Poker Stars Review

General

Launched in 2001, Poker Stars has grown into one of the premiere sites to play online poker. Some of the top poker players in the world call Poker Stars home including WSOP winner Daniel Negreanu. During peak hours there are over 100,000 players logged into Poker Stars making it by far the largest poker room in the history of online poker. Poker Stars hosts many huge tournaments and also sends many players to the prestigious poker tournaments such as the WSOP and EPT. Poker Stars is also home to the World Championship of Online Poker. The main event has a guaranteed prize pool of $5,000,000. You will also find the smoothest and most reliable software money can buy. This is indeed the premier online poker site.

Software

The software at Poker Stars is definitely world class. There are many cool features such as custom avatars. The lobby interface is very detailed and contains everything you need to know about a table including hands/hour, flop percentage and average pot size. There is a ring table and tournament search filter that makes it easy to find what your looking for.
Game Variety

Texas Holdem – This game is offered in fixed limit, pot limit and no limit variations.
Omaha High – This game is offered in fixed limit, pot limit and no limit variations.
Omah Hi-Lo – This game is offered in fixed limit, pot limit and no limit variations.
7 Card Stud – This game is offered in fixed limit only.
7 Card Stud Hi-Lo – This game is offered in fixed limit only.
Razz – This game is offered in fixed limit only.
5 Card Draw – This game is offered in fixed limit, pot limit and no limit variations.
2-7 Triple Draw – This game is offered in fixed limit, pot limit and no limit variations.
Horse - This game is offered in fixed limit only.
Hose – This game is offered in fixed limit only.
Bonuses

Poker Stars offers a 100% match up to $50 on your first deposit. While this is small compared to other rooms, the other benefits Poker Stars has to offer more than makes up for this shortcoming.

Promotions

There are many great promotions at Poker Stars and the majority of them come in tournament form. They offer many great feeders and satellites into the most prestigious poker tournaments in the world. Poker Stars is also home of the World Championship of Online Poker, the internets version of the WSOP. There is also a great player points system that rewards you for your real money play. You can use these points to buy into great tournaments or purchase merchandise from the Poker Stars store.
Traffic

Poker Stars boasts the highest traffic of all online poker rooms. With over 100,000 players logged in at any time you will never have trouble finding a ring game or tournament that suits you. With more Omaha players than any other room Poker Stars is also the top room for Omaha poker.

Competition

A good percentage of all new online poker players start playing at Poker Stars. This makes for very loose tables that can be very profitable with the right strategy. You will find many full ring Hold’em tables with flop percentages in the 50-60’s. Overall this is a very easy site to win money from but you have to choose the tables you play at wisely because with the fish comes many experinced players.
Customer Service

The support department at Poker Stars is something that could be improved a lot. They offer e-mail support which tends to be quite slow. The support staff is friendly and professional but there can be long response times.

Deposit Options

Poker Stars accepts deposits via Visa, Master Card, Diners Club, Epassporte, Western Union, Cash Transfer, money orders and checks.