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May 12th, 2008 |
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May 12th, 2008 |
Poker Room Review:
PokerRoom is the number one choice amongst the no-download poker rooms. The first pick is based on good trafic at good games in a creative poker room. PokerRoom is a leader. They were the first site to offer Java based software, making download non-essential. They were also first to include cashback for player points as an integrated part of their promotion scheme. Their current sleek graphics is the result of constant development.
If you enjoy moderately soft short-handed Texas Hold'em games with a great interface with out having to download, then you and PokerRoom are a match made in heaven. If you fulfill only a few of the above statements or if you enjoy tournaments, then PokerRoom is still a good room to check out. You really should give it a try. If you do not appreciate it then you can always leave after having cleared the average signup bonus. Odds are though, you will be a part of the growing clientele that enjoys advanced features not contained in this review.
PokerRoom.com started out as a play-money only site. In the early days, Texas Hold'em was also the only game available. They built a solid foundation. When more games were added and real-money play was introduced in 2001, they were ready. Now the big five games are available as well as 5 Card Draw. The 5 Card Draw action is very good, considering the general drop in popularity of the game in recent years. No-Limit Texas Holdem is the biggest variant, at the same time there is a good number of Fixed Limit games available too. The other variants, apart form Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo, are played up to decent limits. All betting structures are at disposal at limits ranging between $0.25/$0.50 and $50/$100. Even compared to the biggest sites, PokerRoom provides the best opportunity to play short-handed games.
PokerRoom and the Ongame network are big on tournaments, more than two-thirds of the player base is in the tournament area. The big daily freerolls attracts many players attention who then get hooked on the well run tournaments. The tournament calendar is comprehensive and interesting at the same time as it is easy to grasp. Good tournaments in Seven Card Stud and Omaha have a tendency to be very scarce elsewhere.
PokerRoom and the Ongame network has a big player base. The PokerRoom software is nevertheless without contradictions best described as qualitative and not quantitative.
There are a few quirks. First off it may take a new player a minute to realize why they are not being dealt cards. After taking a seat at PokerRoom the player must also push a "Sit In" button to be included in the game. When this one time lesson has been learned you realize it promotes a good flow of the game to make sure players are ready before they enter the game. What you may never realize is why you have to temporarily sit out in order to rebuy at a table. While the technique of doing this without missing a hand can be learned after a session or two, the presence of this rule does not really add anything to the quality of the game, it is just annoying. This and a few other factors – you time out fast, the actions buttons are close to each other, it is difficult to see when it is your turn, and it hard to quickly view the winning hand – are negative when you play multiple tables, that is why the software is not quantitative.
The software is quantitative in one respect; it handles the game volume despite being resource intensive. All in all there are many pros and quite a few cons with PokerRoom’s software. There are many dualities. On one hand the interface is very clean and attractive and on the other hand it hard to get a grasp of every situation – the waiting list does not notify you when your table is available, the table just pops up. On one hand multiplay is demanding and on the other hand function keys and nicely designed 4-colored decks facilitate it. Any concluding remark has to be that the PokerRoom software is a qualitative creation. It is qualitative and not quantitative because it does not have any trace of any of the negative aspects from a mass produced product.
PokerRoom offers two versions of the games. There is a regular downloadable Windows version and a Java version. The Java version makes it is possible to play directly in the browser. This is good if you want to play at a different computer, but the foremost advantage is that it makes it possible for Linux and Mac users to play. On either version of the software, the games are fast. There is a lobby chat included in the straight forward lobby design, even though you have to click on each table in the lists to view the table statistics. Table statistics are flawless. Overall the software has a great number of positives without being able to avoid some negatives. As one of the best softwares online, every poker player should check it out for themselves.
Table (click to enlarge)
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Lobby (click to enlarge)
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When the real-money games were introduced the games were extremely soft, people gambled with real money in the same style that they did when only play-money was at stake. Gradually people became wiser, but a big marketing push in 2004 and PokerRoom's good positioning in search engines has broken this trend. PokerRoom.com is a big a poker room so the level of competition won’t deviate too much from the online poker average. Certainly there is a lot of fish at PokerRoom. There are many players who can hold their own too. This said, viewed flop percentages at full cash game tables run from the 40-ies all the way up to the 60-ies.
To take full advantage of the signup bonus you have to deposit $500. Then the $100 bonus is cleared at a rate of 7 player points per bonus dollar. You receive 0.07 in points for every $0.10 paid in total rake. Thereby you receive 0.70 points if you are dealt cards in a pot which is raked $1 and moving along incrementally you get 2.1 player points when a hand is raked $3. As soon as a player becomes a real money player he also becomes a member of the ‘Green Room’. Then these player points can also be used for tournament entries and shopping. Amongst the signup bonus you also receive three special tournament tickets to the Weekly Welcome Series. PokerRoom include these in order for you to be able to check out the tournament play, risk free. If you place fairly well in any of these tournaments the first week after you sign up you will receive regular tournament tickets ranging between $20 and $5,000.
The promotions are mostly centered on tournaments with big freerolls, added money tournaments and specials for those who make it on to the leader boards. Each day $1,000 is divided between the fifty players earning the most player points from playing all poker games. It is also possible to ‘buy’ bonuses, for example the $150 package costs 10,000 player points (PP) and you will need to collect a further 900 PP to have the bonus credited to your account. Friend referrals and tickets for points are other permanent promotions. Reloads of typically 30% up to $150 are offered on a monthly “or even more regularly” basis.
PokerRoom and the Ongame network have a different raking system than the rest of the online poker community. The usual system has different sets of intervals – pot sizes when rake is collected – which are valid for different ranges of limits. At PokerRoom the definition of the intervals are the same regardless of the stakes. This is possible as the rake at PokerRoom is based on Big Blinds. How much rake is taken and when depends on how large the Big Blind is. Traditionally a fixed limit game might share pot size intervals of $10 between the limits of $2/$4 up to $10/$20 whereas higher limits have intervals of $15 – and at each interval level an additional $.50 is raked. At PokerRoom the intervals can remain the same as there is a variable in them, the big blind. The only other things that effect the rake is the number of players and betting structure (limit poker versus no- and pot limit poker). The ugliest example is the limit games with 3-4 players, where 0.4 Big Blinds is taken when the pot reaches 4 Big Blinds. While the extenuating circumstance is that no more rake is taken with this setup no matter how large the pot gets, the rake at that time is 10%.
This site’s rake lends it better explained by a chart then a text why the reader is referred to the complete PokerRoom rake table. Overall the rake at the middle limits is less attractive while the high limits on the contrary are very beneficial to the player. Personal playing style also has a large impact. Tight aggressive play is advantageous, as you will then not be involved in as many pots but when you are, they are often big and thereby raked low expressed as a percentage.
PokerRoom truly show they are service minded by setting the minimum deposit limit to $10, especially when it is compared to the industry standard of $50. Same positive remarks go for the cashouts. A Neteller withdrawal will be paid out the next business day. The support is good. If the FAQ on their extensive website does not cover your question then support can be contacted both through chat and phone together with the standard e-mail. The phone option is restricted to the following countries though:US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and UK. The financial security is unquestionable as one of the largest poker rooms in the world with no earlier recorded problems.
