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Site
Rating (8.5/10):
Poker
Stars is an industry leader, one of the top
online poker rooms operating today. It is an
extremely player-friendly site, offering
excellent traffic, a good selection of sit and
go and multi-table tournaments, and lots of high
stake action (the kind of rakes that juice a
site's bottom line). PokerStars is known for
having quality players, with a host of big name
stars making their home here, including Chris
Moneymaker and Greg Raymer (of the hilariously
awful television commercials), Josh Arieh, Layne
Flack, Chip Jett and Evelyn Ng. Poker Stars is
also famous for their big weekly tournament,
which typically has over 2,000 runners competing
for a prize pool of over 100K. Poker Stars is
excellent for sit and gos and tournament action,
you start off with $1500 Chips in the sit and
gos and blinds get raised slower then Party
Poker which makes for more skill & less
luck.
Software
/ Graphics (8.5/10):
The
PokerStars.com software is very serviceable and
efficient. It runs very fast, especially
considering the immense amount of traffic it has
to support. The lobby is well-organized - crisp
and clean - making it a cinch to find your
favourite game. All of the expected statistic
functions are provided, including player notes,
personal session statistics (imperative to the
developing player) viewed-flop percentages,
average pots and one of the best hand histories
in the business (allowing the player to specify
the scope of the hand history, whether it be the
previous game, day, tournament etc.) Poker Stars
is Mac friendly by way of virtual PC emulation,
whereby a Mac user can copy the Poker Stars
folder from the PC platform and then adapt it to
their Mac.
The
table graphics are above average. While the
table background is somewhat dull and boring
(resembling the marble wall of a dilapidated
museum), players can upload images as their
personal avatar at the table (one of my most
memorable games was when I got three-handed with
Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky). Another nice
feature is that you can see a player's hometown
when you scroll over their name, and sit and go's
feature 9 players instead of 10, making there
one less to beat.
Bonuses
/ Promotions (8/10):
PokerStars
offers no signup bonus at present. This annoyed
me when I first signed up, as they didn't make
it clear there was no bonus. Make sure you
remember this when you sign up. There are,
however, regular reload bonuses (around 5 or 6
times a year) paying out 20% of the deposit, up
to $120. Poker Stars also has a nice loyalty
program. For each raked hand played, one
Frequent Player Point (FPP) is awarded, and five
FPP points are awarded for each dollar paid in
tournament fees. These points can be redeemed
for seats in juicy monthly freerolls or
exchanged for PokerStars gear in the online FPP
Store (items include hats, sweaters, and chip
sets).
In
the area of promotions, PokerStars scores high.
In addition to the huge number of daily
freerolls, Poker Stars probably has the highest
number of WSOP qualifiers on the net, giving
away over 35 seats for the 2005 Main Event.
Poker Stars is also affiliated with the
excellent European Poker Tour, giving away
plenty of seats for each event. PokerStars'
Brandon Schaeffer took full advantage of this
relationship, qualifying online and winning the
Deauville stop, and then finishing second in the
EPT Championship, netting over 600K in the
process.
Player
Skill (7/10):
The
level of play on Poker Stars is quite good. In
fact, PokerStars is arguably the toughest game
on the net, with the middle and higher limit
games populated by professional players. These
are not for the faint of heart. Viewed-flop
percentages tend to be very low in comparison to
other sites, as low as 30% for the $1-$2 and
$2-$4 games. Tight. The tournament players are a
bit softer in the smaller buy-ins, as well as
the smaller sit and go's, but as the buy-in
increases, look out! If you want soft action on
Stars, go to the low limit Omaha ring games,
where viewed-flop percentages hover in the
60s.
PokerStars.com
is a site designed for the serious player, the
skilled player. The sit and go's start with 1500
in chips (a ton of play) and bring in antes for
the later levels. There is a saying in poker
that a tournament doesn't really start until the
antes come in, as they add such a different
element to the game. PokerStars is also home to
the the World Cup of Online Poker (WCOOP), the
online equivalent of the WSOP. The WCOOP
features a series of events with buy-ins of over
1K and first place payouts over 100K. It all
culminates in the Main Event, a 2.5K freezeout
that attracted over 1,000 runners and paid out
more than 300K to the winner. It is for reasons
like this that Poker Stars has many
professionals circulating throughout the tables.
Watch where you sit down.
Number
Of Players (9.5/10):
You
never have to wait for a game on PokerStars.
They have the second most traffic of all sites
for ring games, between 6,000 and 8,000 during
peak hours. Unlike other sites, this traffic
isn't concentrated in the lower limit games -
there is a ton of high stake action. When it
comes to tournaments, Poker Stars has a healthy
40,000 players during peak hours, with player
fields topping 1,000 runners for a wide variety
of games and buy-ins (these are always good
value). Poker Stars is also home to a large
contingent of European players, making it easy
to find a good game at 5 in the morning when
you're pissed out of your tree and feel like
dumping your rent money. Trust me, I've been
there.
Cashouts
/ Customer Support (9.5/10):
While
PokerStars.com has no telephone or live support
(I hope they add this in the future, there is no
reason not to in this day and age), the email
support sets an industry standard. I almost
always receive a response within 10 minutes of
sending a question, and they are extremely
knowledgeable. This site knows the business of
online poker inside and out.
Deposit options: VISA, MasterCard, NETeller,
FirePay, CentralCoin, Western Union, cashier's
check and money order.
Cash out options: NETeller, FirePay, CentralCoin
and check.
Poker
Stars Pros & Cons:
Pros:
-
Good, clean and efficient software (games move
extremely fast)
- Nice promotions and loyalty programs for
regular players
- Huge traffic and game selection, lots of high
stake action
- Capacity to set up private tournaments
- Good game structures (sizeable starting stacks
and long blind levels)
- Fun, customizable avatars
- Lightning fast email support
- Thorough statistic functions
- Big stake heads up tournaments (up to 5K buy
ins)
- Home to the WCOOP, the most lucrative online
tournaments on the net
Cons:
-
Competition tends to be very tough
- No first deposit bonus or refer-a-friend
program
- Live and telephone support is
non-existent
- Table backgrounds could be better
Poker
Stars Site Review Conclusion:
Poker
Stars is certainly one of the best online poker
rooms operating, a classy site that cares about
keeping players happy. That said, I wouldn't
recommend this site for the beginner player. For
starters, there is no first deposit bonus (the
main incentive of signing up for your first
online poker site) and the competition is steely
tough. The new player will get chewed up and
spit out. Once you find your legs, however, give
Stars a shot. The tough competition will improve
your game, and there are some truly huge
tournaments. If all goes according to plan, I
hope to play in a couple of WCOOP events next
year.
Wish
me luck, God knows I'll need it.
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