General – Established in 2001, Party Poker is one of the oldest running successful online poker rooms. The traffic at Party Poker has always been very high, but has dropped off a bit since they no longer allow US players. Party Poker runs a lot of great promotions for their players including the famous Party Poker Million. The Party Poker Million is a poker tournament held on a cruise ship, with last year’s prize pool over 7 million dollars. Party Poker does a good job of awarding their loyal players by giving them special points. Players will earn Party Poker points while playing real money games, which can go towards prizes or tournament entries.
Bonus – Party poker offers a 120% bonus up to $200. That means that new players depositing at Party Poker will receive a 120% match of their first deposit up to the maximum $200 in bonus money. The bonus will be released into the players account by playing raked hands. In order to release the bonus the player must play four times the amount of their bonus in raked hands. For example, if the player’s bonus was $100 they would have to play 400 raked hands ($100 x 4) before the bonus was added onto their account balance.
Competition – The competition level at Party Poker is weaker than a lot of the other big online poker rooms. Unlike most high traffic online poker rooms, most of the tables at Party are very loose. Low and medium limits are very profitable for the average player. The play gets better at the higher limits, of course, but is still not as strong as most rooms. Party Poker may be one of the best rooms to play at if you are looking for a weak field.
Software and Games – The software at Party Poker is absolutely great. The layout of the lobby makes it very easy to find exactly the type of game you are looking for. The graphics on the software, although classic, are pretty nice. One of the great things about the Party Poker software is that they also have a non-downloadable software. This works great for players who are not on their own computers. Many of the popular poker games are offered such as Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo. Players also have the choice between a full sized, shorthanded or heads up table when playing cash games.
Tournaments – Party Poker offers tournaments starting as low as one dollar all the way up to the higher stake tournaments. The most populated tournaments are the lower buy-in tournaments, which usually have very weak players entering them. Party has a variety of different types of tournaments which they run daily. As mentioned earlier, Party Poker holds a famous event called the Party Poker Million. Players have a chance to win a seat to the cruise ship tournament for as little as one dollar. They also hold a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool tournament weekly that is popular for the higher stakes players.
