Pokeropolis is Poker » Poker Room Reviews

Superbook Poker Room Review & Rating

Poker Room Host — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:55:32 +0000

SuperBook Poker is a relatively small online poker room, but offers enough to keep all but the most hardcore player interested.

The site offers popular variants of online poker such as Texas Holdem, Omaha Hi-Lo, Omaha, 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo and 7 Card Stud.

Promotions

Players at Superbook.com Poker are given the opportunity to choose either a free bonus of $200 or a 100 percent match bonus up to $650.

Besides, all newly registered players get invited to participate in a $500 guaranteed freeroll irrespective of their choice of bonus.

Tournaments

Whether your a S’n'G player or prefer MTT’s, the poker room has something for you.

The weekly $150,000 is a huge hit and draws the attention of skilled and novice players and with satellites starting as low as $1 anyone has the chance to play.

SuperBook’s tournaments are normally scheduled within 10 minutes of each other and as a side bonus, the poker room has at least two overlays daily with bigger guarantees providing a solid ROI.

Poker Software and Competition

SuperBook Poker is part of the popular Cake Network. SuperBook offers a slick platform with rich graphics and multiple features including excellent multi-tabling options.

Joining is easy and won’t take long once you have downloaded the excellent client which is available for Windows or Mac.

Going from the typical weak-tight play from the larger poker rooms to this isolated pocket of fish is like night and day. Simply put, the tables at Superbook Poker are some of the loosest that you’re going to find online.

Carbon Poker Room Review & Rating

Poker Room Host — Thu, 26 May 2011 20:20:40 +0000

Carbon Poker is a relatively new player on the online poker market, but it’s very clear its determined to succeed offering massive promotions, quick withdrawals and great software. Residing on the increasingly popular Merge Gaming network also allows them to accommodate U.S. players – a great advantage and something helping them grow quickly.

Games at Carbon Poker are definitely on the looser side, with many inexperienced players taking their first shot at online poker. The loosest tables tend to be the low and micro stakes, but the more unusual games can also prove to be very profitable. The software is solid and fully compatible with both PCs and Macs.

Games offered are Texas Hold’em, Seven-Card Stud Hi and Hi-Lo, Omaha Hi and Hi-Lo, H.O.R.S.E. and other mixed games, Razz, Five-Card Stud, Five-Card Draw, A-5 Lowball, 2-7 Lowball and Badugi. Hold’em and Omaha are the dominant games offered in tournament format, with only a few tournaments running in Badugi and Draw Poker.

The traffic volume is in the lower segment of the industry, but the popularity of both Carbon Poker and the Merge Gaming network is rising fast and the number of active players is increasing daily. Real-money player statistics as of May 2011 show 500 ring-game players at peak hours and 2000 tournament players at peak hours.

Promotions

Carbon Poker offers players a VIP point program awarding points for participating in real-money play. A player earns between three and 10 VIP points per hand, depending on the level of blinds or the limits. There are five tiers of status including Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and Ether.

For each dollar of tournament fees, 10 points are awarded. VIP points are used to track eligibility for bonuses, special tournaments and other exclusive offers.

Tournaments

Carbon Poker offers a pretty wide variety of tournaments with mostly low and medium buy-ins and the largest regular buy-in $109.

A nice idea that might catch on with other sites: Carbon Poker offers ladies only tournaments every other day or so, usually in the $200-$400 guarantee range. Buy-ins are small ($1 or $2) and rebuys are also sometimes offered.

Poker Software and Competition

Carbon Poker shares a player base and software with the Merge Gaming network. Overall, the software is strong – particularly graphics-wise.

The Carbon Poker software supports play at up to eight ring-game tables simultaneously, either as stand-alone windows or in mini-view.

Design is simple and easy to understand, and runs smooth. The lobby is easy to navigate and all parts of the software are user-friendly, even for beginners.

Carbon Poker offers some unique functions, including a mini-view, a “rabbit hunt” feature allowing players to see the next card in the deck for a folded hand, and an “expose one card” function.

Carbon Poker offers some pretty profitable games for skilled poker players. Many of the players at Carbon Poker are relatively new to poker, and the games are fast and loose.

The low- and micro-stakes No-Limit Texas Hold’em tables tend to offer the loosest games.

William Hill Poker Room Review & Rating

Poker Room Host — Thu, 26 May 2011 20:05:15 +0000

William Hill Poker is one of the oldest and largest bookmakers in the U.K. Now part of the booming iPoker network, traffic and promotions at William Hill are first rate and a massive $16 million in prize money is guaranteed every month on the network.

Given its U.K. origins, William Hill Poker is a popular poker room for British players (and European players in general), making the busiest traffic time around European peak hours.
Because of the prominent sportsbook and the tendency for the punters to drift over to the poker room for a few hands, the Will Hill tables are usually filled with wild and loose players. Play in general is considered pretty loose with tons of easy games, particularly at the micro stakes.

The software is decent and the lobby got a well-deserved makeover in 2009, giving it a cleaner look and making finding tournaments easier. Multi-currency deposit and play is also available, as is a wide range of games and sit-and-gos.

Games offered are Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo and Five-Card Stud. William Hill Poker also spreads high-stakes blackjack, casino games and sports betting.

Real-money player statistics as of May 2011 show 10000 ring-game players at peak hours and 55000 tournament players at peak hours.

Promotions

William Hill Poker offers a multi-tiered VIP club with increasing benefits as you gain WH points. You gain entries to freerolls, get cash back, get access to the Loyalty Shop, and for the very top levels you get live sponsorships and can play in $10k freerolls.

Tournaments

William Hill Poker offers a massive amount of guaranteed tournaments with prize pools from £400 all the way up to the Sunday $250k. Other big tournaments are the Friday $150k guaranteed $100 rebuy and the Saturday $50k guaranteed.

Besides the guaranteeds, William Hill Poker also usually offer plenty of qualifiers at all levels for big live and online poker events like the World Series of Poker and the European Poker Tour. Overlays don’t seem to be common though. Fields are typically around 800+ for the daily low stakes tournaments, and more like 100ish for the high-stakes ones.

William Hill Poker does run quite a few free tournaments, with freerolls very well-visited and play extremely loose. Most are multi-table Texas Hold’em events and typically have small prize pools. All new players can play the daily beginners $50 and $100 freerolls for the first three months after signing up and there are also weekly $2,000 and $3,000 freerolls you can enter with 2,000 and 3,000 William Hill points.

Poker Software and Competition

Note-taking at the table works better than a lot of other poker sites by having the input window by the player on the table, which works nicely. Hand histories are very easy to work with in the built-in interface, though the ones received by request tend to be a little harder to analyze.

Play at most tables at William Hill Poker is pretty soft with the natural exceptions that come with playing on a large network – sometimes you just find a super tough table at any limit. Most traffic is in the No-Limit Texas Hold’em games and viewed-flop percentages tend to be in the 30s or 40s, meaning a lot of players going to the flop with little more than a hope and a prayer.

Titan Poker Room Review & Rating

Poker Room Host — Thu, 26 May 2011 20:00:46 +0000

Titan Poker is a flagship room on the iPoker network with a great international feel, solid software and sick 24/7 action. Games are fairly loose with lots of casino players and new recruits trying their hand at poker. Titan Poker also offers some of the best promotions in the business and offers aggressive promotions for new players.

Action is definitely heaviest at the low and micro-stakes Hold’em games, and particularly at European peak hours, but action at other games is also decent. If you’re looking for an Omaha game, Titan’s a great place to start, although the standard of play is probably a little bit higher than normal thanks to the heavy European presence.

Game selection includes Texas Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Omaha Hi, Seven-Card Stud Hi and Five-Card Stud with full-ring, six-max and heads-up tables available.

Titan Poker also offers plenty of tournaments, satellites and freerolls with really good value. The premier event for the network is the multi-million dollar European Championship of Online Poker, which Titan naturally runs plenty of satellites for, but satellites for big ticket packages to live events around the world are also plentiful.

Software is available in 15 languages and overall traffic volume is near the top of the industry. Real-money player statistics as of May 2011 show 10000 ring-game players at peak hours and 55000 tournament players at peak hours.

Promotions

As of July 1, 2009, Titan has significantly expanded its Club Titan VIP program. It’s now one of the easiest and most rewarding in online poker, with players earning eligibility at just 1,000 Titan points.

The new Club Titan offers players 6 VIP levels and benefits including freeroll tokens and VIP Races with increasing rewards at higher levels. Points are calculated by the size of the pot in any real-money hand. A rough estimate is 17 points earned per dollar of rake.

Titan Poker also offers up to a $100 referral bonus per qualified friend and gives the friend a $25 welcome gift. The referrer gets an initial $50 bonus when the friend installs the Titan Poker software, opens an account, deposits at least $50 and earns 200 points. The referrer then gets the extra $50 bonus by earning points at ring games.

Tournaments

Titan Poker hosts a good variety of tournaments, with buy-ins as small as $1 ranging all the way to several thousand. The tournaments are well-populated, fast and structured well. Play at any level is generally looser than most sites.

Titan Poker also hosts regularly-scheduled tournaments with guaranteed prizepools as large as $1 million, and play really heats up during Titan’s new online championship series with large fields and life-changing prize pools.

Titan Poker is also well known for hosting plenty of qualifiers to the biggest live events around the world. They regularly send players to events on the World Poker Tour, the European Poker Tour and to a variety of special stand-alone tournaments, such as the Aussie Millions.

For players interested in sit-and-go tournaments, Pokerlistings highly recommends trying out Titan Poker for a chance at winning big in their jackpot sit-and-gos.

Titan Poker also runs plenty of free tournaments, with most of them large multi-table No-Limit Hold’em events. The play varies from loose to absolutely ridiculous, making them an excellent way to kick start your bankroll.

First-time depositors get free entry to one of five weekly freerolls offering a range of digital prizes including an iPod Touch, 8.0 Megapixel Digital Camera and more.

For those looking for larger freerolls, Titan Poker offers promotional freerolls from time to time with massive prize pools of up to $1 million.

Poker Software and Competition

Titan Poker uses the iPoker network software that offers several leading edge features including auto top-up, multi-currency options, quick-seat functionality, hand-for-hand play near the bubble in tournaments and a buddy list to designate online friends.

Other great special features not available on all poker sites are the real-time graphic hand histories during the game and the possibility to connect in real-time to live support to ask questions or solve any issues right away.

Titan Poker’s software supports play at 16 tables simultaneously.

Titan Poker offers very soft games and its possible to find a table where players are seeing a flop 50% of the time. This is great for players who know even a little bit about Holdem and playing in position.

Sportsbook.com Poker Room Review & Rating

Poker Room Host — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:59:14 +0000

Sportsbook.com is a sportsbook, poker room and casino that has been in business since 1997. The poker room opened in 2006 on the Cake Poker network and recently moved to the Merge network.

Unlike most poker rooms, Sportsbook Poker is available exclusively to U.S. and Canadian players. The poker room has grown very quickly and offers maybe the loosest and juiciest games available online today. Most of the player base comes through the sportsbook and casino, which makes a large portion of the players beginners and very easy to beat.

The software features nice graphics and functionality as it was developed by a group of poker players looking to “re-invent” the online poker world. Game play is very good and offers basically everything most poker players need, with good table stats, fast action, 10 tables for multi-tabling and great support features.

Game selection is also decent, with all variations of Texas Hold’em plus Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo. Games are definitely concentrated in No-Limit Hold’em, and especially at the small and middle limits, but at peak hours players can be found at pretty much any limit and game.

Sportsbook Poker offers a decent amount of tournaments with the traffic volume overall in the lower segment of the industry but growing fast. Sportsbook Poker also offers monthly massive-value $100,000 freerolls.

Real-money player statistics as of May 2011 show 1700 ring-game players at peak hours, and 6000 tournament players at peak hours.

Promotions

When Sportsbook Poker users play real money on the site they earn VIP Points. For every 75 VIP points, players earn $1 of their bonus. Once a player has earned $5 that money is transferred to their account. This continues until the pending bonus account reaches $0.

Sportsbook Poker players have access to one of the most lucrative rewards programs in online poker.

The Play Aces VIP program offers numerous incentives for both hardcore grinders and casual players.

The program is simple, players earn VIP points by playing real cash game tables or real money tournaments or Sit & Goes on Sportsbook Poker. VIP points can be spent in the online Sportsbook Poker store for various merchandise or straight up cash.

Players who generate a high volume of points will quickly move up the five status levels of green, bronze, silver, gold and platinum.

The rake system on Sportsbook Poker is very simple with players earning one point for every 10 cents of rake they contribute, whether its cash games or tournaments.

Tournaments

Tournament buy-ins range from as little as $1 all the way to a few hundred. Tournaments arebusy and fast with a good structure. Daily tournaments usually get around 5-600 players for low stakes and around 200 for high stakes ($50 and above). Weekly tournaments get up to 3,000 players for low stakes and 1,000+ for the major Sunday tournaments.

Daily guaranteed tournaments range from the $1,500 ($1 buy-in plus rebuys) to the $20,000 ($100 buy-in). There are also usually two Pot-Limit Omaha guarantees. The cheaper one guarantees $1,500 ($5 buy-in plus rebuys) while the big one offers $3,000 ($10 buy-in plus rebuys).

Weekly tournaments include a $100,000 guaranteed and a $50,000 guaranteed. Once a month there is a giant $250,000 guaranteed event.

Sportsbook Poker also offers a regular satellites to major live tournaments around the world plus unique events like Kamikaze sit and gos, where everyone is all-in every hand, and Double-ups, where the top five of 10 get double their money.

Sportsbook Poker offers relatively few freerolls on a daily basis, but the ones they do offer are usually massive. Each month a $100,000 guaranteed freeroll is played where the winner takes home $75,000 and the runners-up share $25,000. Online, it doesn’t get any better than that.

The overall freeroll series runs for 10 months and awards $1 million in free tournament prizes. Both freeroll and cash qualifiers for the monthly $100,000 finals run daily.

Poker Software and Competition

Sportsbook Poker’s software runs fast and smooth. You can also see your own playing stats right at the table – like how often you see the flop, your win percentage, etc – making it a great learning site for beginners.

Multi-table play is easy and smooth and works well with the stats tools available. One nice function is the hand history also saves the player chat, which is useful when trying to “figure out” a player.

Low stakes games are packed with bad players with the games varying from relatively loose to ridiculously loose with a viewed-flop percentages up to 50%-60%. This translates to very juicy and loose games for the small- to middle-stakes player – maybe the juiciest online.

Poker Stars Poker Room Review & Rating

Poker Room Host — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:58:00 +0000

PokerStars is the largest poker site in the world, offering massive volume in cash games and tournaments 24 hours a day. It sets the standard in the industry for tournaments as well with an unmatched selection and sit-and-gos at all stakes starting up virtually every second.

If you’re looking for a downside, though, it’s probably the inconsistent competition. Because of the huge player base there are some very fierce opponents on the site if you wander into the wrong game.

If you like more obscure poker variations, PokerStars is for you with a wide spread of games offered – Texas Hold’em, Omaha and Seven-Card Stud in all versions, H.O.R.S.E., H.O.S.E., 2-7 Triple Draw, Five-Card Draw, Razz, 2-7 Single Draw Lowball, Badugi, 8-Game, Mixed Holdem and Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo. By the time you read this, they’ve probably added more.

Bottom line, PokerStars is one of the best poker sites in the world and if the competition wasn’t so tough at the higher stakes, it would be tough not to rank PokerStars higher.
In 2011 PokerStars was forced out of the U.S. market but its doors are still open to anyone outside of the U.S. and it remains one of the biggest online poker sites in the world.

Real-money player statistics as of May 2011 show 22500 ring-game players at peak hours and 155000 tournament players at peak hours.

Promotions

PokerStars offers loyal players a great loyalty program with two types of points earned for real-money play:
1) VIP player points (VPPs)
2) Frequent Player Points (FPPs)

VPPs determine your VIP level and can’t be exchanged for cash or prizes. FPPs can be used to buy merch, electronics, etc. in the store, can be turned into cash or used to play in special points tournaments. The higher your VIP level, the faster your FPP accumulation, the better perks you get, etc.

Players achive Silverstar status at just 750 points and it’s possible to progress all the way to Supernova Elite, which is one of the most highly sought after achievements in online poker.

1-3 FPPs are awarded per raked real-money hand depending on total rake; 5 FPPs are awarded for each $1 in tournament fees.

Starting Jan. 1, 2010, PokerStars introduced Stellar Rewards, which offer cash bonuses based on a player’s VPP level. At just 750 VPPs players qualify for their first payout of $10.

The program offers up to $1,000 in bonus cash if a player makes it all the way to Supernova status.

Tournaments

PokerStars is the biggest online poker site in the world and is, hands-down, the place to go for tournaments. The high traffic ensures anyone looking for a tournament will find one that suits both his wallet and his game preference.

Most events have low to medium buy-ins and run often and the smaller buy-in tournaments tend to be quite loose and juicy. For the high-stakes players there are plenty of $500 or more buy-in tournaments, with prize pools often passing the $1 million mark. The bigger buy-in events, however, tend to have some very tough competition and are not very easy to win or cash in.

Thankfully, the opposite is true for the smaller buy-in tournaments offered – these can see thousands of beginners battling it out, making some of the small guaranteed events very profitable for skilled players.

For example PokerStars runs 45-player and 180-player multi-table sit-and-gos that get running whenever they have enough players – generally, they start up every few minutes, so you never have to wait long. These are some of the softest tournaments on the Web.

PokerStars also hosts the biggest guaranteed tournaments in the world, including the renowned PokerStars Sunday Million.

For those looking for the ultimate in tournament online poker series the World Championship of Poker (WCOOP) and Spring Championship of Poker (SCOOP) are compelling arguments for PokerStars. Each one has offered a staggering $30 million guarantee in the past with the main events awarding over $1 million to first place.

Aside from the guaranteed tournaments, PokerStars runs the most satellite tournaments to major live and online poker events, like the World Series of Poker, the PokerStars.com

European Poker Tour, Asia Pacific Poker Tour, Latin America Poker Tour and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, to name just a few.

PokerStars is always expanding its tournament offerings based on player feedback. Some of its latest additions are the “Double or Nothing” SNGs, in which half the field doubles their money, and multi-day events for special tournaments like the WCOOP Main Event.

Poker Software and Competition

The PokerStars software supports advanced multi-tabling with resizable tables and up to 24 cash games possible at a time. An unlimited amount of tournaments and sit-and-gos is also possible, basically letting the user decide how many tables he can play before he reaches his limit.

PokerStars has also added a hand replayer directly in to the software, allowing players to revisit recent hands without leaving the table.

They also offer a Mac-compatible version of its software.

Ring games at the higher limits tend to be pretty tough at PokerStars.

With a steady influx of new players there’s never a problem finding suitable competition for all skill levels. There are mostly strong players in high-stakes sit-and-gos and the main fixed schedule events.

PlayersOnly Poker Room Review & Rating

Poker Room Host — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:56:36 +0000

PlayersOnly Poker opened in 2006 on the Cake poker network and recently moved to the Merge network. The poker room has, in an extremely short period of time, grown very quickly and offers some of the loosest and juiciest games available online.

A lot of the player base comes right through the sportsbook and casino, so a large portion of the players are rookies and very easy to beat.

Games offered are all variations of Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud and Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo. Games, as per usual, are heavily concentrated in No-Limit Hold’em, especially at the small and middle limits, but at peak hours players can be found at most limits and games.

PlayersOnly Poker also offers a decent amount of tournaments in both Omaha and Texas Hold’em. Traffic volume overall is in the lower segment of the industry, but it is growing.

Real-money player statistics as of May 2011 show 1700 ring-game players at peak hours and 6000 tournament players at peak hours.

Promotions

PlayersOnly Poker now offers the Play Aces VIP program, which offers personalized rewards for full-time grinders and casual players.

Like most VIP programs, players on PlayersOnly Poker earn points by playing at any real cash game table or any real money tournament or Sit & Go.

These points can be spent in the huge online store, which offers a variety of items and poker merchandise or traded for straight up cash.

The PlayersOnly Poker VIP program also offers five tiers of status: green, bronze, silver, gold and platinum for hefty bonuses.

Fortunately the PlayersOnly Poker rake system is also incredibly simple. Players earn one VIP point for every 10 cents of rake they contribute, whether it’s in cash games or tournament fees.

Tournaments

PlayersOnly Poker host quite a lot of tournaments. Buy-ins can be as small as 25¢ and the largest buy-in is usually arond $200. The tournaments are faily busy and have a good structure. As opposed to most sites, PlayersOnly Poker also run a decent amount of tournaments in forms of poker other than Hold’em.

PlayersOnly Poker also runs a few guaranteed tournaments – the largest weekly tournament is the $50,000 Sunday guarantee, while the $100.000 monthly guaranteed tournament is the largest overall.

There are also plenty of tournaments that can be entered using PlayersOnly Poker tickets, and those multi-table and sit-and-go tournaments are usually quite large. In fact, it is not unusual for the prize pools to be in the thousands of dollars.

Poker Software and Competition

The software is very playable, offers nice graphics and makes for a good playing experience. One particularly nice function is the hand history also saves the player chat, useful when trying to “figure out” a player.

The latest version of the PlayersOnly Poker software supports play at 10 tables simultaneously and allows you to sit at any position. Players can also view an unlimited number of tables and multi-table play is easy and smooth and works well with the stats tools.

Extra-appreciated are the in-game stats and the immediate hand-histories.

The traffic is busiest at the lower stakes where the games vary from relatively loose to very loose – often showing a viewed-flop percentage upwards of 50%-60% at full tables, which is pretty sick. This translates to juicy and loose games for the small- to middle-stakes player.

PKR Poker Room Review & Rating

Poker Room Host — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:55:41 +0000

PKR is truly a one-of-a-kind experience in the online poker world and the only site that offers an interface that resembles a video game more than a poker room. Privately developed and not a part of any poker network, PKR is a real stand-alone in the online poker world with its stunning 3D software.

Although the software does take up more space and is more resource intense, its worth checking out if youre looking for something unique. The great thing about PKR is that the site draws a crowd whose primary focus is the experience, not strategy or skill, making for some ridiculously soft games.

Beyond the glossy 3D interface there is a solid poker client here and good players can reap the benefits if theyre willing to put in the time and sacrifice the hard-drive space to install PKR.

PKR currently spreads Hold’em and Omaha in Limit, No-Limit and Pot-Limit form, as well as both multi- and single-table tournaments. As an independent room the traffic volume at PKR Poker is relatively low but has been cited as one of the fastest growing rooms in the industry.

Promotions

PKR offers a solid loyalty program called Club PKR. Players accumulate frequent player points for cash-game and tournament play and the points can later be redeemed for merchandise, entry into special freerolls and VIP access at live events.

VIP levels are fairly standard, moving from Member and Bronze levels for new players up to the Diamond level for hardcore regulars. The higher you go, the better the perks, like reload bonuses, invite-only tournaments, increased deposit limits and even birthday gifts.

Tournaments

PKR hosts a wide variety of tournaments every day offering buy-ins from as little as $1 all the way up to $250. The events are well-attended and the fields are super soft. Play at any level is shockingly loose, even at some of the higher stakes.

PKR offers a decent selection of guaranteed tournaments and satellites with a monthly $10,000 guaranteed tournament among the highlights. PKR also offers smaller guaranteed tournaments that run daily.

PKR runs lots of free tournaments as well with freerolls usually well-visited and filled with extremely loose play. The tournaments are often large multi-table events and usually in No-Limit Texas Hold’em, typically with relatively small prize pools.

There are plenty of them, however, and they do run very often. The freerolls with larger prize pools are usually part of bigger promotions or played as invitational tournaments, but there are also occasional $2,500 freerolls that give players great value.

Poker Software and Competition

The unique 3D platform offers some breathtaking visuals and a great deal of customization, which gives players an experience that is as close to a real casino as possible.

The negative side of the intense PKR graphics is that the poker client takes more space and consumes more computer resources than any other poker site. Computers from 1991 need not apply.

The multi-table experience is also fairly limited with support for only four tables at once. To make matters worse the software tends to slow right down when playing four tables because of the 3D graphics.

The traffic is definitely busiest at the lower stakes and the games vary from relatively loose to very loose, often showing a viewed-flop percentage up to 50%-60% at full tables. This translates to very juicy and loose games for all players.

Party Poker Room Review & Rating

Poker Room Host — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:54:17 +0000

Party Poker is one of the biggest poker rooms in the world with great player volume, competitive promotions, tons of special events, a nice loyalty program and great tournaments and cash games.

Once the biggest online room in the world, Party Poker has been playing catch up since 2006 when it moved out of the U.S. market but it appears to once again be on the upswing.
Play is still definitely on the soft side though, especially at the lower-limits of Hold’em and Omaha. Ridiculously soft in some cases, especially in tournaments.

Party Poker also has a new team of pros that includes stars like Mike Sexton, Tony G and Kara Scott.

Games offered are all variations of Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud and Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo. Because of its size and geographical diversity, action at

Party Poker can be found in pretty much any game at any hour.

Last year the owner of Party Poker, PartyGaming, purchased the World Poker Tour which has made Party Poker the best source for WPT satellites.

Promotions

After years with a somewhat complicated loyalty system, Party Poker has revamped the program to make it as simple as possible. Now you just earn PartyPoints, and that’s it. Points are credited to your account right away for all real-money play and your balance is updated whenever you leave a game.

Players earn two PartyPoints for every $1 in tournament fees and a varying amount based on raked hands and limits at cash games. For players with 5,000+ points in a month, Party has also introduced the Palladium Lounge Club with bigger rewards, rake races, exclusive events and VIP service.

Loyal players get several types of perks including cash bonuses and credits to play in the Party Poker casino or bingo room. Party Poker also offers good reload bonuses from time to time, usually at 15-25% match up to $100-$200.

Party Poker hosts a huge flagship tourney – the PartyPoker.com Million – every year with tons of satellites, plus massive guaranteed tournaments and more satellites to big events than most sites.

Tournaments

Party Poker is still one of the biggest sites around when it comes to tournament play – especially in No-Limit Hold’em. The biggest volume events are definitely the small buy-in tournaments and play at any level is relatively loose, but the big buy-in tournaments will definitely offer up some tough competition.

Party Poker runs a great deal of guaranteed tournaments and qualifiers. The most common are the qualifiers to the weekly $300,000 guaranteed tournaments, where a player can win the tournament’s $215 buy-in for as little as $3 or using Party Poker points.

The freeroll spread is great, with special events for new players, country-specific freerolls plus special points freerolls and promotions. Party also spreads plenty of different qualifiers to big live events all over the world like the Aussie Millions and the World Series of Poker.

Poker Software and Competition

Multi-tabling supports playing at 12 tables simultaneously and table re-sizing. Tiling and cascading is also available as is the unique “stacking” view, which some players swear by.

Thanks to the browser version of the software its possible to play Party Poker on Windows, Apple and even Linux computers. The download version is restricted to Windows, however.

Party Poker has always had very loose and juicy games, mostly due to its extensive affiliate program and massive marketing bringing in hundreds of new players daily.

Lock Poker Room Review & Rating

Poker Room Host — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:52:45 +0000

Lock Poker is much more than just another skin on the Merge Poker Network.

The site benefits from having arguably the most stylish design of any site on the network along with value-packed promotions and features the competition is missing.

Players have access to the standard Merge capabilities like multi-tabling and numerous poker variants in addition to exclusive extras like the detailed stats dashboard with a special “vault” feature that lets you lock up a certain percentage of your bankroll and guard it with a four-digit PIN.

Lock Poker also has a team of pros that includes up-and-comers Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Matt Stout, Brett Jungblut and Jason Young.

Traffic is decent on Lock Poker and there are always tournaments starting although its much easier to find lower-stakes ones. Its worth noting that play is considerably worse on Lock Poker than some of the major sites.

Bottom line, If youre looking to try something new its a great time to get locked into Lock Poker.

Promotions

Its easy to clear bonuses at Lock Poker. Every 75 VIP points that a player generates earns $1 of the bonus. The bonus is released in $5 increments.

Lock Poker doesnt have a loyalty program at this time but it makes up for it with aggressive promotions, royal flush bonuses and a huge bad beat jackpot.

Tournaments

Tournament players will find plenty to keep them busy on Lock Poker.

The biggest weekly tournament is the Sunday $109 buy-in $50k Guaranteed, which usually attracts hundreds of runners.

There arent as many freerolls on Lock Poker as some sites but if you look hard there are definitely some opportunities to make something from nothing.

Poker Software and Competition

Clad in a stylish black and grey theme the lobby and tables give players a VIP experience.

The poker games offered are another high point with Holdem, PLO, PLO Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud, Five-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo, Razz, Five-Card Stud, Five-Card Draw, Triple Draw, Badugi, HORSE, HA and SHOE available.

Lock Poker also offers LockREPLAY, which is an exceptional hand-replayer that is integrated directly into the player dashboard.

About the only issue weve encountered with the software is that sometimes Omaha hands are difficult to see if you have too many tables open and one is near the top of your screen.

Other than that its very difficult to find much fault in the Lock Poker software.

If youre looking for loose action Lock Poker is a great place to start.

Pokeropolis is Poker » Poker Room Reviews

Superbook Poker Room Review & Rating

Related Posts:

Carbon Poker Room Review & Rating

Related Posts:

William Hill Poker Room Review & Rating

Related Posts:

Titan Poker Room Review & Rating

Related Posts:

Sportsbook.com Poker Room Review & Rating

Related Posts:

Poker Stars Poker Room Review & Rating

Related Posts:

PlayersOnly Poker Room Review & Rating

Related Posts:

PKR Poker Room Review & Rating

Related Posts:

Party Poker Room Review & Rating

Related Posts:

Lock Poker Room Review & Rating

Related Posts: