An Opinion Poll As To Best Sites

[David Sklansky]

Opinions about the best internet poker sites are at present randomly scattered about this forum. Thus I thought it might be a good idea to have a single thread about the subject. I would like those of you who play on the sites to give me your rating of the top five or so in your opinion, mentioning the pros and cons of each site. Thank You.

[Mike Haven]

To avoid the possibility of your being an interloper only posting here to join in the Zoo Tournaments you must put up a picture of yourself so that we know you are genuinely interested in becoming a regular poster on our forum, as well, of course, as showing us it is really you and not some DS wannabe using a phoney photograph.

I'll leave it to others to elaborate.

[mrbaseball]

I have only played on 4. Paradise, Planet, Pokerstars and WSEX. Since I haven't played on Planet in about 4 years I won't even comment on that one.

Paradise - I play this one the most and quite regularly.
Pro's - great game selection and there always seems to be a game going. Good choice as to limit and game as well as decent one table (sit 'n go) tourneys. Best poker software I have seen. Fast and efficient.
Con's - Sometimes games get a little too tight but my guess is that happens everywhere. I have no complaints with Paradise.

Pokerstars
Pro's - Great multitable tournaments and tournament software. 2 table sit 'n go's a nice touch too. This is the place for internet poker tournaments.
Con's - Only played once in a ring game here. Doesn't seem to have much ring action at all. Tournament schedule sucks! In prime US evening and weekends there are only a few tournaments a week that really interest me. Also I'm a limit man and most of the tourneys skew to the no limit side. Personally I don't consider no limit the cadillac of poker [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

WSEX
Pro's - none
Con's - horrendously slow software, no game selection and basically no sight traffic whatsoever. I have a book account there so I have tried the poker a few times and the action (when there is a game going) is horrible. They have recently upgraded the software so I'm not sure if it is still so annoying. But every time I went to try it out no games were going at all.

I expect I will be opening a Party account soon as rumors of aquarium conditions circulate. But I have been finding Paradise comfortable and profitable for quite some time so I havent been to anxious to leave or switch or go through the hassle of funding another account.

[zooey]

1 = poor, 5 = fantastic.

Site, Games (poor players = good), Software

Paradise, 3 , 4
Stars, 2 , 4
Party , 5 , 2
Ultimate, 4, 3
True, 4, 2 (Nicely done, just not for me)

I consider all of the above sites to be fair, honest, and a safe place to have your funds. Sorry I'm too lazy to figure out tables.

Best,

zooey

[Miah]

There are a couple of ways you could rate the top 5 sites depending on how you want to weight your criteria. Probably the most significant is the quality of the players, but somewhat ignoring this factor (simply because many of the sites with the worst players have absolutely horrible support/software) these are my (in no particular order) top 4:

1. Party Poker. This is by far the absolute best site to currently play on. The software leaves a bit to be desired and their recent server problems and slow games have been a nuisance, but you cannot deny the profitability of the games here. The standard of thinking is that low limit online poker is comparable to much higher limits in B&M. Due to Party Poker's highly successful marketing campaign its safe to say this is definitely not the case on their site. A properly trained monkey can value bet his way into the money on the low limits on Party, and the higher limits aren't nearly as skilled as you would expect them to be. Party Poker's broken english support team is horrible but people have been known to get results by reaching out to those a bit higher on the totem pole. I would avoid multi table tournaments as some have had some true “bad beats” due to Party’s ridiculous multi table tournament policy. Most of the problems stem from unfair rules regarding tournaments that have come to a halt due to problems with Party’s servers. Overall Party is the best place to play now for ring games simply because the games are so plentiful and profitable which greatly increases your bottom line and justifies putting up with the sub-par support, network performance, and software.

2. Paradise Poker. The recently dethroned king of online poker still has the best software and excellent ring game selection. All of my dealings with their support team have had nothing but great results and a complete show of professionalism on their part. Game speed is excellent and their is a great selection of games at varying limits. In the past Paradise was known for tight/aggressive play which has for some reason recessed recently with % flop and avg. pot #'s much higher then they once were. If you can't stand Party's support and software Paradise is the place to be.

3. Poker Stars. The undisputed best site for tournament play. Just like Paradise their software and support is excellent and my experiences with their support team has been nothing but pleasurable and accommodating. Their ring games (especially at the lower limits) can be quite harder than you can find elsewhere (Party) very similar to the way Paradise ring games used to be. This has also lightened up a bit recently with their ring games becoming a bit more loose than their norm. As was mentioned, you simply cannot beat Stars for Tournaments. They have the best structures and offer the most variety of tournament selection and limits. Stars is the place to play if you are a tournament person, the only drawback is the players are on average much better than you will find at other sites.

4. True Poker. This is one of the smaller sites which is reflected in their game selection, which on its own isn’t bad but rather small in comparison to the 3 sites mentioned above. However, no other site has gone out of their way to please me (the customer) as True Poker has. Anytime there was a problem it was corrected with immediate results and the customer was extremely satisfied receiving a more than fair deal. I’m sure many of the other members on this site can attest to the excellent customer service they received from True Poker. There is always a live “host” that unlike other sites that offer this feature (party) is knowledgeable and does not respond with “form letters” or pre-written responses. Another large plus is the vast amount of weak players that seem to populate their games throughout the limits that are spread. This is also a good site to become a regular on as they have some sort of program for cashing back some of your points that are earned. Unfortunately this feature is only available to those players who play for consistently large amounts of time on True. If I didn’t jump around on sites so much (for variety mostly) I would definitely be all over this.

5. I can’t honestly put down a site for 5th place. The two closest I can think of are Ultimate Bet and Pokerroom, both of which I had problems with when contacting support. Pokerroom refused to refund me my money on an unfair deal due to their faulty software and Ultimate Bet declined to send me hand histories that I requested simply stating that it was too much work. Very unprofessional. If it wasn’t for these two occurrences I would say this is a close tie with UB taking a slight lead over Pokerroom. Other sites that I have money on are Pacific Poker and Intercasino poker which have excellent loose-passive games (probably due to their online casino establishments) but their competency of their support and software equals that of their average player’s card skills. Due to the lack of knowledge of the support staff, you run a greater risk of becoming a victim of collusion on Pacific which some have mentioned in the past.

[LLAMA]

I don't have 5 I want to list, but i'll list my favorite 3.

<font color="blue">Americas CardRoom:</font color>

<font color="green">Pros:</font color> If you don't have(or want to use) much money to start yourself off, this is the easiest site you will find to build a bankroll on. The promotions they run are structured for the individual and are very easy to take full advantage of. Software is very fast.

<font color="red">Cons:</font color> Limited game selection. Mostly $2/$4 and lower games going on, but fairly hard to find higher most times. Sometimes you have to take whatever they have going if you want to play.

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<font color="blue">PartyPoker:</font color>

<font color="green">Pros:</font color> Biggest site out there as of now. You will always find a game here no matter what the time, as well as most any limit you want. Games are pretty soft if you choose the right one.

<font color="red">Cons:</font color> Recently the servers have become VERY unstable. Due to all the newcomers, the servers are stressed quite a lot and sometimes the games creep to a halt. Support is also nothing to cheer about and even with their live help button, you could be waiting a LONG time for help...not to mention that once you do get someone, they may still be no help to you.

-----------------------------------------------------------

<font color="blue">PokerStars:</font color>

<font color="green">Pros:</font color> Good site, good frequent player promotion, fairly good variety of games to choose from. If you are looking for the best multi-player tournament crowd, this is where they hang out. Huge variety of tournaments to choose from each day. Most of the larger tournaments have support watching the final tables for any deal makings.

<font color="red">Cons:</font color> Games are a bit tougher here then other sites. No phone number or live help...email is the chosen form of help here.

LLAMA

[CreamPuff]

#1) Party Poker:

Pros:
Good marketing/promos.
Pulling off the near impossible of surpassing paradise
poker in volume (at times).
Game selection: Best online by far all the way up to $15/
$30.
Great $10/20 stud h/l action.

10% interest on up to 10K is a good bonus.

Cons: Not the most stable server

#2) PokerStars
Pros: Best tournament software...Fast, reliable servers.
Smooth, fast no-nonsense gameplay...Games getting increasingly better since WSOP winner from what I hear.

Cons: I haven't played the ring games a whole lot this
past yr, but when I do they still seem somewhat tight.

#3) Ultimate Bet
Pros: Fast servers (most of the time)..Very fast gameplay
with a decent supply of new players coming and going at
the 5/10 limits.

Cons: Not a whole lot of good short handed high limit games
(players are tough)...And the 15/30 and 10/20 just
dont stay full during non-peak hrs..
Also not many monthy bonuses for existing players.
Near impossible to win high hand with the volume of
players there.

#4) WSEX

Pros: Last time I played there (3 months ago) action was
really really good...Customer service is excellent.

Cons: I want to say user-interface, but I know they
updated it recently..Ive had some $ dormant in this account,
because its often hard to find a mid-limit game (usually
8/16)


Others

True Poker: I never gave them much of chance...fancy
talking robots, and players you can barely see just
didnt appeal to me.

Plant Poker: Only being able to play 1 table at a time
is a huge drawback..Enough said.

Paradise: I still play there to get my hand histories
for use on pokerstat...Other than that, games and
server are fast..Shorthanded games can be tough...Most
full games are beatable, but I do avoid the $20/$40.

Summary

Fast multi-table gameplay, with a good turnover of weak
players is what I look for...I could live w/out some
of the bonuses I get, but thats what usually pulls
in the bad players.

[RollaJ]

Party (AKA Empire) has to be the best at this point.... their software is horrible, their customer support stinks, their servers cant handle the customer load and the site crashes a few times a week BUT..... their games are by far the softest on the web and it all comes down to the bottom line no matter how bad the site itself is. Their deposit bonus promotions are great too. If they lose either of these at any point they will be worthless.


Paradise has by far the best software of any site IMHO audio and visual and I have never been on and seen it crash. Support has always been ok for me although others have complained. The games however are generally rather tight, so I play there only when not playing at party.

UB- is very good too, good software, wild players nice site overall where you can play 5 tables at a time in, an exclusive to their site, minimized view.

Truepoker- OK overall, play is a little too slow for me. Customer service is the best I have encountered.....30 second responses.

Pokerstars- Great software, but shuffle is suspect! The only site where I cant win....In fact I have had heavy loses. If you are a bad player this is the site for you as the "random" shuffle seems to reward bad play.

Dynamite poker-Crude graphics, game play was OK though. Didnt really use support, but got the Tshirt they promised for winning a multi tourney there.


Planetpoker- Havent played there in 3 years but liked it from what I recall.

I never had problems cashing out from any site, so all are equal on that front.... at least in my eyes

[jek187]

When I judge an online site, I look at 2 things. How soft are the games? How often is there a game at my limit (2/4 is my "home.") So, I have rated the rooms based on Game Quality*Game availibility where Game Quality is rated from 1 to 10, and Game Availibility is a % of the times they have a game at 2/4 when I want to play. I'll also include notes on the customer service/software if something at the site is out of the ordinary. So, w/out further ado, here we go:

1. Party Poker = 10 (slow, friendly, clueless customer support, serious sofware issues including game slowdowns/stoppages and an alien infested waiting list.)
2. Pacific Poker = 9.26 (fast, friendly, clueless customer support, very slow and moderately buggy software)
3. Paradise Poker = 8.43 (should be benchmarked for sofware/CS)
4. Ultimate Bet = 8.39 (CS/management don't seem to care about their players too much. Great sofware.)
5. Pokerroom = 7.20
6. True Poker = 5.67 (Definitely the most unique software on the net.)
7. Poker Stars = 5.65 (Another great CS/software tandem)
8. Planet Poker = 5.05 (The birthplace of jek187)
9. Intercasino Poker = 4.75 (The slowest, rudest, dumbest customer support on the net. Buggy software.)
10. America's Card Room = 4.46 (There is that itty bitty issue of them stealing certain players money.)
11. WSex = 3.98 (Great customer service)
12. Poker Gold = 3.61
13. The Poker Club = 2.06
14. Dynamite Poker = 1.20 (The best CS on the net.)
15. 24h Poker = .89
16. Big Bet Poker = .46
17. Gaming Club = .44 (Crappy CS)
18. Golden Palace = .10
NR: Ladbrokes (us Yanks can't play there.)

[VeryTnA]

I'm sure the response to this survey will be a monster. I'll be very brief.
&lt;p&gt;
If I were going to start a poker site, I'd use Poker Stars software, WSEX customer service, and Party's advertising.
&lt;p&gt;
Poker Stars, Party Poker, get 5 stars for all this obvious reasons. Stars great software. Party acceptable software, Quick payouts, Good game selection, etc. Great tournaments!!!
&lt;p&gt;
WSEX gets 4 stars for two important reasons. The fastest payouts and fastest/best customer serivce. I play here everyday. I wish more people would them a try.
&lt;P&gt;
UB and Paradise get 3 stars. No problems with the software or payouts. I just don't like the games. Paradise games dry up the instant a game drops below +/- 28%. The table hopping makes me crazy. UB games are too unpredictable. My bankroll swings are 5x that of any other site.
&lt;p&gt;
ZERO STARS GO TO: Americas Card Room. They pay so slow, they don't answer email, the software in funky, even the table is funky. I gave them a try and said GOOD BYE!!!
&lt;p&gt;