Full review of Party Poker

Party Poker
www.partypoker.com 
FREE DOWNLOAD!
Established 2001
Country Gibraltar
Auditor iTech Labs
Software size 2.72 MB

Special Features
World's largest poker room, with over 50% of the market
Membership referral scheme
PartyPoker.com Million tournaments
Tons of tournaments, also in fixed limit

Total weighted score (out of 10) 8.00

 Sign-up bonus in $ $100
Deposit bonus in % 20%
Referral bonus per friend $50
Deposit free bonus $0
Paid to play ($/hour) $0 

Hits
"Easy-to-beat" games
Great promotions, especially for loyal customers (re-deposit etc)
Note taking support
Buddy program
Live 24-hours support and toll-free support number (for US customers)
Fast software

Misses
No great look and feel software
No lobby information on view flop percentage etc
Limited statistics functions
Summary
Party Poker boasts the world’s highest traffic in both ring games and tournaments. In addition to the huge traffic there are many other advantages with Party Poker, such as loose games, great promotions and loyalty program, special events and a membership referral program. There are quite a few games at Party Poker with loose action even up to the $30/$60 limits. However, you don’t get the statistics to easily locate those games. Party Poker has a large network of so-called “skins”, where other doorway sites uses Party Poker’s software, operations and player database. Real money player statistics - July 2005: 17000-20000 ring game players at peak hours, 24000-28000 tournament players at peak hours.

Software and graphics
PartyPoker's software is quite good, with a number of upgrades during both 2003 and early 2004. We are not big fans of the graphics, but from a practical standpoint the playability is good. With its phenomenal growth, Party Poker has added servers and increased bandwidth in order to secure full relability at 50,000 simultaneous players. However, a few players have complained over delays and disconnections at certain tournaments. Overall though, Party Poker has very good quality nowadays in line with or better than most competitors. Four simultaneous tables per player is allowed. Unfortunately, the view flop percentages are not presented, neither are hands per hour rate. (This has the benefit though, that the looser games are "protected"). You see the average pot size of the last 20 hands. The personal playing statistics function is somewhat rudimentary, but works well. Player notes function is included. In sum, the software is good today after improvements to support the record-braking traffic.

Ring game traffic
Party Poker became the world's largest site in ring game traffic already by late 2002/early 2003, after its legendary launch campaign. They are keeping up the ultra aggressive marketing and the traffic keeps climbing to new record levels every month. Currently there are about 17000-20000 real money ring game players at peak hours!!!

Tournament traffic
Party Poker traffic at the tournaments is the highest in the world. Beside no-limit and limit Texas Holdem, there are lots of tournaments in both 7-card stud and Omaha. Party Poker probably hosts more than 70% of all fixed limit Texas Holdem tournaments in the world! The traffic currently reaches somewhere between 24000 and 28000 real money tournament players at peak hours!!!

Game variety
Good, thanks to the leading volume in all games hosted; Holdem, Omaha and 7-Card-Stud in both High and Hi-Lo. However, Party Poker does not offer certain games such as heads-up matches, draw poker, crazy pineapple, etc. Moreover, there is no pot-limit version in any of the 7-Card-Stud games or the Omaha High.

Rake
PartyPoker's rake is not so attractive, as it highly disfavors the low limit games. The higher limit games actually have a comparably low rake. The rake runs as high as 10% in $0.50/$1 and $1/$2 games, as 50 cent is raked when the pot reaches $5. This holds true also for the tournaments, where good value only is provided at the higher stakes. 20% fee in $5 games and 8% fee in $100 games.

Soft competition
Party Poker has been able to maintain loose and juicy games over time, with the constant influx of beginners and gamblers looking for action. Even at "middle limit online games" this holds true - you can typically find very soft games even up to $2/$4 in no-limit and $5/$10 in fixed limit, whereas on most other poker rooms these stakes will give you rather tough opposition.

Sign up bonus
All new users also get a complimentary cap sent out from Party Poker! For the max $100 bonus you need to play 500 raked hands within 30 days to get the $100 (equals 5 raked pots per bonus dollar). You will also have the chance on a monthly basis to be entered into our ongoing private free rolls for loyal players which we run for new players.

Loyalty bonus
It gets better and better, now there are both a big frequent player points program as well as numerous re-deposit promotions in which you get 15%-25% up to $100 maximum.

Promotions
In terms of big events, they host the flagship event PartyPoker.com Million annually. The regular clients are offered several types of promotions, based on the raked hands they have played. They have a standing membership referral scheme where you can get up to $50 for each referral.

Support
The support is since late 2004 much better at Party Poker, in particular the 24/7 telephone support now often responds in under a minute! The support is nowadays very knowledgeable on promotions and other trickier issues. Also, the live 24/7 floor person support has worked well during our testing. Email has worked OK, even though the response times were a bit long. Upgraded to very good score in Jan 2005.

Financial security
Top score, as the leading online poker rooms in the world, with no earlier recorded problems.

Deposit & withdrawal options
Deposit options: VISA, MasterCard, NETeller, FirePay, Western Union, Citadel (US only), eChecks (by iGM-Pay)bank draft, cashier's check, money order, check.

Cash out options: NETeller, wire transfer, check, eChecks (by iGM-Pay).