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- POKER STARS
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- Phone number:
- Email : support@pokerstars.com
- Location: Isle of Man
PokerStars Review
Pros
US Players Accepted
100% up to $600 Welcome Bonus
Largest player base
Highest guaranteed tournaments
Most Live Event satellites
Cons
Stiff competition at all stakes
Serious poker players will find no better online poker site than PokerStars. The poker room offers the widest game variety, highest paying tournaments, largest rate of player traffic, some excellent promotions and an elite software platform, compatible with PC, Mac and Linux operating systems. Poker Stars even accept US players.
REVIEW
Summary
PokerStars has held the rank of world’s largest online poker room for several years running, currently playing host to more than 40% of the entire online poker world (based on average peak hour player traffic of 177,500 in January, 2010). Launched in 2004 on its own private network, that’s a phenomenally impressive record for a stand-alone poker site.
How did PokerStars become so incredibly popular? By developing an unparalleled software platform and integrating the widest selection of games and tournaments. PokerStars is home to the largest weekly tournament schedule, including the $1.5 Million GTD Sunday Million. Combined with awesome promotions, fantastic customer service and US player acceptance, PokerStars is lacking virtually nothing.
Welcome Bonus
PokerStars finally increased its welcome bonus to a competitive rate, now offering a fairly standard 100% up to $600 bonus on every new player’s first deposit. What’s not so standard about it is that new members can actually spread the bonus over their first three deposits. Input the PokerStars Marketing Code “STARS600” each time you deposit to continue stacking the bonus up to a maximum of $600 over three deposits.
To release the bonus, start earning VPPs in real money poker games and tourneys. You’ll need VPPs equal to 17x the bonus amount. Every 170 VPPs releases $10 of the bonus. Players have 6 months to release each portion of the bonus.
Games
PokerStars is overflowing with different types of online poker games, extending much farther than the standard variations of most poker sites. On top of that, PokerStars maintains more than enough traffic to maintain activity in all poker variants and stakes at all hours of the day.
Games include Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, Razz, 5 Card Draw, 2-7 Single and Triple Draw, Badugi and various mixed games like HORSE, HOSE and 8-Game Mix. The stakes range anywhere from the lowest possible micro-limits to as high as $1,000/$2,000; perfect for players of any bankroll size.
Tournaments
Online poker players will not find a better tournament roster anywhere. PokerStars has the largest tournament schedule in the business and with more than 150,000 tournament players at peak hours, even the weekly Sunday Million, guaranteed at $1,500,000, often exceeds its expected prize pool.
PokerStars runs plenty of smaller tournaments as well, with buy-ins starting at $1 and up in both MTT and SNG settings. The SNG menu is always brimming with activity, replacing filled tables with new tourneys every few seconds.
PokerStars is known to send more players to more destinations all over the world, playing in major live poker events throughout the year. The online poker room also doles out more WSOP packages than any other poker site. About 20% of the WSOP Main Event field came from online poker prize packages, the majority of those straight from PokerStars. Steps SNGs are the favorite way to win a live event prize package, requiring only 6-Stepsand a starting entry of $7.
Promotions
PokerStars hosts plenty of promotional tournaments, like the Turbo Takedown. This is a monthly freeroll tournament with $1,000,000 on the line, and requires only poker points to enter. The first place winner gets an Audi TT. Take down a Team PokerStars Pro to claim his/her bounty.
Other promotional tournaments include a $3 million Battle of the Planets SNG series, and a chance to “Meet Joe Cada in Las Vegas”. Play ‘Meet Joe Cada’ tournaments every day, in freeroll and $1.10 satellites.
Earning poker points is one of the best ways to get extra perks from PokerStars. These points can get you entry to exceptional tournaments, as well as some awesome gear from the PokerStars Store. To earn points, just play real money poker games at PokerStars. Points are awarded for all raked hands and tournament fees.
Software
Developing and maintaining its own poker client over the years, PokerStars has set the standard for others to follow. The software is lightning fast, very stable and user-friendly. Packed with extra features, players can customize the software to their liking, take notes on other players and use the sophisticated hand history software to analyze and improve their poker game.
PokerStars software is especially accommodating for multi-tablers. Resize your tables, auto-tile all windows and play at up to 24 simultaneous cash games and unlimited tournaments, all without depreciating the speed of game play. PokerStars was the first to introduce a long-awaited Mac-friendly poker client in 2007.
Payments
PokerStars welcomes players from all corners of the globe, and is especially inviting to US poker players. The online poker room provides a wide range of secure payment methods that include Visa, MasterCard, Diners Club, Maestro, Solo, Switch, NETeller, Moneybookers, ClickandBuy, PaySafeCard, Web Money, E-Check, ELV, Local Bank Transfer, Online Bank Transfer, Money Order, Bank Draft and Check.
Support
PokerStars has one of the fastest, most reliable customer service departments. Surprisingly, email is the only viable contact option, but a large staff of professional support reps is on hand 24/7 to keep response time to 10 minutes or less for most queries.
