Pokerstars Review

PokerStars is home to more poker players than any other poker site in the world. The player traffic here is simply outstanding; you can log in any time and see about 200,000 other players logged in as well. This player traffic is PokerStars’ greatest strength because it creates more cash game action and tournament selection than any other poker room.

PokerStars is known mostly for its tournament action. They hold countless tournaments of all types every day and have sent tons of players to the World Series of Poker through satellite tournaments. Multiple Main Event winners got their start by playing online at PokerStars. The cash game scene is not quite as popping but there are still plenty of cash games at a wide range of stakes.

PokerStars Bonus

If you are new to PokerStars, you can get a 100% bonuses (up to $600) added to your first deposit there. All you have to do to get this bonus is sign up for an account, make a deposit and play poker. When you sign up use the following codes to claim your bonus:

Bonus Code: Stars600

The bonus will then automatically be applied to your account when you make your deposit. In the beginning, the bonus money will be placed in a special pending bonus account. The money will then be released to your real money account by playing in real money games and earning VIP Player Points (VPPs).

VPPs are basically the same thing as frequent player points at other sites. These are used to reward loyal players and provide an incentive to play at PokerStars. With the deposit bonus, you will need to earn a total of 17 times the bonus amount in VPPs. For every dollar you pay in tournament fees, you earn 5.5 VPPs. For every dollar you pay in rake in cash games, you earn 6 VPPs. The bonus is released in $10 increments every time you earn 170 VPPs.

PokerStars Tournaments

PokerStars is the undisputed king of online poker tournaments. Thousands of tournaments are held every day, including MTTs, SNGs, satellites, rebuys, turbos, large prize pool guarantees, shorthanded tourneys, heads up tourneys and much more. The selection is almost endless and offers something for everyone. You can play in anything from small freeroll tournaments on up to the weekly $1,500,000 guaranteed Sunday Million.

It’s hard to fully explain how comprehensive the tournament scene is at PokerStars. No matter what type of tournaments you like to play, whether it be any variation of Texas Holdem, Omaha, 7 Card Stud, mixed poker or anything else, you can find it here. On top of all that, no other poker site has sent more players to the World Series of Poker than PokerStars.

PokerStars Competition

The difficulty of competition at PokerStars is difficult to gauge because there are so many players. You’ll find an unlimited supply of fish at the lower levels but can also run into some extremely skilled professionals at the higher limits. It all depends on what stakes you play and what kind of games you play in.

The softest games are always going to be the low stakes Texas Holdem tournaments. Cash games are soft at low stakes but quickly get tough as you move up in levels. Every once in a while, you’ll run across the lucky player who won a big tournament and wants to blow a little cash in the high stakes cash games. The main thing to keep in mind is that there are so many tables to choose from that you can always find a good table with a little effort.

PokerStars Software

The PokerStars software is easy to use and free of errors but it doesn’t go above and beyond the call of duty in any way. There are a few nice features such as player notes, filters for the games list, custom avatar pictures and so on. The easiest way to summarize the PokerStars software is that it gets the job done with no frills or fuss.

It feels like the animations are a little slow and choppy at PokerStars in comparison to some other poker sites. Once you get used to it, though, you won’t even notice. The quality of games and promotions at PokerStars more than make up for its unexceptional software.

PokerStars Deposit Options

One of the reasons PokerStars has been able to maintain its lead in the online poker industry is its huge selection of easy to use deposit options. There are tons of deposit options that are open to players from all over the world. Players from the United States are a little limited in deposit methods but it’s still easy to deposit at PokerStars.

A few of PokerStars’ deposit options include instant eChecks, Visa, MasterCard, Neteller, Moneybookers, Click2Pay, ClickandBuy and Instadebit. There are even more international deposit options but these are among the most widely used. You can always find the full list of deposit options by logging in and visiting the cashier.

PokerStars Support

The biggest weakness of PokerStars is its customer support contact options. The only way to contact someone at PokerStars is to send them an e-mail or fill out a contact form from within the PokerStars software. The good news is that they respond quickly and intelligently when you need help. But still, it would be a lot nicer if PokerStars offered live phone support.

Visit PokerStars to claim your $600 bonus.