Want to have a little flutter? (pokerroom.com)

Member Name: thespurs

Product:	pokerroom.com
Date:	05/03/06 (275 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Range of games and tournaments, you can play for small or large stakes

Disadvantages: You can get beaten in the most frustrating ways from time to time

Are you the sort of person that likes a little bit of a flutter on the horses or the football at the weekend or tries their luck on the lottery? Well there is another way to gamble your little bit of spare cash. You join up to pokerroom.com and start playing poker against people from all over the world.

Poker has taken the internet by storm in the past few years and its popularity has grown rapidly throughout the world. Pictures from finals of the big global and European poker tournaments are even being beamed into homes all around the world. In the UK, we see poker on the satellite channels and even ITV and Five late at night. This exposure has lead to an ever increase core of passionate poker players who ply their trade online.

There are thousands of poker sites around on the internet. It is often difficult deciding which site to sign up with and start using. The each offer different promotions to new and existing players, which can vary in many ways. The type and amount of players can also vary greatly from one poker room to another, a factor also worth taking into account. You often find some players who don’t seem to care if they lose and will bet regardless of their hand. This can make for some easy profits but from time to time can really dent your stack.

This review is quite hard for me to write, because I know that there will be people reading it that know a little and others that know lots about playing poker online. If there are things that you don’t understand, please feel free to ask me any questions you may have. I will try and answer them as concisely as possible.


*Signing Up and Depositing*

It couldn’t really be an easier process to get yourself signed up and ready to play on pokerroom.com. When you arrive on the homepage, click the ‘Sign up’ link in the top left hand corner to get to the registration screen. Simply choose a username, a password and give a valid email address. In order to play real money games, you need to give some form of ID. You can use your driving licence or passport for this. It’s perfectly safe and just confirms your age and existence. You also need to provide your address, date of birth and select your time zone.

Once your account is set up, you can think about making your first deposit. There are many ways for you deposit, including via your UK credit or debit card, Moneybookers and Neteller. Each of these have different limits as to how much or how little you have to deposit per transaction so you will need to check these. Upon making your first deposit, pokerroom will give you 20% on top up to a maximum of $100 and a free ticket to a ‘newbies’ tournament. You will then be ready to hit the tables and start playing.

The sheer ease and simplicity of setting up a new account and making that first deposit on pokerroom are fantastic. It makes you feel comfortable with the site and allows you to get your teeth into playing poker very quickly. If you do have any problems with this then you can contact ‘Support’ who are very helpful. I will talk more about how to do so later in the review.


*Getting to the Tables*

There is one thing that is pretty unique about pokerroom.com. Most poker websites require the player to download software to their computer in order to play at the tables. At pokerroom this isn’t the case at all, although there is the option to download the software if you wish. This factor is something that a lot of people will be drawn by. It means that you don’t have to download anything that might, it probably wouldn’t though, harm your computer in some way.

In order to bring up the lobby, that contains all of the respective tables and tournaments, you simply click on the picture on the homepage once you are signed in to your account. You will then see a range of tabs running along the top of the lobby as well as an option to view the ring games or tournaments which is located in the centre of the window at the top. You then need to decide what game you want to play and at what stakes you would like to compete.


*Ring Games*

The ring games are a range of tables that offer different stake games for the four different types of poker available on pokerroom.com. Traditional Texas Hold’em where each player is dealt two cards and must make the best hand from those two and the five cards on the table. Then you have Omaha where players are dealt four cards and can use a maximum of two, along with three of the five on the table, to make the best hand. 7 Card Stud and 5 Card Draw ring games are also available.

The stakes at the table vary from .25c all they way up to $100. That gives you a wide spectrum a good variation of tables to use. Those tables at the lower end of the scale are obviously used more than those higher limit tables and you can therefore try and find a table that suits you. If you play one .25c table and the players aren’t playing your sort of game, there are always plenty of other tables to try. It also follows that the higher stake table you are at, the better the players tend to be. It can all go terribly wrong, incredibly quickly when playing for higher stakes – so be careful.

There a limit games, pot limit and also no limit. These determine the amount that each player can bet at any one time during one round of betting. If you are starting off and don’t want to risk too much money, you should stick to the limit games where people can only bet up to a maximum. However, pot and no-limit games give you a greater opportunity to bluff and actually win higher amounts of money.

The tables also vary in terms of the numbers of players that can sit at them. There are 10 seats at every table, but there may be a limit to how many players can sit at it. It will be anything from 2 players (heads up) right the way to the full 10 players. The 5 player tables tend to be quite popular as you tend to get more playable hands and more money changes hands far more quickly than full tables.

I personally tend to play $1 no-limit Hold’em and Omaha tables at pokerroom. I also try to look for tables that only allow a maximum of five or six players to play. I like this because you get to see far more flops and you are playing for a higher percentage of the time. It also allows you to try and get the measure of your fellow players, as there are less of them to monitor. I like to know where I am with some people and if you can read their game then it stands you in good stead. I like the range of ring games available at pokerroom and also the fact that they don’t have any ring games for less the .25c. Therefore you get some of the leisure players playing on the bigger tables and you can earn a nice wedge from some of them.


*Tournaments*

There a huge number of tournaments and qualifiers available at pokerroom.com. The buy-in (entry fee) can very from $1 for the Lucky Dollar right up to $250 and $300 tournaments. The Freeroll also operates twice every day and your entry is free. The 2400 entrants fight it out for a total prize pot of $500.

If you have a few hours to spare and really devote your full attention to these tournaments you can have a lot of success. The prizes can be quite substantial even for finishing in the top 5% and you can get a great return on your initial outlay. Also as there are such a range and such a high frequency of tournaments you can play a few and decide which one suits your style the best.


*Sit and Go*

The Sit and Go tournaments are different in that the number of entrants is smaller and there are a lot more of them, running regularly throughout the day. There are a wide range, too many to list here, but I will a couple of examples. You can play full table games with anything from a $5+.50c buy-in right up to $100+10c buy-in. The ten of you then play for a top prize, with position 2 and 3 also paid. Then there Turbo tournaments that see the blinds rise much quicker and these can be for five players right through to three tables.

I really enjoy the range of Sit and Go tournaments that pokerroom offer. If you play the lower buy-in games I feel that you are risking your money less. If you were to have all of or most of your money out on a ring game table, you could easily lose it all if you are reckless. In these Sit and Go games you get virtual chips and you can therefore be more in control. These tournaments also mean that you start on a par with all of the other players as you each have 1500 chips. The only thing that gets to me sometimes, are the incredible hands that seem to hit. You can have a clear winner only for someone to call with a rubbish hand and still beat you.


*Players Points*

Taken from pokerroom.com:

Ring Games
0.07 Player Points are awarded for every $0.10 paid in rake. So a rake of $3 will award all players in the hand 2.1 Player Points.

Tournaments
5 player points are awarded for every paid dollar in entry fee (real money tournaments). For example, if you enter a $20+2 tournament, you will be awarded 5 * $2 = 10 points, if you enter a $5+$0.50 tournament, you will be awarded 5*$0.50 = 2.5 points. The points are awarded when the tournament finishes.

These player points can be used to buy tickets for certain tournaments and also to redeem bonus packages offered by pokerroom.com. The bonus packages are quite good as you can get plenty of extra cash if you play a lot of high stakes ring games and also tournaments. I have managed to earn a bonus $10 on a number of occasions and it all comes on handy.


* Support*

The support service provided at pokerroom is very extensive. There is a detailed section answering questions that may arise whilst playing at pokerroom and quite often you can find a solution. Any problem you may have will be solved very quickly and enables you to get on with playing poker. If you do struggle to find an answer and think you have encountered a strange problem, then you can get in contact with support. You can email your queries or simply phone up the helpline which is always open. Another avenue would be to try the lobby as a member of support often hangs around in there and might be able to point you in the right direction.

Thankfully I have never had to use this service as I have never had a problem in my year and a half of playing at pokerroom. Those who I know that have had problems have found quick and satisfactory resolutions thanks to the help of the staff support. I think customer service is one of the most important things that any company should provide and at pokerroom it is top class.


*The Look*

As far as the actual graphics and design of pokerroom is concerned, I think it is second to none. The clarity is immense in every way, maximising your poker playing experience from start to finish. Even the silly things like the angle at which the table is placed all helps. The animation is also fantastic too, it tends to move in real time and be fluid. I find that some other sites seem to shunt along and their graphics seem very stone age in comparison to pokerroom. The 10 characters around the table are all different and although the always remain the same, they certainly add something.


*Evaluation*

This is a site that I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to play a bit of poker online. It has a poker game for everyone, with so many variances available. It brings together players on a global scale too, so you can play against and chat with people from all over the world. The chat feature at the tables can be interesting and it’s amazing how many foreigners can speak the English language and how well they do it.

The bonuses that you can get at pokerroom are also very good and you get a nice help in hand when you start. There are also reload bonuses to be realised and if you refer friends to the site it can be very profitable.

The key thing to remember when playing poker is to enjoy it and only play with money you can afford to lose. If you don’t enjoy it and get stressed it will reflect poorly on your game and could cost you money. There are limits that pokerroom put on players and that includes a maximum of $250 that can be deposited in one week. If you want this removed, you can send more ID to pokerroom and they will do this for you, but I would say that the limit is very sensible to have in place. So join up and have some fun in the process. If you don’t enjoy it then move on to another site and try your luck elsewhere.

Summary: Great fun.