I’m starting this review of PokerStars off by saying this is one of the top online poker rooms without question. And keep in mind that PokerStars is a U.S. (United States) friendly room (open and legal for American players!)
Tournaments and Player Skill Levels
Poker Stars limit games begin with micro limits of $0.02/$0.04 up to $100/$200. No Limit Texas Holdem limits begin at $0.01/$0.02 and $1 buy in games through to $10/$20 blinds, $400 buyin games. They have Sit-N-Go’s (SNG’s) that go from $5-$5000 buy-in’s and from 1-3 poker tables. Tournaments range from just a $1 buy-in to $350 $500,000 guaranteed buy-in’s. They also have satellites and freerolls. They also host many qualifiers to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the World Poker Tour (WPT).
Keep in mind that at the ring tables at the mid to high limits, the poker playing ability of the other players at PokerStars will be pretty high. Don’t like the high difficulty scare you away, this will actually improve your game in the long run and make you a tougher, more resilient, experienced, and an overall better poker player. The fish factor (beginners at poker) is pretty high at tournaments and Sit-N-Go’s though - you’ll find many that are poker beginners and novices. The increased volume of PokerStars, plus the everpresent WSOP winners that come from PokerStars means lots of fish coming in. Poker Stars can often have over 60,000 players playing at 10,000 poker tables at any one time. Average poker player numbers always reach the tens of thousands.
Games Available
No Limit Texas Holdem, Limit/Pot Limit/Fixed Limit Texas Hold’em, Omaha Hi Lo, Seven Card Stud, Stud Hi Lo, Five Card Draw and Razz.
Security and Software
After playing for a week or so on PokerStars after you download their software, you begin to notice the everpresent “Please wait while we upgrade your software.” This is a good thing. Most sites only update their poker software every few months. PokerStars releases updates for their software on a regular basis which means that their software security team is hard at work in ensuring you’re going to have a safe time at their poker rooms. Less chances of cheating and software bugs that can ruin your poker playing experience. I have yet to find any software bugs in their poker software - these guys must patch bugs the second the come up! The look of the site is great. Very easy on the eyes, with a nice color scheme and themes that can be selected and are updated. Tables can be resized with no problem. Players are identified by a chip that includes a picture. A minor gripe: Once you choose the image you want to represent you, you can’t change it. This means you’re going to have a permanent picture there once you choose - so choose wisely! Their software is always being updated and improved (There are auto-updates around every week or so, compared to the updates every 3 months or so from other sites).
Customer Service
PokerStars definitely has some of the best customer support in the business. Emails are responded to very quickly and professionally, within hours. Any comments or questions you may have about their poker rooms and service are responded to in a very friendly way.
Payment accepted from:
VISA, MasterCard, Neteller, Delta, Switch, CentralCoin, Bank Draft, Diner Club, Paysafecard, Solo, Inter-Account Transfers, eChecks
Languages:
English, Dutch (Nederlands), French (Français), German (Deutsch), Hungarian (Magyar) Italian (Italiano), Polish (Polski), Portuguese (Português), and Spanish (Español).
Software requirements:
Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista 100 MHz Pentium (800 Mhz for Windows Vista) 64 MB RAM (Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME) or 96 MB RAM (Windows NT 4 , Windows 2000, Windows XP) or 512 MB RAM (Windows Vista) 800×600 screen resolution with 16-bit
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