AT A GLANCE
PokerStars is the largest online poker site now that PartyPoker has doffed its crown. PokerStars sports the most players and the biggest guaranteed tournaments. The site also sponsors some huge WSOP main event winners, including Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, and Joe Hachem. Until recently, poker personality Lee Jones also lent his delightful, competent poker room managerial skills to the site’s big events (his permanent replacement is unknown, as of this writing). Nevertheless, a support menber is always available in the chatbox of the final tables at such events to answer any questions and resolve issues that may arise.
| WEBSITE | PokerStars |
| ACCEPTING U.S. PLAYERS? | Yes |
| ESTABLISHED | 2000 |
| COUNTRY OF ORIGIN | Isle of Man |
| SIZE OF DOWNLOAD | 6.01 MB |
| SIZE ON COMPUTER | 43.9 MB |
SOFTWARE
The PokerStars software is well conceived and implemented. The software covers most of its bases in terms of customizability, efficiency, ease of use, and usefulness. Users can import their own images to be used as their personal avatar and can customize tables with the large set of downloadable themes PokerStars offers. The software even allows users to designate which table theme is used for each table or type of game, enabling easier differentiation between limit and no-limit games or cash games and tournaments. The software also features resizable tables. It even allows users to enlarge tables, which most other sites with resizing don’t. PokerStars' software is also unique in that it allows the resizing of its lobbies, both for its main lobby an for individual tournament lobbies. The table layout is attractive and all of the bet/pot-size numbers are prominently displayed.
Tournaments are well run at PokerStars. There is a wealth of information in the tournament lobby, including blind/payout structures, biggest/smallest/average stacks, running time, time until the next break, and total/current number of players. The entire blind/break structure is easily accessible from the tournament lobby. (It even goes as far as to indicate every instance where hand-for-hand play will commence.) PokerStars also allows deal-making for its larger tournaments.
The software does not have checkboxes for “Wait for next blind and auto-post” when entering a normal table or “sit out at next blind” when preparing to leave a table. (Those options do exist, but they are only present at speed tables on the site.) The table filtration system lacks a few organizational options like the ability to filter by a specific limit, opting instead to group limits into “micro,” “low,” “medium,” and “high.”
Tournaments are well run at PokerStars. There is a wealth of information in the tournament lobby, including blind/payout structures, biggest/smallest/average stacks, running time, time until the next break, and total/current number of players. The entire blind/break structure is easily accessible from the tournament lobby. (It even goes as far as to indicate every instance where hand-for-hand play will commence.) PokerStars also allows deal-making for its larger tournaments.
The software does not have checkboxes for “Wait for next blind and auto-post” when entering a normal table or “sit out at next blind” when preparing to leave a table. (Those options do exist, but they are only present at speed tables on the site.) The table filtration system lacks a few organizational options like the ability to filter by a specific limit, opting instead to group limits into “micro,” “low,” “medium,” and “high.”
TOURNAMENTS
Sit-and-go tournaments fill up quickly and are always available. Single-table tournaments fill up within a few minutes and even larger multi-table tournaments have players registering at a rapid pace. PokerStars offers massive 180-person sit-and-gos and has the traffic to fill them up relatively quickly. The guaranteed prize pool tournaments at PokerStars regularly go well beyond their guarantees and attract massive fields. PokerStars is also one of the few sites to have a good spread of non-hold’em tournaments, including a $215 H.O.R.S.E. tournament every Sunday.
CASH GAMES
The cash games fill up quickly and it takes mere seconds to find active tables with available seats. PokerStars has the widest array of poker variants currently available online. Hosting the most players also translates to having the greatest mix of novice and professional players at its tables.
FINANCIAL INFO
| PAYMENT OPTIONS | Visa, Mastercard, ePassporte, Diner’s Club International, Western Union, cashier’s check/money order, bank wire transfer |
| AUDITOR | Kahnawake Gaming Commission |
RAKE INFO
| NO-LIMIT | LIMIT | |
|---|---|---|
| MICRO | $0.05/$1 - Max $3 | $0.01/$0.20 - Max $0.10 |
| LOW | $0.05/$1 - Max $3 | $0.25/$5 - Max $1 |
| MEDIUM | $0.05/$1 - Max $3 | $1/$20 - Max $3 |
| HIGH | $0.05/$1 - Max $5 | $1/$20 - Max $3 |
GAME VARIETY
|
| STAKES: $0.01-$0.02 up to $1,000-$2,000 |
SUPPORT
| support@pokerstars.com | |
| PHONE | N/A |
| COMMENTS | Options for support include:
Response time:
Note: The support staff specified that their system allows for prioritization depending on the subject line. E-mails requesting the presence of support staff at a final table for deal-making purposes, for instance, would receive a rapid response. Such e-mails should have subject lines like “URGENT - Deal in T#33801519” to be considered appropriately. |
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Players can upload their own photos for their avatars.
- Support-assisted chops allowed at all final tables, although players must e-mail support to get them to the table.
- Annual World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) lets players join in on a relatively cheap, World Series of Poker-style tournament series with big prizes.
- VIP Loyalty Program
- One of the few sites to feature five-card draw, deuce-to-seven triple draw, H.O.R.S.E., and H.O.S.E.
PROMOTIONS
- World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP)
- Moneymaker Million
- PokerStars Caribbean Adventure