Online Poker > Online Poker Room Reviews > PokerStars
PokerStars is the world’s number one online poker room, famous as much for producing three of the last four WSOP champions, as for the quality of its site. Up until six months ago PokerStars was best known for its tournaments, which were indisputably the best on the Internet, but over recent months its popularity has surged so much that it is now the number one site for ring games as well. Read More...
Our Ratings
Promotions/Bonuses
| Sign-up Bonus |
$50 |
| Deposit Bonus |
100% |
| Referral Bonus |
$0 |
| Deposit free bonus |
$0 |
| Paid to play |
$0 per hour |
Graphics
As the world’s best poker room PokerStars has the graphics to match, along with a great feature that allows players to upload their own images to use as avatars. This is a nice personal touch, and makes for interesting (and often bizarre) looking tables, with an eclectic mix of often comical images of poker players in their bedrooms, people’s pets, the cars they wished they owned and so forth. Real value for money.
Playability
Table
PokerStars’ software is very good, and exceptionally reliable. As the Internet’s leading tournament poker room it is in this department that PokerStars particularly excels, with great gameplay features such as time banks (to stop people deliberately slowing down the game) and hand-for-hand play at the end of tournaments (which prevents short stacks playing slowly in an effort not to finish in the last non-paying places in multi-table tournaments). In addition PokerStars has all the usual toys like notepads for making notes on opponents and player statistics on your play (in fact PokerStars originated this tool).
Lobby
PokerStars’ lobby is extremely well-thought out and very easy to use. Unlike many sites, on PokerStars Fixed Limit, No-Limit/Pot-Limit, and Play Money games are listed under separate tabs, making searching for the game you want much easier. All in all a very well designed lobby.
Player Numbers
Ring
Excellent. PokerStars now hosts more real-money ring games than any other site in the world, with often over 15,000 real-money players online simultaneously.
Tournament
Exceptional. PokerStars has long been the Internet’s number one tournament poker.
Game Variety
Texas Hold’Em, Omaha High. Omaha High/Low, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud High/Low, Razz, 5 Card Draw, 2-7 Triple Draw, HORSE and HOSE.
PokerStars also have micro-limit tables which go as low as $0.01/$0.02 and have no rake – great for beginners. This is also one of the best sites for heads-up games.
Rake
Industry average - 5 percent up to a max of $1 in low limit and less in high limit games with a max of $3. In Pot and No-Limit poker the rake is a standard 5 percent up to a max of $3.
Special Tournaments
PokerStars undoubtedly has the greatest range of special tournaments on the Internet. It was the first site to offer a weekly tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million and the Sunday Million is now the biggest weekly tournament on the web. Besides the flagship PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (the final table of which is filmed for the World Poker Tour), there are regular qualifiers for entry into live tournaments including the European Poker Tour, the Aussie Millions, the World Poker Tour and the WSOP itself. There are loads of free rolls and loads of guaranteed pot tournaments. With buy-ins ranging from $0-$300, the daily tournaments on PokerStars offer something for players of all levels, and there are more of them here than anywhere else. Frankly – if there is a tournament that PokerStars don’t have, it’s not worth knowing about!
Promotions / Bonuses
Sign-up
100% up to $50
Loyalty
Poker Stars runs a Frequent Player Points (FPP) like many other sites. You earn FPP's by playing in raked games and you can use them to enter tournaments and to buy Poker Stars merchandise. There are also re-deposit bonuses.
Payment Options
Deposit
Deposits made via Maestro, Switch, Solo, ePassporte and non-US NETeller or Instant eChecks will be credited back to the same deposit method up to the amount purchased. Some European VISA deposits will also receive credits.
Any additional amount can be paid via check (multiple currencies available). Players who have previously deposited with ePassporte, non-US NETeller, non-US Instant eCheck, or a qualifying VISA may also choose these methods to receive funds.
Withdrawal
NETeller. Firepay. CentralCoin. Debit Card and Check.
About Poker Stars
Poker Stars was founded in 2001 by ex-IBM programmer Isai Scheinberg and quickly grew to become the world's second biggest online poker site overall and the market leader for online poker tournaments.
Poker Stars has over 3.5 million registered users and to date has dealt over 3 billion hands. It was the first site to introduce multi-table tournaments. integrated game statistics. players' notes. personalized images. time bank for tournaments and ring big bet games. satellite tournaments and multi-table sit and go tournaments.
The Scheinberg family. who are thought to own around 75 percent of Poker Stars. are currently looking to sell the company at a price exceeding $2 billion.