Poker Stars Rating

This is probably one of Poker Star’s worst assets. They have a reputation for having very tight, very knowledgeable players. They’ve had a little burst of newer players recently, though, since 2003 WSOP champion Chris Moneymaker, 2004 champion Greg Raymer and 2005 champion Joe Hachem played in their satellites to get where they did and everybody started thinking they could do the same. However, the fact remains that the majority of the players are really tight with their money, so it tends to be a tough place to make a good profit.

Game Selection

Poker Stars offers all the great games we’ve come to expect from poker rooms. They’ve got Texas Holdem, Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo, and 7 Card Stud (also with the Hi/Lo variant). One of the great things about this site is that they have great traffic for all of the games. As with most sites, the emphasis is definitely on Texas Holdem, but they have great traffic for everything else as well. This room is second only to Party Poker for player traffic.

Promotions

Unfortunately, Poker Stars falls short with their promotions. First and foremost, they do not offer a set first-time deposit bonus. Sometimes they offer a 20% bonus up to $100, other times it’s a flat $35, but most of the time it’s nothing. That’s a huge strike against them. This is the only poker room I’ve found that does this, and I’m not sure why they do. If a bonus isn’t a big deal to you, though, they do have one nice promotion and some incentive to keep you playing. They offer something called Frequent Player Points (FPPs) that can be exchanged to enter special tournaments or to buy novelty items from their online store.

Software

The software at Poker Stars is really quite nice. You can tell that Poker Stars tries to create a professional or a “grown up” atmosphere, as their software doesn’t have any of the cartoony animations or cute features that other poker rooms do. While some consider this to make it bland, many players enjoy the no-frills policy that they take with their software. In addition, the program is extremely fast. You’ll experience little to no lag, and they deal the cards in a very timely fashion.

Tournaments

Poker Stars is considered by many to be the best online poker rooms for tournaments. This could very well be true, as they have some extremely good tournaments at this site. You won’t find this many tournaments in such a wide variety anywhere else. The minimum buy-ins can be anywhere from $1 to $200, and both sit ‘n go and multi-table tournaments are running all day long, so you’ll never be without one. The only downside is the aforementioned tightness of the players, so they tournaments can get pretty tough. But if you love to play in tournaments, this may be the room for you.

Customer Service

This is another one of Poker Star’s strong points. The customer support staff is very competent and will be able to help you solve your problem quickly. The only downside is that they just offer email support – no phone support or live support. Nevertheless, you should receive an email answering your question within at least 20 minutes. Depositing and withdrawing are both fast and easy. Other than the fact that they only offer email support, everything is top-notch.