Best Online Poker Room is?...

[paulpop]

Hi all,

I have been playing at Pacific Poker but am looking into Poker Stars and Paradise. Any one have any good or bad experiences to share about playing online poker?

I also have heard PartyPoker.com is a little too amateurish. Any thoughts?

Thanks!


Regards,
Paul

[bpb]

Hi all,

I have been playing at Pacific Poker but am looking into Poker Stars and Paradise. Any one have any good or bad experiences to share about playing online poker?

I also have heard PartyPoker.com is a little too amateurish. Any thoughts?

Thanks!


Regards,
Paul

If by "amateurish", you mean there are a ton of players there who hate money and will gladly throw it at you, you're dead on.

Stars, Paradise, and Party are all great sites. I would recommend opening an account on each. Good software, fast cashouts, and lots of tables. You might try UltimateBet also. These are the top 4 players in the industry ... stick with them and you won't have any issues.

[buck]

Hi all,

I have been playing at Pacific Poker but am looking into Poker Stars and Paradise. Any one have any good or bad experiences to share about playing online poker?

I also have heard PartyPoker.com is a little too amateurish. Any thoughts?

Thanks!


Regards,
Paul

Paul,

Pacific Poker is very similiar to PartyPoker in the following. Paradise and Ultimate have very good playes compared to the mass following at Pacific and Party, but it depends were you play PL, NL, Kill etc.

Buck

[Mugwump]

I guess it depends on what you're looking for. Pacific Poker easily has the craziest games on the .net, Party Poker isn't far behind though.

If you're looking for tougher competition, Paradise, PokerStars and Ultimate Bet all have a following of decent players. Don't expect to win the type of money you can win at Pacific Poker though.

You might try www.pokerroom.com too, its somewhere in between the two extremes.

[pokeraddict]

Pacific probably has the best games for one reason, the terrible software. Many online pros (myself included) will not play there. You only get 40-50 hands per hour and can only play one table. On top of that the rake is terrible. I even have heard they rake uncalled bets now. Since pros that can tolerate the site can only play one table it helps with the overall quality of the games. Everything else sucks. The rake, cashout times, software and support are all far well below the industry standard IMO.

As far as Party goes I feel it is the best. The software is above average. It has several features and they offer just about monthly reloads. If you sign up under all the skins you will get 3-4 reload offers a month and the quality of games is almost as good as Pacific. Plus virtually every skin has affiliates offering rake rebates.

Pokerstars does not have a signup bonus, the only room that I know of that does not. They do however have reload bonuses every 2 months or so. I would wait until one of these to deposit. The games at stars are much tougher then most sites. The software is above average is quality. The rake is the most player friendly on the internet.

Paradise has more fish and good software. They have a decent first time deposit bonus. The rake is almost as friendly as Pokerstars but not quite.

Prima has a lot of fish and is a large room, the software gets very mixed reviews though. You will find several Prima rooms offered at www.casinomeister-poker.com and I would also look into Ultimate Bet while I was there.

One last room worthy of mentioning is Absolute, the software is below average but they have just about weekly reload bonuses and the games $1/$2 or below are full of fish. $2/$4+ game quality tends to vary greatly so game selection is key.

By far I prefer Party Poker and all the skins.

[YuraK]

I would mention Cryptologic too. Average software, but nice monthly bonuses even without additional deposits. The only thing that really sucks (at least for me) is absence of all-in protection .

[paul02085]

Party is best mainly due to lots of amateurs.

[paul1]

I would mention Cryptologic too. Average software, but nice monthly bonuses even without additional deposits. The only thing that really sucks (at least for me) is absence of all-in protection .

I remember when I first noticed this, maybe nine months or so ago. Ha! I kept emailing Support to reset my all-ins. To no avail. It finally occured to me that there was no longer all-in protection. I think there used to be.

One day in 7-card stud I started with KK. My opponent caught AA on 4th and 5th Street. All of a sudden, he paused, and paused, and MUCKED!
Now I don't really like to win like that, but I did not give the money back.

Anyway, I might add that Paradise is like that too now. They switched over maybe five or six months ago.

So, due to the hassle of all-in abuse, we may see the day when they ALL get rid of all-in protection. Get a fast computer, and get DSL. That's all I can say. What can you do?

[paul1]

I would mention Cryptologic too. Average software, but nice monthly bonuses even without additional deposits. The only thing that really sucks (at least for me) is absence of all-in protection .

Oh, and by the way, I noticed Sun Poker (Carribean Sun) just changed their $40 bonus requirements from 250 hands to 500 hands. No wonder it took me so long this month. I kept scratching my head wondering what was taking so long.

Anyway, that kinda sucks.

[paul1]

Pacific probably has the best games for one reason, the terrible software. Many online pros (myself included) will not play there. You only get 40-50 hands per hour and can only play one table. On top of that the rake is terrible. I even have heard they rake uncalled bets now.

You sure know a lot about this stuff. You must be a poker.....addict!

So I have heard about the great action at Pacific but have not joined. I don't think you can watch the games unless you sign up. So let me ask you a couple questions. You mention 40-50 hands an hour. Is that ring? Do they have shorthanded? I play shorthanded almost exclusively. If they have shorthanded, how many hands does that get, Poker Addict?

And are you saying, that, say a pot is at $38 and a bet is made which prompts everyone else to fold, does that final bet count to put it over $40 and thus drop another dollar? If so, that kinda sucks.

One more question, do they have bigger games, $5-10 and up?

And one more question. They apparently count your "total wagering" instead of raked pots involved in. So if I take the big and small blinds in a 5-10 game, and muck my hands to a raise, does that count for $7 of wagering? Is that how they do it?

Sounds like they need to catch up with the rest of the industry. But it is interesting that, as you said, the irritation to pros keeps them away and leaves an abundance of fish.

Very good coverage of poker issues by you, Poker Addict. I thank you and I'm sure I speak for others that we appreciate your knowledge and experience.