Party Poker.com has the world's highest traffic in ring games, as well as most tournaments. Included for their huge traffic there are distinct pluses with Party Poker, such as loose and free games, fantastic promotions and a unique loyalty program, special events and other bonuses in the member referral program. There are quite a few lucrative games at Party Poker with action all the way up to the $30/$60 limits. According to sources there can be up to 17,000 real money players during peak hours.
Party Poker's software has improved, with a significant upgrades during the last couple of years. The graphics are the not the best you will find but they are liked in terms of playability. With its increasing growth, Party Poker has created more servers and increased bandwidth in order to provide full reliability at 50,000 simultaneous players at any given time.
The traffic found at Party Poker tournaments cannot be matched anywhere in the world. Beside no-limit and limit Texas Holdem, there include tournaments in both 7-card stud and Omaha. Party Poker probably hosts more over 65% of all the fixed limit Texas Holdem tournaments throughout the world. The traffic, at the present time, can reach somewhere between 24000 and 28000 real money tournament players at peak hours.
Party Pokers game variety is decent, thanks to the leading volume in those games hosted; Holdem, Omaha and 7-Card-Stud in both High and Hi-Lo. However, Party Poker does not offer certain games such as heads-up matches, draw poker, crazy pineapple, etc. These are games that need to be added in order for Party Poker to increase itself any farther.
PartyPoker's rake is not so attractive, as it does not favor any of the low limit games. The higher limit games actually have a very low rake it turns out. The rake runs as high as 10% in $0.50/$1 and $1/$2 games, as 50 cent is raked by the site when the pot reaches $5. This policy stands true also for the tournaments, where good value only is provided at the higher stakes. 20% fee in $5 games and 8% fee in $100 games.
Party Poker has done a decent job with their promotions. Some of their promotions offer either 20% bonus match up to $100 (bonus code PLIST100) or $25 flat bonus with minimum deposit of $50 (bonus code PLIST25), or $33 free Party Poker Million Qualifying Tournament (bonus code PLIST33) via simply their home page at Party Poker. All users with new accounts also get a complimentary cap sent out from Party Poker, great customer feedback on this offer for sure. For the max $100 bonus you need to play 500 raked hands within 30 days to get the $100 (equals 5 raked pots per bonus dollar).
Party Poker has always done a good job of creating repeat business and it only gets better and better, now there are both a big frequent player points program as well as numerous re-deposit promotions in which you get 15%-25% up to $100 maximum for multiple deposits during specified time frames.
Party Poker has seen an increase in customer support since late 2004 with specific changes being seen in that the 24/7 telephone support now often responds in under a single minute! The support is nowadays very knowledgeable on its promotions and other more vague and specific issues.
There are many deposit options for Party Poker if you wish to play with real money: VISA, MasterCard, NETeller, FirePay, Western Union, Citadel (US only), eChecks (by iGM-Pay)bank draft, cashier's check, money order, check. Cash out options: NETeller, wire transfer, check, eChecks (by iGM-Pay), and phone cards where you can use your balance to play at Party Poker.com.