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Visit
Absolute Poker
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Overall:
4/5
Bonus and Promotions:
4/5
Fish Rating:
2/5
(fish sans backbone)
Tournaments:
4/5
Software:
1/5
Payouts:
4.5/5
Customer Service:
4/5
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URGENT UPDATE:
Absolute Poker has suspended US operations. Until the status of available games
becomes clearer we are redirecting their links to
Sportsbook Poker, our top-rated poker room that also accepts US
players. We will update this page as soon as more information becomes available.
Absolute Poker Bonus
Code for 150% bonus:
BTFBONUS
US CHECKING ACCOUNT DEPOSITS ACCEPTED:
While it isn't advertised on their website
Absolute Poker
offers
checking account deposits, called eChecks, directly from the cashier.
The minimum deposit for this method is also one of the lowest at
$10.
Absolute Poker
is one of the few poker rooms to offer eChecks and is a major
positive for US players looking for easy deposit methods. No
separate e-wallet is required and any standard checking or savings account can
be used. There are no fees
involved and deposits are available for us within a couple of
minutes.
The top backup deposit options at
Absolute Poker
would be
major credit card (with the caveat of a probable declined
transaction) or the eWalletXpress checking account e-wallet. Also accepted are
two methods of cash transfers, which does takes a few
extra minute to visit a service location but is a reliable method. One easy way to make a cash
transfer is to visit a 7-11 store, which has automated transfer machines at many of their locations. Paper alternatives include
cashier's checks mailed directly to the poker room.
NO-DOWNLOAD INSTANT PLAY OPTION:
One of the more unique features of
Absolute Poker
is the no-download instant-play version that does not require a
software download. As it is directly launched within any web browser
and runs solely off of Java it is compatible with any Windows, Mac,
Linux, or any other OS that has Java installed. All real-money cash
games and tournaments are available via the
Absolute Poker
instant-play as well as the full cashier. Functionally, the
instant-play version is very similar to the installable version with
the exception of multi-table play.
To locate the no-download option, visit
the
Absolute Poker homepage and scroll to the bottom of the page.
The second header from the bottom will contain the "free online
poker no download" link that you will need to visit. You can then
click on the Instant Play icon to immediately launch the client
within your browser.
Overall:
4/5
Echoing the sentiments of the overall section in my
Ultimate Bet review, it is very difficult to provide a
definitive review of
Absolute Poker.
If the poker room is examined independent of the cheating scandal it
is a solid site that offers a large deposit bonus, eCheck deposits
for US players, and a fairly robust tournament schedule.
Unfortunately, that's all tempered by the bad feeling created by the
mess of allegations against the site. Without rehashing the entire
charade complete with rumors and speculation the fact still remains
that Absolute Poker
allowed major software security glitches to go uncorrected in their
software.
Those glitches allowed corrupt former
Absolute Poker
employees to cheat players out of large sums of money in both
tournament and cash game play. With the same parent company now
running both
Ultimate Bet and
Absolute Poker
the problems persisted with both clients. Naturally, both poker
rooms were disgraced in the poker community for breaching the most
important issue at the core of online poker: player trust.
The poker rooms tried to assure the
community that any lost funds as a result of the cheating were
returned to the affected players and that the software has now been
100% fixed. Unfortunately, that doesn't clear up 3 important
questions that won't ever be fully answered: 1) Did the poker room
know about the security issues? 2) Have all affected players
actually been refunded completely? 3) How can players trust that the
software truly has been made secure?
What disturbs me the most is that
existing Absolute Poker
players who aren't involved in the poker community or don't keep up
with poker news may not even know that anything out of the ordinary
happened. Of course, the poker room didn't announce the scandal to
those who didn't already know about it. While most players weren't
cheated before and perhaps none are cheated anymore every player
should have the right to full disclosure.
My goal with this review is to both make
players aware of the security issues that have taken place here and
allow visitors to then choose their next poker room for themselves.
It has never been my intent with this site to dictate where you
should play. If you still want to play at
Absolute Poker
and trust that they've corrected their security leaks then I hope
that this review can be helpful. Just please be aware that there
have been major security issues that may or may not have been fixed.
Strictly looking at what takes place
externally at
Absolute Poker
they
have typically offered large deposit bonuses, and I commend them for
upping it to a $500 maximum through our site. They are actually
pretty generous about cashing it out for middle-stakes and higher
players but micro-limit players will see very little of the total
150%. In terms of player traffic, they've actually consolidated with
Ultimate Bet
to form the CEREUS network. All players and tournaments are shared,
which ultimately benefits the player by increasing the amount of
game choices.
The competition at
Absolute Poker tends to be tighter than average but
I find the players easy to dominate with the right strategy. See our
Fish and Tips sections below for specific methods to exploiting the
general weaknesses of these players. During prime hours, you can find full
ring games for fixed-limit up to about the $10/20 level and no-limit up to the $2/4 level.
Understandably, most high-stakes no-limit games have dried up since
the cheating scandal. To summarize,
Absolute Poker has given players plenty of reasons to stay away
in recent months. That being said, casual middle-stakes games and
tournament stand a low likelihood of even being a target for
cheaters. It's ultimately up to you if you can feel secure enough to
give them your business.
Bonus (150%
up to $500) and Promotions:
4/5
With all of the security issues at
Absolute
Poker giving players pause the least they can do to try to
entice new players is offer a decent initial deposit bonus.
Fortunately, it is pretty large at a special 150% rate given to our
players. The maximum cap is $500. Keep in mind that you'll
need to use bonus code BTFBONUS at signup to be eligible for
this offer. The 150% bonus goes into your bonus account and you can
gradually release it into your cash account by earning "Fame Points".
The points are part of a tiered VIP system similar to that of other
poker rooms where players can earn cash or shop in a player store.
The complication with the
Absolute
Poker deposit bonus comes in how it is released. For every 20
points earned $5 of the bonus is released into your account as
actual cash. With tables of $1/2 and up earning a point for every
raked hand middle-stakes players can expect to earn about $2-3 of
bonus per hour per table. That's a fair rate and playing at that
level or above will allow you see your entire bonus in a reasonable
amount of playing sessions. Unfortunately, this is a difficult bonus
for smaller players who will need to play between 2 and 20 times the
raked hands depending on the stakes.
Other promotions at
Absolute
Poker include a perpetual reload bonus of varying amounts and a
very large Bad Beat Jackpot. While you can possibly earn hundreds of
thousands of dollars with this promotion you are required to play at
designated Jackpot tables. This is simply another way for
Absolute
Poker to make money through the extra rake taken from each hand.
While most of it goes to generate the extremely unlikely jackpot 10%
is quietly kept by the poker room. Overall, the promotions are
sizeable with the big bonus but it only provides a strong value for
larger players.
Fish:
2/5
Overall,
Absolute
Poker tends to run tighter
than many of its newer counterparts. Flop percentages are usually
under 25% and pots are usually fairly small. As
the stakes increase, it seems that the pot size opens up a bit, but
the tight play continues. Fortunately, with as many as a dozen
active full and shorthanded tables up to the $2/4 level players are
able to pick and choose between tables with higher pots and flop
percentages. The best word to describe these players is extremely
timid, rather than tight. The lack of fast action can be
frustrating at times but the weak play can also be exploited.
Why
not raise every time from late position with any sort of hand if
your opponents refuse to play back at you? If the table has been playing tight and
one of your opponents suddenly
throws in a massive reraise you can know to get out of the hand.
Absolute
Poker players are
mostly predictable and I've done pretty well here overall. Of
course, always stay aware of the potential draws and make your
opponents pay
if they're going to play them.
Tournaments:
4/5
Despite a large amount of the confirmed
player cheating taking place in tournament play this remains one of
the strongest parts of
Absolute
Poker. Nightly guarantees regularly reach about 500 players or
more. While those numbers aren't duplicated at the higher buy-ins
there is strong value for those under $30. The largest daily events
are guarantees that range from $2,000 to about $8,000. Unfortunately
for those like me who don't care for rebuys you'll be limited to
less than half of those. I do enjoy the bounty events offered here,
which allow you earn small prizes for every play you bust out.
For larger tournament players,
Absolute
Poker offers 3 weekly events with prize pools larger than
$100,000. The first $100K takes place on Saturdays with a $300
buy-in and the second on Sundays with a $500 buy-in. I feel that
these are poor values unless you have a large bankroll and are
looking specifically for a small field. Better value can be found in
the Sunday $200,000 guarantee with a $200 buy-in. I've satellited
into numerous Sunday events from the round-the-clock multi-table
satellites.
Software:
1/5
The minimum score given to the
Absolute Poker software is not for the actual client's
playability and graphics. As has been discussed at the top of this
review the software has been proven to allow management users,
whether intentional or not, to cheat the tables. I simply won't
recommend software that would allow such a glaring security hole.
Unfortunately, it will be long time before players can possibly
begin to fully trust the backend of this software.
What's really unfortunate is that
Absolute
Poker wasted one of the top packages in the industry. Taking
notes from sister site
Ultimate Bet
the graphics are sharp, unobtrusive, and well laid out. Players can
also choose from 3 different tables layouts. Hand histories show
hole cards for all players involved at showdown and there is a
graphic replay option.also improved the hand history
feature, which now shows a full table graphic for each hand. The lobby provides all the necessary
information for ring games, including hands per hour and percentage
seeing the flop. Perhaps the best feature is game speed, which runs
at some of the highest rates I've seen online. Full 9-handed tables
often run at over 70 hands per hour.
US Payouts:
4.5/5
Absolute
Poker
offers a number of payout options such as eWalletXpress and bank
wire but I've used the express check feature only over the past
couple of years. While the $25 fee is frustrating, that's less than
many poker rooms offering Fedex service. Paying a few dollars extra
for the courier service cuts down the total waiting time to less
than 3 days from when the withdrawal is requested.
Customer Service:
4/5
The customer service at
Absolute
Poker
was previously only via e-mail and I would often wish they would respond quicker.
Sometimes you'd only have to wait 10-15 minutes for
a response but other times I experienced waits of several hours. Fortunately,
a live chat option has been added for both financial issues and
general questions about the poker room. I've been satisfied overall
with the live chat service and have found that the representatives
are able to solve most issues within minutes.
Player Traffic
Absolute
Poker is centered around shorthanded ring games, but during
peak hours they do usually have multiple full tables
going on (which I greatly prefer) at limits up to $2/4 for no limit
hold'em. I feel that most high-stakes players take their play
elsewhere following the cheating scandal. Surprisingly,
Absolute
Poker draws just as much fixed limit action with busy tables up
to $10/20.
They
usually show up as having over 20,000 players online but that is a
somewhat inflated number due to the freebie hunters packing up the
freerolls and
Ultimate Bet adding to that number on the same netwok. Tournament traffic is good for smaller events
usually under $30 attracting several hundred players. Their
satellite traffic remains somewhat low meaning you won't need to compete
against as many players but there will be fewer prizes available.
Best Features
 Big deposit bonus. This does require a
fair amount of raked hands at a certain level, so bigger players
will certainly earn more of it. Smaller players should multi-table
to take advantage of this.
Lots of shorthanded games. If you like
this type of table you'll find plenty of them at this site.
Fast software. Game speed can run as
high as 70-80 hands per hour so you can get in more hands in less
time.
Game Selection: Hold'em,
Omaha, Stud
Limits: Limit: 2c/4c up to
$500/$1,000 No-Limit: 1c/2c up to $200/$400
Deposit Methods:
NETeller, eChecks,
eWalletXpress, MyPayLinQ, major credit cards, money transfer, bank wire,
checks, Moneybookers, ClickandBuy, Click2Pay, PaySafeCard, and Ukash.
Minimum Deposit:
$20
Tips: As with any
site, sometimes you will be up against a table full of tight
players. Keep an eye on the cards they show down. If they are
consistently strong hands, you will know that you can safely fold
your mediocre hands against their raise. Tighter players also tend
to be more observant of you, so I suggest playing an unpredictable
style and raising at times with drawing hands like suited
connectors.
Absolute
Poker also
gives you plenty of information before you choose which table to sit
down at. I always look at statistics such as percentage of players
who see the flop and average pot. If the flop % is low and the pots
are high, you'll usually have to go through several raises to see a
flop. On the other hand, with a high flop % (40 or 45%) and small
pots (20 to 30 times the Big Blind), you'll usually run into a lot
of cheap flops and calling stations. Usually, tables at Absolute
tend to be the former.
Visit Absolute Poker
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