Party Poker

is - by some distance - the largest poker site on the web. This means that Party has one great advantage over all the others : they have the most players (up to 70,000 playing at any one time), so there's always a game going on at the levels you want to play. The software is reliable, quick, and relatively easy on the eye. It has been constantly updated and redeveloped and now allows players to place side-bets on games, and to play blackjack without leaving the site. Future upgrades promise the ability to make deals towards the end of tournaments, and the opportunity to play more casino games. Customer service can be patchy but PARTY has a good reputation for quick and reliable withdrawal of winnings. There is also a wide range of deposit and withdrawal options.

Almost all on-line players have an account with PARTY, and if you are planning to play on-line for the first time they offer a good compromise between quality, bonus offer, and standard of opposition. Certainly PokerStars is more user-friendly - but the players are stronger at PokerStars and you will not be offered free cash for opening an account. Party offers lots of articles on its site detailing strategy tips, poker reports etc… and offers hand histories so you can analyse important hands after they've been played. Despite all the opportunity to learn and study the game, however, most players still play wildly and if you take the trouble to play decent starting hands (see the poker articles section for which ones) then you will easily make money at Party in the long run. Even experienced players regularly return to Party for this reason, and because Party is very generous in offering "re-load" bonuses (or even sometimes just straight out free cash!) to keep you playing. They got to be the biggest by aggressive marketing rather than the quality of their software, but they know how to keep their players sweet and nobody is likely to take Party Poker's crown as the world's largest poker site any time soon.