PokerStars

PokerStars is the biggest poker site in the world from a traffic perspective — and the sites behind PokerStars aren’t really all that close. In addition, at over seven years old, PokerStars is one of the oldest online poker sites in the world. During the course of its seven-plus year run, PokerStars has gained a superb reputation for smooth software, quick support, top notch service, great tournaments and an excellent VIP program. If you’re brand new to online poker and you want one site to try, it should be PokerStars. Read on for more detailed information.

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Tournaments

PokerStars is THE site for tournaments. How did it get that way? A few reasons. First, a number of World Series of Poker champions have played their way into the Main Event via PokerStars’ satellite system. Most famously, Chris Moneymaker worked a $39 investment into a $2.5 million dollar payday at the 2003 World Series of Poker. In addition to the $2.5 million dollars and a virtually permanent spot on Team PokerStars, Moneymaker gain significant international notoriety and is one of the best-known World Champions to the non-poker world.

Second, PokerStars has a superb tournament schedule with offerings for all players. From freerolls and 10 cent tournaments all the way up to a weekly $1000 buyin tournament and the huge guarantees at the World Championship of Online Poker, PokerStars really does have everything a tournament player could ever want.

Third, PokerStars’ software for tournaments is second-to-none. While some other sites have struggled to develop software that always functions correctly and doesn’t crash, PokerStars’ software simply works — all of the time.

Cash Games

PokerStars offers many different games of poker across all major limits. You can play for as little as 1 cent and 2 cent blinds. In addition, if you’re a high stakes player, you can play as high as $200/$400 no limit holdem, which has a $40,000 maximum buyin.

Traffic

As stated previous, PokerStars’ traffic is excellent. The site is a thriving community of online poker players, some of whom play over 100,000 hands per month. Whatever game you’re looking for, you can probably find it at PokerStars. Whether it’s Sit and Goes, Multi Table Tournaments, Cash Games, live event qualifiers (such as the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure or the World Series of Poker) or just about anything else, PokerStars has it and the games are always running.

Promotions

PokerStars always has many promotions running. Here are a list of a few:

1. 100% deposit bonus up to $600. If you’re a first-time depositor on PokerStars, you can deposit $600 and get a $600 bonus. In order to receive the $600 bonus, you have to earn 17 VPPs for each $1 in bonus money. So, for a $100 bonus, you need to earn 1700 FPPs. FPPs are earned when you play poker on PokerStars. 1700 FPPs for $100 is a relatively easy clearance level and can be done pretty quickly. In addition, the bous releases in $10 increments so if you earn most of it but miss the last few FPPs you’ll still get paid most of the bonus. You have 180 days to clear the bonus before it expires.
2. Poker Camp – The PokerStars Poker Camp is an in-person poker training series to be held from January 7th to January 9th, 2009 at the beautiful Atlantis Hotel and Resort on Paradise Island in The Bahamas. The Poker Camp is expected to feature WSOP Main Event Champions Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker, along with Daniel Negreanu, one of the best poker players in the world. There are 60 packages available and you can win them on PokerStars.

3. Tournament Leaderboards – For years, the Weekly “TLB” (or Tournament Leaderboard) has been one of the most sought-after titles for PokerStars tournament players. The title denotes the player who has the most total points from their best 10 results over the prior week. Points are calculated based on a formula that PokerStars developed years ago. So what do you get if you win it? Well, for starters, you get to play in a $1000 heads up freeroll against a pro from Team PokerStars (but if the TLB winner loses, then the $1000 carries over to the next week — so, in theory, the TLB win could be worth quite a bit more than the $1000 freeroll if the last few TLB winners have lost!). You also get to choose the game that you’d like to play in the freeroll.

   Not only do you get the freeroll entry for a weekly win, you also get a lot of points towards your monthly and yearly TLB totals. Each month, the monthly TLB awards $30,000 to its top 200 players and an additional $20,000 to its top 1000 players. Getting into the top 1000 is much easier than you might think! Of course, if you are good at tournament poker, first place in the monthly TLB race awards an extra $5000.

   Lastly, the yearly TLB awards a bevy of live tournament buyins in the form of “PokerStars Passports”. A PokerStars Passport is basically a fancy name for a bunch of tournament entries, hotel accomodations, spending money and PokerStars gear. It’s a great prize to shoot for! In order to be in competition for the PokerStars Passports, you need to be in the top 100 of the PokerStars TLB at the end of each calendar year.

Overall

You can’t go wrong playing at PokerStars. There is a lot of money to be won on the site, there are great promotions, the site’s operators are very reputable and you can trust the site to run a fair game. Try out PokerStars today.