Pokerstars Summary
PokerStars is the largest online poker room in the world, with massive action at all stakes and skill levels. It's the place to go for tournaments, with the world's largest guarantees, an impressive 24/7 schedule and excellent software. PokerStars also sponsors some of the world’s most famous poker players, including Daniel Negreanu and WSOP Main Event champs Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer, who you can find at the tables to play or chat with. Sign up and get a $50 bonus at 100% match.
PokerStars accept players from nearly everywhere, including players from the United States.
Pokerstars Games Available
PokerStars offers great game variety, with the world's best heads-up action and the highest volume in all major games, including Limit and No-Limit Texas Hold'em and both Hi and Hi-Lo versions of Omaha and Seven-Card Stud.
The site also offers No-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo games, H.O.R.S.E., H.O.S.E., 2-7 Triple Draw, Five-Card Draw, Razz, 2-7 Single Draw Lowball and Badugi, plus three new mixed game formats – 8-Game, Mixed Hold’em and Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo.
PokerStars started the micro-limit table trend when they introduced games for as little as 1¢/2¢ in Hold'em and Omaha Hi. At these micro-limit tables, there is no rake. Sit-and-go tournaments as a standard have a 10-minute increase in blinds, instead of the 10-hands limit practiced at many other sites.
Players also get $1,500 in chips, meaning more play and better odds for the good players. For players looking for faster action PokerStars spreads turbo tournaments with faster blind levels.
The Hold'em tournament tables seat nine players, as do the No-Limit and Pot-Limit Hold'em and Omaha ring-game tables. Fixed-Limit ring-game tables seat 10 players. One more aspect of PokerStars that makes the site unique is players can play any type of poker in tournament form, as opposed to most sites where only Omaha and Hold'em are spread in tournaments.
pokerstars.com Player Traffic
Up to 15,000 cash game players and 100,000 tournament players can be found at the Poker Stars tables during peak periods. This makes Poker Stars by far the largest online poker room for both cash game and tournament poker.
pokerstars.com Quality of Players - Soft Competition
Huge room, huge fish. It seems a large number of the ex-party poker fish swam their way over to Stars. There are some good players at Stars, and many of your more famous online pro players can be found here. There here for a reason of course; the pond is full!
The ring games at the higher limits tend to be pretty tough at PokerStars, and the viewed-flopped percentages at these limits are fairly low - meaning tighter than the industry standard for the same limits. On the positive side, there are many games to choose from and plenty of good players know how to exploit the tighter games.
For example, at the nine-player No-Limit Hold'em tables ($1/$2 and up), the viewed-flop percentage is often in the mid 20s and low 30s. In Omaha, there are some loose games with viewed-flop percentages up in the 40s and 50s, sometimes even in the 60% range (at $1/$2 and up). As a result of the steady influx of new players and the great game variety, the ring games have become softer and softer. In short, there is no problem finding suitable competition for all skill levels.
The tournament player quality is of a more varying level than the ring games and tends to be much softer. Of course, there are mostly strong players in high-stakes sit-and-gos and the main fixed schedule events. However, a lot of non-experts take part as well because, as the online tournament leader, PokerStars attracts many new tournament players.
In short, the competition is of average toughness in the ring games, with softer opposition in most of the tournaments. PokerStars does however recommend players think twice before trying to take on the highest stakes, since they are inhabited by some very talented and aggressive players.
pokerstars.com Tournament Info
The tournament schedule features two main events to kick off the start of a new week. First is the weekly Warm Up tournament which offers a guaranteed prize pool of $500,000. Following this is the most popular event found on site, the Sunday Millions which offers a $1,000,000 prize pool. In addition to this players will find multiple MTT’s scheduled daily with low to moderately high buyins as well as various freerolls. PokerStars is known for their seats to live events and provides more players with the ability of going to a major tournament. For players who are interested in Sit and Go tournaments, the poker room provides multiple games each available in the variations listed above. SNG’s can be played in full and shorthanded tables, heads-up, multi-table format right up to 180 players in one event.
Pokerstars Software
Stars is constantly introducing new games and features to its players. The software can be personalized with one of a number of "themes" customers can download and install. The look isn't the only thing customizable about the lobby. The site offers an extensive filtering system so only specific buy-ins and types of games appear on the list of available games.
Players are also able to upload photos to serve as their avatars, which can be changed easily and frequently. Another recent addition is the "replay" button, which allows players to watch a fully animated replay of their last hand with a simple click. PokerStars has also revamped their search feature to allow players to search for and track multiple people at the same time.
The server is still prone to overloading or slowing down during peak traffic times like Sundays, but other than that, the software is new, efficient, and reliable.
Pokerstars Bonus & Promotions
New players will receive the top bonus of 100% match up to $50. This is the largest available Pokerstars.com bonus available since the poker room only has one standard offer for all players. The bonus is very easy to clear and will be deposited into your player account once you have met the FPP requirements. They do provide reload offers from time to time and depending on which level you have achieved in the VIP program you can look forward to additional offers. PokerStars is offering a brand new marketing code only available to players who have yet to create an account with the poker room. By entering PSP11054 you will be able to receive the maximum bonus currently available which is a 100% match up to $50. This bonus is very easy to clear and we have never had any trouble clearing a Pokerstars bonus.
How To Clear The PokerStars Bonus
After using the PokerStars marketing code PSP11054 you will get $50 credited to your pending bonus account after making your first deposit. PokerStars requires that you accumulate a certain amount of frequent player points before they will give you the amount awarded. You will need to earn 100 FPP’s for every $10 in bonus dollars you have in your player account. Points are awarded on a pro rated basis with 1 point earned per $1 collected in rake up to a maximum of 3 pts for $3 in rake. Tournament players with earn a minimum of 3 FPP’s for every $1 in tournament fees paid.
From time to time the poker room does offer reload bonus which are usually a 50%-75% match bonus up to $100. These will be automatically awarded to you on your additional deposits and do not require any other marketing bonus codes to claim. You can expect to see new promotions announced each and every month as well as a great refer-a-friend program, online gift shop, exclusive freerolls and the new Pokerstars VIP program that was released earlier this year.
All the players using the marketing bonus code PAWSUB465 when creating their account at PokerStars will get access to the restricted "PokerNews Freerolls". You will find these in the poker lobby under "Private Tournaments". They have a much higher prize pool than the regular freerolls at PokerStars and you will face much less competition.
Poker stars Deposit & Withdrawal Options
Deposit Options: Credit Card (Visa, MasterCard, Visa Delta, Visa Electron, Visa Gift/Pre-Paid Card, MasterCard Gift/Pre-Paid Card, Diners Club International, Solo, Maestro), ELV, ClickandBuy, NETeller, Moneybookers, PaySafeCard, Web Money, eChecks, Online Bank Transfer, Local Bank Transfer, Cashier’s Check, Money Order, Bank Draft.
Withdrawal Options: Visa, Solo, Maestro, ClickandBuy, NETeller, Moneybookers, Web Money, Direct Bank Transfer, Check.
pokerstars.com Languages
The multi-lingual website comes in the following languages:
English, Greek, Czech, Danish, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Hungarian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal and Brazil), Russian, Romanian, Slovenian, Swedish, Finnish and Ukrainian.
This enables poker players from about everywhere in any language to understand their website completely.
Poker stars Security
In addition to explaining how their random number generator functions on their website, PokerStars security measures have also been independently verified by the outside consulting firms of Cigital and BMM International. Their software is frequently updated with new security updates to keep the site as safe as possible. The site also has a very strict collusion policy and promises to investigate any and all customer complaints regarding suspicious play.
pokerstars.com Customer Service
The only way to contact PokerStars support is via e-mail, but the staff is typically quick to respond to e-mail inquiries. The site also employs a number of moderators that are available 24/7 to handle any problems that arise at the table. PokerStars is also big on customer feedback and even offers a test version of their software that registered players can log into and try out new software and games for play money.
Poker stars Additional Information
Poker Stars opened for play money beta testing September 12th 2001 and began offering real money games in December 2001. As the leading tournament online poker room it has produced players who won their way to become the 2003 (Chris Moneymaker) and 2004 (Greg Raymer) World Series of Poker Main Event Champions.
pokerstars.com Pros & Cons
- Pros:
- Massive volume and unmatched tournament schedule
- Very knowledgeable and fast e-mail support
- World's best heads-up and sit-and-go action
- Accepts U.S. players
- World's largest tournament site
- $1.5 million guaranteed in Sunday Million
- Offers the world's biggest online series - WCOOP and SCOOP
- New eChecks option for instant deposits and withdrawals
- $300k in reload freerolls in June 2009
- Cons:
- Only offers e-mail support
- Tough opposition in high-stakes tournaments and cash games
 Reviewed 05/06/2010 15:38:38, by Branson Josh
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