Worst Online Poker Bad Beats
The Ultimate PokerStars Review UPDATE: Unfortunately, due to predatory policies from PokerStars, I can no longer recommend this poker site.
Please see full of in-depth reviews on sites I currently trust.
This PokerStars review was done prior to removing them from my recommended list.
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With Joseph Hachem joining them in 2005 they ensured 3 straight years of massive exposure during the heart of the poker explosion.
Despite PokerStars becoming a non-US poker room in 2011 after the fallout source Black Friday, they continue to host the most players online by a sizable margin.
Incredible player numbers In fact, PokerStars essentially hosts about as many players as every other poker room combined.
PokerStars now regularly draws close to 200,000 simultaneous players, which is simply unmatched by any other poker room.
This ultimately benefits the player with thousands of players showing up to every tournament and tens of ring games at each limit to choose from.
The main draws of PokerStars PokerStars focuses mainly on the overall quality of games and tournaments offered.
They have surprisingly improved their quality and feature set despite their now-massive player volume.
One of the best multi-national sites PokerStars is now one of, if bonus doubleu casino collector smart the, best at servicing players equally from different regions, offering support in dozens of languages, country-specific promotions, and popular deposit options for every country.
Over-hyped publicity aside this is a poker room that excels in every aspect without any real flaws.
Improvements to the promotion side Previously, the biggest weakness had been the lack of competitive promotions.
Despite the fact that the games largely speak for themselves PokerStars has made a wise move in recent years to improve their bonus and promotional offerings, which are now at least on par with most other online poker rooms.
Who PokerStars will appeal to They will certainly appeal to players who prioritize large tournament guarantees and an abundance of cash game choices.
Despite the tighter tendencies of a player base that is generally more experienced PokerStars is in a class of its own in terms of sheer games available.
Why not a higher score?
Really, the only negatives that have brought down the score a bit for PokerStars are the pervasively tight games, the lack of better customer service options, and recent decisions to increase rake and decrease player rewards.
They have licenses in a number of regulated territories, such as the United States and Europe.
Is PokerStars the best poker site?
Will PokerStars ever come back to the USA?
They already have, albeit in a very limited fashion.
PokerStars operates for allyoubet casino no deposit bonus money games in the state of New Jersey, who has legalized online gaming.
For the rest of the country, I recommend trusted offshore sites such as Global Poker and Bovada Poker.
Is PokerStars a legit poker site?
There's no questioning that PokerStars is one of the most legitimate poker sites online, even if I don't like them as a player.
PokerStars is extremely by-the-book, refusing to operate in any unlicensed jurisdiction.
They also are one of the few online poker sites to work with massive payment processors such as PayPal.
I don't doubt the game fairness, but I still rate PokerStars poorly for other reasons.
PokerStars Instant Bonus After years of stubbornly sticking to a dull unremarkable bonus package PokerStars quietly added what I feel is the best instant poker bonus online.
No conditions, no strings.
You also still get the 100% play-through bonus released as you play.
What do you get with the instant bonus?
A part of the instant bonus is given to players every day for 6 days.
See the chart under this section for exactly how it breaks down.
Is it really instant?
So PokerStars wants to promote it further.
And get you hooked.
Just do it, enjoy it, win something — and move on.
Oh, and be sure to use these tickets within 21 days or they disappear into the green felt graveyard where virtual bonuses go to die.
Firstly, PokerStars coveting the casual crowd is a great thing for everyone.
Actually trusting players by default is incredibly rare Finally, it shows trust in players rather than the poker site just covering its behind.
How to Claim the PokerStars Instant Bonus Visit the PokerStars website and click the oversized button to begin the soft client download.
Both Windows and Mac desktop software is available.
Install the software or app and launch it.
Click the link to create your PokerStars account.
Fill out your account details and confirm your email address.
The same goes for PokerStars, right?
PokerStars has been throwing as much spaghetti against the wall as anyone over the past several years, hoping that something will stick to the nitty-nut-cracking recreational wall.
This is a 3-player winner-take-all hyper-turbo Sit and Go whew, what a mouthful that draws casual players thanks to its lottery element.
The prize pool has a 30% chance of exceeding the buy-ins.
We wrote extensively about in a feature article, which explains everything in detail.
The new trendsetter These have been incredible popular and have spawned plenty of copycats around online poker.
Due to the low starting chips and huge quickly-escalating blinds they feature an extremely low skill-to-luck edge.
The whole thing lasts 5 minutes These last a pre-defined 5 minutes with escalating blinds starting as soon as enough players have registered.
That fraction is multiplied by the prize pool to determine the cash prize for each player.
The Deal lets you gamble on StarsCoin The Deal was launched in late 2016 with more controversy than even this get-off-my-lawn grizzly online veteran expected.
Essentially, is a way to get players to gamble their StarsCoin with a poker facade and an illusion of player control.
How it works Player can wager their StarsCoin on a 7 face-down card deal that they keep 5 of.
So, in other words… blind video poker.
Epic Fail: PokerStars Duel Not all of the innovations have succeeded.
Duel was a thinly-veiled attempt to grab a share of the casual Zynga-fueled mobile market and is best described as Words With Friends meets heads-up poker.
It was turn-based and required its own app.
A lot of effort from Stars for no return I remember a decent marketing campaign with PokerStars trotting out familiar faces like Negreanu and Moneymaker.
It was supposed to be the next big mobile poker thing.
Turns out the casual audience is every bit as fickle as the nightmares of the marketing department fear they are.
Keep it up, PokerStars.
Too many competitors are spinning their wheels.
This is one of the few groups still trying to stay ahead of the curve.
PokerStars has added a strange new poker variation called Power Up with players able to use RPG-like powers PokerStars Bonus Improving a barebones bonus Although it was once the weakest aspect of the poker room PokerStars has made a concerted effort to improve its promotional offerings in recent years.
While I understand the desire to let the quality of the software and games speak for themselves the non-US market has simply become too competitive with new player packages to offer half-baked incentives.
A few things that set this bonus pokerstars $20 for $10 first deposit bonus A few aspects of the bonus make it more attractive than similar bonuses at other poker rooms.
How quickly the bonus converts to this web page The bonus actually converts to usable cash at about an average rate.
There are 7 different VIP tiers that require as little as 100 player points per month to earn or as many as 1,000,000 per year.
As you reach higher tiers you have earn points more frequently and have access to better promotions.
Not a good program for infrequent players The biggest criticism I have for the program is that players are forced to hit specific player point thresholds each and every month in order to maintain their tier in the VIP Club.
I personally like to hop around different poker rooms, spreading my playing time between whoever currently has the better cash games and promotions.
They just may not have the best system in place for less-active players.
One practice that PokerStars pioneered years ago that still drives me nuts is the pokerstars $20 for $10 first deposit bonus that you are required to play up to a certain level monthly to maintain your VIP status.
Improving the VIP rewards While they have always offered free books, tournament tickets, and merchandise for player points PokerStars has beefed up the rewards in recent years.
Points can now be exchanged for cash and there are a number of private VIP freeroll tournaments taking place at least weekly.
Other promotional bits and pieces Wrapping up the promotional offerings are a number of region-specific events that are only offered for players in certain parts of the world such as Asia, Australia, Brazil, Latin America, Portugal, and Norway.
Although neither is truly better than those offered by their main competitors with the enormous number of games and tournaments offered getting anything extra is appreciated.
PokerStars Fish Rating 3 certainties Life offers 3 certainties every day: the sun will rise, the sun will set, and the PokerStars cash games will be tighter than the Gordian knot.
In 2005 I was amazed that this poker room kept flop percentages under 25%.
Yes, single digits, as in 7-9%.
That means fewer casual players dumping chips to the grinders just for the experience.
Players that were new during the poker explosion are now veterans.
It all contributes to tighter action-less games.
PokerStars appeals to elitists PokerStars has always been the poker room du jour of the online poker elitist, wannabe poker pro, dedicated grinder, and serious tournament player.
The problem with that in the game quality context is that those are the tightest and most well-educated poker groups there are.
Check my tips section for more thoughts.
A different beast Playing games here is a different beast in that most players are either timid or just good players.
Cash games may not be the most profitable on average here but they can be refreshing for players burned out on bad beats.
PokerStars acknowledges the pigeons were staying away Casual recreational players, i.
PokerStars management directly acknowledged as much and directly took steps to try to attract back the recs with some unique experiments and a decrease of rewards for the busiest players.
One answer: limiting HUDs Things sort of reached the tipping point in late 2015 when PokerStars used their platform of choice — a 2+2 thread — to announce that they had seen enough.
PokerStars started their assault on grinders users third-party software, who could realistically kill the industry if given enough time to drive away recreational players.
The poker room severely limited HUDs heads-up displays and other third-party poker tracking software to try to marginalize the unfair advantage they were gaining over pure players.
I love the move With the proliferation of rock-tight games over the past 7-8 years I love the movement by poker sites of purifying the games again and protecting the essential part of the poker ecosystem: inexperienced players.
Is it all working?
Welcome back to the world of the living.
The biggest negative for me at PokerStars is the incredibly tight player base, many of whom are nitty grinders and online poker vets.
Flop percentages in the low teens down all the way to single digits, which is 50-75% worse than some competing sites.
PokerStars Tournaments The best reason to play here One of the main draws of PokerStars is the tournament offerings thanks to its status as the 1 online poker room in the world in terms of traffic.
In my opinion, there simply is no match online for tournaments.
Any casino usa birthday bonuses tournament player would have a tough time arguing that point.
They have an unmatched number of satellites not only to live tournaments, but also to their own guaranteed events.
I love the blind structure Tournaments are structured well by providing an easy-to-understand lobby, giving players a l arge amount of starting chips relative to the blinds, and allowing sufficient time between blinds.
I prefer this structure personally as it tends to give a slightly larger edge towards skilled players.
As PokerStars has been experiencing a huge boost in overall traffic the past few years the tournament traffic is massive.
Not everything has worked — remember Duel?
However, the attempt at keeping things fresh and the fish interested is appreciated.
See the chart below for the exact numbers.
Other new formats A couple of other new tournament formats heavily promoted by PokerStars include Knockout Poker KO and Beat The Clock.
Beat the Clock This is a strange timed tournament where play just stops after 5 minutes no matter how many players are left.
Every tourney is a spectacle With several thousand players competing for even the micro buy-in overnight events every tournament is a spectacle and every tournament offers substantial prizes.
The tournaments at PokerStars are unmatched and arguably the biggest reason to play there.
PokerStars Software The best online?
PokerStars has publicized their software as the best online over the years and I would probably have to agree.
They allow you to upload your own image as your avatar, which is a neat little feature that a most poker rooms are now picking up on.
The latest update I recently increased their score to 90% because of the latest software update, which I thought was a great improvement in both function and cosmetics.
In terms of new table customizations, you can resize any table window or tile them to whatever size you desire.
Different table themes Next, they have new themes that allow you to change the graphical theme to things like Marine, Stars, Saloon, and Renaissance.
Hand history Their hand history feature is probably one of the best online and is easy to use.
These tables tend to enjoy a 10-20 hand per hour improvement over poker ipad bonus policy tables.
Zoom Poker: The greatest thing since sliced sushi PokerStars has also added what they call Zoom Poker, which I feel is really the most significant development in online poker since its inception.
A few non-US poker rooms have similar riffs on this gameplay style and it should only be a matter of time before everyone else gets on board.
PokerStars does this by pooling all players available at a certain pokerstars $20 for $10 first deposit bonus />As soon as you fold the software finds 8 more players who have also just folded to create a new table.
Blinds are given to those players who have gone the longest without posting them.
Negatives of Zoom The only negative is in the loss of reads with the table constantly changing players, but online reads have https://chicago-lawyer.info/bonus/bonus-collector-for-slotomania-on-facebook.html been questionable at best.
The tightness of players also ratchets up even higher than normal PokerStars tables thank to the lack or boredom and urgency to play something.
The pokerstars $20 for $10 first deposit bonus and functionality of the mobile experience is quite good, thanks to the decision to develop please click for source standalone app over a buggy mobile browser-based system.
PokerStars easily earns a top score in this category.
It also looks great with lots of customization.
Their real-money mobile app also supports every cash game, Zoom game, and tournament.
Most poker rooms will happily accept player deposits immediately, but make sure they send withdrawals back with the same gusto.
Electronic methods Electronic withdrawals like Moneybookers, NETeller, or Ukash will arrive within hours and may even be instantaneous for regular players.
Other options PayPal withdrawals are an options for players in the UK and Ireland.
Other options include direct credits back to your depositing credit card, direct bank transfers, or wire transfers for larger amounts.
Banking has always been a strength of PokerStars.
They excel at just about every aspect so why skimp on support options that can make players feel attended to so much better than waiting around for pokerstars $20 for $10 first deposit bonus reply e-mail?
They should be setting a better example as the 1 poker room in the world.
For deposit issues only, of course They have implemented Live Chat, but only for those having issues with deposits.
Email reply times That being said, emails are almost always replied to courteously and professionally within about an hour.
Parting shot It is embarrassing, however, that such a massively profitable and popular company has yet to institute more player-friendly options such as site-wide Live Chat or support reps willing to answer a telephone.
PokerStars Traffic In a class of its own There is really no comparison in this category.
The numbers overall I believe that they have more regular active players than every other online poker room combined, which is about 30,000 cash players during peak European evening hours.
PokerStars has really become the only destination for the highest stakes games online.
Tournament numbers Just about every multi-table tournament draws thousands of players, creating both ridiculous value and massive time investments.
Both single-table and multi-table Sit and Go events fill up within minutes.
Zoom Zoom Poker also draws hundreds of players per limit, ensuring not even a speck of waiting time in between hands.
PokerStars History Late 1990s Isai Scheinberg, an Israeli IBM programer, starts writing the code for a poker site that would become modern-day PokerStars.
September 11, 2023 PokerStars is launched for the first time for play money.
The site is owned and operated by the company known as Rational Enterprises of which Scheinberg is a majority stakeholder.
Its initial headquarters is in Costa Rica.
December 2001 The real-money version of PokerStars launches, allowing players to make deposits and withdrawals and play for real cash.
PokerStars ends up sponsoring 3 straight WSOP Champions with in 2004 and in 2005 forming the trifecta.
January 2006 Scheinberg starts looking into selling the company with several interested parties lining up.
October 2006 The is passed, which attempts to make it difficult for US banks to process online gaming transactions for players.
Publicly traded companies are forced to leave the US market, but PokerStars, being privately owned, sets the tone for other private companies and remains servicing US players.
Scheinberg decides to stay on at the company.
All sales negotiations are off the table.
They become the largest poker site in the world by player volume.
Their tournaments broke records for number of participants, most prominently the WCOOP World Championship of Online Poker series.
April 20, 2024 PokerStars reaches an agreement with the US Department of Justice, removing themselves from the US market completely.
In exchange, they regained full control over the PokerStars website and the poker software client.
PokerStars resumes their operations in the rest of the world.
They also promptly paid all disenfranchised US customers, allowing them to withdraw their full account balances.
November 2012 PokerStars acquires its former competitor Full Tilt Poker.
The deal includes everything, including PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and all associated brands like European Poker Tour.
PokerStars Rational Group becomes publicly traded for the first time.
January 2015 PokerStars Casino is launched, adding casino-style games to the poker client for the first time ever.
November 2015 PokerStars announces some significant changes to their rewards program, most importantly announcing their long-standing Supernova and Supernova Elite tiers will no longer exist.
This created enormous controversy in the poker community, especially among high-stakes professional players who felt wronged by the move.
March 2016 PokerStars returns to the US market in a very limited role, servicing players in the regulated state of New Jersey.
Present PokerStars remains the biggest online poker site on the planet, despite some pokerstars $20 for $10 first deposit bonus discontent coming from the community.
The common denominator at PokerStars At PokerStars in particular 6 or 7 of your opponents at a full cash table are going to be either tight-passive, tight-weak, or maybe tight-aggressive.
The common denominator is tight.
Does a winning opposite strategy of a tight table mean Doyle would tell you to just play loose for the sake of being different?
Smartly play more hands I would say to smartly play more hands than the rest of the table — in position — and do so aggressively.
Why can this be effective and what does it accomplish?
You will win a lot of hands see more />This is a great outcome as you will often either take the blinds or a modest pot on the flop.
These are tight players that will defer to the pre-flop raiser.
Many hands will fold to you on the button or under the gun so why not raise it most of the time?
Whether or not you have a made hand is irrelevant.
Take the free money.
You will confuse and frustrate your opponents.
There is nothing better for your chip stack than confusing your opponents, frustrating them into tilt, and just making them uncomfortable.
They will try to trap you by re-raising you once they finally get that premium hand or do things like check-raise you later in the hand.
A lifelong poker player who moved online in 2004, Josh founded Beat The Fish in 2005 to help online poker players make more-informed decisions on where to play and how to win once they got there.
He hopes to counter the rampant dishonesty in online gaming media with objective reviews and relevant features.
Very accurate and none bias.
To play well in PS you need a HUD Hm2 or PT4 just to keep up with the regs.
Programs like LeakBuster should help you in that department.
Those are pretty much the 2 most important factors for me in reviews.
I know people use them to great success and good for them.
Maybe certain tables that disallow them?
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How to deposit and withdraw on PokerStars
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