Poker Stars Review

 Poker Stars, Poker Room, Online Poker

Full Review of Poker Stars (8.62)

A veritable giant in online poker, PokerStars is huge. It offers mammoth prizes in cash games and tournaments and all kinds of poke play any time of the day or night.

Players will find a phenomenal selection of tournaments with sit&gos starting up literally every few seconds.
PokerStars offers industry-leading software with fast and reliable play, top quality multi-table options and impressive customization.

This is also a great poker room for promotions and perks. There's a superb loyalty program on offer, as well as all sorts of merchandise, special games and online qualifiers to all the major poker events taking place across the world.

Owing to a huge player base, the competition is unpredictable, ranging from low limit amateurs to skilled high rollers.

If you like to stray from the herd when it comes to poker games, you're in the right place. PokerStars offers a fantastic selection of game variants ranging from Texas Hold'em and Omaha to Five Card Draw, Razz and Badugi.

PokerStars' player figures are staggering with 22,500 ring-game and 155,000 tournament players at peak hours as of February 2009.

So many players' first stop when it comes to online poker, you can't go wrong with PokerStars. With tremendous game selection, mind-boggling player traffic and mouth-watering prizes this really is Internet poker at its best.

What's Hot & What's Not

As literally thousands of Poker Star players before us would agree with, what's hot includes:

• Secure deposits and fast cash outs
• Super friendly software and appealing graphics
• Less popular poker games like Razz and Badugi are offered
• Mac compatible
• Fully resizable tables

There's not much not hot at Poker Stars but perhaps it could include:

• Tough competition at the mid to higher stakes
• Customer service only contactable by email

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Bonuses, Promotions & Wagering Requirements (8)

It is sometimes remarked that PokerStars doesn't offer as many promotions as other sites because they already have a such a huge following. Nevertheless, it certainly offers one of the larger 100% matching welcome bonuses in the poker scene. The bonus is released in increments of 10. There are also reload bonuses for existing players at different times throughout the year. These are usually around 20% up to $120.

There are also plenty of satellites to the biggest online and live poker events around the world such the World Championship of Online Poker, the World Cup of Poker, World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and the Aussie Millions. What's more, every Sunday there is $1,500,000 guaranteed in prize money in the famous Sunday Million Tournament. This is the biggest weekly online poker tournament in the world and is a no limit Hold'em event. Just recently in February 2010, the total prize pool reached as much as $7,233,800!
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Software Features & Graphics (5.09)

Poker Stars is known for its speed, reliability and stability not to mention that they frequently upgrade the security features of their site. The integrity of their games has certainly been made a top priority at Poker Stars and its has adopted a strict policy and stance on player collusion.

Players can choose to customize their lobby for a more personalized playing experience and upload a photo of themselves as their avatar (you should note, however, that you only have once chance to change your image so choose wisely!). If you find this extra feature distracting during play, no problem. It can be easily turned off. The lobby and table graphics get thumbs up all round. In the lobby you will also find useful stats with the average pot size, players per flop and hands per hour. Poker Stars was also one of the first poker rooms to offer its players table resizing which is extremely handy if you playing multiple tables.

There is also an useful replay option so that you can watch a fully animated replay of your last hand. Plus, you can request the last 200 hands that you played in a tournament.

Finally, the site is also offered in more than a dozen languages.

There is no instant Flash version of the site to play directly from your browser, but there is an option to practice for free.
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Loyalty Points and VIP Clubs (10)

There's a generous rewards program at Poker Stars to which you are automatically joined the moment you begin playing with real money. Players earn Frequent Player Points (FPPs) every time they play raked hands or in tournaments with a cash fee and your VIP level is determined by how many points you have collected. It can take quite a lot of play to reach the higher VIP levels. For instance, at the top is the Supernova Elite level and generally only full time players would reach such lofty heights!

The FPPs can then be used to purchase merchandise from the PokerStars VIP Store such as apparel and electronic goods. They can also, however, be used in conjunction with other promos such as opportunities to win live poker tournament seats.
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Games, Tournaments & Table Limits (9)

Poker Stars has excellent game selection that can't really be beaten by any other online poker room. On offer there is Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Stud, Stud Hi-Lo, Razz, Five Card Draw, 2 - 7 Triple Draw, Deuce to Seven Lowball, Horse (an acronym for a combination of games), 8 Game Mix and even Badugi.

It is not hard to agree with Poker Stars' claim that they are home to some of the biggest tournaments with the biggest fields and the biggest prize pools. There is great poker traffic thanks to their many famous sponsored pros and heavy promotional campaign. In fact, Poker Stars apparently has captured 20 to 40 per cent of the entire global online poker industry! This means that you are sure to find tables at any limit to suit your pocket, whether you be a high roller or an absolute beginner just playing for pennies! This huge volume of players is really Poker Stars' best draw card. There can easily be in excess of 20,000 real money players during peak hours.

The games at the lower stakes are known to be soft but as with all poker rooms, the competition stiffens up as the stakes also increase.
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Home Games (10)

PokerStars has entered new, uncharted territory with its latest software development, Home Games, as until today nothing like this is offered by any other online poker site. With the Home Games feature you can create your own private poker club to simply and easily play home games online with your poker loving friends. This is the latest revolution in online poker and is guaranteed to transform the way you play a fun game of poker with your mates. It is set up to run tournaments and ring games of your choice, on your schedule and for the stakes that you want. Each poker club can have to 50 members.
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Customer Service & Support (7.27)

Poker Stars has an exceptional customer service team who are standing by 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in the rare chance that you actually need them. However, they are only contactable via email. Replies are usually received in a very timely fashion from competent and knowledgeable representatives. There is also an very informative FAQ section on the site. If you are having an issue with a deposit, you can request that they call you at a convenient time chosen by you.
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Banking & Payment Options (9)

Deposits to Poker Star accounts can be done in a number of ways and there is a minimum deposit of $10. The available payment and cash out methods will depend upon the country from which you are playing. Generally they include credit cards (Visa, Mastercard), debit cards and eWallets (such as ClickandBuy, Moneybookers, NETeller). Direct bank transfers and checks can only be used to receive your winnings rather than pay money into your account. Poker Star also allows you to restrict the amount of money you deposit into your account so that you can manage your own budget for playing online poker. Cash outs are known to be fairly speedy but it does depend upon the method you chose.