Poker Room Review

Updated 19 November 2006

Overall		78

Ease of Competition		80

Tournaments		93

Customer Service		58

Software		92

(Click photo to enlarge.)

Overview
This site was once regarded as among the best online. Since being taken over by new management, there have been complaints by players over various issues that call into question the reliability and customer service quality of this room. They offer a Java version of their software, which is nice for people who use Macs or simply don't want to download software. It should be noted that Poker Room charges a higher rake than most sites for low- and middle-stakes games.

Bonus
Use this special link to Poker Room to get 50% of your first deposit (up to $200 bonus.) Poker Room sent us this special link for PokerTips.org users. If you do not use a link from this site, your bonus may be as low as 20% up to $100.

Promotions
Poker Room has a lot of interesting promotions, and they add new ones fairly often. Visit their website to see the latest details about all available promos.

PokerRoom has an extensive player rewards program, known as their GreenRoom. Players can use player points and tournament tickets to enter freerolls and claim bonuses through the GreenRoom. Frequent players at PokerRoom can reach SilverRoom and GoldRoom status, which has even better rewards.

Poker Room has a lot of smaller promotions as well. They have a player points system where players can enter freerolls and other tournaments by earning player points. They also have a lot of unique tournament structures available to players. For example, they have a "Cannonball" tournament, which is a tournament that starts off as a turbo tournament but the later stages are ran at a normal pace.

Tournaments
Weak competition and a wide selection of events make this site one of the best places to enjoy online tournaments. The only knock on their scheduled multi-table tournaments is that the only ones which draw more than 200 entrants are generally no pricier than $10+$1. However, they do spread several daily guaranteed tournaments with $20+$2 buy-ins. These events have prize pools of at least $10,000. PokerRoom also offers an incredibly popular daily $5 rebuy event with a $12,000 guaranteed prize pool. The sit-n-gos on this site are popular.

Software
I find PokerRoom's graphics to be very pleasant. I like their downloadable software better than the Java version, but the Java version is still convenient for those with Macs or are averse to downloading. The downloadable version has the best system of player notes I've seen out of any major poker room's software. You are able to color code different types of players, so you can quickly categorize certain players as "fish" or "sharks."

Table Statistics
The site displays the flop % and average pot size which is very nice. This allows you to tell quickly how loose and aggressive a table is.

Competition Level
The competition at PokerRoom is about average. Some of the games are fairly loose-passive, but there are also a lot of rocks on this site. No-limit games tend to be a little easier than the limit games on average.

Customer Service
Poker Room has both email and phone support. Lately there have been well-discussed issues in the poker world that shed negative light on the customer service at Poker Room. Some players have alleged that Poker Room's live support could possibly be disconnecting them from the network following a demand for an answer over a controversial situation. They also have a history of taking a frustratingly long time to reply to emails, in which they may not address your question in its entirety.

Ring Games Offered
Texas Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Omaha, 7-Stud, 7-Stud Hi-Lo, 5-Card Draw

Fixed Limits: $.15-$.30 to $500-$1,000
NL & PL Blinds: $.05-$.10 to $50-$100

Tournaments Offered
Texas Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Omaha, 7-Card Stud, 5-Card Draw

Single-Table: $5 to $500
Multi-Table: $5 to $1,000