PokerStars counts as the next largest and most popular online poker room. It has really grown over the last couple of year, mainly due to the highly positive publicity it received when Chris Moneymaker and Greg “Fossilman” Raymer won the World Series of Poker in 2003 and 2004, respectively. Both had won their seats through PokerStars tournaments. However, even before that, PokerStars was known as one of the absolute best poker rooms with good, stable software and a lot of tournaments. PokerStars is one of the few poker rooms not to offer new users a bonus. Instead, they have regular bonuses (about four a year) for existing users, where the bonus tends to be 20% up to $120. Check out www.pokerstars.se to see their current offer.
Software and graphics
PokerStars has always been known for having excellent software. One nice function is that you can upload a photo to appear as an icon at the table. It is actually quite useful in that it reminds you who players are. The lobby is easily navigated and contains information such as average pot size, number of players in until the flop and number of hands played per hour.
Games and numbers of players
PokerStars is only topped in terms of number of players by the Party Poker network and the site can have up to 50,000 players logged in at the same time, with over 6,000 active tables. So, the chances of finding easy games are therefore very good. The games offered, in addition to the usual Texas Hold´em and Omha, are Omaha Hi/Lo, 7-Card Stud and 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo. There is a good spread of limits and you can find some of the internet’s highest and most visited Fixed Limit levels at $100/$200. Those who want to play low limits can find games as low as $0.02/$0.04. For No-Limit, the levels range between $0.01/$0.02 and $10/$20.
Tournaments
There are a huge variety of tournaments to choose from and you can find ones with buy ins from anywhere between $1+0 up to $300+$20 and over. The number of players at tournaments are high and compared to Party Poker, the numbers are actually fairly even. There are also a good number of freerolls offered. With two WSOP winners in the bag, PokerStars naturally has to continue to pump out winners, so they offer a lot of satellites to different live events.
Technical support
The site only offers email support, although it is known for being speedy and providing well thought out answers.
Email support: Support@PokerStars.com
Deposit and withdrawal options
Deposits: Visa, Neteller, MasterCard, FirePay, CentralCoin
Withdrawals: Neteller, FirePay, CentralCoin, Cheque
Minimum deposit: $50
Advantages
One of the largest poker rooms in the world
Good client, with useful statistics functions
A lot of satellite tournaments for live events
Disadvantages
Very tough cash games
No telephone or live chat support
No bonus