pot. The formula they use to calculate the applicable rake is based on 3 variables - type of game (fixed-limit or pot & no-limit), the number of players in the hand, and the size of the pot in terms of Big Blind multiples. The difference being that No-Limit and Pot-Limit games can rake a little more on the larger pots; where the fixed limit game maxes out at 1 big blind for 5-10 players or a maximum of $3 on pots with more than 12 big blinds the No-Limit and Pot-Limit have a 2 Big Blind or Maximum of $3 at 5-10 players and 32 or more big blinds in the pot.

An example of where this system gets expensive is when playing with 3-10 players and having a small pot of 4-12 big blinds. Foe example, if the pot is at 4 Big Blinds there will be a 0.4 BB charge, which amounts to a 10% rake. On larger pots, for example a $200 pot at $2/$4 No-Limit, there is less of a charge ($3 here is equivalent to 1.5%).

Overall the effective size of the rake is going to be determined by your style of play. If you are playing a tight aggressive game, being involved in few pots but being heavily involved when you do play your rake is going to be low and you could be averaging below 2%. If you are involved in a lot of smaller pots you are going to have a higher rake, even as high as 8-10%

From our experience that there are quite a few soft games available at PokerRoom and their good positioning in search engines like Google. But you cannot look at the top stakes games for soft competition, where PokerRoom is less of a "fish pond". Still, you can at times find $5/$10 no-limit Holdem tables with a view flop percentage of 35-40%. Overall, many hold'em games have a view flop percentage in the 40-ies and 50-ies.

20% match up to $100 deposited

PokerRoom has a good player point program. Points are awarded for every raked hand in which a player participates. The points can be converted into cash (Player Points Payback) or used as buy-ins in one of the many free roll tournaments (Player Points Freeroll). Each 100 points is converted to $1. Also on a daily basis there is a $1,000 split up on the top fifty player points earners. A refer-a-friend program is also available where the referrer gets $50 and the referral gets $25.

Support can only be contacted by e-mail but it's fast and reliable.

24/7 support: Yes
Support Features: Email
Email confirmation/receipt: No
Speed: Good
Knowledge: Good
Avg. NETeller pay out time: 12-24 hrs

There is a good level of other promotions as well, including guranteed events, WPT qualifiers, refer-a-friend scheme, player points free rolls, and a royal flush bonus worth $5,000. One unique policy is that players scoring the most points any given day are eligible for cash prices, ranging up to $250. Also check out the new super promotion of becoming a full paid poker pro via PokerRoom for one year with an up to $240,000 package!

Deposit options:
VISA, MasterCard, NETeller, FirePay, 900Pay, PrePaid ATM, MoneyBookers, Delta, Switch and Instacash

Cash out options:
NETeller, FirePay, PrePaid ATM, courier check, normal check.