Online Poker > Online Poker Room Reviews > Party Poker Review
Party Poker is the biggest online poker room in the world, by a long long way. There are more players on Party Poker than on any other site, meaning there are always countless games going on. both in the tournament and ring sector. Party Poker is the market leader for the online poker industry with some of the most reliable software around, and it offers some of the best promotions and special tournaments around. In addition, because of its heavy emphasis on advertising, Party Poker has lots of new players, meaning lots of easy games! 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
Party Poker's graphics are ok. There are prettier sites out there. but on the plus side Party Poker has avatars (figures representing players) which many other sites do not and they give a good feel to the game play. Also the table appearance is very uncluttered. with lucid colours and a clear picture.
Playability
Table
Party Poker announced recently that they will be making changes to their software. Although the current software is pretty good. particularly in terms of reliability. there are certainly areas which ought to be addressed. There are no statistics available for your play. for example. even off-table. which is very a useful feature that most other sites offer. This will certainly need to be introduced. However. on the plus side general playability is good and multi-table play is easy.
Lobby
Party Poker's lobby is not the best. and again should benefit from the promised improvements. The present lobby area looks cluttered and rather cheap. even though it is actually quite easy to use. Obvious by their absence are figures for view flop percentages and hands per/hour for ring tables. This makes it harder to find easy games. although loose players may view this as a positive (because their games are in effect hidden from view).
Player Numbers
Ring
Party Poker is by far the biggest online poker room worldwide and has an unparalleled number of players. Real money ring player numbers often tops 14.000.
Tournament
As above. traffic often peaks at over 28.000 real money players and Party Poker's only close challenger for tournament traffic is PokerStars.com.
Game Variety
Texas Hold'em. Omaha and 7-Card-Stud in both High and Hi-Lo. There are sites that offer greater game variety but Party Poker concentrates on its core games to provide quality in the games it does offer.
Rake
There are lower rakes out there in the online poker world. players in Party Poker's low limit games in particular suffer. with the rake reaching 10 percent. And in $5 tournaments the rake is 20 percent. However the higher stake/limit games see a far lower percentage rake.
Special Tournaments
Party Poker is famous for its special tournaments. the most well known of which is the flagship annual PartyPoker.com Million (offering. as the name implies. a million dollar first prize). There are also regular free rolls. qualifiers and guaranteed prize fund tournaments. more than almost any other site bar PokerStars.com.
Promotions / Bonuses
Sign-up
There are a variety of sign-up bonuses offered. With a deposit of $50 you can get $25 added on or you can get 20 percent of what you deposit up to $100. Alternatively you can get a ticket worth $33 to a Party Poker Million qualifier.
Loyalty
Party Points earned from playing in raked games can be used to enter tournaments.
Payment Options
Deposit
VISA. MasterCard. Diners Club. Debit Card (Switch. Maestro. Solo). FPS ePassport. Entropay. NETeller. Money Transfer. Bank Transfer. Wire Transfer. Moneybookers.
Withdrawal
VISA. Debit Card (Switch. Maestro. Solo). FPS ePassport. NETeller. Check (by mail or premium deliverer). Wire Transfer. and Moneybookers.
Software/Mac Compatible
Not yet. and Party Poker don't plan on building a Mac compatible version anytime soon either. If you've got a Mac our advice is go play on PokerRoom.com or Pacific Poker.
Unique to this Site?
The sheer number of players who use it and the annual PartyPoker.com Million tournament.
About Party Poker
Party Poker was launched in 2001 and quickly became the world's biggest online poker site. dwarfing its competitors in terms of profits and player numbers. Party Poker attributes much of its success to its flagship PartyPoker.com Million poker tournament. which has grown so large that for the 2005 instalment the company had to charter an entire cruise ship to accommodate it.
Party Poker has made numerous headlines over the past six months or so. the floatation of Party Gaming (the company which operates PartyPoker.com) in the summer of 2005 was a worldwide sensation. netting the three owners billions of dollars.
And more recently the company's actions in shedding its skin sites and the ensuing law suit with Empire Poker have been grabbing the newspaper headlines.
Party Gaming issued profit warnings in the latter part of 2005 on behalf of PartyPoker.com and the company's enormous influence on the online gaming industry was evident for all to see as the announcement crippled gaming stocks worldwide. But recent changes to PartyPoker.com that accompanied the shedding of its skins. especially the introduction of online blackjack to the poker tables. have boosted company profits. causing an upward surge in the share value. and leaving the company looking healthy for the coming years.