PokerStars Poker Review

PokerStars Poker Review

Isai Scheinberg was working for IBM when he realized how the market for online gambling had so much scope, and he figured that there was an excellent opportunity for him in the booming internet market.

So, he began a collaboration with a group of his co-workers, and they started working on what’s now known as PokerStars.com. He also brought his son Mark Scheinberg into the loop, who is now the CEO of this poker site.

This poker network offers a variety of different games to poker enthusiasts, which include:

 

• Texas Hold ’em
• Omaha High
• Omaha Hi/Lo
• 5 Card Omaha
• 5 Card Omaha Hi/Lo
• Courchevel
• Courchevel Hi/Lo
• Seven Card Stud
• Stud Hi/Lo
• Razz
• Five Card Draw
• 2-7 Triple Draw
• 2-7 Single Draw
• HORSE
• 8-Game Mix
• Badugi

PokerStars has a pure percentage rake system, and its rake is believed to be consistently one of the lowest as compared to many other top poker websites.

Software & Graphics

PokerStars poker software has been highly publicized by the website as the best software online, and there’s nothing untrue about that. Their software is privately developed and has an excellent aesthetic, feel, and stability. The software is also quite easy to understand and is intuitive.

Given the ever-increasing number of players, PokerStars has constantly been updating and improving its software. The ultimate goal of this poker site is to be able to accommodate more than 100,000 real-money players while providing them with a seamless experience.

The software also offers plenty of customization options along with multi-tabling and changing table themes that help give users an overall smooth and exciting experience. The graphical displays are super vibrant, and they support both PC and MAC formats.

Some key features include:

• A plethora of customization options
• sharp graphics
• native mobile apps
• fast-fold Zoom Poker, which is an excellent new addition

PokerStars software is available on the Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android platforms, and it also has a standalone app for mobile phones instead of a mobile browser-based system.

PokerStars HUD is also allowed on this poker site, and it is clearly one of those platforms that have come up with a more well-thought-out action regarding HUDs after conducting proper research.

Promotions and Bonuses

When it comes to promotions and bonuses, PokerStars has a lot to offer to all poker players and enthusiasts. Initially, it kind of lacked the promotional aspect, but over the years, PokerStars has significantly improved its promotional and bonus offerings that are on par with many online poker rooms.

$30 Free Play

PokerStars has a $30 instant bonus to attract new players who have smaller bankrolls. This is a PokerStars deposit bonus that is offered to first-time depositors who deposit at least $20 or more.

The $30 free play comes without having to play a single hand and has zero conditions attached to it. All you need to do is deposit the required amount and use the bonus code THIRTY. With this instant bonus, you get:

• 20 free $1 Spin & Go tickets
• $10 in free cash

It requires a promo code, which you can access using the code FREE30. It basically consists of three steps:

1.     Within 36 hours of depositing. $10 in cash is credited to the player’s account.
2.     You get five Spin-and-Go tickets in this order:

• Three one-dollar tickets are credited on the day of the deposit.
• One two-dollar ticket is given on the second day of the deposit.
• On the third day, one five-dollar ticket is credited.

3.     Seven days after your first deposit, $10 in cash will be credited to your account.

100% up to $600

All new players who sign up from the PokerStars site are entitled to receive a 100% deposit on each initial deposit, valid up to $600.

What sets this bonus apart is the fact that the site gives players a maximum of $600 bonus on a total of 3 deposits which applies to the first 90 days. In case you don’t need any extra funds and say you find yourself with no bonus money, you might want to deposit extra in the given time period to get your hands on the extra bonus.

Promotions

A great thing about PokerStars poker is that it offers country-specific promotions with some excellent features. There are also many region-specific events offered in particular parts of the world, such as Australia, Norway, Brazil, Portugal, and many others.

Some of its promotions even offer $1 million freerolls for a year with additional chances to win things like packages to PokerStars Live events, for instance. Many of their games also have promotions where you play, generate points, and win exciting cash prizes and tickets. Make sure always enter the PokerStars promo code at the time of registration.

Some of the promos include the following:

• Play Money Leaderboards – Earn points from Pokerstars free play online
• High Roller Club – Daily high-stakes tournaments with leaderboard rewards and million GTD
• Pokerstars VR – interactive Pokerstars play and great locations
• The Deal – turns loyalty points into cash rewards

The VIP Club

PokerStars has yet another incredible type of promotion for its players called the VIP club. It is ideal for highly active and regular players and also features a more generous reward system.

The VIP club consists of seven unique VIP tiers, where each tier requires 100 player points each month to be able to generate as many as 1,000,000 per year.

With each tier that you reach, you get access to better promotions and have the chance to earn points more frequently.

Loyalty Program

There’s a loyalty program offered by PokerStars where you collect reward points through real money games, which helps boost the progress bar. If you collect enough points, you get a chest full of prizes, including multiple PokerStars rewards.

The chest comprises six levels that keep increasing in value. These include Blue, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, and Black. If you want to retain your level, you will have to win at least one chest in a period of 28 days.

Tournaments

When it comes to tournaments, PokerStars sure does have a lot going on!

It is said to have the best online tournament offerings that guarantee $1 million through events every Sunday, followed by additional guarantees of $10,000 or more many times during the day every hour.

The PokerStars tournament schedule is best described as ‘bustling’ that transforms events into spectacles!

There are different kinds of tournaments that you can play as well, such as:

• Sit and go tournaments
• Spin and go tournaments
• PokerStars multi-table tournaments
• The Daily Bigs
• Sunday Majors

Player Base and Competition Strength

PokerStars holds the number 1 status or rank in the world in terms of the traffic it generates. Given the enormous traffic, you can find so many guaranteed events every hour with prize pools that are as high as $50,000 for buy-ins as small as $10.

When you look at the traffic situation overall, PokerStars has more active players, coming down to as many as 30,000 cash players during peak evening hours.

PokerStars poker Mobile App

For avid mobile users, you will be happy to know that there’s an absolutely killer PokerStars app that offers so many amazing PokerStars mobile home games to players and enthusiasts. The app has all the tournaments and cash games, and it also features every table, tournament, and Zoom Poker limit from all Android and iOS devices.

Some key features of this app are that it allows multi-tabling; however, it comes with a limitation that you can only have four tables on your mobile and iPad.

Overall, PokerStars mobile is super impressive and provides poker players with a fun, exciting, and seamless experience. Some groundbreaking features that the app offers are:

• Real money play
• Play money play
• Zoom Poker
• Play multiple tables (up to five at once on the iPad)
• Auto top-up in cash games
• Hold ’em and Omaha tournaments are available

Payment Options

For deposits, PokerStars offers the following options:

• Bank Draft
• Visa
• Mastercard
• Maestro
• PayPal
• Skrill
• NETELLER
• EntroPay
• Paysafecard
• WebMoney
• Local Bank Transfer
• Online Bank Transfer
• Instadebit
• Instant eChecks
• Giropay
• Sofortuberweisung
• Trustly
• AstroPay
• Boleta
• Yandex.Money
• Qiwi

For payouts, the following options are available:

• Bank Draft
• Visa
• PayPal
• Skrill
• NETELLER
• EntroPay
• WebMoney
• Instadebit
• Instant eChecks
• Yandex.Money
• Qiwi

Customer Support

While the people at PokerStars are incredibly helpful and friendly, this poker site lacks when it comes to customer support.

It only offers a direct email option for players, without any phone or live chat option, which means you could end up waiting for a while for the team to respond to your email.

The fact that it is such a popular and profitable company without player-friendly support options such as site-wide Live Chat or telephone is a little disappointing and embarrassing, to say the least.

Most customer complaints about PokerStars have to do with their customer support as many players look forward to being able to contact them through quicker options like phone calls or PokerStars UK live chat, for instance.

PokerStars email: [email protected]

Final Verdict

PokerStars is an excellent poker site for literally any and every poker enthusiast, without a doubt.

From amazing software to a variety of PokerStars games, exciting bonuses, and promotions, PokerStars offers a handful of impressive features. It’s easily one of the must-play and top-level poker sites in the world of online gambling.

This PokerStars poker review should help you form your own judgment about this popular poker site.