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Visit
Pacific Poker
Note:
Pacific
Poker is not accepting US registrations. American players
should visit our
US
Poker Rooms.
EXCLUSIVE 100% BONUS AND $10 INSTANTLY:
Pacific
Poker is offering an instant cash bonus to our visitors of 25%
plus another 75% earned as you play in your first month. Also,
our new players earn an exclusive extra of $10 free instantly on any
deposit. Please note that you must visit the site through our links
to qualify as this offer is not available to standard players.
You can earn up to $400 bonus money with this exclusive bonus.
Overall:
4.5/5
Pacific
Poker is the poker room of parent casino 888, an extremely popular
and successful gaming platform. The first major reason I recommend
this site is the collection of absolutely awful players you'll face
here. In terms of their Fish Rating, it's probably safe to
say that
Pacific Poker serves up the loosest poker games online.
If you're patient enough to wait for quality starting hands and play
them aggressively you can do extremely well here at both
fixed-limit and especially the no-limit cash games.
The second big
positive at
Pacific
Poker is the instant cash deposit bonus, which is extremely
appreciated in an industry where players can rarely cash out a full
play-through deposit bonus. While the instant part of the bonus may
seem modest at 25% it's currently the largest such offer online. Our
players are also given a special extra $10 instant bonus added to
any initial deposit. Finally,
Pacific
Poker has also added another 75% play-through
bonus for our players making the total bonus 100% plus $10.
While
Pacific
Poker has always been excellent for finding loose tables
the poker room as a whole seemed more like an afterthought to the
888 casino. Fortunately, it has become a very solid international
competitor in recent months with improvements to the software,
tournament schedule, and overall promotion system. Due to the
enormous amount of loose action, a strong promotional system, and
very efficient customer service,
Pacific
Poker has always been of my top rated poker sites.
Bonus (100%
up to $400 + $10 extra) and Promotions:
5/5
In terms of their bonus offerings,
Pacific
Poker offers a special deal to players coming from our site.
They're offering four times the standard bonus for our visitors and
an extra $10 added right away to your first deposit. The first 25% (up to $100)
and $10 extra is credited as
instant cash with the remaining 75% (up to $300) earned during your
first 30 days of play. Players must visit
Pacific
Poker through a link from our site to be eligible for this
increased bonus.
Pacific
Poker is unique in the fact that they credit up to $100 of your bonus
immediately to your account so you can use it right
away for ring games or tournaments. The bonus structure allows
players to deposit a bit less yet still start with the same
bankroll. This is on top of the flat $10
free given to all of our new depositing players. I give them top score for respecting their customers and giving them
cash upfront without bizarre and difficult to understand requirements.
Finally, our
Pacific
Poker players making a first deposit gain entry into one $1,000
private Depositor Freeroll, which takes place every Saturday. Free
entries into 7 once-daily $500 tournaments and a $100,000 qualifier
have also been added to the new player package. Other notable
Pacific
Poker promotions include regular promotions into European live
tourneys and a recently improved Frequent Player Point system. FPPs
are earned through tournament or ring game play and can be redeemed
for cash or special tournament entries. Overall,
Pacific
Poker runs a good number of
special promotions and I definitely appreciate one of the few
instant cash bonuses left in online poker.
Fish:
5/5
Pacific
Poker
experiences a lot of crossover traffic from their casino curious
about poker. Thus, the
players seem to be extremely inexperienced and like to gamble at
seemingly every opportunity. What do you expect from a bunch of blackjack players?
An important factor is the large number of high-balance casino
regulars that jump right into the larger games.
When I get a good run of cards this site provides me with excellent
average hourly win rates.
The percentage of players seeing the flop consistently runs into the
40-50% range even at the higher buy-in tables, which is insanely
high. What this equates to
is almost guaranteed action when you hit a monster flop or hold a
big pocket pair. If you have
a lock hand, consider slowplaying it to give your loose-aggressive
(i.e. maniacal)
opponents a chance to take control.
Try to extract maximum value from aggressive players by taking your time when you call
bets. Of course,
you're going to be outdrawn if you don't make your opponents pay for
their draws but I find that
tightening up and raising my premium hands even more than normal
allows me filter out some of the garbage hands that can cause me
trouble on the flop. Playing at
Pacific
Poker means you'll run into big pots and ridiculously loose
games at your choice of limits. These ring games have to be the
double salmon burger of online poker. Sink your teeth in and enjoy.
Tournaments:
4.5/5
Pacific Poker
runs $10,000 guaranteed tournaments 5 times a day and I like that
the buy-in is pretty low at $15. On Mondays, they also host a $25,000
guaranteed event. Finally, their largest offering takes place every Sunday
and is a deep stack event with a guaranteed
$100,000 prize pool. Adding value to this is the fact that every
participant also gets to enter a $10,000 freeroll the following
Sunday, which is really worth showing up for.
Besides freerolls,
Pacific Poker
offers a decent amount of low buy-in events for smaller players.
These tournaments usually attract only a few hundred players so you get a
high equity on a small buy-in. WSOP qualifiers have also started up
with satellites starting at $2. I think that their $27 satellites
are the best value because 20% (or 1 in 5) gets a seat at the weekly
direct-entry tournament whereas most satellite tournaments only payout the top
10%.
Pacific Poker has also started offering speed Sit 'n Go tournaments in
either heads-up or 5-seat formats. The blinds raise every hand and
action time is limited to only 10 seconds. These definitely aren't
for the patient-minded. In general, the awful players here spill
over into tournaments and you can often do well just by allowing
your opponents to make mistakes. Another great Sit and Go format
unique to
Pacific Poker is Double or Nothing in which half of the tables
doubles their money and the rest get nothing. It can be played with
either 8 or 10 players.
Software:
4.5/5
The software has been upgraded recently
at
Pacific
Poker and improves several areas that were previously lacking.
Firstly, the lobby is better designed with a ring game filter and
higher stakes games. The most noticeable improvement is in the table
graphics, which now has an attractive 3D design with each player
able to choose their own avatar. Finally, you can multi-table and
resize game windows if necessary to fit your display better.
Overall, the new features are welcome and help to bring
Pacific
Poker up to speed graphically with newer sites. Because of their
previous software, many players have overlooked this
site and thus you'll find mainly amateur players or casino
crossovers who are, on the whole, dreadful poker players. Games can
also be played directly from their site without a download, which
makes it one of the few Macintosh-compatible online poker rooms. Game speed is
pretty consistent and hovers around a comfortable 60 hands per hour.
Payouts:
4/5
I find customer service to be strong at
Pacific
Poker. They confirm your payouts via e-mail, and I usually have
future payouts within 48-72 hours. The 888 organization (the parent
company of Pacific Poker) is very financially stable and
consistently handles all requests. In terms of deposits, they do
offer more than the average amount of methods.
Customer Service:
5/5
While I haven't needed to use support
all that often they have been very helpful when I needed them.
E-mails to their support team are actually personally replied to
within 15-30 minutes and sometimes I've received a response sooner.
I also respect online poker rooms that provide a telephone
number for support.
Pacific
Poker does, and they were very helpful the one
time I called them about retrieving my password.
Player Traffic
Pacific
Poker is usually busy at all hours due to their large European player base so finding your desired game
shouldn't be a problem. You'll typically find several full and
shorthanded no-limit and fixed limit tables filled at all limits.
Tournament traffic is also high with a few hundred players entering
most multi-table events. This is one of the veteran online poker
rooms and they've had several years to build a solid player base.
Best Features
 Loosest tables with the worst players
online. This means that you'll usually be paid off more with your
strong hands and can expect larger pots at lower limits.
Immediate
25% cash deposit bonus. I really
like this since they're one of the few sites left to actually hand
you your bonus upfront. No BS required and the bonus is doubled for
our players.
No-download Java software version. If
you're on the run at a friend's house, you can still get in a few
hands.
High traffic means that you'll usually find a game going on at all limits
regardless of the time of day.
Game Selection: Hold'em,
Omaha, Stud
Limits: Limit: 2c/4c up
to $75/$150 No-Limit: 1c/2c up to $10/$20
Deposit Methods:
NETeller,
checking accounts (E-Check), Instadebit, ACTeCASH, Laser,
Solo, MoneyBookers, PaySafeCard, Ukash, major credit cards, cashier's checks, and wire
transfers. This is probably one of the largest Cashiers in online
poker. If you don't have a NETeller account, the E-Check option
is another easy option. You can deposit directly from your checking
account using your account details so it's fairly quick and
painless.
Minimum Deposit:
$30
Tips: Since the
action is so crazy on
Pacific
Poker, you don't want to get involved in a
lot of pots with mediocre starting hands. Exceptions are when you're getting
great pot odds or think that you can outplay your opponents on the
flop. I play pretty tight here and play aggressive when I do play.
Don't let these players in for a cheap flop when you have a strong
hand or they will often draw out on you. I will often bet even more
than my standard raise to thin the field. You might consider raising
5 to 6 times the big blind with a premium pocket pair from early
position.
Most of the time on
Pacific
Poker you'll still get plenty of
action despite your larger-than-average raise. If the flop comes with 2
suited or connected cards I will routinely bet out, especially
with multiple opponents. Make them
pay to draw out on you. You're going to get your premium hands
cracked once in a while as with any site so keep your cool and take
a break or quit altogether if you need to after an awful beat. It'll save you money in
the long run if you have a tendency to go on tilt.
Visit Pacific Poker
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