PokerStars Review
by
P5s Staff on 5/25/2007
00:40
Overview:
The most popular online poker site available, PokerStars regularly attracts over 100,000 players for you to compete with. Packed with the highest-stakes tournaments and a ton of cash games, PokerStars is one site you don’t want to miss.
How to Download:
Click here to download PokerStars. The site has downloadable clients for both the PC and Mac, so no one is left out in the cold. The lobby is extremely simple to navigate and you can sport your own personal avatar at the table. High stakes cash games and tournaments are available 24 hours a day.
Customer Service:
E-Mail: support@ultimatebet.com
PokerStars customer support is the best of any poker site I can name. I e-mailed a question about deposit options in the evening and received a response in just over an hour. It doesn’t get much quicker than that.
Marquee Tournaments:
PokerStars allows for skill to play a significant role in all o their tournaments. The "standard" tournament gives a player 1,500 chips. Blinds generally increase in 15 minute intervals. The blind structure is relatively slow – they typically do not double when they increase. More importantly, when you play in the marquee events on PokerStars, you’re playing in some of the largest prize pool tournaments available to poker players.
PokerStars Sunday Million
This is the granddaddy of all online poker tournaments. The Sunday Million guarantees – yes, guarantees – one million bucks every single week. The buy-in is $215, except for the last Sunday of every month, when it’s bumped up to $530. There is a strong satellite system in place to take advantage of with entries starting as low as $3. The Sunday Million kicks off at 4:15pm ET and regularly attracts over 7,000 players, meaning the prize pool often shatters the $1 million guarantee.
Sunday Warm-Up
If you’re looking to fine tune your poker game before the big Sunday Million, check out the $500,000 Guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up. Like the Sunday Million, the tournament sports a $215 buy-in with satellites starting as low as $3. The shuffle up and deal command is given at 12:45pm ET every Sunday.
Sunday Second Chance
If two high-stakes tournaments on Sunday aren’t enough for you, play in the Sunday Second Chance. This $200,000 guaranteed tournament starts at 6:30pm ET every Sunday, just a couple of hours after the Sunday Million begins. This tourney regularly attracts around 1,000 players, meaning there’s a lot of money to be had every Sunday on PokerStars.
Cash Games
If $200/$400 no limit or $1,000/$2,000 limit hold’em sounds attractive to you, check out the PokerStars cash game lobby. At the other end of the spectrum, you can make $5 last an eternity at the $0.02/$0.04 fixed limit table. Hold’em, Omaha, Stud, Razz, Triple Draw, HORSE, and HOSE cash games are available with high and low limits for each. There’s even old-fashioned five card draw available, with stakes as high as $30/$60 limit.
Major Promotions:
World Championship of Online Poker
The premier online poker series, the World Championship of Online Poker, or WCOOP, offers, hands down, the largest prize pools you will ever see in online poker. Recent prize pools have topped $7 million, making the WCOOP online poker’s version of the WSOP. Hold’em, Triple Draw, Razz, HORSE, and shoot out events make up the WCOOP. There are regular satellites held on PokerStars for the various events, so if coughing up a couple hundred bucks for a buy-in isn’t in the cards, try to satellite your way in.
PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, or PCA, is held each year at the Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas. It’s now a European Poker Tour event with an $8,000 buy-in that brings a veritable “who’s who” of online poker players. Just walk through the lobby and you’ll see online poker players everywhere battling it out on the virtual felts and then heading to the live tables for the PCA. The first place prize of the PCA has grown steadily, so make sure to mark the tournament, which usually occurs right after the New Year, on your calendar.
Frequent Player Points
Every time you play tournaments and cash games on PokerStars, you’ll earn Frequent Player Points, or FPPs, and then be eligible to cash them in for some extraordinary prizes. HDTV’s, Nintendos, digital cameras, and some of the hottest electronics items can be had for FPPs. Also available are buy-ins to PokerStars tournaments, gift certificates, and occasionally even a sports car. It’s amazing, but true. Check out the FPP Store on PokerStars for more details.
PocketFives.com, 2008