Home / Online Poker Short Reviews / Party Poker
Updated
Wed, 2008-02-20 05:07
Party Poker
Review
Poker room score
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Deposit Bonus:
30% up to $150
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About Party Poker
Party Poker used to be the biggest online poker room in the world. Their policy not to accept U.S. players after the 2006 UIGEA has been passed, cost them dearly though. Much of their player base migrated to poker rooms many of which have since become as big or possibly bigger than Party Poker. Despite the loss, PP still gets an astonishingly big traffic with about 9,000 players at their cash game tables and a further 60,000 at their tournament ones.
After the drop in player numbers Party Poker has experienced as a result of the above mentioned anti-poker law, rumors about their notoriously rich fish-pool drying up have surfaced. The quality of opposition on Party Poker is still relatively good though, because the Party brand includes other gambling venues as well and casino players are not exactly tight poker players as we all know. Rest assured, there is still good value in Party Poker games.
Party Poker Poker Software
As most of the bigger poker rooms, Party Poker is an independent operation too. That doesn’t only mean that they respond to no one about the actions they undertake, it also means that their software is their own in-house creation. While graphically it’s not exactly a top-notch piece of work, it is very stable, well capable of handling large player numbers and provides all of the features poker players deem necessary these days.
The lobby filters make it easy to seek out tables with the exact features one prefers, animations and avatars can be turned off and on to provide a speed-boost on weaker machines or in case someone is multi-tabling.
Multi tabling has recently been made more player-friendly with the addition of resizable tables and other features to facilitate this low stakes money-making method.
The software has also been made available in a “Play anywhere” version, which is basically a smaller no-download version of their client which is a tad slower than the full version though and it’s missing a few features. All in all, I suppose it’s safe to state the Party software is not likely to cause you any trouble or to negatively affect the play experience in any way.
Party Poker Promotions and Best Bonus
Party Poker plays host to some of the most interesting, not to mention high-profile and generous promotions ever. Their Party Poker.com Million VI promotion takes players on a high-stakes Mediterranean cruise, which covers some of the most beautiful destinations in several countries. You won’t need to pretend you’re a high roller either. If you make it to the cruise (to which Party Poker runs regular qualifiers) you’ll be a genuine high-roller.
Their bad beat jackpot turns extreme bad luck into god luck as it rewards players who lose on a hand bigger than four eights. Mind you however that the Bad Beat Jackpot tables feature a bigger than usual rake. This is how they generate the extra money into the jackpot. In case someone wins, (that is loses on a high hand) all other players who participate in the hand are rewarded as well.
The first deposit bonus at Party Poker is a 20% match on your first deposit up to a maximum of $100. It is easy to unlock too, every dollar of the bonus only takes 5 raked hands to be unlocked.
Party Poker Tournaments
Even though it is not officially THE destination for online poker tournaments, Party Poker still plays host to some pretty interesting MTTs and STTs. They categorize their own tournaments into special ones and regular ones.
Regular poker tourneys are the ones that run all day long with set buy-ins and fees, and set prize pools depending on the number of participating players and the amount of money resulting from the buy-ins.
Such tournaments run on every poker site, and Party Poker features them for a range of buy-ins as well. From $5 to $100 players can duke it out for smaller or larger prizes.
These regular tourneys are usually NL Texas Holdem games, although some FL ones also take place as well as Stud tourneys.
The special tournaments are satellites and qualifiers for bigger – possibly live – events.
Their Hellkat tournaments represent a unique feature at Party Poker. Aware of the fact that sometimes tourneys might take just too long to conclude, people responsible with customer relations at Party have come up with the idea of time-limited tourneys. Hellkat tournaments are limited to 5, 10 or 15 minutes. When time runs out, the chip-leader is declared the winner, second and third places being also determined by the chip count.
Party Poker Special Offers
The above mentioned Hellkat tourneys are one of the “house specialties” at Party Poker. There are Hellkat variants in which players do not even know for certain when the game ends. This adds an element of suspense to the whole setup, as players struggle to win every hand in order to secure the chip lead for the finish line. Their Mediterranean cruise event is also the only one of its kind, and the fact that it’s still one of the biggest online poker rooms in the world makes for a pretty unique play experience.
Other special Party Poker features are: the unique Party Account. A single account is valid for the poker room, the online casino, Party Bets, bingo and gammon as well.
Comp points earned are also compatible with each of the above named sections.
Being one of the top poker rooms on the internet, Party Poker is always responsible for some sort of unique and quite unparalleled event.
Party Poker Do Not Accept US Players
Party Poker does not currently accept US players. The company decided to withdraw from the U.S market as soon as it became obvious that the apparent nonsense that the UIGEA was, would be passed.
This move cost them all their American players, which pretty much ended their reign as the world’s undisputedly biggest poker room. How much the whole affair cost Party Poker is anybody’s guess, but one thing is certain: they do not look like they intend to reenter the US market any time soon. Nowadays, Party Poker’s promotions are all targeted towards a predominantly European clientele, such as the $50K Nordic freeroll.
We recommend US players to play poker at
Full Tilt Poker
Party Poker Support
The popularity that Party Poker is still enjoying sometimes leads to some quite embarrassing situations support-wise. Even though the staff is knowledgeable and friendly too, they are obviously overwhelmed by the task laid upon them.
Party Poker does feature a live support system however it simply doesn’t work sometimes. The email support needs several messages to get moving and just about the only way to get a fast and efficient solution to a problem is to place a phone call and talk to a live person.
Popularity comes at a cost, and it looks like – in Party Poker’s case – the support system is the one to pay the highest price.