100% Initial Deposit Up to $500 -- Use Bonus: FTR500B
Nuts (Good): A first deposit bonus of up to $500 that's easy to qualify for. A quality points system, with a series of VIP levels. One of the largest player bases around. A vast array of deposit methods.
Beats (Bad): The rake taken for Sit & Go's is on the high side.
PartyPoker is perhaps the most recognizable poker brand in the world. Formerly the top poker room for traffic, their numbers have slipped of late. This decrease in player base is largely due to the legislation introduced by the American government prohibiting online gambling. This resulted in Party Poker withdrawing it's services to customers in the U.S. Despite recent setbacks Party Poker is still home to one of the largest and most varied poker communities on the Internet.
Software and Interface/Usability
The lobby for PartyPoker is simple and functional, devoid of any unnecessary whistles and bells. However, despite its simplicity, the layout can feel crowded and cluttered at times. The lack of an option to resize or customize the lobby means that the problem will be ever-present. One useful feature is the personal account display which appears on the left hand side of the screen. This displays your balance and points total and can be refreshed at the click of a button.
The table lists are organized, as with many poker rooms, by the use of tabs. Clicking on the '+' sign will expand your selected tab and allow you to further refine the list of tables. More complex filters can also be applied to the search will relative ease. Players accustomed to either 10 player full ring games or 6-max shorthanded tables will not have to make any sacrifices, with both styles of table available for every game. One glaring omission is the lack of any heads up games for either Sit & Go's or Cash Games.
The tables themselves are built upon a very firm framework and are not prone to errors of mistakes. Each seat has an inbuilt avatar that can be easily disabled via the options, although customizing the look of the table does not extend much further than this. Downloadable skins are available which will alter the background and card designs, but that's as far as things go. The tables themselves are fully resizable, a feature which Party Poker have supported longer than almost any other poker room.
The software engineers at PartyPoker have obviously opted for stability over originality. As a result the only other interesting features that the software provides are a buddy list, so that you can keep track of what tables the juiciest fish are on and a list of your favourite tournaments.
The tempo of play is also fairly standard, although things do pick up from time to time. Serious players will be pleased to know that hand history files are savable to your computer as well as available via email upon request.
Game Types, Action, and Difficulty
Cash Games PartyPoker offer No Limit & Pot Limit Hold 'em, Limit & Pot Limit Omaha and 7 Card Stud - all for cash game play. Unsurprisingly No Limit Hold 'em dominates the scene, with tables for all levels readily available anytime. Omaha and Stud have a healthy following on this software, although you may struggle to find a table beyond the low to mid stakes.
Special jackpot tables are available, but these should be avoided. In return for the chance to win a special prize you are forced to pay a higher rake per hand. The hike in fees will very quickly cut into your profits.
Sit and Go's
Well known as one of the best rooms around as far as Sit & Go play is concerned, the discerning player will find a multitude of different tournaments available. The most popular buy-ins are between $11 and $33 but can reach as high as $109.
Five table Sit & Go's are available, but are not nearly as popular as the single table variety. Buy in's tend to peak at $33, contributing to Party Poker's reputation as the place to be for mid stakes SnG's.
Mutli-Table Tournaments
Although not as popular as the Sit & Go scene, the MTT's at PartyPoker still manage healthy turnouts. There are many guaranteed prize pool events throughout the day, ranging from $1 buy-in with $1000 guaranteed right up to the Super Saturday $300 + $20 with $50,000 guaranteed. Those looking for the best value for their money should seek out the weekly Sunday tournament which has a huge $300,000 guaranteed prize pool and a $215 buy-in. Freerolls are also on offer, some exclusively for new players.
Fields for these tournaments are of a decent size. The standard daily tournaments range from 500-600 players at the lower stakes, up to around 150 players at the high end. As you might expect, the big weekly event on Sunday attracts a significantly larger field - somewhere in the region of 1500 competitors. The freerolls are even more of a draw, coming in as high as 5000 players.
A number of larger special events are also held throughout the year as well as satellites to both online and live tournaments. The highlight of the year is the WPT PartyPoker.com Million. Held on a cruise ship, it is one of the most prestigious WPT events and a host of satellites offer the chance for inexpensive entry.
Player Base and Action
As previously mentioned, while it was once the industry leader, things have slowed in recent times. Despite having slipped a few places in the traffic counts PartyPoker is still one of the worlds most popular poker rooms. This is no doubt aided by the host of different languages in which there software is available. Players looking for any type of game will almost never have any trouble finding what they are looking for, with thousands upon thousands of tables running at any one time.
Bonus and Loyalty Program
In order to reward players for their custom PartyPoker offer Party Points to users on their site. Anyone who has played online poker will be familiar with loyalty point systems, but they may not be familiar with the particular way in which Party Poker calculate how many points they distribute. The amount you receive is dependent on the number of raked hands you play in a month. For every 20 hands that you play you will be awarded points. This amount is then adjusted to give a greater reward to those who play at higher stakes.
For example: after 20 hands in a $0.50 - $1.00 No Limit Hold 'Em game you will earn 5 points. Whereas after the same number of hands in a $5 - $10 game you would receive 16 points.
Points earned can be used to gain entry to special tournaments, freerolls or just converted straight into cash. Those looking to hoard points over a long period of time will need to bear in mind that any points earned will expire 180 days after they are acquired.
New players are offered a 100% bonus on their first deposit, up to $500. A deposit of at least $25 is required and you have 90 days in which to claim your bonus dollars. In order to claim your full bonus you have to earn points equal to twice the amount you deposited. So if you had deposited $25, in order to earn another free $25 you would have to have earned 50 Party Points. Don't worry if you think you won't be able to reach the full amount as your bonus is transferred to your account incrementally as you approach 10%
If you leave your account idle for sometime you may well be contacted with a reload bonus offer. These will most likely arrive via email, for more information on these and other bonuses click here (http://www.flopturnriver.com/empire-poker-signup-bonus.html).
Technical Support
PartyPoker runs a serviceable support desk, emails are usually dealt with within 4 hours and if you can find a phone then there will be a toll free support number you can call from it. The email help is also available 24/7.
Email: info@partypoker.com
Phone: 00-800-7789-7537 (Europe and Australia), 1-866-848-7537 (Canada), +1-866-848-7537 (All other countries)
