The juggernaut of online poker rooms. During peak hours Party can have as many as 60,000 players at its tables, making it by far the most popular poker room on the web. The limits range from .50-$1.00 to $30-$60, and there's no shortage of no limit and tournament action as well. Many winning players don't play exclusively at Party, but just about all of them have an account there.

An interesting fact: about two years ago Party rightfully earned the reputation as being the 'fishiest' card room on the 'net, and as a result many of the pros from Paradise and Ultimate Bet started playing there exclusively. So far as I know Party was also the first room to allow players to play up to three tables simultaneously (they now allow you to play four), which made it an even more attractive site for pros. As a result, the games have gradually grown tougher. They're still very beatable, but it's not like it was in 2003, when the games were unbelievably stupid.

Soft Competition : Right behind Pacific Poker and Inter Poker in terms of sheer fishiness
Site Traffic: No site is bigger than Party. Huge game selection
Promotions: Frequent reload bonuses, usually 20% up to $100 or $100 max.
Customer Service: Don't be fooled-the live chat feature never works
Graphics/Software: Yes, you will grow to hate the Party avatars.

Other reasons to play at Party
1. Game selection. Whether you're into limit hold 'em, 7 stud hi low, or pot limit Omaha , Party has a game for you. Also, you never have to wait more than 20-30 seconds for a sit and go tournament to get off, so tourney players don't have to suffer through much down time.

2. Reload bonuses. Party does a pretty good job of offering regular reload bonuses, which is surprising given its size. Typically these bonuses are 20% up to $100, although lately more 20% up to $200 bonuses have been popping up.

3. Multi-tabling. As mentioned earlier, Party let's you play up to four tables at once. This is a dream come true for winning players, as this feature can allow you to get up to 250 hands in per hour.

4. Huge Bad Beat Jackpots. If you're into Bad Beat Jackpots than Party is the place to take your action. While the Bad Beat collection seems a little steep ($.25 from each raked pot) the volume of players at Party means the jackpot can get very large very fast. In January we saw it get up past $600,000, and jackpots over $250,000 are routine. You need to have quad eights or better beaten, and while this doesn't happen every day I've personally had four hands in my lifetime that would have qualified, so it can and does happen. The Bad Beat tables are separate from the rest of the tables, so player's who don't want to participate won't have to pay the collection.

Additional Perks
Daily freeroll tournaments (a freeroll is pokerspeak for a tournament that has no buy-in) which you can get into by redeeming your 'Party Points'. You collect Party Points by playing for real money.

PokerRoom
The only reputable poker room on the 'net offering play for Mac users!

PokerRoom is the classic example of the 'little poker room that could'. Back when they first opened shop they couldn't buy a player-and I mean that honestly, as I stopped in here back in 2001 and the place was a real ghost town. But they stuck with it, and their steadily growing reputation as a card room with fair games and quick cashouts, combined with a heavy publicity campaign this last summer, has really brought in the players. I think it would be safe to say that PokerRoom is one of the six or seven biggest card rooms on the 'net right now, which would put it right there with Pacific and Ultimate Bet in terms of sheer size. The sign up bonus is 20% up to $100, which is in line with the industry standard.

Soft Competition: About average
Site Traffic: A more-than-adequate selection of games at any time, and this site just keeps growing
Promotions: Promotions are obviously a priority here
Customer Service:
Graphics/Software: Mac-friendly is a big plus, and the horrific old avatars have been redesigned, yet there's something 'clunky' about the table graphics here that we just can't put our finger on.

Other reasons to play at PokerRoom:
1. Mac Friendly. If you're a Mac user you may already know what a nightmare it is trying to find a poker room at which you can play. The Poker Room has done a dynamite job of making their site compatible with Mac users, and in this sense they're way ahead of the curve. If you're playing on a Mac this is the place to open an account.

2. Great Sit and Go's. For the uninitiated, Sit and Go's are one table tournaments. Typically the winner gets 50% of the prize pool, the second place finisher gets 30%, and the third place finisher gets 20%. Sit and Go's have become immensely popular, as they tend to play fast (most take less than an hour to complete) and you don't have huge droughts where you don't get into the prize money. The nice thing about PokerRoom's Sit and Go's is that you start off with $1500 in tournament chips, which means it takes longer for the size of the blinds to start forcing the action. When you start with more chips, the better players have a larger advantage, as they are not forced by the size of the blinds (relative to their stack sized) to make risky plays with a relatively low yield. Compare this to Party's Sit and Go's, where everyone starts off with $800 in tournament chips, and you can see why Sit and Go fiends have fallen in love with this site.

Additional Perks
Royal Flush Jackpot. Hit a royal flush on a real money table and you'll win a bonus equal to 100x the big blind in the game you're playing.

Low Roller Tournaments. Poker Room is in the habit of offering very small buy in tournaments (some as small as $1) where the house adds on an additional $2500 in prize money.

Daily prizes for serious players. Be one of the top fifty poker point earners in a single day and you'll split a $1000 prize pool with the other forty-nine top earners. Pacific Poker
Pacific is a typical medium sized site. It doesn't get the traffic that Party does, but then what site does? In any case, there are always multiple games going at every limit from .50-$1.00 to $15-$30, so game selection isn't a problem. The sign up bonus is a decent 25% up to $100, which makes Pacific worth checking out. They also offer a no download version for those who are interested.

Soft Competition: The softest games on the 'net-Period
Site Traffic: A solid medium-large site, with multiple games going at every limit.
Promotions: Reload bonuses are infrequent.
Customer Service: It's tough to get a hold of a warm body at Pacific
Graphics/Software: Terrible graphics, but God are the games ever soft!

Other reasons to play at Pacific:
1. The pond is stocked! Everything you may have heard about Pacific is true. Yes, their software sucks. Yes, customer service is a nightmare. But the cold fact remains that Pacific offers the juiciest games on the 'net. I've played just about everywhere, and I can honestly say that the quality of play here is even worse than what I saw during the salad days at Party. When it comes to providing the player with a pond full of fish, Pacific Poker simply has no peer. Part of the reason for this lies in the fact that Pacific is tied in with Casino on Net, which is one of (if not the) largest casinos on the 'net. This means you get tons of people drifting in from the casino who've never played poker before.

Additional Perks
As part of their loyalty program Pacific gives out poker points, which can be used to buy in to their 'Showdown Survivor' tournaments. These tournaments can have prize pools of up to $5,000.

Ultimate Bet
About three years ago Ultimate Bet established itself as one of the 'big four' in the world of online poker rooms, along with Party, Paradise Poker and PokerStars. It still holds that distinction, although the traffic here hasn't grown as much as it has at Party and Stars. This, along with Paradise , used to be a favorite site amongst online pros, and the result was a reputation for having some of the tougher games on the 'net. I personally think this is unfair, since the games have never seemed that tight when I've played there (certainly nothing like the Paradise $5-$10, for instance, which may be the lousiest hold 'em game on the 'net). In any case, I imagine this is one of the reasons why Ultimate Bet hasn't seen a whopping traffic increase, as everything else about the site is top-tier. The software is attractive and plays smoothly (current Party and Pacific players have no idea what they're missing), and the support staff is great. Cashouts have never been a problem here, as this card room is a model of financial responsibility.

Soft Competition: Growing softer as the site gains more new players
Site Traffic: Having Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke as spokespeople has helped boost their player base
Promotions: Decent reload bonuses
Customer Service: I've never actually had to contact the support staff, but everyone I know raves about them
Graphics/Software: The fastest software on the 'net

Other reasons to play at Ultimate Bet
1. Great no limit action. If you're looking for big no limit games than this, along with PokerStars, is the place to be. I've seen some absolutely mammoth pots built in the no limit games here, and the action goes 24/7. The fact that Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke are both affiliated with this site means there is never a shortage of wannabe's signing up here, which keeps the games relatively soft.

2. Great tournaments and satellites. In recent years Ultimate Bet has put a real emphasis on promoting their tournaments. The Sit and Go action is great, and they're constantly running satellites for big events in the WPT and WSOP. If you're looking for a chance to play on TV, and don't want to pony up five or ten grand for the privilege, then this is your site.

Additonal Perks
1. Annie Duke Freeroll. Earn 300 UltimatePoints at Annie Duke's $4-$8 table over the course of a month and you're eligible for an entry into a $1000 freeroll.

2. Real money players earn UltimatePoints which are redeemable for entries into major tournaments and other merchandise. If you somehow manage to accrue 2.5 million UltimatePoints you can redeem them for $10,000 cash.

Empire Poker
Empire is a 'skin' of Party Poker. What's a skin? Simply put, it's a card room that funnels its players into another site's games. Thus, when you play at Empire you'll be playing with a mix of Empire and Party players. Needless to say, everything that applies to Party applies here-the game selection is unparalleled, and you can still play four tables at once.

Soft Competition: Right behind Pacific Poker and Inter Poker in terms of sheer fishiness
Site Traffic: As a 'skin of Party Poker - huge game selection
Promotions: Frequent reload bonuses, usually 20% up to $100 or $100 max.
Customer Service: Don't be fooled-the live chat feature never works
Graphics/Software: Though otherwise identical, the blue as opposed to the green environment of Party is more appealing to us.

Other reasons to play at Empire:
1. Some people say that there's no sense in having an account at both Party and Empire, but I disagree. For one thing, having accounts open at both allows you to double the amount of 'freebies' that you receive. Like Party, Empire isn't afraid to toss out its share of reload bonuses, so having an account here means you'll have the chance to earn twice as much free money. Also, the background at Empire is blue, as opposed to Party's green, and for some reason I find the blue more appealing (I know that doesn't sound very important, but when you find yourself staring at a computer screen for four or more hours a day the importance of color schemes takes on a whole new dimension). For that reason alone I tend to find myself playing here more often than at Party.

Additional Perks
Empire has a VIP program, whereby players accrue points for playing with real money. These VIP points can be redeemed for entries into freerolls, Empire Poker merchandise, and trips to Las Vegas.

Inter Poker
Like Pacific, Inter Poker is tied in with a major online casino-in this case Intercasino. The game selection here is just a tad lighter than that at Pacific, although anyone playing $3-$6 or smaller will have no trouble finding a game. The bonus structure here is the best in the biz-you get a 100% match bonus up to $90 when you first sign up, and existing players are eligible for that same bonus every month. What this means, basically, is that Inter is willing to give you $90 a month to play in their games. If you're playing $1-$2, and you're win rate is one big bet per hour, this translates into 45 hrs. worth of profit that Inter Poker is willing to hand you every month.

Soft Competition: Right there with Pacific when it comes to keeping the pond stocked
Site Traffic: Never a problem finding a game at the $3-$6 or lower
Promotions: 100% to $90 reload bonus every month
Customer Service: I've never had a problem getting questions answered
Graphics/Software: Games occasionally play slowly

Other reasons to play at Inter Poker:
1. Fishy fishy fishy! As far as I'm concerned Inter Poker is the best kept secret on the 'net. The games here are ridiculously soft, and can only be rivaled by Pacific in terms of sheer fishiness. Obviously the fact that they're tied in with a casino accounts for part of this, although secondary reason lies in the fact that Inter manages to attract more than its share of European players. And while I'll be the first to admit there are some bang-up European players out there, it's also true that some Europeans play a brand of poker so terrible that even the fish on this side of the Atlantic are forced to take notice.

2. Get paid to play! This is one of the funky features that makes Inter Poker so attractive. When a new table is starting up, Inter will let everyone know that the new game is going to get off, and that anyone who help get the game going will be paid to play in it-up to $10 an hour, for a maximum of two hours. If you have a decent short handed game this is a fantastic way to make an extra couple hundred bucks a month.

3. Did I mention the bonus? Like I said in the intro, Inter Poker offers one of the best standing bonuses out there. I really like the idea of offering loyal customers the same benefits that are offered to newbies, and Inter apparently agrees with me. If you don't want an extra $90 a month than you can ignore this. Otherwise there's no excuse for not opening an account here.

Additional Perks:
1. Royal Flush Jackpot. Make a royal flush at one of Inter's real money tables and you could be eligible for a $500 bonus

2. Bad Beat Jackpot. The Bad Beat Jackpot starts at $2500 and grows by $250 a day until someone hits it.

3. Like Party, Inter offers poker points to real money players. These points can be redeemed for entries into freerolls.

Absolute Poker
Comparable to Full Tilt when it comes to volume, Absolute Poker is a well run, medium sized site with a good game selection. Cashouts are processed ridiculously fast, so there's no real waiting to collect your winnings. The software can bog down if you're multi-tabling, although otherwise it seems to run fine. When I had a question about how my sign up bonus would be cleared the support staff got back to me ASAP, so I'm happy to give them a thumbs-up for customer service. I really like this room, and have found myself playing here more and more in recent months.

Soft Competition: Nothing sensational, but still very beatable
Site Traffic: Solid medium-sized site
Promotions: The best reload bonuses in the industry. You could make a healthy side job out of simply clearing what are almost weekly bonuses.
Customer Service: All my emails have been answered quickly
Graphics/Software: Comparable to Inter Poker in terms of game speed

Other reasons to play at Absolute
1. Reload bonuses. Absolute Poker has set the standard when it comes to reloads. I probably get an average of one email from them a week offering me a reload bonus, and these aren't your garden variety $10 bonuses either-most have a cap of $100-$200. A player could make half a grand a month just clearing their bonuses-they're that good.

Additional Perks
1. Daily freerolls. Every day Absolute runs a freeroll, and the top five finishers qualify for an end of the month tournament, the winner of which gets a $2,000 prize package to Vegas.

2. Absolute also has a Bad Beat Jackpot, and run periodic 'cracked aces specials' that are worth up to $20.


True Poker
I can't figure the place out. They have a great support staff, the lower limit action is always good, they have what are positively the best graphics of any card room on the 'net, and yet for some reason they haven't grown much in the past two years. I can only attribute this to the fact that True Poker has never staged any kind of meaningful publicity campaign, because everything else about this site is fantastic. Open an account here, folks-you won't be disappointed. The software is a treat to play on, and the games are always good.

Other reasons to play at True Poker:
1. The graphics. True Poker is light years ahead of the rest of the pack when it comes to graphics. It's the only card room on the 'net that offers a genuine 3-D playing experience, and anyone who hasn't tried it out needs to give it a shot. At first it's a bit unnerving, but once you get into it it's a blast.

2. Passive players. The True Poker regulars aren't particular loose, or particularly tight, but they definitely play a passive game of poker. This is great for the winning Texas hold em player, as passive play means a much lower variance with only a small drop off in win rate. If you or someone you know is just getting started playing Texas hold em than this is the room to at which to start playing.


Titan Poker
Formerly called "Noble Poker", Titan Poker opened their doors a little while ago, and though we're typically not in the business of promoting new rooms we have to make an exception here. They're part of the Casino Partners program, which has a squeaky clean reputation for it's casinos, and their poker department is doing everything the right way. This isn't a room for anyone playing $2/$4 or higher, but microlimit players will have a field day with the freakishly soft competition.

Soft competition: It's hard to find anything bigger than a .50/$1.00 game going here, but these games are just unbelievably soft.
Site Traffic: Still a small cardroom, although a $1/$2 game can usually be found.
Promotions: Although they haven't been in business long, everything indicates that Noble will be taking their promos very seriously.
Customer Service: An email I had re: a sign-up question was answered in 20 minutes.
Graphics/Software: The graphics are lame, but the software runs smoothly.

Other reasons to play at Titan:
1. The best .50/$1.00 games on the 'net. Yes, they're better than Pacific. Yes, they're even better than Party. We don't usually play stakes this low, although many of our visitors do; as a result we try to keep our ear to the rail when it comes to micro limit action. We've played in almost every fifty cent game you can find on the 'net, and NONE compare to the games at Noble. Eight players routinely take the flop, and nobody raises pre-flop unless they have pocket Q's or better. A sea monkey could beat these games-they're just that juicy.

Royal Vegas Poker