Bwin Poker is a great site for all players. Bwin is one of the largest poker sites on the Ongame network and has about 45,000 tournament players at peak hours. There are lots of inexperienced players and loose competition in the lower limit games, and yet you will still find a lot of very skilled player in the higher stakes.

The site offers several different games instead of just Hold’em and Omaha, which is another reason it’s one of my favorites. They have Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo, Five-Card Draw, Texas Hold’em and Omaha. All of the games are available in No-Limit, Pot-Limit, and Fixed-Limit. The stakes start at the 10¢/20¢ limit, and go all the way up to $1,000/$2,000, some of the highest Fixed-Limit online games you will ever find.

Bwin has a whole bunch of great new promotions that give people bonuses when they sign up. Right now they are doing one that gives you a fixed $500 bonus if you reach 4,000 points in your first 3 months on the site. Only PokerListings players can get it, and they are also entitled to an $18,000 Aussie Millions freeroll and $2,000 freerolls. Their promotions change all the time, so you will never know when you might have bonuses coming unexpectedly.

I really enjoy the tournaments, especially because they play all day long and you don’t have to wait very long before a new one starts. Since it is connected to the Ongame network, there are tons of other players that participate and tournaments during the week are guaranteed to reach $75,000 dollars. There are qualifiers for the World Series of Poker, and the World Poker Tour, but you will have to be extremely talented to make it through. There are small stakes tournaments for new players too, so no one gets left out.

I find the software on bwin to be very easy to use. The images come in clear and the graphics are really detailed, especially on the avatars. Even Mac and Linux players can play using the non-download version. When I first started I had a hard time figuring out which hands I should bet on, and which ones I shouldn’t. This new software allows players to see their statistics of their hand and their chances of winning. Very talented players know how to calculate this in their heads, but for those who are mathematically challenged, this is a great asset.

Once you get more experienced you learn how to take advantage of the other players who are less skillful. For those looking for easy wins, the Texas Hold’em games in the low limits are the best places to go. The Draw, Stud, and Omaha games have recently been gaining popularity, so those can be profitable as well. It is best to stay in the lower limits though. Once you get past the $5 dollar stakes the competition starts to become more skilled, and it is much more difficult. Start off low and build your bank roll up before you go into higher stakes. The promotions should help you out a lot as well.

I’ve been playing in PokerRoom for a number of years now, and I still think it is one of the best poker sites out there. They are constantly running new promotions and campaigns, and they have a lot of experience, since it was one of the first ever poker rooms. The software is one of its best features and everything is easy to understand. It is one of the many poker rooms that can be found on the Ongame poker network.

 
Once you make your first deposit, you will be able to take advantage of all of their promotions. I know right now they are running one that gives you 100% of you deposit, up to $250 dollars. It really helps you start off, especially if you haven’t played before. You also get three free tournament entries. The player point system is a lot easier than other sites, and it doesn’t take long to build up enough points for freerolls or cash. There is a Weekly Welcome series as well that a new players can participate in. Sunday’s final tournament is for $2,500 dollars. Once you’ve become a little more experienced you can become a part of the Become a Poker Pro, which rewards you when you play in the bigger tournaments.

 
The only negative is that it can be difficult for new players who are just starting out. I’ve found that the higher the stakes you play, the more challenging the players are. I suspect that since the sight has been around for a number of years, many of the players have become very skilled. Most of the action is in the low limit games, so be careful if you are entering into the higher stakes.

 
On the plus side, since the site has been around for a number of years it has many players. The tournaments alone compete every 10-15 minutes and peak hours see about 10,000 players. Twice a day the $1 dollar buy-in tournament called the Lucky Dollar brings in about 1,000 different competitors. Once you have become more experienced, you can try for the higher buy-in tournaments with the $1,000 dollar monthly event, or the weekly $300 dollar event. Overall, the site offers tournaments for every type of player no matter how skilled you are, how much money you have, or how much time you have.

 
As far as the payments and withdrawals go, PokerRoom is one of the most experienced sites out there. Payouts can usually be received within 24 hours, and your minimum deposit can be as low as $10. They do not accept U.S. players because of the complicated withdrawal processes. They accept NETeller, Instacash, ePassporte, 900 Pay, MoneyBookers, Click2Pay, and major credit cards. There customer service can be done through email, telephone, or live chat. The live chat is supposed to be the fastest since you don’t have to wait long before someone answers you questions.

 
Overall, it’s a site I know I can trust and I recommend it to other players. If you’re new, you should probably start off in the low stakes before trying to bet more money. They have many different tournaments and great bonuses for players even after they’ve been playing for a long time. People are usually very loyal to the site once they start playing, which tells me that they like it as much as I do.

Every poker player that plays online has heard of Poker Stars. Poker Stars originally started to get noticed back in 2003 when Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer won the World Series of Poker events. In 2005 another player by the name of Joseph Hachem joined up with them to increase their exposure further. Since 2007 Poker Stars has become the largest online poker room there is. It has by far the most players and tables than any other site. However we’re going to focus this review on the top few things that Poker Stars really capitalizes on.

Besides the over hyped publicity Poker Stars is actually a very professional site to play on. One of the biggest reasons that players are attracted to Poker Stars is because of its tournaments. This is probably Poker Stars’ biggest feature. Many players agree that they have the best room for tournaments above all of the other rooms.

 
Poker Stars offers many satellite tournaments that lead not only to live tournaments, but that lead to their own guaranteed events as well. Every Sunday Poker Stars offers a $1,000,000 guaranteed event. They also have several double shootouts every day. These double shootouts lead into a cheap seat for the Sunday million guaranteed. Besides the big weekly events there are tournaments to be found every day. Anywhere from a $10 buy-in to a $50 buy-in can be found attracting 1,000 plus players. For many players that’s a small investment to win a good amount of money. The structure to their tournaments is also top of the line. They give players a decent amount of starting chips and allow a good amount of time between blind increases. This gives a little bit of an edge over other poker rooms for players that have skill versus players getting lucky. For players that are looking for a top of the line tournament poker room this is it. Poker Stars is by far the best. With the amount of traffic they have no tournament is ever empty and all of the tournaments offer good payouts even for the micro buy-in events.

 
Poker Stars publicizes their software to be the best online poker software there is. I would defiantly agree with that having played there multiple times myself. It may not have the best graphics but overall it is a great package and the best out there. Poker Stars allows for players to add their own images for an avatar. This cool little feature is not found in many poker rooms.  Recently Poker Stars went through a huge software update that improved not only the looks of it but the functions as well. Players can resize any of the Poker Stars table windows or even tile them to whatever size is desired. Also there are several new themes for players to change. They have several themes like marine, stars, saloon, and renaissance. Each theme comes with its own imagery and colors. If you don’t like the image you can even upload your own.

Finally their software offers one of the best and easiest to use hand history feature. It allows players to see all hole cards that were in showdowns, even if they were mucked. Overall Poker Stars is the best at its tournaments, player traffic, and software. This is one poker room that is highly recommended to all players.

Full Tilt has recently exploded with traffic lately because of their massive amounts of media exposure. Also since Full Tilt has continued to allow U.S. players in its real money games it has added to their player traffic. Full Tilt has found a nice balance with its software between cartoony graphics and professional features. This makes the Full Tilt room both fun and playable at the same time. For new players Full Tilt offers several great promotions. For existing players there are a number of quality ring games to be found.

One spotlight that is huge for Full Tilt is the amount of top professional players they sponsor. This is one of their best features because it allows Full Tilt to be the only site where you can regularly find pros to play with. For example Mike Matusow plays all night long a lot of the time and there are regular other players as well like Phil Ivey, John Juanda, John D’Agostino, and Erick Lindgren. With the ability to play with professionals with such ease defiantly gives Full Tilt a huge plus.

 
One of the other features of the site is its very generous start up bonuses. You can get up to $600 with a 100% match of your first deposit. New players also have access to 10 private freerolls for the World Series of Poker, with a prize pool of $12,500. The other bonuses are warded buy building up player points. Points are received by playing in real money games. A certain number of points are awarded for every dollar played. These points can be used to buy into freerolls, tournaments, cash, and other prizes. The promotions change very often.

 
This is not a good site for an inexperienced player to start off at, but with a little practice you can manage in the low stakes. It tends to be difficult because people play very tight, but this doesn’t mean that they play smart. Flop percentages are less than 35%, even in the lower limits. It’s an excellent way to play with more experienced players and step up your game without having to risk high stakes. The professional sponsors attract many talented players, but it also attracts players who want to be good, even though they aren’t. Playing against these types of people is the easiest way to win.

 
Tournaments are offered daily and have very low and very high buy-ins. $216 dollars will get you into the largest tournament held every week that guarantees $750,000 dollars in prize money. One of the best value tournaments costs only $24 dollars and it is held many times throughout the day. This event has a $24,000 guaranteed prize pool, so the price is well worth the possible outcome.

 
Overall, Full Tilt Poker is an excellent site for players who are looking to compete against players of a higher skill level. It offers many different bonuses and tournaments that involve huge amounts of money. If you are a skilled player, this is a great place to go to bank a lot of money.

Pacific Poker is one of the largest online poker sites on the web. It is not only a poker site, but a casino as well. I find this to be the best poker site out there because of its incredible bonuses and excellent software. Play is fairly loose since many people tend to come over from their casino section. Many of them have never played poker before, so it’s a great place for experienced players to make a lot of money.

 
Although it does not accept U.S. players, this site is pretty free of other problems. The software has been recently updated, so the lobby is not as confusing as it used to be. The graphics have also improved. The avatars are now these cool 3D images of players that look fairly real. All of the tables can now be resized so you can play multiple tables at once. Speed is now up to about 60 hands per hour, so you’re not going to end up waiting for hands.

 
Before the software was updated, many players were chased away from the site because its graphics were fairly old fashioned. Most of the players now consist of the armatures that venture over to poker tables from their casino part of the site. These players will have no method and it’s extremely easy to profit, even in the higher stakes. The best way to take advantage of these players is to wait out until you have a good hand. Don’t be afraid to immediately fold mediocre hands until you get one that truly dominates the table. Some of the players will completely over-bet their hand if it seems good to them, some even going all in right away with nothing better than a pair or an Ace. Once you get a really good hand you will have no problem having 2 or 3 people to call you when they have nothing. If you go all in, they are likely to do the same.

 
Most of the players don’t even catch on to the strategy since it is common practice to jump around tables. Many of them are playing multiple tables at once, so they are never able to point out individual player strategy. In fact, many of these players assume that poker is a game of luck, like the Black Jack Tables. They figure that they will get lucky eventually and win a big pot. Experienced poker players know how stupid this types of theories this are, and also how profitable it can be.

 
There are many different tournaments and bonuses that are offered, and they change often. My favorite tournament runs 5 times a day and guarantees $10,000. Buy-ins for it is only $15 dollars. Sunday has the largest competition in which a $100,000 prize is guaranteed every week, and every participant is entered into the $10,000 freeroll the following Sunday, which is a nice feature. No matter how inexperienced you are if you know at least the basics about poker, you have a very good chance at being successful at this site.

It’s so hard to find a decent poker site these days that you know you can trust. When I first came to Hollywood Poker I had doubts because a lot of other sites I looked at didn’t have all the features a wanted or they didn’t have a very good track record with other users. I’m glad to say the Hollywood Poker really surprised me with its reliability.

Hollywood Poker is a part of the Ongame network, which supports many poker rooms online. The Hollywood Poker is always running a bunch of bonus specials for new players. Right now you can get a $500 bonus at a 1,000% deposit match if you are from PokerListings. They sometimes do freerolls, and reload bonuses are easy to get because you earn 12 player points for every dollar. The referral bonus lets you bring in up to 10 friends, which will earn you an easy $200 dollars altogether. Your player points can be used to go into tournaments, win prizes, or cash.

There are tons of features on the site, and I found most of them to be very helpful. It supports Poker Tracker and the entire site is endorsed by celebrities. James Woods can be found at the tables all the time. It has an online poker magazine, and the Hollywood Poker girls. There is the option to use no-download software, so people with Mac computers have access to the site as well.

I found the tournaments to be the best feature of the site. About 45,000 players show up for real money tournaments which run daily and weekly. The weekly tournaments are for $25,000 and $50,000 dollars, and they draw the largest amount of players. Qualifiers run for the World Series of Poker and Canadian Poker Night are open to all players, but competition can get pretty fierce. Buy-ins for tournaments are anywhere from a couple dollars to a couple hundred dollars so all different types of skill levels can play in them.

One of the best tournaments is the Celebrity Bounty Tourney. I don’t think enough sites offer this tournament. Half of a player’s buy-in goes towards their bounty, and if a player is beat, they surrender their bounty to the winner. Some of the bounties can be worth up to $2,000 dollars. It’s a great game, and if you make it into the top players you can expect some serious money. You don’t even have to completely win. Hollywood Poker guarantees $14 million in tournaments every month.

Most people assume that a celebrity poker site would be very competitive. It’s not as difficult as most people think though. The low stakes tables are the best place to go to start off, or bank money. A lot of loose players gather around these tables, especially at Texas Hold’em. Once you start getting into the higher stakes, however, the competition becomes a lot more difficult. I would not recommend a new player to try high stakes their first time, because you will not do well. Tournaments are the same way. The lower stakes games are often the easiest, but the higher buy-ins are going to be very difficult.