Online Poker > Online Poker Room Reviews > Empire Poker Review
Empire Poker is one of the best known online poker rooms in the world. and it has the reliable software and financial security you would expect from a top organisation. Empire is also one of the most advertised poker sites; as a consequence the site has a reputation for loose games where money can be made easily. Read More...
Our Ratings
Promotions/Bonuses
| Sign-up Bonus |
$100 |
| Deposit Bonus |
20% |
| Referral Bonus |
$50 per friend |
| Deposit free bonus |
$0 |
| Paid to play |
$0 per hour |
Graphics
Since April 6th Empire has (once again) been a skin of PartyPoker and now looks identical to Party. only in a different colour. The graphics are much improved since the assimilation. as is the overall package. Like Party. Empire features good avatars modelled on human poker players. giving the tables a more ‘real life’ feel than some other sites.
Playability
Table
Empire Poker joined PartyPoker’s new platform on April 6th 2006 and has benefited enormously from the change. Among the changes has been the addition of note-taking software (for keeping tabs on your opponents). which is one of the most important tools for improving your play. And for the gambler in all of us there is now a side betting bar offering bets on the colour of the flop and on-table blackjack.
Lobby
Empire Poker’s lobby is also much improved: for a start it looks much better – the old lobby looked cheap and tacky. There are lots of additional features but the most important change is that there are now players per flop percentages displayed for each table. helping you to see where the loose/tight tables are.
Player Numbers
Ring
Exceptional! Now Empire is a PartyPoker skin again the two rooms share their player base. meaning Empire players have access to the biggest network on the internet. Real-money ring player number often peak at over 17.000.
Tournament
Empire’s tournament traffic is also back on track now. often peaking at an extraordinary 200.000 real-money players!
Game Variety
Hold’em. Omaha. Omaha Hi/Lo. Seven Card Stud. Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo. This is a pretty good selection. better than some. not as good as others.
Rake
As per PartyPoker. Empire’s rake is bad for low limit and good for high limit games: up to 10% in $0.50/$1 and $1/$2 games (most other sites are 5%). In low level tournaments the rake is especially bad – in $5 tournaments the rake ($1) is 20 percent of the buy-in. Thankfully this doesn’t continue into the bigger games. where the rake is never higher than 10 percent – which is the industry average for tournaments.
Special Tournaments
Empire runs five free roll tournaments per day totalling $1.600 of free money. There are lots of guaranteed pot tournaments. including a monthly $200.000 guaranteed pot tournament held on the last Sunday of each month. And there is the ‘Happy Hours’ promotion when $1 will buy a seat in a tournament with $10.000 guaranteed.
Promotions / Bonuses
Sign-up
20% deposit match up to $100.
Loyalty
Empire Poker runs promotions for frequent players based on raked hands called the VIP club. You accumulate points for every real-money hand you play in. points can then be used for free entry into tournaments or used to buy items from the Empire Poker gift shop. The site also runs a ‘refer a friend’ promotion - $50 to referrer and $25 to new player.
Payment Options
Deposit
VISA. MasterCard. Debit Card (Switch. Maestro. Solo). epassport. NETeller. eChecks. Bank Transfer. Wire Transfer. Citadel.
Withdrawal
EChecks. NETeller. wire transfer and check.
About Empire Poker
Empire Poker has a pretty interesting history; we’ll do the best we can to condense it for you.
Empire Poker is part of the online gaming company Empire Online. which was founded by Israeli businessman Noam Lanir. Empire Poker began life as part of the PartyGaming poker network. That meant that Empire Poker used exactly the same software as PartyPoker.com and other sites in the network. such as Multipoker.com. In addition. all sites shared the same player base. meaning players using Empire Poker had access to the biggest player base on the Internet.
However in October 2005 PartyGaming “shed its skins” separating PartyPoker.com (and crucially its player base) from the other sites. This had a detrimental effect on Empire Poker - the reduced player base meant there were fewer games available and the move drastically affected Empire’s market value. By February 2005 Empire’s share value had halved since the company floated in June.
Noam Lanir. outraged with PartyGaming’s behaviour. decided to start a legal action against them. demanding a vast sum of money in compensation.
Then in February 2006 the saga finally came to an end. when PartyGaming offered to buy Empire Poker for $250 million. and Empire Online accepted.
Initially the two poker rooms still operated on separate platforms (Empire still used the old PartyPoker platform) but on April 6th 2006 the final piece of the jigsaw came together when PartyGaming assimilated Empire Poker into the new PartyPoker platform.
All in all. despite its past problems. Empire Poker is regarded as one of the top internet poker sites. all the more so since it re-joined PartyGaming.