Party Poker
Room Reviews
Top Links
Party Poker
Prior to the site not allowing U.S. players in the fall of 2006, Party Poker was the largest and most visible online poker site in existence. Since the passage of legislation in the United States, Party Poker has left the American market and become one of the best destinations for online poker players across Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Its truly international flair has made the British-based online poker room a Mecca for thousands of players every single day. It’s even traded on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol “PRTY,” so if you’re looking for a hot poker stock, look no further than Party Poker.
PartyPoker.com Anywhere Beta
If you’re a Mac poker player, Party Poker offers PartyPoker.com Anywhere Beta. Before you get started, you’ll need Mac OS X or later as your operating system. If you’re like me and just purchased a Mac, rest assured you’ll have what you need to play on Party Poker. For your web browser, you’ll need Safari 1.0 or later. If you use Mozilla, make sure it’s 1.5 or later. If you meet these requirements, it’s time to launch PartyPoker.com Anywhere Beta for Mac! The entire process is simple and easy, especially since there is no download required. It’s literally a matter of seconds before Party Poker is up and running on your machine.
On the front page of PartyPoker.com, you’ll see a giant “Instant Play” icon. Click it and PartyPoker.com Anywhere Beta will load in a new window. The first decision you’ll need to make is whether to “trust” the software that’s launching on your Mac. Your computer does this as a security step. Click “Trust” to continue. You can do it safely; I did and my computer is still in one piece.
Now you’ll wait a few minutes while Party Poker establishes a connection between your computer and Party’s servers. You’ll get to watch images of chips scroll across the screen, which is entertaining. Visions of Mac poker are dancing in your head. Here’s a glimpse of what your screen should look like:
Next, PartyPoker.com Anytime Beta will launch. You’ll instantly be able to view the easy to understand, very text-heavy lobby. Here’s a look:
If you have a PartyPoker.com account, then enter your account name and password and you’re good to go. You can even select “Remember Me” so you don’t have to re-enter this information every time you fire up PartyPoker.com Anywhere Beta.
If you’re new to Party Poker and don’t have an account, click “New user? Join now!” to sign up. Make sure you enter a real e-mail address that you actually know the log in information for, as PartyPoker will be sending you a validation e-mail. Activate your account by following the instructions in this e-mail and you’ll be playing Mac poker in no time!
There are a few features of the lobby that are especially useful and worth pointing out. First, you’ll notice a complete list of available games on the left-hand side. You can play the complete array of games that Party Poker offers, even on PartyPoker.com Anywhere Beta. These include Limit, No Limit, Pot Limit, Omaha, and Stud. Each category of game is expandable to show all of the tables available. If you’d rather not see everything available, each game type is also collapsible. This applies not only to my favorite, cash games, but also to Sit & Go’s, Tournaments, and Play Money Games. The lobby refreshes itself every 10 seconds, so you’ll always be faced with the most up to date information.
If you click on any table, you’ll see who’s seated at the table and the chips they currently have. I’ve selected the lowest limit table available on Party Poker in the screen shot above. You can see from the picture above that the big stack at the table has a commanding $2.88. This data refreshes every 10 seconds as well. It’s important to note (and Party Poker makes this obvious as well) that if you have a slower connection, the data won’t load as quickly. So, if you’re not on a broadband connection, temper your expectations.
You’ll also notice the Bad Beat Jackpot on the left hand side, which increases over time based on hands played by everyone on PartyPoker. It was at a balmy $88,000 when I visited. That’s a nice payday! One winner of the Bad Beat Jackpot won $181,000.
Playing on PartyPoker
I absolutely love the look and feel of Party Poker’s tables, especially on my Mac. I’m confident you’ll feel the same way.
Real money games are buzzing at all hours of the day. To give you an idea, as I glance into my PartyPoker.com Anywhere Beta lobby now, there are 30 tables of $0.02/$0.04 no limit running. That’s about as low stakes as it gets on the site and you have a whopping 30 tables to choose from. If high stakes poker is your forte, there are eight tables of $25/$50 being offered with players seated at all but one of them. I took a screen shot of a rapidly developing $298 pot. Average pot sizes regularly top $500 and it’s not uncommon for people to just sit and watch some of the high stakes action. It’s like sitting in the poker room of the Bellagio watching the big game. Check it out:
There are $3, $6, $11, $22, and $33 multi-table tournaments available that kick off as soon as a certain number of people sit down. The software will inform you when you’re being seated if you’ve registered for one of these.
Buy-ins for tournaments start at $1 and include a variety of daily guaranteed money tournaments. If you’re not too familiar with online poker, guarantee tournaments hand out at least a pre-determined amount of money regardless of the number of entrants. There’s a $1,000 guarantee, $2,500 guarantee, and $10,000 guarantee all scheduled as I peruse the Party Poker lobby, so you’ll surely be able to find a tournament that’s within your budget.
If Play Money tables are your forte, there’s plenty of action on Party Poker. Although you may find yourself regularly gambling all your chips to try and accumulate millions more, it’s a low pressure way to learn the game of poker. Check out the crazy action at this play money table:
Depositing on PartyPoker
For those not in the United States, PartyPoker.com has a bevy of deposit options. It’s possibly the most I’ve ever seen from an online poker room and you can rest assured there will be at least one you can use easily. If you’re in the United States, you’re unfortunately not able to play on Party Poker.
Here’s a brief list for you of ways you can deposit on PartyPoker.com: paysafecard, eps, WebMoney, MisterCash, iDeal, LASER, ClickandBuy, CLICK2PAY, giropay, Ukash, Przelewy24, ewire, ELV, UseMyBank, Maestro Switch/Solo, Moneybrookers, EntroPay, and NETELLER. There are also options for Bank Transfer and Bank Wire Transfer, which should be useable from your checking account. Visa, MasterCard, and Diners Club are also options.
The bottom line is that depositing on PartyPoker.com is very easy. Your selection of methods is extremely wide.
Party Poker Promotions
Party Gaming, which is the parent company of Party Poker, has always devised some of the most creative online poker tournaments anywhere. Back in 2006, Party Poker devised a freeroll extravaganza called the Monster, which offered millions of dollars to freeroll players. That’s a great example of Party Poker thinking big.
Because Party Poker caters to European players, you’ll notice that the tournament times are earlier than you’ll typically find on sites like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. Here’s a look at some of the current promotions going on at Party Poker:
PartyPoker $300k Guarantee
Every Sunday at 17:45 GMT, check out the $300k Guarantee. The tournament regularly attracts around 1,600 combatants, each of whom coughs up $215 for a chance at a first place prize that approaches $60,000 to $70,000. The Party Poker $300k Guarantee is considered one of the Sunday majors and, because it kicks off at a slightly earlier time than large buy-in tournaments on PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, always attracts a tough field. Party Poker has done an outstanding job of growing this tournament’s size since it pulled out of the U.S. market.
There are a variety of ways to satellite into the $300k Guarantee if $215 is not in your budget. Single table satellites start at $26 and you’ll battle it out with nine other players for a shot at a $300k Guarantee seat. You can satellite into the $26 tournament for just $3. Multi-table satellite tournaments also start at $3 as well. The bottom line is there are plenty of chances to score your spot in the $300k Guarantee.
One of the most unique promotions I’ve seen on any online poker site is Party Poker’s 50 Seat Frenzy. Every Saturday, Party Poker runs a tournament that gives away a blistering 50 seats into the $300k Guarantee (which is run on Sundays). There are three ways to qualify for the tournament: place in the top 10 in a freeroll based on your country of residence, qualify through a $2 Saturday morning tournament, or buy in directly for $15.
Party Poker Million
The best part about the $8,200 buy-in tournament is that it takes place on a cruise ship. What better setting for poker than the blue ocean, a nice breeze, and oversized margaritas in your hand? For the first three seasons of the World Poker Tour, the Party Poker Million was a marquee event. Champions during that run included Erick Lindgren, Howard Lederer, and Michael Gracz. Each has since established himself as one of the top poker pros on the planet and used their victory in the Party Poker Million as a launching point.
There are a variety of online qualifiers for the Party Poker Million cruise, including a weekly $640 event that guarantees at least five $12,000 packages. Satellites into a $70 Party Poker Million qualifier start at just a buck. There’s even a special Party Poker Million Steps Program that you advance through by placing first or second in each step. It’s an interesting way to win your way into the Party Poker Million.
Each $12,000 prize package includes the $8,200 tournament buy-in, $2,700 for cruise accommodations, and $1,100 in sweet spending money. My favorite part of a cruise is constant eating, so there will surely be some of that as well.
The bottom line is that if you’re not in the United States, Party Poker should be on your radar. PartyPoker.com Anywhere Beta is an easy way to play online poker on your Mac! Check it out.