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May 17th, 2008 |
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May 17th, 2008 |
Poker Room Review:
Poker Stars has resolutely taken a fight with Party Poker. Poker Stars wants to be the best. Currently, Poker Stars is the leader in online poker tournaments and is the second most popular poker site for cash games. In order to get to this position, Poker Stars has to offer more than Party Poker and all other poker sites.
Poker Stars does offer something extraordinary when it comes to tournaments. The player base, the structures and the software creates an inspiring atmosphere. The ring games at Poker Stars used to be really tough; however the quality of the players has been thinned out with the growth of the site. There is no sign-up bonus, but some other promotions including reload bonuses.
Check link for full reasoning behind Poker Stars being open to US players.
Poker Stars offers the standard games, in hi-lo versions where applicable. This is kind of a let down considering the size of the site. Poker Stars has about 10,000 ring game players at peak hours. This player base merit something more, in return the games offered are busy.
Poker Stars started the trend with micro-limit tables. The stakes at Poker Stars goes as low as $0.01/$0.02 for no limit and $0.02/$0.04 for fixed limit. There is no rake at the lowest micro-limit tables. The highest Texas Hold’em stakes are $10/$20 for big bet poker and $100/$200 for fixed limit.
Full ring games at Poker Stars are played with 9 players in big bet poker games and 10 players in fixed limit games. All short handed games are for 6 players.
To highlight one are, Poker Stars has a great Pot Limit Omaha Hi section. First off, the betting format is pot-limit (and not no-limit) and it suits the game much better. Of course there are fixed limit games too. Secondly there are lots of these games going on around the clock at all stakes. The availability of games regardless of the time goes for all poker variants as the large player base has a big international penetration in the predominant American clientele.
In this aspect, Poker Stars has everything, and a little more. When it comes to tournaments, Poker Stars shines. Poker Stars has the second highest traffic overall. If only the tournament traffic is analyzed the first place finisher is hard to determine, sometimes it is Poker Stars, and sometimes they are only a superior runner up.
Poker Stars sends the most players to the WSOP each year. They are the main sponsor of the EPT, European Poker Tour. They have their own event in the WPT, World Poker Tour. They also arrange what is considered to be the “unofficial” online world championship; the WCOOP actually spells out World Championship of Online Poker.
Here is an area where Poker Stars exhibits that extra discussed in the intro of this review. By being the first to take tournaments seriously and continuously improving the concept, PokerStars is sure to keep an edge when it comes to multi-table tournaments. The fourth annual World Championship of Online Poker was held in the summer of 2005. It was not only the biggest ever online poker event, but the third biggest poker series (live or online) in all of 2005. The WCOOP is structured like the WSOP, with 15 different events and bracelets to the winners. In 2005 the total prize pool was $12,783,900.
There are new guaranteed Hold’em, Omaha and Stud tournaments several times an hour with varying buy-ins and structures. To this there is a multitude of other tournaments as well.
The Sit & Go’s are for good reasons popular. There are single-table, multi-table and different heads up configurations of SNG’s. All formats are run with blind increases of 10 minutes intervals. This can be compared to other rooms running blind increases every ten hands. PokerStars structure resembles live poker better, with room for strategy adjustments. Other multi-table tournaments are definitely more akin to live poker. In “DeepStacks” events, the starting chip count is 5000 and blind increases only twice an hour.
Other good features are tournament dollars (if you qualify to an event through a satellite and can’t participate in the event the prize can be transformed into tournament dollars applicable to register in any other Poker Stars tournament) and the possibility to make deals in the tournaments. The Interface/Gaming Experience section points out some useful tournament features.
Poker Stars take pride in the stability of their software. Well, it is stable. Though these matters are a bit tricky to compare, their pride is legitimate. There are very large tournaments on Poker Stars with thousands of players, yet everything runs smoothly for everyone.
Also Poker Stars like to boast the ability to upload images. This is about the only extravagance in the interface. Poker Stars is a simple and clean poker room. There is a good general overview. The action buttons are big and easy to reach. The pot size is not as easy to grasp at once, it has to be done by estimating the graphics or hovering the mouse. Poker Stars graphics has an uninspired look, but the software and the gaming experience does not lack inspiration and feeling. Take for instance the personal images. Personal images has a rejoicing quality and are much better than fancy graphics when you are trying to find your spot at the table or recognizing an opponent.
The tournament features are one notch better. There are individual time banks allowing players extra time to decide on a course of action during a tournament. The time bank will slowly deplete as it is used throughout the tournament. Waiting out other tables to get in the money by simply playing slowly becomes harder, at the end the tournament is even played hand by hand. The tempo is not reduced dramatically, and fair play is ensured.
It is easy to follow the progress of the tournament. The "Info" tab on the chat box shows your current position in the tournament, as well as the highest, lowest, and average stacks for remaining players. The same tab also tells you how much time is left in your time bank. The "Stats" tab in the chat box provides statistical information about your play during the current poker tournament. Information about the limit levels for the tournament, information about all players' stack sizes, and the breakdown of the prize pool is found in the lobby. You can opt to have an e-mail sent to you after the end of the tournament that provides comprehensive information about the tournament and your actions in it.
Poker Stars were the ones who introduced notes and stats to the online poker world. They remain in the forefront in this area.
The lobby is good. However it is only possible to queue to single tables, one by one. It is not possible to queue to all tables at a specific limit (wihtout a lot clicks that is).
Table (click to enlarge)
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Lobby (click to enlarge)
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The competition used to be very tough at Poker Stars. Large parts of the sites clientele were very good poker players. Nowadays the competition is somewhere between tough and above average online. The good players still enjoy playing at PokerStars but many has come along without the same experience. The poker knowledge of the average player is lower today.
The tournaments are softer. Poker Stars markets the tournaments strongly. Many of the new players are attracted by the thrill of playing tournaments, as seen on TV! While the tournaments are comparatively softer than the ring games in general, all tournaments are not easy to beat. The fixed schedule guaranteed tournaments has a tougher crowd than the other multi-table tournaments. The high stakes sit & go’s sees a lot of the seasoned poker players.
The ring games are tougher. There are good players here. Also there is less fish here than elsewhere. Viewed flop percentages from the mid 20-ies to the mid 30-ies are by no means uncommon at the full sized “higher” low stakes or the mid stakes. With the good traffic there are juicy games too, they come with the shear number of tables. The lower stakes are not as tough. The micro limits are not just weaker compared to higher limits in general or the elevated competition at Poker Stars; the micro limits are nice and soft any way you look upon them.
Poker Stars does not present a sign-up bonus. This review confines itself with adding that there are reload bonuses, but gives no further reflections about the lack of a sign-up bonus.
Poker Stars promotional scheme revolves around Frequent Player Points (FPP). One (1) Frequent Player Point (FPP) is awarded for playing a hand in which the rake reaches:
The rake is in line with industry standard. The rake is in the 3 – 5% range. The maximum rake is $1 – $3, depending on the stakes and number of players. There is also a “no flop – no drop” policy. The rake policy deviates in a good way for two customer groups.
The micro-limit section (read fixed-limit tables up to $0.05/$0.10) is totally void of any rake whatsoever. The second positive aspect is the large intervals in which rake is taken for medium- and high stakes fixed limit poker. Poker stars only bothers to take their 5% when the pot reaches intervals of $20.
Poker Stars' support has a good reputation. The only way to get in touch with them is through e-mail, but they are quick and understand the questions since they have good poker knowledge.
The financial security is unquestionable as the wolrd's second largest online poker room with a relatively long history which does not include any recorded problems.
Poker Stars handles all transactions efficiently. Withdrawals to Neteller normally takes up to 10 hours, but sometimes considerably less.
