Poker Room

Poker Room is one of the better known names in the Online Poker Industry. Many of my friends play on Poker Room, so I was excited to see what all the fuss was about. Without further a due, here are my impressions of this site.

The homepage for Poker Room is clean but full of information. Poker Room has a standard drop down menu, allowing easy access to all the normal features we’ve come to expect from online Poker sites. Poker Room also offers many other casino games, like blackjack, baccarat and let it ride, but those won’t be the focus of my time here. The major Poker games are all featured, with sections for Hold’em, Omaha, and 7-card stud; there is also a community forum for PokerRoom players, which is a nice feature, as it allows interaction among Poker enthusiasts.

Getting down to the game, the first hiccup I noticed at Poker Room was the speed of download; it seemed to take a bit longer than usual, but then I noticed that the file was unusually large. No big deal, as I was off and playing quickly enough. As I registered for play, the first thing I noticed was the graphics; this software is beautiful! It’s very close to a full-on arcade game, and the look is classy and attractive to the eye, making it easy to burn a few hours playing.

The gameplay on Poker Room is definitely one of the best I’ve ever used; apart from the clean crisp graphics, there are a couple innovative features that make Poker Room stand out. First, if you’re in the Play Money section, players have the option of “voting a player off” so if someone is unusually rude, democratic process allows for his or her involuntary removal. Secondly and even better, is the ability to really keep track of your opponents, as every opponent’s player can be clicked on and you can start a file on them. Very cool, as you can make observations and record them right on your opponents’ character, so there is no confusion if someone else takes up the seat. Overall the gameplay was excellent and all tables and games seemed to have a respectable if not overwhelming population.

Promotions and freerolls have become the industry standard, and Poker Room comes through with a solid performance in this category. There are a wide variety of tournaments available, and plenty of satellites in both games. The only weakness in this area is that Poker Room has requirements for players wishing to enter Freerolls, whereas some other sites have 0 requirements, allowing anyone to enter.

All said and done, this is a very nice site. I would like to see a news section to keep updated on the Poker world, and a few more players would be nice, but this is definitely a contender in the ultra-competitive online industry.