Party Poker was launched in 2001 and had something of a meteoric rise, the site quickly rising to become the largest site worldwide – where is would remain until 2006. The site merged with Bwin in 2011, a deal which saw the joint company become the world’s largest publicly traded gambling firm. This saw Party Poker consolidate their position as one of the premier poker sites online, currently a top-5 ranked site in terms of traffic. Party Poker is not currently available to most US players, though there is a JV with the Borgata casino in New Jersey.
Advantages and Disadvantages
As the name suggests, Party Poker have always aimed to give the player a fun experience when playing - and this continues to this day. This site offers a series of player missions and achievements that give them a unique feel. The player base at Party Poker can be weak at times too, especially at the lower stakes tables where you’ll find some especially loose play. The skill levels at the site have always been questionable, but the addition of sports betting fans brought over by the Bwin merger has only enhanced the ‘fishiness’ of the site. Of course, the decent traffic levels are a bonus too, as you’ll rarely have any trouble finding a game against these weak opponents.
More serious poker players might not enjoy the recreational nature of the site – this is a poker site firmly geared towards those who want to have fun at the tables.
Playing Legal Poker at PartyPoker.com
Players can enjoy Party Poker throughout the world, although play within the US is now limited to those within the state of New Jersey. Party Poker pulled out of the US market after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, but has made the return after recent moves in the US to legalize online poker in a number of states.
At peak times, there are in the region of 2,000 players hitting the cash tables, plenty enough to give a wide choice of cash games. With many recreational players hitting the site, the overall number of players at peak times is as many as five or six thousand, with tournaments and sit and goes popular, especially the new Sit and Go hero games.
As well as the desktop software, you can also play at Party Poker on the go, with downloadable apps available on both iOS and Android devices.
Party Poker Bonuses and Promotions
New players at Party Poker will enjoy a 100% welcome bonus of up to €250 / £250. Players will have 90 days to clear the bonus and this will be released in 10% increments, meaning players won’t have to clear the bonus requirements fully to feel any bonus benefits.
All players can earn many benefits through a series of missions. The ‘get started’ missions can bring instant rewards of up to $10, while further cash game and sit and go missions will also bring rewards of up to $25. ‘The Gladiator’ promotion sees players rewarded for earning comp points 5, 10, 15 or 20 days throughout a month, with both free roll entries and cash bonuses up for grabs, while you can also earn a $5 tournament ticket by placing a combo sports bet at Party Poker sports.
Party Poker Deposits and Withdrawals
To add funds to your Party Poker account you’ll find a wide variety of options. Card payments with Visa, MasterCard and Maestro are popular options, while e-wallets such as PayPal, Skrill and Neteller are also widely used. Other payment options include PaySafeCard, Entropay and direct bank transfers. Withdrawals are generally made back to the same method you used to make your deposit, although this may not always be possible, especially in the case of a credit card. The overall deposit options can vary from country to country.
Party Poker Game Selection
At the top of the Party Poker lobby you’ll find a series of tabs representing the different games available. First, you have the standard cash game tab where you’ll find both no limit and fixed limit Holdem, alongside Omaha and 7 card stud, with stakes ranging from just $0.01/$0.02 games through to $10/$25 games. ‘Fast Forward’ is the Party Poker high speed cash game, where you’ll join a player pool and be sat at a new table every time your involvement at the previous hand has ended – hit the fold button and you’ll have two new cards immediately.
The sit and go section offers a nice variety of different games including different table sizes and speeds with formats such as double or nothing to go alongside the more standard variants. The Sit and Go hero games offer the chance to win a jackpot payout, with amounts up to 8,500x the buy-in possible. These games have 4 players and are high speed.
The tournament schedule has some nice variation too, where you’ll find freeze-outs alongside rebuys, 6-max events and guaranteed tournaments. The highlights of the tournament schedules are the ‘Power Series’ events with a range of ‘featherweight’, ‘middleweight’ and ‘heavyweight’ events designed to suit all. The Party Poker Millions event has satellites running at all times too, with qualification for the live final giving the players an opportunity to walk away a millionaire.
Party Poker History
The origins of Party Poker began in 1997 when the iGlobal media group was developed which would later become Party Gaming. Party Poker was launched in 2001 and a solid business model where the site would work closely with affiliates saw the company quickly hit their stride and it wasn’t long before they became the dominant poker site online.
The company would suffer a blow with the US legislation in 2006, meaning a complete pull out of US operations and this would immediately see Party Poker drop from their number one ranking. Despite this blow, the site would regroup and maintain much of their player base from outside of the US. A merger with Bwin would be a major boost to the site in 2011, the joint company now one of the biggest players in online gambling.
