Poker - Pokerstars review

Pokerstars review

Friday, 13 March 2009 10:27

Network: PokerStars Network

Games:

Texas Hold’em
Omaha
Omaha HI/Lo
7 Card Stud
7 Card Hi/Lo
Draw
2-7 Triple Draw
2-7 Single Draw
HORSE
Razz
8-Game Mix
Badugi

Deposit Methods:

NETeller
Click2Pay
ClickandBuy
Diners Club
Moneybookers
Webmoney
Visa
Paysafecard
Mastercard
Debit Cards
Bank Wire

Withdrawal methods:

Debit Cards
Click2PAy
Diners Club
NETeller
Moneybookers
Debit Cards
Check
Bank Wire

Player traffic in peak hours: 10 000 - 60 000
Table with smallest stakes: $0.05/$0.10
Table with largest stakes: $100/$200

Languages:

English
Hungarian
Russian
Czech
Spanish
Danish
French
Italian
German
Dutch
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Ukrainian
Romanian
Slovakian
Slovenian
Suomi

Bonuses, promotions:

First Deposit Bonus: 100% up to 50$.

First Depositor Freerolls
PokerStars Passport: get a good rank on the leaderboard, and get a chance to travel around the world, participating in Poker Tournaments.
PokerStars Poker Camp
Battle of Planets Sit 'n' Go, with $3,000,000 guaranteed
Sunday Million: $1,500,000 freeroll on every Sunday 16.30
Sunday Warm-up: get ready for Sunday Million with a $750,000 freeroll, from 12.45

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 talented 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 infamous PokerStars Sunday Million. "The Million" recently had its $1 million guaranteed prize pool upped to a guaranteed $1.5 million, giving even more of an incentive to play the biggest Sunday major on the web.Lately, the numbers have been well above and beyond that even - recent tournaments have hosted more than 11,000 players and prize pools around $2.5 million.

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 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.

Software, graphics:

The PokerStars software is privately developed and is one of the best in the business.
Aside from its great feel, stability and aesthetic, it's also fast, highly customizable, stable, and caters well to multi-tablers. With a constantly growing number of players, the software is continuously updated and improved to accommodate them. The software in its current version handles over 120,000 real-money players at peak hours and does so very well.

Stats:

Stats functions in the PokerStars software are top notch. The lobby shows all the selected games, and for a highlighted table it shows the names of the players seated and their stack. It also displays the names of players waiting to join the table. Hand data is available during play and can also be requested for analysis. In the game, the software provides a quick callback of the last 200 hands, notes on other players and the usual stats on percentages of action in different hands. One added bonus is the PokerStars software recalculates the pot size after each player's action and keeps separate statistics for each of your game types.

Multi-Table

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. Players can automatically tile or cascade all open tables and custom game profiles can be edited and saved, letting the player customize his entire playing experience.

Graphics

The PokerStars graphics are some of the most praised in the business; clean, crisp, easy to understand and highly customizable. Some players think the software is almost too clean cut, but in general, people appreciate the straightforward and intuitive look. Because of the great customization options, the look and feel can also easily be changed and every player should be able to find a combination that makes him/her happy. To personalize the software, players can also upload an image representing them to use as their avatar when playing. Thankfully, there is also the option to block player images and rid your poker table of cats, dogs and the occasional Playboy bunny. The software has several backgrounds and table layouts, and with some tinkering players can pretty much make it look and sound exactly how they want.

Special Features

Special features are great, with new features being added constantly. Some of the latest are an auto-rebuy option for ring games, a find a player function and a range of new keyboard shortcuts. PokerStars has also added a hand replayer directly in to the software, allowing players to revisit recent hands without leaving the table. Overall, PokerStars goes to great lengths to keep its players happy and the features are second to none.

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