Pacific Poker
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Pacific Poker
If you’re not in the United States, one of the main poker sites that should be on your radar is Pacific Poker. The Gibraltar-based online poker site welcomes non-U.S. Mac players with open arms. The best part is that Pacific Poker is owned by 888 (which is traded on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol 888), so you can rest assured your money is safe and secure. Pacific Poker features an $80,000 Guarantee tournament every Sunday along with $20,000 Guarantee tournaments Monday through Friday. A Bad Beat Jackpot and other promotions make Pacific Poker a haven for Mac lovers of online poker. The only downside is that Mac users can’t test their skills on play money games; only “Money Play” is available. However, if you’re ready to play for cold hard cash, Pacific Poker is perfect for you.
Launching Pacific Poker on Your Mac
Pacific Poker is one of a handful of rooms that you can take advantage of with your Mac. Unlike PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, Pacific Poker has an online, flash-based client for Mac users to play on. This means that there’s absolutely no download necessary; all you have to do is click one button and the flash client will launch in a new window. It literally takes about 20 seconds to be whisked away to a login prompt.
Now, it’s on to the fine print. You’ll need to have a 400 MHz PowerPC G4 Operating System with 128 MB of Ram or more. The software also requires Safari 1.0+ for Mac. You can also use Firefox.
Now, it’s important to note that you can register a new Money Play account as soon as the flash client launches. Registering is relatively simple. First, enter a Preferred Username and password to use for your account. You can be creative and go for names like “IllRiverYou” or “RaisingMeAndPay” or just shoot for something more normal like “JohnSmith1234.” In any case, it’s up to you and your left brain.
Enter all of the information required: First Name, Last Name, Email address, Age, Gender, Address, City, Country, State (if applicable), Zip Code, and Phone. Then, accept the “Terms and Conditions” and you’ll be ready to go!
Pacific Poker will spit back a confirmation of your Username and Password. Make sure you keep these handy so you can login in the future. You’ll be taken back to the login screen, where you can use your brand new Username and Password to enter Pacific Poker.
Pacific Poker Games: The 411
It’s in the middle of the evening in Europe as I write this and there are currently about 6,000 players awake at the four corners of the world competing on Pacific Poker. A blistering 1,100 tables are dealing virtual cards, meaning there’s plenty of action if you wanted to head to the site.
Hold’em, Omaha High, Omaha High/Low, Stud, and Stud High/Low are the games of choice at Pacific Poker. There are currently two $50/$100 tables occurring and one has an average pot size of just under $10,000. There are even a handful of people just gazing at the action. Here’s a look at the lobby with this action-packed table highlighted. Notice that, off to the left, you’ll see who is seated, their chip stacks, and the number of lurkers watching:
The tournament poker offering is quite varied on Pacific Poker, meaning you’re sure to find a tournament that fits your budget level and time allotted. There’s a $20,000 Guarantee tournament that runs six times per week (read more in the “Pacific Poker Promotions” section below). In addition to the $20,000 Guarantee tournaments, there are a series of daily guarantees running non-stop on the site. If you’re a lower stakes player, these are definitely up your alley. Check out a few examples: An $11 buy in tournament that shells out at least $3,000, a $27 buy in tournament with a $4,000 guarantee, and my favorite, a $0.01 tournament that gives away at least a hundred bucks. Each and every day, there are about a dozen guarantee tournaments with a buy in of less than one U.S. Dollar, so there will surely be something in your price range. It’s unique to see that volume of low stakes action.
Pacific Poker also touts shorter blind level tournaments if you’re like me and only have a few hours to spare. “Fast” and “Nitro Extreme” tournaments have blind levels of five minutes and three minutes, respectively. “Single Handed” tournaments feature blind levels that increase at the end of every hand. “Nitro Ultra” tournaments have 120 second blind levels. That means you’ll quickly be forced to gamble. If you’re instead looking for longer tournaments, Pacific Poker also offers “Super Deep Stack” tournaments with starting chip stacks of $5,000.
Bad Beat Jackpots are also available. It’s currently around $16,000, which is a nice sum of money if you happen to get woefully unlucky. There’s also a Royal Jackpot that’s sitting at $40,000.
For every hand you play on Pacific Poker, your action is thoroughly logged. You can go back and check out your performances in ring games and tournaments at any point in time. Just click “Game History” on the bottom of the main lobby. Your deposit and cash out activity is also available. Game play options available include a four color deck, custom card backings, and the ability to switch from a male to female dealer voice. You can also turn all of the sounds off and play in peace and quiet.
Now, let’s check out the poker lobby on Pacific Poker:
Cash game tables are listed in a series of tabs on the left side of the lobby. You can sort by Hold’em games, Omaha Hi games, Omaha Hi/Low games, Stud games, and Stud Hi/Low games. The list of available tables will then be populated on your screen. Each has a list of criteria you can sort by. Just click on a row header and Pacific Poker will sort by table name, stakes, the number of players, average pot size, the percent of the table that sees the flop, the number of players waiting to join the table, and hands per hour. So, if you like lots of action, sort by the number of hands per hour and play on one with a large number. If you like the odds of a big payday, sort by average pot size.
The tournament lobby is a bit of a different beast. Here’s a screen shot to get you started:
You can sort by tournament ID number (if there’s a specific tournament you’re looking for), the date of the event, the type of game being played, the buy-in, whether the tournament is already registering or announced, and the number of players enrolled. Special tournaments are colored differently, but it’s relatively easy to navigate the lobby and find a tournament. Each tournament has its own lobby, which breaks down who’s playing in the tournament, gives the data for each table still running, and displays the prize pool. It’s an in-your-face glimpse of what’s going on in every event on the site. Here’s a tournament lobby for a $5.50 event:
There’s an easy to use tabbing function on the bottom of the screen, similar to what you’d find on Firefox if you’re familiar with that web browser. Just one click of a button and you can move in between open windows without skipping a beat. You’ll forget that minimizing is an option.
Pacific Poker Promotions
What I love most about Pacific Poker are the affordable tournaments with high guarantees. If you’re looking for a potential overlay (when the guaranteed prize pool exceeds the number of players who entered multiplied by the buy-in), Pacific Poker may be your diamond in the rough.
$20,000 Guarantee Tournaments
Every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, Pacific Poker offers a $20,000 Guarantee tournament. The buy-ins are extremely affordable given the potential payday: On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, it’s $38. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, it increases to $55. Even if $38 is a bit above your bankroll, Pacific Poker offers freerolls and satellites so you can win your way in.
World Poker Crown
The World Poker Crown is an excellent example of a unique hybrid tournament offered by Pacific Poker. The final eight players of this $1,050 tournament held on April 26, 2008 will travel to Spain to battle it out for their share of a $3 million guaranteed prize pool. Not to shabby! What’s really exciting is that Pacific Poker offers a freeroll for anyone who played in the past week’s $80,000 Guarantee tournament. It gives away at least three WPC prize packages. The winner of the WPC will take home $1 million and the title of the champion of the largest tournament offered by Pacific Poker to date.
Live Poker Tournament Promotions
Pacific Poker has also made it a point to send its players to the biggest live poker tournaments on the planet. Past promotions have sent players to the Aussie Millions, World Series of Poker, the European Poker Tour’s Monte Carlo event, and the UK Poker Open. Winning your way into one of these major live events is easy at Pacific Poker. I’ve been to the WSOP and can tell you there’s no feeling in the world like walking through one room packed to the brim with 200 poker tables, hearing nothing but the shuffling of chips and the screams of exhilaration. It’s within your reach at Pacific Poker.
Poker School
OK, so maybe you’re not the best poker player on the planet. Maybe you’ve never even played online poker. It’s not a problem. Pacific Poker offers a complete online poker school, including presentations for beginners and experienced players alike. There is even a whole section devoted to poker-related articles, including “More Big Mistakes in No-Limit Sit-and-Go Tournaments” and my favorite, “Online Tells.” Many of these come from CardPlayer.com, so you’re getting access to some of the best poker strategy literature on the planet. I wouldn’t even consider it a school; you can sit in your pajamas and brush up on your poker strategy.
So now that you’re an expert on Pacific Poker, you should check it out. Visit the site today!