Party Poker Review
The software comes highly rated, with a navigable main lobby, male and female avatars, displayed screen names, chip amounts, and a four-colored deck for easy reading. Two notable features include the “Average Pot” function which is used to select a loose or tight table according to preference, and an “Auto-Post Blind” button to ensure players do not miss posting a blind. Players also have the option of speeding up games by clicking on the “Fold to Any Bet” button. They can also see hand histories through email or downloaded. A healthy choice of Limit, No Limit and Pot limit Texas Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo , seven card Stud, and Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo games is available. The upper limit for Hold’em ranges from $30 - $60, six higher limit tables available. The lower limit ranges from $0.50 - $1. A $1000, $600, $400, $200, $100, $50, and $25 NL tables are also available. Multi-table and single table tournaments are in good variety and come in two types, regular and special. Regular tables mostly host Hold’em and a couple of Limit events and Seven-Card Stud tournaments. Buy-ins can be a slow as $5 or as much as $100. Speed Tournaments, special satellites to the bigger Party Poker tournaments such as the Million Dollar Guaranteed and WPT events, are held as well. The start-up bonus is a 20% sign up, along with a reload bonuses of 20% with a limit of o $200. Players must deposit 1000 to get $200 and play seven times the amount of the bonus in raked hands in order to be eligible to claim it. All new money players can play in a $5,000 New Player Freeroll promotion as well. A Player’s Club allowing accumulated points based hands played and number of tournaments entered works as a means of rewarding loyalty. The points can be put toward site merchandise or for various Player’s Club Freeroll tournaments. Bonus points can also be earned for depositing extra funds or playing raked hands for 20 or more days in a month. Competition on the Party Poker is not strong. Middle levels are soft, making for a good area for profit for the smart player. The site allows players to play more than one table at a time, a feature many smarter players take advantage of. Customer service is generally fair or lower. There is a 24 Hour Live Help Chat, but it is problematic. Email support is offered but often takes a number of requests to get a reasonable response. This sometimes results in the need for telephone support. The staff responds well, but high traffic is an issue that affects the quality of their service. The site, while relatively huge, is really only still growing. Real-money traffic statistics for November 2008 have 9,500 ring-game players and 60,000 tournaments at peak times. With recent software improvements and loose games, the site is attractive to a wide variety of recreational and serious money players alike.
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