Visit Poker Stars

  U.S. players can use ePassporte at Poker Stars for immediate credit card deposits or verified checking account deposits. ePassporte works just like NETeller and we recommend their service based on our personal experience with the company. It is also accepted at a number of other online poker sites. Many accounts are also being offered e-check deposits, which are extremely easy, instantly available, and works directly through your checking account.

Another deposit method is the cash transfer option, which is sent through thousands of locations nationwide and can take as little as a few minutes to fund your account. The 7-11 chain now has cash transfer machines in many of their locations. Other deposit methods include cashier's checks or cash transfers. If you have any questions about deposit methods, please don't hesitate to contact us or the poker room directly.

Overall:  4.5/5

Poker Stars became an online poker giant following back-to-back WSOP wins from Chris Moneymaker in 2003 and Greg Raymer in 2004. With Joseph Hachem joining them in 2005 they ensured their massive exposure even further. In 2007, they became the largest online poker room boasting the most tables and players online. Aside from the over-hyped publicity, this is a very professional site to play on without any real flaws.

Our largest promotion now offers all new players coming from our site a free $50 bonus which is modest but simple and easy to earn. Poker Stars seems caters to the serious poker player and their tournament traffic and offerings are unquestionably the best online. Their software package is sharp, payouts are fast, and customer service is prompt. If you play at high stakes, you can actually find plenty of action all the way up to $100/$200.

With other large sites dropping out of the market in late 2006, Poker Stars continued to welcome US players and was rewarded with the rank of the largest poker room online in terms of player traffic. Overall, I have continually been impressed by Poker Stars and they have earned one of my top spots.

Bonus (100% up to $50) and Promotions:   4/5

For the rest of 2007 our players receive a 100% deposit bonus (up to $50). This is a fair deal as they typically offer very few deposit bonuses. You'll need to use one of our links to Poker Stars and marketing code "beatthefish.com" to receive it. The playing requirements are quite low and you should cash it out in a few sessions or less playing average-stakes cash games.

Poker Stars also runs an annual promotion called the World Championship of Online Poker, which topped $10 million in prizes this year. The FPP program is probably their main promotion. They have some good ways to use them such as for big tournament satellites, cash freerolls, or merchandise like poker books, posters, and clothing.

Finally, their VIP Club rewards frequent players on the site with pretty generous items. Everyone has always earned FPPs to spend on merchandise, but this newer program puts larger players in a different tier where they can earn even more points and enter an exclusive player store. Top rewards for frequent players include free Sunday Million tournament entries and exclusive Sit and Go events against pros like Joseph Hachem or Chris Moneymaker.     

Fish:   2.5/5

Traditionally, Poker Stars has been one of the tighter online poker rooms. I think that it is opening up quite a bit due to their promotions bringing in new players. It is tighter than many sites in terms of flop percentage, but I still regularly run into awful players even at the $5/10 NL level. Players drawing with terrible odds also still runs rampant.

At the lower-to-middle stakes, the flop percentage is about 20-30%. Personally, I can find the tighter play at Poker Stars refreshing after an extended bad-beat session on another wild site. Many new players are scared away by their reputation of having stiff competition, but it really is mostly hype. Yes, for the most part players are tighter at this site, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are better. You usually want to be playing the opposite style of your opponents, so use their tight nature to your advantage, mix up your play, and run over timid players.

If I find that a table is simply too slow or tight for my liking, I'll switch to one with a higher average pot. One of the luxuries of playing at such a large site is the enormous selection of cash games you'll have to choose from. You'll literally find 50 or more active cash games at most levels so don't force yourself to stay at an undesirable table. Overall, if you're looking to play at a more consistent table that is more similar to cardroom play, you might try Poker Stars.

Tournaments:   5/5

One of the major draws of Poker Stars is the tournament offerings. In my opinion, this site is the best online for tournaments. Any serious online poker 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. Their biggest weekly event is a $1,000,000 guaranteed event on Sunday and they hold numerous double-shootouts every day to win a cheap seat. This is the largest recurring online poker tournament in history and is simply unmatched by any other online poker room.

Normal daily tournaments between the $10-50 buy-in range can attract over 1,000 players during peak hours giving you great value on a small investment. They structure tournaments well by providing an easy-to-understand lobby, giving a good amount of starting chips relative to the blinds, and allowing sufficient time between blinds. I like this structure because it tends to give a slightly larger edge than normal for skill vs. luck.

As Poker Stars has been experiencing a huge boost in traffic, the tournament traffic is massive. No tourney is ever empty, which is a major positive for building big prize pools. They offer lots of middle-to-high buy-ins, but also offer a few $1 events during prime hours. Poker Stars uses their ridiculously massive traffic to make tournaments successful. With several thousand players competing for even the micro buy-in overnight events, every tournament is a spectacle and every tournament offers substantial prizes. Overall, if tournaments are important to you, you can't do better than Poker Stars. 

Software:   5/5

Poker Stars publicizes their software as the best online, and I would probably have to agree. I don't think that it is head and shoulders above the other sites, but it is a pretty good package. They allow you to upload your own image as your avatar, which is a neat little feature that a few sites are picking up on. I recently increased their score to 5 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 Poker Stars table window (or tile them) to whatever size you desire. Next, they have new themes that allow you to change the graphical theme to things like "Marine", "Stars" which is my new personal favorite, "Saloon", and "Renaissance". Each has their own background imagery and colors or, if you'd rather, you can upload your own image for the background.

Their hand history feature is probably one of the best online and is easy to use. You're able to see all hole cards that were in the showdown even if it was mucked, which is useful if you're trying to get to know what types of hands your opponents are playing. I also like the game speed of the Poker Stars software, which runs at a pretty quick pace. 

US Payouts:   5/5

The main feeling I get from Poker Stars is professionalism, so they handle their payouts quickly and consistently. This site is probably in the top 3 in terms of speed of payouts. If you deposit via ePassporte, you instantly get any amount up to your deposits credited back to your account. For funds over this amount, they can credit your ePassporte account within a day or send out checks via Fedex. Checks shouldn't take longer than a week to receive, which is very fast in the current state of online poker.

Customer Service:  4.5/5

Again, I like sites that offer all forms of customer service such as live chat and/or telephone support. Poker Stars only offers e-mail service, which is why they don't earn the top score. However, they seem to have plenty of reps waiting to respond, so you'll usually get a response within a few minutes.

Player Traffic

With with help of never-ending WSOP repeats on ESPN, Poker Stars has experienced continued growth for a long time and they're now the largest online poker room in terms of active players. Peak hours will sometimes bring in 100,000+ players, and they've solidified a #1 ranking for player traffic by continuing to allow US players. This is actually one of the best reasons to play here, since you can find multiple tables active at all limits (even high stakes) at all times of the time. Tournament traffic is also the best online, with several thousand players entering some events.

Best Features

Excellent software. This should mean that you won't get frustrated from slow game speed or difficult-to-follow lobbies.

Professional service. They resolve problems very quickly, and I've always been happy with their professionalism.

Best tournament action online. This is probably the best site to go with in terms of large tournaments because of sheer volume.

Extremely busy ring game traffic up to the highest limits. This is one reason that I continue to play here - you can always find a few games going on at any limit so you have greater choice in terms of game selection.

Game Selection: Hold 'em, Omaha, Stud

Limits: Limit: 2c/4c up to $100/$200    No-Limit: 1c/2c up to $5/$10

Deposit Methods: NETeller, Firepay, E-Checks, CentralCoin, major credit cards, cashier's checks, money orders. This is another site that is catching on in terms of E-Checks, which allow players to instantly fun their accounts directly through their checking account.

Minimum Deposit: $10

Tips: If you're a tight-aggressive player, you'll probably take a liking to Poker Stars immediately. The reason is that you're going to run into a lot less bad beats playing there. Of course, you won't eliminate them altogether, but the play is generally tighter and players will be less willing to draw. While you'll be very content to drag the pot with your top pair, how do you extract a big pot out of these players when you've got a real monster? I will tend to slowplay my big hands a lot more often. I don't recommend doing this with an obvious draw out there and more than a couple of opponents, but if the board seems harmless you might want to take the chance.

Since the play is tight at Poker Stars, you'll need to give your opponents a chance to catch a decent hand for them to pay you off. Of course, you're also running the risk of letting him crush you if your hand is vulnerable to a draw so analyze your opponents and the board well before you slowplay any hand. 

Click here to visit Poker Stars.