PartyPoker.com Review

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The world's largest online poker room, PartyPoker.com has the largest slice of the poker market share. Implementing new and exclusive features such as side betting and deal making PartyPoker.com is well poised to remain the industry leader. Their aggressive television campaign has served them well in recruiting many novice players, lending them the name "Worlds largest Poker School". Much is said all over the internet regarding the looseness of players at PartyPoker.com and ease of competition - but remember: where flounders play sharks hunt.

Software | 8.0 | Four of a Kind

PartyPoker.com has above average software, sleek graphics and decent gameplay. I find sometimes the play can be a little slow, but this may be due to the fact of the huge traffic recorded during peak times. Included in the software is a BlackJack game, side bets, deal making (for divvying up money differently in big tournaments), player notes system, hand history recording and interestingly enough table resizing. The software allows the user to play up to four tables at a time. Noticeably missing is the view flop percentages are neither are hands per hour rate which is somewhat frustrating considering the resources of the company in question ;). Overall, PartyPoker.com is on par with or exceeds its competitors in the software department.

Starting Bonus | 5.0 | Straight

PartyPoker.com offers a sub-par $25 bonus on any deposit (deposits must be $50 or more) but is more accessible than many of the bonuses out there.

Promotions | 6.0 | Flush

Party Poker has a host of promotions. In terms of big events, they hold the PartyPoker.com Million annually. The regular clients are offered several types of promotions, based on the raked hands they have played. Dormant accounts are often reloaded with free cash which is a nice boost. They have a standard membership referral system where you can get up to $50 for each friend referred.

Competition | n/a | n/a

Many people and professionals alike gauge soft competition by the view flop % alone. While a high % would indicate a looser game, it doesn't necessarily mean the players are playing weak poker. Also, a large amount of traffic is often correlated with many soft players fish. Keep in mind, with more fish in the water, more sharks soon follow. The trick to finding an easy game in the middle to low limits is simple, keep an eye on the table and watch for weak play, loose calls, and players looking to draw out or playing weak aces. Know your game, know your strengths and abuse those strengths. For more information on poker play please see our Strategies section.

Traffic | 10.0 | Royal Flush

Certainly one of their drawing cards, PartyPoker.com wrote the book on having a vast selection of players to compete against. Even though they lost about 10% of their traffic due to dropping their skin sites (other online poker sites that have players competing over the same network) their traffic numbers are still, unbelievably, climbing. PartyPoker became the world's largest site in ring game traffic by 2003 after. They are keeping the ultra aggressive marketing style and the traffic keeps climbing to new record levels every month. They boast 15 000 ring game players at peak times! That's more than the tournament traffic for many other top poker sites.

Rake | 3.0 | Two Pair

Party Poker's rake is unattractive for it disfavors the low limit games. The higher limit games have a comparably lower rake. The rake reaches as high as 10% (with the industry average being 5%) in $0.50/$1-$1/$2 games, because 50 cents is raked when the pot reaches $5. Perhaps most distasteful is the 20% fee in the lower $5 tournaments (the average being 10%). On the plus side, if you play higher limits you're rewarded with an 8% fee which can make a large difference to your bankroll.

Types of Games Offered | 4.0 | Three of a Kind

Not great. Offering Holdem, Omaha and 7-Card-Stud in both High and Hi-Lo. PartyPoker.com does not offer certain games such as heads-up matches, draw poker, crazy pineapple and some others. Stakes offered in the Pot limit and No limit hold'em only reach the $10-20 level and limit games only reach $100-200 which is somewhat puzzling. Casino games such as BlackJack are provided along with side betting on flops.

Freerolls | 6.0 | Flush

A variety of nice albeit small freerolls, PartyPoker.com keeps your bankroll swelling with a torrent of free money. Check our Freerolls section for more information on starting dates and times.

Support | 9.0 | Straight Flush

The support since late 2004 much better at PartyPoker.com and the telephone support answers in under 1 minute – very impressive. Very knowledgeable on promotions and poker alike. Email has worked alright, even though the response times were longer than that of the telephone.

Deposit and Withdrawal Methods | 9.0 | Straight Flush

PartyPoker.com accepts deposits via:

  VISA, MasterCard, NETeller, Western Union, FirePay, , Citadel (US only), eChecks, bank draft, cashier's check, money order, personal check.

You can withdraw your winnings through:

  NETeller, wire transfer, check, eChecks.

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