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Visit Poker
Stars
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Overall:
4.5/5
Bonus and Promotions:
4/5
Fish Rating:
  2.5/5
(the Mackerel Effect)
Tournaments:
5/5
Software:
5/5
Payouts:
5/5
Customer Service:
4.5/5
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U.S. players can use ePassporte at
Poker Stars for immediate credit card deposits
or verified checking account deposits. ePassporte works just like
NETeller and we recommend their service based on our personal
experience with the company. It is also accepted at a number of
other online poker sites. Many accounts are also being offered
e-check deposits, which are extremely easy, instantly available, and
works directly through your checking account.
Another
deposit method is the cash
transfer option, which is sent through thousands of locations
nationwide and can take as little as a few minutes to fund your
account. The 7-11 chain now has cash transfer machines in many of
their locations. Other deposit methods include cashier's checks
or cash transfers. If you have any questions about deposit methods,
please don't hesitate to contact us or the
poker room directly.
Overall:
4.5/5
Poker Stars
became an online poker giant following back-to-back WSOP wins from Chris
Moneymaker in 2003 and Greg Raymer in 2004. With Joseph Hachem
joining them in 2005 they ensured their massive exposure even
further. In 2007, they became the largest online poker room boasting
the most tables and players online. Aside from the
over-hyped publicity, this is a very professional site to play on without any
real flaws.
Our largest promotion now offers all new players coming from our
site a free $50 bonus which is modest but simple and easy to earn.
Poker Stars
seems
caters to the serious poker player and their tournament traffic and
offerings are unquestionably the best online. Their software package is sharp,
payouts are fast, and customer service is prompt. If you play
at high stakes, you can actually find plenty of action all the way
up to $100/$200.
With other large sites dropping out of the market in late 2006,
Poker Stars
continued to welcome US players and was rewarded with the rank of
the largest poker room online in terms of player traffic. Overall, I have continually
been
impressed by Poker Stars
and they have earned one of my top spots.
Bonus (100%
up to $50) and Promotions:
4/5
For the rest of 2007 our
players receive a 100% deposit
bonus (up to $50). This is a fair deal as they typically
offer very few deposit bonuses. You'll need to use one of our links to
Poker Stars
and marketing code "beatthefish.com" to receive it. The playing
requirements are quite low and you should cash it out in a few
sessions or less playing average-stakes cash games.
Poker Stars
also
runs an annual promotion called the World Championship of Online
Poker, which topped $10 million in prizes this year. The FPP program is probably their main promotion. They have some
good ways to use them
such as for big tournament satellites, cash freerolls, or
merchandise like poker books, posters, and clothing.
Finally,
their VIP Club
rewards frequent players on the site with pretty generous items. Everyone has always
earned FPPs to spend on merchandise, but this newer
program puts larger players in a different tier where they can earn
even more points and enter an exclusive player store. Top rewards
for frequent players include free Sunday Million tournament entries
and exclusive Sit and Go events against pros like Joseph Hachem or
Chris Moneymaker.
Fish:
2.5/5
Traditionally,
Poker Stars has been one of
the tighter online poker rooms. I think that it is opening up quite
a bit due to their promotions bringing in new players. It
is tighter than many sites in terms of flop percentage,
but I still regularly run into awful players even at the $5/10 NL
level. Players drawing with terrible odds also still runs rampant.
At the lower-to-middle stakes, the flop percentage is about
20-30%.
Personally, I can find the tighter play at
Poker Stars refreshing after an extended bad-beat
session on another wild site. Many new players are scared away
by their reputation of having stiff competition, but it really is
mostly hype. Yes, for the most part
players are tighter at this site, but that doesn't
necessarily mean that they are better. You usually want to be
playing the opposite style of your opponents, so use their
tight nature to your advantage, mix up your play, and run over timid
players.
If I find that a table is simply too slow
or tight for my liking,
I'll switch to one with a higher average pot. One of the luxuries of
playing at such a large site is the enormous selection of cash games
you'll have to choose from. You'll literally find 50 or more active
cash games at most levels so don't force yourself to stay at an
undesirable table. Overall, if you're looking to play at a more consistent table that is more
similar to cardroom play, you might try
Poker Stars.
Tournaments:
5/5
One of the major draws of
Poker Stars
is the
tournament offerings. In my opinion, this site is the best online
for tournaments. Any serious online poker player would have a tough
time arguing that point. They have an unmatched number of satellites not
only to live tournaments, but also to their own guaranteed events.
Their biggest weekly event is a $1,000,000 guaranteed event on
Sunday and they
hold numerous double-shootouts every day to win a cheap
seat. This is the largest recurring online poker tournament in
history and is simply unmatched by any other online poker room.
Normal daily tournaments between the $10-50 buy-in range can attract over
1,000 players during peak hours giving you great value on a small
investment.
They structure tournaments well by providing an easy-to-understand
lobby, giving a good amount of starting chips relative to the
blinds, and allowing sufficient time between blinds. I like this structure because it tends to give a slightly
larger edge than normal for skill vs. luck.
As Poker Stars has been experiencing a huge boost in
traffic, the tournament traffic is massive. No tourney is ever
empty, which is a major positive for building big prize pools. They
offer lots of middle-to-high buy-ins, but also offer a few $1 events
during prime hours.
Poker Stars
uses their ridiculously massive traffic to make tournaments
successful. With several thousand players competing for even the
micro buy-in overnight events, every tournament is a spectacle and
every tournament offers substantial prizes. Overall, if tournaments are important to you,
you can't do better than
Poker Stars.
Software:
5/5
Poker Stars publicizes their software as
the best online, and I would probably have to agree. I don't think
that it is head and shoulders above the other sites, but it is a pretty good package. They
allow you to upload your own image as your avatar, which is a neat
little feature that a few sites are picking up on. I recently
increased their score to 5 because of the latest software update
which I thought was a great improvement in both function and
cosmetics.
In terms of new table customizations, you can resize any
Poker Stars
table window (or tile them)
to whatever size you desire. Next, they have new themes that allow
you to change the graphical theme to things like "Marine", "Stars"
which is my new personal favorite, "Saloon", and
"Renaissance". Each has their own
background imagery and colors or, if you'd rather, you can upload
your own image for the background.
Their hand history feature is
probably one of the best online and is easy to use. You're
able to see all hole cards that were in the showdown even if it was
mucked, which is useful if you're trying to get to know what types
of hands your opponents are playing. I also like the game speed of the
Poker Stars
software, which runs at a pretty quick pace.
US Payouts:
5/5
The main feeling I get from
Poker Stars is
professionalism, so they handle their payouts quickly and
consistently. This site is probably in the top 3 in terms of speed
of payouts. If you deposit via ePassporte, you instantly get any
amount up to your deposits credited back to your account. For funds over this
amount, they can credit your ePassporte account within a day or send out checks
via Fedex. Checks shouldn't take longer than a week to receive,
which is very fast in the current state of online poker.
Customer Service:
4.5/5
Again, I like sites that offer all forms
of customer service such as live chat and/or telephone support. Poker
Stars only offers e-mail service, which is why they don't earn the
top score. However, they seem to have plenty of reps waiting to
respond, so you'll usually get a response within a few minutes.
Player Traffic
With with help of never-ending WSOP
repeats on ESPN,
Poker Stars
has experienced continued growth for a long time and they're now the
largest online poker room in terms of active players. Peak hours
will sometimes bring in
100,000+ players, and
they've solidified a #1 ranking for player traffic by continuing to
allow US players. This is
actually one of the best reasons to play here, since you can find
multiple tables active at all limits (even high stakes) at all times
of the time. Tournament traffic is also the best online, with
several thousand players entering some events.
Best Features
 Excellent software. This should mean
that you won't get frustrated from slow game speed or
difficult-to-follow lobbies.
Professional service. They resolve
problems very quickly, and I've always been happy with their
professionalism.
Best tournament action online. This is
probably the best site to go with in terms of large tournaments
because of sheer volume.
Extremely busy ring game traffic up to
the highest limits. This is one reason that I continue to play here
- you can always find a few games going on at any limit so you have
greater choice in terms of game selection.
Game Selection: Hold 'em,
Omaha, Stud
Limits: Limit: 2c/4c up
to $100/$200 No-Limit: 1c/2c up to $5/$10
Deposit Methods:
NETeller, Firepay,
E-Checks, CentralCoin, major credit cards, cashier's checks, money orders.
This is another site that is catching on in terms of E-Checks, which
allow players to instantly fun their accounts directly through their
checking account.
Minimum Deposit:
$10
Tips: If you're a
tight-aggressive player, you'll probably take a liking to
Poker
Stars immediately. The reason is that you're going to run into a lot
less bad beats playing there. Of course, you won't eliminate them
altogether, but the play is generally tighter and players will be
less willing to draw. While you'll be very content to drag the pot
with your top pair, how do you extract a big pot out of these
players when you've got a real monster? I will tend to slowplay my
big hands a lot more often. I don't recommend doing this with an
obvious draw out there and more than a couple of opponents, but if
the board seems harmless you might want to take the chance.
Since
the play is tight at
Poker
Stars, you'll need to give your opponents a chance to
catch a decent hand for them to pay you off. Of course, you're also
running the risk of letting him crush you if your hand is vulnerable
to a draw so analyze your opponents and the board well before you
slowplay any hand.
Click here to
visit Poker Stars.
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