Review: PartyPoker

Through funny advertising and generous bonuses, PartyPoker has become the most popular poker website on the market. Known for it’s high volume, easy competition, good software, and many bonuses, PartyPoker is surely a great place for you to have fun, make money, and improve your game. Software/Support: The PartyPoker software is very easy to manage, and takes very little time to get used to. As seen, the main lobby is pretty easy to navigate. The lobby is partitioned into real money (cash games), bad beat jackpot, party poker million, tournaments, sit and gos, and play money, each of which is further divided into other sections. Finding a suitable table is easy and fast. The tables are very easy to look at. It's a little ugly, but they are very managable and have useful features. The player icons can be turned on/off based on your preference. PartyPoker provides personal statistics on your play. You can see how many flops you see, the percentage of hands you win when seeing a flop, and other important statistics. The only downfall to the stats is that they stack from different games. That is, if I am playing 2 games of Omaha and 2 games of Hold em, my statistics are the combination of those games. Alike Pokerstars, there is unlimited note taking ability. When you take notes on a player, a little notepad icon comes up over his name, so you don’t have to remember every player you have notes on. One very silly feature is the sidebet option. You can bet if the flop will be all red or black in a game for $5 or $10. I would strongly urge not taking these sidebets; they are obviously in the houses favor, so any luck you may have in the short run will NOT last. One advantage partypoker has is that it stores hand histories directly onto your computer. So, if you are using poker tracker, your statistics are easily available from your hard drive. Despite being readily available, the hand histories are convoluted and hard to follow. For example, let’s say you bet $5, and I raise to $15. The hand history will say that I am raising $15, because it is a raise of how much I had originally bet ($0). It is very confusing and hard to get used to this ambiguous notation. The support team on partypoker is not all that great. http://partypoker.com/help/index.html Unlike Pokerstars, which has one support email: support@pokerstars.com, PartyPoker’s support team is fragmented based on your specific questions. One would think this would allow the support team to answer your questions faster, but in fact it doesnt. I shot a few emails over to a few different departments and it took almost half a day for each of them to respond. When they did respond, my questions were answered fully with good information, but it took a long time. I've also heard some complaints from some about problems dealing with the support team, in which help was much less than optimal. The email support is ok, but it's not nearly as good as some other sites. Further, if you have to talk to them on the phone, it's pure hell. They hardly speak any english, and it takes forever to figure out what the hell they are saying. Despite being very accessible, where calls are patched through very fast, they offer little help. I've heard multiple complaints about the lack of help received from phoning in. Rating of Software: 7.5 Rating of Support Team: 5 Cash Games: Partypoker has a great range in stakes on its cash games. The site allows for great ease in Multitabling – you are allowed to play up to 10 games at once! It recently instituted some micro stakes as well, although they are only offered for Hold Em. Note that the no limit and pot limit tables allow for up to 10 players unlike pokerstars 9. Hold Em: For fixed limit, stakes vary from .15/.3 to 100/200. No limit ranges from $5 NL to $2000 NL. Multiple games are running in every limit at all times. To find the micro games, click on the beginner section. The regular hold em section has games $25 NL and .5/1 up. With the exception of .02/.04 (which allows for 125 big blinds as the max buyin), the No limit tables allow for 100 big blinds. Omaha: Fixed limit Omaha games range from .5/1 to 15/30. Pot limit games range from $25 PL to $2000 PL. Although it is hard to find games on the higher stakes limit games, the Pot Limit tables are always running. Omaha Hi/Low: Opposite of Omaha, the fixed limit games are running more often than the pot limit/no limit games are. Stakes range from .5/1 to 20/40 for fixed, and $25 to $2000 for pot limit. The least popular stakes are the $1000 and $2000 PL games, and even those often have games running. 7 stud: Stakes range from .5/1 to 20/40. There seems to be a decent player base on PartyPoker, as every time I’ve checked, every stake has had multiple tables running. 7 Stud Hi/Low: Although not as popular as regular 7 stud, there is usually a game going between .5/1 to 10/20. Blackjack: Yes, partypoker now offers the dreaded blackjack to it’s players. Unlike blackjack in a casino, it is literally impossible to win here. The deck is reshuffled after 10% is dealt, and the games are heads up with the dealer, so card counting is not possible. If you want to mess around and play, go ahead, but be warned, you cannot win! Rating for Game selection: 9 Rating for Cash Game Traffic: 10 Rating for multi-table capacity: 10 Tournaments/Sit and Gos: Partypoker offers a wide variety of tournaments and Sit and Gos, including satellites to major tournaments and freerolls to win prizes such as cash or a Ferrari! Satellites: This year, party sent a good number of players to the World Series. Satellites are also run into other tournaments such as the European open, or the PartyPoker million, which happens to be the favorite WPT tournament of Daniel Negreanu. Smaller satellite tournaments are run for other events such as the 500k tournaments. The most common satellite is a step qualifier. Step tournaments: Party’s most common qualifier tournament is the step system. Basically, you can buyin to any level of the tournament, the lower levels cost less to buyin, and the higher levels cost more. If you win a level you move up to the next level. If you manage to win the final level, you qualify for whatever tournament the satellite was to. 500k tournaments: Offered every Saturday, PartyPoker has a 500k tournament similar to Pokerstars Sunday tournament. You can either buyin for the $215, or win a satellite such as a $10 buyin tournament. Sit and Gos: Party always has tons of sit and Gos running, whether it is single or multi table (2 or 3 tables). The stakes of these ranges from $5 buyin all the way up to $200. There are higher SNGS, but they are mainly steps in a qualifier. Freerolls/Point Redemption: Party offers a lot of freerolls, including party points tournaments. As seen, there are tons of freerolls which allow for a chance to win a Ferrari. These are run sort of like step tournaments, but the lower levels are freerolls. Info about the Ferrari giveaway can be found here: https://secure.partypoker.com/news/events/ferarri.html Party points (similar to FPPs) can be redeemed to play in a tournament with cash payouts. Any other information about partypoker tournaments can be found here: https://secure.partypoker.com/games/tournaments/index.html Rating of Tournament availability: 10 Rating of Tournament traffic: 10 Miscellaneous: Party offers multiple bonuses for it’s customers to take advantage of. The first is a user referral bonus. If you tell a friend about the site and he makes a real money deposit, you get $50 and he gets $25! So if you have any friends itching to play poker after watching it on tv, convince them to deposit some money on partypoker so you can make some quick money. Further, party offers 25% bonuses up to $100. This means, if you deposit $500, you will get a $100 bonus, which is cleared after playing a certain number of raked hands. It's not huge compared to some other sites, but it is always there, and adding in the friend referrals makes the bonuses well above average. Despite it's other great bonus features, party does not offer rakeback. For low limit players, I think party has the best bonus system. The bonuses dont take very long to clear, and it's a good way for a small stakes player to make some extra cash. Please note that the bonus is a 1 time offer, and reload bonuses are offered only sporadically. Further, for mid to high stakes players, besides the friend referrals, I would rate their bonuses as below average. By playing raked hands, players accumulate party points, which can be redeemed in tournaments, or by buying items from a store. More about party points can be found here: https://secure.partypoker.com/my_account/pc/pc_details.html One final note I’d like to make is that Partypoker has pretty soft competition. The players here are not nearly as strong as the player level at Pokerstars. Although not as easy as some other sites (cough prima cough), it is still a great place to make some money off serious fish! In conclusion, partypoker is a really great place to play poker. It has good software, tons of games, the highest traffic of any site, and great bonuses to take advantage of, not to mention easy competition! What more could you ask for? Rating for software: 7.5 Rating for support: 5 Rating for Game Selection: 10 Rating for Cash game Traffic: 10 Rating for multi-tabling capability: 10 Rating of Tournament availability: 10 Rating of Tournament traffic: 10 Rating of FPP store: 9 Rating of Bonuses: 6 Rating for competition strength: 8 (10 being easiest, 1 being hardest) Rating of Rakeback: N/A

Reviewed by: Daut

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PoorUser    United States. Nov 22 2005 14:26. Posts 7472 but ps > pp =[ NO PARTYPOKER 75$ FREE SUPPORT IN THIS TOPIC, go here: http://www.liquidpoker.net/information/f/41252/1/Partypoker_FAQ_+_support.html Gambler Emeritus Last edit: 24/07/2006 10:14

Ibsu Bai Hui   United Kingdom. Nov 22 2005 14:30. Posts 3390   When you take notes on a player, a little notepad icon comes up over his name, so you don’t have to remember every player you have notes on. Hrm didn't know that, another thing to suggest to the PS team Haven't played there enough to comment really, but I started there on playmoney then shifted to Stars, the interface of which I prefer immensly. I'll go into more detail another time Floofy says: my sis always goes around in bra but its annopyying to me

Daut    United States. Nov 22 2005 14:31. Posts 8955 yes, the interface at stars is clearly better, but compared to every other site ive seen party is 2nd best NewbSaibot: 18 TIMES THE SPEED OF LIGHT. Because FUCK YOU, Daut

Nazgul    Netherlands. Nov 22 2005 15:17. Posts 7080 yep 9 is too high, way too high You almost twin-caracked his AK - JonnyCosmo

Ibsu Bai Hui   United Kingdom. Nov 22 2005 15:39. Posts 3390 haha ps software is nice but still needs improvement, and ive only played PP and nordicbet for comparison sound volume control slider that note thing <- whoops, stars does have this more statistics glitch with Free to Check box Floofy says: my sis always goes around in bra but its annopyying to me Last edit: 22/11/2005 23:06

Zodiac   Canada. Nov 22 2005 16:05. Posts 2 Party Support: 5 AT MOST I wanted to see where I was at, so I pushed all-in

Daut    United States. Nov 22 2005 16:33. Posts 8955 based on what, make an argument NewbSaibot: 18 TIMES THE SPEED OF LIGHT. Because FUCK YOU, Daut

Meat   . Nov 22 2005 16:50. Posts 3386 A friend of me had his second account closed when he tried to cash out. He never did anything about it, but yesterday he told me. I suggested to mail partypoker and apologize for it and ask to get the funds to his legit account. The same evening he got an apology from partypoker, the funds (only 50$) back on his account and 10$ bonus. Doesn't look like the support is really bad to me.   Last edit: 22/11/2005 16:51

Zodiac   Canada. Nov 22 2005 17:03. Posts 2 Emails go unanswered for days. When they do answer them they usually never give any real definitive answer. I can't count the amount of times I've asked about a specific topic on their website and their 'support' team took over 3 days to simply cut and paste what was written on the website. I wanted to see where I was at, so I pushed all-in

Daut    United States. Nov 22 2005 17:08. Posts 8955 interesting, ill send in a few more emails asking annoying shit and see how they respond this review isnt set in stone btw, i can easily change it NewbSaibot: 18 TIMES THE SPEED OF LIGHT. Because FUCK YOU, Daut

mmm.beer   Canada. Nov 22 2005 20:35. Posts 44 I really don't think Poker Stars table interface is much different. Joining the tables can be a hassle at Party Poker, but unless you're playing penny tables or tournaments, PP is best. -best selection, -fishy players, -rakeback & rewards

uiCk   Canada. Nov 22 2005 23:02. Posts 3521 nice review. You should have an "Last updated ####" , not only for this review. keep em coming~ I wish one of your guys had children if I could kick them in the fucking head or stomp on their testicles so you can feel my pain because thats the pain I have waking up everyday -- Mike Tyson

PandaSaurus   Australia. Nov 23 2005 03:00. Posts 1651 One major advantage PS has over PP is the micro limits. PP only lets you play at the NL 5 and NL10 for a while, whereas PS you can play them whenever. I've played on both sites and PS is far better imo. ...

sundance   Slovakia. Nov 23 2005 08:27. Posts 49 Ok now i play only on PP because i'm broke on ps and can't deposit but PS interface >> PP interface and overaly i feeled a lot better on PS.I hope i will be able to return on PS soon. back to poker Last edit: 23/11/2005 08:28

Daut    United States. Nov 23 2005 12:55. Posts 8955 I sent a few more emails to party, they took FOREVER to respond, wow, i guess the other day was an anomoly. i also adjusted some of the other aspects such as bonuses and software. im also deleting the posts that reference old scores because I am big brother and I can do whatever i want muahahah NewbSaibot: 18 TIMES THE SPEED OF LIGHT. Because FUCK YOU, Daut

Swedishhero   Sweden. Nov 23 2005 15:56. Posts 294 for me the support worked perfect after my account was closed mamma mia

Ibsu Bai Hui   United Kingdom. Nov 24 2005 20:32. Posts 3390 Here are some aspects of the PP interface that I find disagreable   the fucking 'bet' box is so hard to micro on laptop and you can't just type in .70 you have to fucking press backspace first or it'll put u allin and the scroller is totally unintelligent and impossible to control In addition, the tables occaisionally pop up in each other's way[1] the tables all flash for no goddamn reason so you can't tell which one to go to they don't jump to the foreground if you're doing something else the alerts don't seem to be very effective, in that I keep getting sat out without realising the buttons seem cumbersome and harder to click on than star's the chat box is only 4 lines deep compared to star's 6 you can't doubleclick the playername to make notes like you can in stars - have to right click then select the option player notes appear in a separate box so you have to micro them you can't type the word 'comments' in the chat box for some reason or the word 'comp'. eg 'competition'........ when you navigate from a Note then return to it, the text is automatically selected, so you have to deselect it before you can ammend after typing in a bet amount, you can't simply press 'enter' [1] this happens when cards are dealt. in stars the table only pops to the foreground when it is time to act (iirc) Floofy says: my sis always goes around in bra but its annopyying to me Last edit: 24/11/2005 21:48

TBB   United States. Nov 24 2005 22:22. Posts 781 Those are little things that annoy me, too. poker and stuff

Meat   . Nov 26 2005 07:47. Posts 3386 I called support a couple of times today and im pretty satisfied with the help I got. Got somebody on the phone within a minute. Ok I changed my mind COMPLETELY about this, the phone support is completely horrible and worthless. I have to join the preferred players club to get my transaction limits increased, only thing I had to do was email a scanned document and my account would be upgraded within 4 hours. After 8 hours nothing... so I call them again. They are telling me I never sent anything, what they didn't know is I sent a BCC to myself (copy of the email without notifying the receiver) which of course arrived fine. So I had to send the documents again, this time I also sent it from my gmail but after 4 hours nothing. I call them and after I insisted a bit they told me they were experiencing technical problems. Complete bullshit of course. Then I asked if my transaction limits can be higher than x, she tells me my limits will be x. I ask again if there are possibilities to get this increased because I'm an affiliate and having a large sum of accounts being setup and need money transfers (explaining it's really important to me). She talks gibberish with only a few words possible to understand. Oh well a few hours after this I got accepted into it, but the way they did not want to answer questions and came up with complete bullshit annoyed me.   Last edit: 27/11/2005 07:18

Chris307   Iceland. Nov 27 2005 03:30. Posts 112 You might also consider replacing the "Average rating" field with an "Overall rating" field. An "average rating" doesn't really help us. It's skewed because an average values "traffic tournaments" and "bonuses" just as highly as "software." (I think the quality of the software tells us a lot more about a poker room than the quality of their bonuses etc). Maybe replace it with an Overall Rating that you decide upon, not derivitive of how you rate individual categories, but instead based on how much you liked the poker room overall. Pa la pa la pa la pom. Last edit: 27/11/2005 03:31

fraguar   United States. Nov 30 2005 07:10. Posts 39 also the cards look childish and retarded guys cant even spell poker

manik79   Canada. Nov 30 2005 18:55. Posts 2 Hey all im new here. I thought id add something about party poker. After I lost about 8 hands ina row on blackjack i emailed the support said.. quote " Do you expect me to believe your blackjack is not rigged?". About 30 min later i recieved a email saying they were sorry i feel this way and that they had credited me with 30 dollars in my account. Not bad. i turned that into 350. Beat that Bitch!

Daut    United States. Nov 30 2005 19:44. Posts 8955 lol maybe it really is rigged NewbSaibot: 18 TIMES THE SPEED OF LIGHT. Because FUCK YOU, Daut

Nazgul    Netherlands. Dec 01 2005 01:27. Posts 7080 You joking right? You almost twin-caracked his AK - JonnyCosmo

Daut    United States. Dec 01 2005 11:02. Posts 8955 yes NewbSaibot: 18 TIMES THE SPEED OF LIGHT. Because FUCK YOU, Daut

Nazgul    Netherlands. Dec 02 2005 00:38. Posts 7080 not you, that guy cause that is just wtf~! You almost twin-caracked his AK - JonnyCosmo

Casper...   Canada. Dec 02 2005 10:23. Posts 2804 i should send pp multiple emails of quote "Do you expect me to believe your pokar is not rigged?". free money FEAD FEAN WDLTH

manik79   Canada. Dec 03 2005 09:47. Posts 2 I was completely serious. Beat that Bitch!

thewh00sel    United States. Dec 04 2005 08:04. Posts 2735 i got disc'd from an SnG and they credited double back into my account for the inconvenience A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn Rand

Joe   Czech Republic. Dec 09 2005 06:10. Posts 5987 pls can anyone tell me how to change table size in PP? there is a light at the end of the tunnel... (but sometimes the tunnel is long and deep as hell)

YoureDoomed   Netherlands. Dec 18 2005 16:23. Posts 371 that's yust sick no need for me to even look at pp

blubous   United States. Jan 25 2006 21:42. Posts 7 Does anyone else have issue with how long it takes PartyPoker to process cash outs?

kerma   Finland. Mar 20 2006 05:22. Posts 2 just registereted to the party poker. when do i get my free 50 dollars?

Abreu[bomber]   Brasil. Apr 10 2006 08:52. Posts 74 you can "wait list" on every table within the same limit / players at same time pokerstars: legal meu

Abreu[bomber]   Brasil. Apr 10 2006 08:52. Posts 74 on partypoker you can "wait list" on every table within the same limit / players at same time pokerstars: legal meu

lima   Brasil. Jun 18 2006 00:35. Posts 3 my account is lima222, in my money in +48hr , please   Last edit: 18/06/2006 09:01

lima   Brasil. Jun 18 2006 09:02. Posts 3 has more than 48 hours of my register, in it was nothing deposited, what it happened? my account in party poker is lima222 thank

lima   Brasil. Jun 18 2006 18:15. Posts 3 my registration no fraud, what your wants to prove that I am speaking really?

Yuanjin Wu   China. Jun 26 2006 02:27. Posts 1 I've received $50 in 48 hours

liutao   China. Jul 10 2006 20:26. Posts 2 Why is it that I cheating?

liutao   China. Jul 10 2006 20:27. Posts 2 Managers are requested to contact me, thank you

Meat   . Jul 24 2006 10:15. Posts 3386 NO PARTYPOKER 75$ FREE SUPPORT IN THIS TOPIC, go here: http://www.liquidpoker.net/information/f/41252/1/Partypoker_FAQ_+_support.html

Royal_Rumble   Germany. Jan 10 2007 16:39. Posts 1760 I think it is ridiculous that PP is rated higher than PS, i think it is time for an update. 1) they dont accept players from US anymore 2) graphics cause eye cancer 3) the SnG taffic is not satifying for me (MTT SnG take much too long to fill up) 4) their SnG structure is just ... shitty... 2000$ starting chips with 20$ / 40$ blinds, that's effective less than on PS where you have 1500$ with 10$ / 20$. The Speed ones are real crap shootouts 5) 10 player per table is too much in my opinion 6) You cannot drag the tables as big as you want 7) Only allowed to play 6 tables at once 8) random crashes of software (at least for me) 9) bad phone support that is located in INDIA!!! 10) General feeling: Bad. I like for instance the fact that PS allowes every player to use his own icon. This allowes some personality (although I am pissed of by all the cat pics) and makes it easier to recognize the players if you multitable. PS has several skins. And I cannot say that competition is harder on PS than on PP (ok, I play low limit and players suck on both sides). PS support > all. PS has Lee Jones conclusion: rate it down, give PS more! money won is twice as sweet as money earned. Last edit: 10/01/2007 16:39

croSS   Romania. Apr 10 2007 07:12. Posts 2 i didn't receive my 100$ .... it passed more than 2 days and now i saw that they send me a message. In this message is saying that it's a fraud pls help i didn't make any fraud