Poker Stars Poker Review

Poker Stars is the number 1 ranked online poker site for online poker tournaments and ranks second for its ring game traffic. Boasting top ranked world champions with three of the last four years WSOP Main Event winners being players at and spokespersons for PokerStars.net.

Poker Stars Poker Room Information

Name	Poker Stars Poker
Website	www.pokerstars.com
Country	Isle of Man
In business since	2000
Software size	30.5MB

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OVERALL RATING -- 8.2 out of 10

Poker Stars is the hottest online poker room today for tournament play. Their spokespersons include WSOP Main Event winners from 2003, 2004, and 2005; Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer and Joseph Hachem respectively. For several years now, Poker Stars has been sending dozens of online players to WSOP Events. Thousands of new poker players join Poker Stars everyday. An extremely large variety of tournament, sit n-go games and ring games are available 24/7. You will almost never have to wait for sit-n-go games but you may have a short wait for some of the more popular ring table games.

SOFTWARE -- 10 out of 10

PokerStars software is top-notch. Besides being fully customizable, it is very easy to navigate and you have the ability to upload images for your custom backgrounds. You can also change the table size of all of your poker games. Complete with 11 different themes and 3 different styles of card graphics to choose from, you will no doubt be hooked on this poker room. Very rarely have I had connection problems with Poker Stars and it is usually on my end if there is a problem.

Within the lobby is very good information for the player including the flop percentages. You can also navigate through the lobby to find other players, transfer money to other players and if you happened to forget, you can see very easily what tournaments or tables you were playing on. Once you get into a game, you can use the player notes feature to help remember a person's play style in the event that you are up against them again.

Mac users can also play at Poker Stars using Virtual PC emulation. Once a Mac user installs PokerStars software, you can copy the folder to your Mac. .

BONUSES -- 6 out of 10

PokerStars uses a Frequent Player Point (FPP) system to reward their players and for every raked hand you will earn 1 FPP and you will earn 5 FPPs for every $1 paid in tournament registration fees. You can then use your FPPs in weekly and monthly special tournaments or you can use your FPPs in the members store. PokerStars also has a VIP program with 5 different levels including Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Supernova. Basically, the more you play and the higher the limits you are playing the higher VIP status you will attain. Also, the higher-level VIP you are the faster you will earn FPPs and it will be easier to clear your bonuses.

PROMOTIONS -- 6 out of 10

PokerStars has better than average promotions of the regular player especially with the loyalty bonuses (FPPS) that yhey offer. Typically you will receive between 20% and 25% of your initial deposit up to $600. PokerStars has quite a few special events, including satellites to major tournaments including the World Poker Tour, World Series of Poker and the Professional Poker Tour. They also offer loads of freerolls but the majority of them only get you entry into another freeroll or a low prize pool game.

PLAYERS -- 8 out of 10

When you look at the players at PokerStars, you have to remember that there are a great deal of professional players on the tables. Meaning that the play, especially at the higher limit tables is relatively tough and the players are usually fairly tight. Not too many fish here, at the ring tables anyway. But, due to the steady growth of the poker room, the ring tables have gotten a bit softer than they once were. The tournaments however are a different story all together. The levels of players in the tournaments vary greatly. Naturally, at the higher buy-in tournaments you will see stronger players, but occasionally you may see someone who really justs wants to throw away their money! In short, the competition has pretty average toughness in the ring games, with much softer opposition in most of the tournaments.

GAMES VARIETY -- 9 out of 10

The game variety at PokerStars is among the best in the online poker room industry. With loads of heads-up action and not just your typical No Limit Texas Holdem games. PokerStars also offers Omaha, both Hi and Hi/Lo; 7-Card Stud, HORSE, and Razz. PokerStars has ring table games with what are commonly called micro limits, which are $0.01/$0.02. The tournaments are set a little differently from most other online poker rooms also. With blinds increasing every 10 minutes on the sit-n-go games instead of every 10 hands. Players also start out with $1,500 worth of chips. 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..

SITE TRAFFIC -- 9 out of 10

PokerStars has had an average of over 100,000 players online at peak times with those players distributed approximately 80% at tournaments and 20% at their ring table games.

RING GAME AND TOURNAMENT TRAFFIC - 8 out of 10

The ring table traffic is much lower than the tournament traffic, although you will still see about 12,000 players at ring table games during peak times. That traffic however has been increasing steadily. There are also a large amount of European players, which makes the site fairly busy in all day long.

The tournament traffic at PokerStars is the highest in the industry. With players numbering into the hundred thousand range at peak hours. This number goes even higher during the spring and summer months when players are vying for spots at the World Series of Poker and the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker).

SUPPORT -- 6 out of 10

The email support at PokerStars is very good, is quick to respond and is generally quite knowledgeable. There is however, no live support or no telephone support. This is the one area where PokerStars needs to improve their options. I would think with a player base of this size that support would be .

SITE SECURITY -- 10 out of 10

Being the second largest ranked online poker room in the world, you would expect a very high level or security. Fortunately this is exactly what you get when you log into PokerStars. Perfect score!

BANKING -- 10 out of 10

Your deposit options at PokerStars include: 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). Your cashout options are a little more limit with only Neteller, FirePay, Centraloin and eCheck with an average Neteller cashout time of 8 hours.

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