At the moment, Party Poker is quite probably the largest online poker room in the world, considering both its number of players and the amount of money it turns around. Party poker is a publicly traded company registered on the London Stock Exchange.
Partygaming PLC, part of which PartyPoker is, was one of those companies that started out primarily as a poker room and later diversified their operation into Casino gaming, Backgammon and Bingo.

The poker site itself was launched in 2001 and was a huge success, especially with the American public. After the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, it lost the majority of its US players, but, by then, the site had already outgrown the phase at which it could’ve been seriously affected by such a legal move. It is now focusing on the European market, and its future looks as bright as ever.

Party Poker is the definition of a serious online poker operation, the standard everyone else aims for. Their software is top-of-the-line, fail safe and absolutely trustworthy. Graphics and sound are perfect from every point of view, simple yet delightfully modern and functional. The main lobby interface is filled with hundreds of small details and flashing little lights yet it doesn’t appear crowded, and every single feature one needs to access from it, is easily reachable.

The tables look just as exquisite, and they do manage to bring lots of interesting features (male and female avatars, hand history options etc.) again, without causing a sensory overload. The “fold to every bet” feature is something I found extremely useful.

Being the company that it is, Party Poker couldn’t put up with stranding its downloadable client software on a single PC operating system. Thus it is, that Party Poker is not only playable under Windows and MAC OS, but also under Linux.

Your real money account is foundable in a variety of ways: Neteller ( the simplest and most straightforward one) Firepay, Credit card , and they even accept Western Union. A nice security thing they have going is, that a representative calls you right after you’ve made your first real money deposit to check whether it is indeed you who made the deposit and not someone else in your name.

The bonus you get on your first deposit is 20% (frankly, I would’ve expected more of Party Poker here) up to $200, but you also get a 20% bonus on your reload deposits so that evens things out a bit. Still, the bonus system is a bit poor compared to what other poker rooms offer. They probably figured since they offer the best in everything else, they might cut a few corners on the bonuses...

They do have an action points system in place - they call it Player’s Club - where you get points on the hands that you play, points which you can later use to enter freerolls or to receive Party Poker products.

The games they offer are the usual package (Texas Holdem ( NL. PL. and L) Omaha Hi, Omaha Hi-Lo, 7-Card Stud and 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo.) the action is focused mainly around Texas Holdem but- given the fact that there are around 7000 people logged in at any time - it’s not solely limited to the low stakes/low limit tables as it’s often the case in other poker rooms.

The limits/stakes one can play at, range from 0.5-1 to 30-60, enough to satisfy both high rollers and regular everyday players.

Now for the competition, the single thing that makes the difference between a good poker room and a bad one from a player point of view. Party Poker is recognized for being one of the biggest fish markets out there. No matter what time you decide to do some shopping, you’re bound to get your fish. The reason for this is probably the fact that being the biggest and most famous poker room around PP attracts a high number of good and bad players, more than any other room out there. Beware, though, just as it happens in the oceans and seas, wherever there’s a large concentration of fish around, sharks and barracudas are never far behind. There are some really good players on the hunt at Party Poker tables, players you’re better off avoiding altogether.

Cashout is fast and effective, however, support could be a bit better. This problem is again one that probably stems from the sheer number of players these guys have to deal with every day.

Final verdict: as far as poker rooms go, it doesn’t get any better than Party Poker. The biggest, meanest, and most reliable operation out there. Thousands of players, many fish, good money to be made. Bonuses are probably one of the weaker points of the room, but hey... you can’t have everything now, can you?