PokerStars

PokerStars

OVERALL GRADE:

When talking about the largest and busiest poker rooms available on the Internet, the conversation begins and ends with PokerStars. Founded in 2001, the site has grown to be the giant of online poker, yet it retains most of the features that allowed it to reach its incredible standing. Not only is PokerStars the home to an amazing number of players, it is also a site that is producing an impressive number of champions. Three winners of the WSOP Main Event from 2003 to 2009, Greg Raymer, Chris Moneymaker and Joe Cada, are part of the PokerStars list of professionals, making the site home to multiple champions from the online ranks.

Though only offering a modest $600 matching signup bonus, Poker Stars provides many comps to attract and retain members. The site has a large number of reload bonuses, special events, player points that can be used to buy into special tournaments and events that offer play-ins to WSOP events.

Being the biggest has many advantages, and one of them is an attention to detail. At PokerStars, this fact is apparent in the quality of its software and graphics. The site has put a great deal of effort into providing the best software available. Great attention has been paid to making the site easy to use, fun to look at, intuitive, stable and lightning quick.

Because PokerStars is the largest online card room on the planet, the amount of tournaments and freerolls that it offers is unparalleled. There are freerolls every month and literally thousands of tournaments every single day. These tournaments can vary from low limit buy-ins to high stakes games with players paying thousands of dollars to join. Not only is there a tremendous number of tournaments and large buy-ins, payouts for these tournaments can soar to seven-figure pots. Because of the size of Poker Stars and the number of high rollers there, it attracts tens of thousands of players every day.

Due in part to the overwhelming growth and enormous number of members prowling the site, PokerStars has a high number of fish at its tables, particularly in the tournaments. Because so many new players are attracted to the site, the number of soft players can be rather high. This does not apply to the high limit tables, however, where it is possible to find world-class competition in amazing tournaments and ring games.

Taking into account that the site can be accessed from the United States, PokerStars is selective with its options for deposits and cash-outs. Players should consult the site for info pertaining to their country of residence, but Poker Stars accepts deposits from eChecks, ePassporte, UseMyBank, Moneybookers, Neteller, Visa, Visa Delta, Visa Electron, MasterCard, Diners Club International, Solo, Maestro, cashier’s check, money order, bank draft, wire transfer, ELV, PaySafe Card and Citadel. To provide cash-outs, the company uses Visa, Neteller, FirePay, CentralCoin and paper checks

PokerStars provides the ultimate customer experience, but its customer service lags just a bit behind other sites because it only offers support via Email. Although it doesn’t have phone support or live chat, the Email response from the company is extremely helpful and very fast, with answers typically coming in minutes.

Not only is PokerStars the biggest online poker room in the world, it is also one of the very best. The site offers an amazing number of freerolls and has literally thousands of tournaments running twenty-four hours a day.