Poker Stars Review

Pokerstars tournament

Screenshot of the pokerstars software, showing a poker tournament in action

PokerStars Review
The background Pokerstars was founded in 2001 and has been growing rapidly since they started. Just two years after the launch they already dominated the poker industry. Poker Stars has continuously operated the worlds biggest Internet based poker tournaments with prize pools exceeding two million dollars (USD). In the year 2005 they started running the World Series Of Online Poker (WCOOP) as a spin off from their large tournaments successes. In 2009 they implemented new graphics in their poker client and has ever since the best reconfigurability amongst all online poker rooms. You can customize everything regarding the graphics.

Nearly everyone who is playing online poker has an account at PokerStars.  They have also brought the largest number of players to the W.S.O.P tournament through their popular satellite tournaments. PokerStars has always been welcoming American poker players eventhough the legislation prohibits American banks and American issued Visa cards to process poker and gambling transactions. PokerStars found a way around this law. NOTE: it’s perfectly legal for US citizens to play online poker, it’s only illegal for banks to process a gambling transaction from a domestic American.

PokerStars Support
The PokerStars support is only available through email. We all would have appreciated the option to dial a phone number but their email response times are astonishingly fast so they do actually provide  a very good customer service.

Deposits and Cash-outs
Poker Stars offers one of the most comprehensive lists of depositing methods, they virtually accept all credit cards and we haven’t found one e-wallet solution they don’t provide support for. The cash-outs however are put on a restraint that makes it impossible to withdraw money before 48 hours of your first deposit. This can be pretty frustrating if you are in dire needs of funds. Other than that their cash-outs can be paid out to the credit card you first deposited with but this is not available for US players. Other than the Visa pay outs you can always get your funds via a wire transfer to your bank account, or sent to any of the popular e-wallets.

Obviously Poker Stars has Texas Hold’m and Omaha in both cash games and tournament mode.

List of all poker types PokerStars supports:

  • Texas Holdem
  • Omaha
  • Omaha HiLow
  • 7 card stud
  • 7 Card Stud Hi/Low
  • Five Card Draw
  • 2-7 Triple Draw
  • 2-7 Single Draw
  • Razz
  • Badugi
  • HORSE (Holdem, Omaha, Razz, Stud, Eight or better)
  • HOSE (Holdem, Omaha, Stud, Eight or better)
  • Mixed Holdem
  • Mixed Omaha HiLow
  • 8-game Mix
  • PLH/PLO

PokerStars Software facts

  • Developer: Internally developed (Rational Entertainment Enterprises, Ltd)
  • Pokernetwork: Standalone
  • Compatibility: Windows AND Mac OS(!)
  • Client size: 44.5 MB
  • Encryption: SSLv3/TLSv1
  • Random number generator: YES (TRNG)
  • Verified by: Cigial & BMM International

Screenshots of the software poker lobby and PokerStars poker Table:

Table stakes and SitNgo Buy-ins range

No Limit Hold em stakes

  • Fullring (9 seats):$0.01/$0.02 up to $200/$400
  • 6-max (6 seats):$0.01/$0.02 up to $200/$400
  • Heads-up (2 seats): $0.25/$0.50 up to $25/$50

Fixed Limit Hold em stakes

  • Fullring (10 seats): $0.02/$0.04 up to $1000/$2000
  • 6-max (6 seats): $0.02/$0.04 up to $200/$400
  • Heads-up (2 seats): $0.50/$1 up to $10/$20

Sit and Go (Tournaments)

  • Full table buy-in (9 and 10 seats):$1+$0.20 up to $2100+$90
  • 6-max buy-in (6 seats):$1+$0.20 up to $1060+$50
  • Heads-up buy-in (2 seats): $2+$0.20 up to $5500+$100
  • Standard seats: 2, 6, 9 and 10

The guaranteed tournaments usually never has an overvalue but they do provide more than 10 million usd in guaranteed tournament stakes monthly.

Overall, PokerStars is a poker site you must have an account at if you plan to play a lot of poker online. There is always good action there and you can always find the poker table you are looking for, no matter if you want to play with big blinds small as one cent, or as high as $400 no limit hold’em. Be sure to use a Poker Stars marketing code when you sign up, otherwise you might miss out some of the largest deposit bonuses or Freeroll tournaments.