Online Poker Reviews

POKER STARS REVIEW

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SPECIAL ONE-MONTH-ONLY $600 BONUS: Our new players at Poker Stars are eligible for a 100% bonus, valid up to $600 for this month only. Players will need to use BEATTHEFISH.COM as the marketing code at account signup as well as STARS600 as the bonus code while depositing in order to be eligible for this increased offer.

 US CHECKING ACCOUNT DEPOSITS ACCEPTED:  All new US players are eligible for direct checking account deposits at Poker Stars making them one of the very few US poker rooms to offer this service. To deposit, players enter their banking information directly through the cashier without the need for a third-party e-wallet. Deposits are then instantly credited into the player's real money account. Boasting a 100% acceptance rate, the eCheck system is one of the fastest and most hassle-free options available for US players.

Probably the next best deposit method at Poker Stars is the cash transfer option, which is sent through thousands of locations nationwide and can take as little as a few minutes to fund your account. The 7-11 chain now has cash transfer machines in many of their locations. Other paper deposit methods include cashier's checks or money orders. If you have any questions about deposit methods, please don't hesitate to contact us or the poker room directly.

Overall:  4.5/5

Poker Stars became an online poker giant following back-to-back WSOP wins from Chris Moneymaker in 2003 and Greg Raymer in 2004. With Joseph Hachem joining them in 2005 they ensured their massive exposure even further. In 2007, they became the largest online poker room following their decision to continue to allow US players and has hosted the most players online ever since. Poker Stars regularly draws close to 200,000 simultaneous players, which is simply unmatched by any other poker room. This ultimately benefits the player with thousands of players showing up to every tournament and tens of ring games at each limit to choose from.

Poker Stars focuses mainly on the overall quality of games and tournaments offered. They have surprisingly maintained their quality with the massive influx of new players. Their software is extremely customizable and designed for multi-table play, the ring game traffic is enormous, and the banking is one of the easiest online for US players. The tournament offerings are excellent with a $1.5 million guaranteed event every Sunday and guarantees of $10,000+ several times per hour. Aside from the over-hyped publicity, this is a very professional site to play on without any real flaws.

Our largest promotion now offers all new players coming from our site a free $50 bonus which is modest but very easy to earn. Poker Stars seems to cater to the serious poker player and their tournament traffic and offerings are unquestionably the best online. Their software package is sharp, payouts are fast, and customer service is prompt. If you play at high stakes, you can actually find plenty of action all the way up to the $100/$200 level.

With other large sites dropping out of the market in late 2006, Poker Stars continued to welcome US players and was rewarded with the rank of the largest poker room online in terms of player traffic. Overall, I have continually been impressed by Poker Stars and how they've seemed to improve with age rather than abandon the trust that originally built their reputation. With e-checks for US players and payouts taking less than a week to arrive Poker Stars is an extremely easy recommendation.

Bonus (100% up to $600) and Promotions:   4/5

For the rest of the month our new Poker Stars players receive a special 100% deposit bonus, good up to $600. This is really an excellent offer as Poker Stars typically offers very few deposit bonuses, let alone one with such a large cap. You'll need to use one of our links to Poker Stars and marketing code BEATTHEFISH.COM at account signup to activate your bonus account. Also, players should use STARS600 as the bonus code while depositing. Poker Stars also has lower-than-average playing requirements in order to actually cash out the bonus. The special $600 bonus does have slightly higher requirements but every player should eventually cash out this bonus as you are allowed 6 months to earn the required Frequent Player Points.

Poker Stars also runs an annual promotion called the World Championship of Online Poker, which topped $10 million in prizes this year. The FPP program is probably their main promotion. They have some good ways to use them such as for big tournament satellites, cash freerolls, or merchandise like poker books, posters, and clothing. Finally, their VIP Club rewards frequent players on the site with pretty generous items. Everyone has always earned FPPs to spend on merchandise, but this newer program puts larger players in a different tier where they can earn even more points and enter an exclusive player store. Top rewards for frequent players include free Sunday Million tournament entries and exclusive Sit and Go events against pros like Joseph Hachem or Chris Moneymaker.     

Fish:   2.5/5

Traditionally, Poker Stars has been one of the tightest poker rooms online. That assertion has especially held true with the awful economy helping to tighten up poker in general although I think that the games are thawing a bit due to the sheer number of new players signing up. It is tighter than many sites in terms of flop percentage but I still regularly run into awful players even at the $5/10 NL level. At the lower-to-middle stakes, the flop percentage is about 15-25%, which seems to be in line with the other larger sites. Personally, I can find the tighter play at Poker Stars refreshing after an extended bad-beat session on another wild site.

Many new players are scared away by the Poker Stars reputation of having stiff competition, but it really is mostly hype. Yes, for the most part players are tighter at this site, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are better. You usually want to be playing the opposite style of your opponents, so use their tight nature to your advantage, mix up your play, and run over timid players.

If I find that a table is simply too slow or tight for my liking, I'll switch to one with a higher average pot. One of the luxuries of playing at such a large site is the enormous selection of cash games you'll have to choose from. You'll literally find 50 or more active cash games at most levels so don't force yourself to stay at an undesirable table. Overall, if you're looking to play at a more consistent table that is more similar to cardroom play you might try Poker Stars.

Tournaments:   5/5

One of the main draws of Poker Stars is the tournament offerings. In my opinion, Poker Stars is simply the best online for tournaments. Any serious tournament player would have a tough time arguing that point. They have an unmatched number of satellites not only to live tournaments, but also to their own guaranteed events. Their biggest weekly events are the $750,000 (12:45PM EST) and $1,500,000 (4:30PM EST) guarantees on Sunday. Both have $215 buy-ins with innumerable satellites running throughout the week to get in for less. The $1.5 million tourney the largest recurring online poker tournament in history and is simply unmatched by any other online poker room. The last Sunday of the month also brings a $1,000,000 turbo event.

Normal daily tournaments at Poker Stars between the $10-50 buy-in range can attract over 10,000 players during peak hours giving you incredible value on a small investment. Most no-limit events will attract a minimum of 500-1,000 players even during overnight hours. They structure tournaments well by providing an easy-to-understand lobby, giving players a good amount of starting chips relative to the blinds, and allowing sufficient time between blinds. I like this structure because it tends to give a slightly larger edge towards skilled players.

As Poker Stars has been experiencing a huge boost in overall traffic the tournament traffic is massive. The enormous number of players allows you to find multiple guaranteed events every hour with prize pools as high as $50,000 for miniscule $10 buy-ins. Even multi-table Sit and Gos fill up within just a few minutes. Standard Sit and Gos fill up extremely quickly up to the $100+ levels with With several thousand players competing for even the micro buy-in overnight events every tournament is a spectacle and every tournament offers substantial prizes. Overall, if tournaments are important to you, you can't do better than Poker Stars. 

Software:   5/5

Poker Stars publicizes their software as the best online and I would probably have to agree. I don't think that it is head and shoulders above the other sites, but it is a pretty good package. They allow you to upload your own image as your avatar, which is a neat little feature that a few sites are picking up on. I recently increased their score to 5 because of the latest software update which I thought was a great improvement in both function and cosmetics.

In terms of new table customizations, you can resize any Poker Stars table window (or tile them) to whatever size you desire. Next, they have new themes that allow you to change the graphical theme to things like "Marine", "Stars" which is my new personal favorite, "Saloon", and "Renaissance". Each has their own background imagery and colors or, if you'd rather, you can upload your own image for the background.

Their hand history feature is probably one of the best online and is easy to use. You're able to see all hole cards that were in the showdown even if it was mucked, which is useful if you're trying to get to know what types of hands your opponents are playing. I also like the game speed of the Poker Stars software, which runs at a pretty quick pace and now features "Fast" tables that force automatic blind posting and offers speedier dealing. These tables tend to enjoy a 10-20 hand per hour improvement over standard tables. 

US Payouts:   5/5

The main feeling I get from Poker Stars is professionalism, so they handle their payouts quickly and consistently. This site is probably in the top 3 in terms of speed of payouts and certainly the leader in payout fee structure. Put simply, there are no withdrawal fees for checks. This policy really gives me yet another reason to recommend this poker room. While it seems logical that players shouldn't be charged to get their own money most poker rooms use it as a way to recoup some of their payment processing fees. The fact that Poker Stars doesn't really helps build overall player trust and loyalty.

For substantial payments, checks are sent out via Fedex free of charge. Checks don't take longer than a week to receive and I've often received them in as little as 2 or 3 days. This should be the model standard that other poker rooms strive to follow.

Customer Service:  4.5/5

Again, I like sites that offer all forms of customer service such as live chat and/or telephone support. Poker Stars only offers e-mail service, which is why they don't earn the top score. However, they seem to have plenty of representatives waiting to respond so you'll usually get a response within a few minutes.

Player Traffic

With with help of never-ending WSOP repeats on ESPN, Poker Stars has experienced continued growth for years and they're now the largest online poker room in terms of active players. Peak hours will sometimes bring in 100,000+ players and they've solidified a #1 ranking for player traffic by continuing to allow US players. This is actually one of the best reasons to play here as you can find tens of active tables at all limits (even high stakes) at all times. Tournament traffic is also the best online with several thousand players entering most hold'em events.

Best Features

Excellent software. This should mean that you won't get frustrated from slow game speed or difficult-to-follow lobbies.

Professional service. They resolve problems very quickly and I've always been happy with their professionalism.

Best tournament action online. This is by far the best site to go with in terms of large tournaments because of sheer volume.

Extremely busy ring game traffic up to the highest limits. This is one reason that I continue to play here as you can always find tens of games going on at every available limit.

Game Selection: Hold'em, Omaha, Stud, Draw, HORSE

Limits: Limit: 2c/4c up to $100/$200    No-Limit: 1c/2c up to $100/$200

Deposit Methods: NETeller, eChecks, CentralCoin, major credit cards, cashier's checks, money orders. This is another site that is catching on in terms of eChecks, which allow players to instantly fund their accounts directly through their checking account.

Minimum Deposit: $10

Tips: If you're a tight-aggressive player, you'll probably take a liking to Poker Stars immediately. The reason is that you're going to run into a lot less bad beats playing there. Of course, you won't eliminate them altogether, but the play is generally tighter and players will be less willing to draw. While you'll be very content to drag the pot with your top pair, how do you extract a big pot out of these players when you've got a real monster? I will tend to slowplay my big hands a lot more often. I don't recommend doing this with an obvious draw out there and more than a couple of opponents, but if the board seems harmless you might want to take the chance.

Since the play is tight at Poker Stars, you'll need to give your opponents a chance to catch a decent hand for them to pay you off. Of course, you're also running the risk of letting him crush you if your hand is vulnerable to a draw so analyze your opponents and the board well before you slowplay any hand. 

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