Pokerstars Review – The Biggest Poker Site Online By A Long Way
Note: This review has been fully refreshed for the summer of 2012 with news of Zoom and the latest tournament offerings. I have also covered how you can get three separate welcome bonuses at the biggest poker site online! Continue reading
This article will go through the key information on how to deposit at Pokerstars, the worlds largest stand alone poker site. Before we go into the methods, a quick explanation of the two separate codes required to claim your new player bonus at this site:
The pictures below show you where to use these codes:
Click to enlarge
All of the big name cards are accepted on Pokerstars. Players outside of the US will find this method by far the easiest for one-off deposits, the money will be available instantly and you can brands including Visa, Electron, Mastercard and Diners. Bank Debit cards are actually my preferred method, with the deposit amount simply coming straight from my current account.
US players will be surprised how many cards are still accepted at online poker sites, I recommend that you try this method first. If your bank(s) block the transaction then you can purchase many pre-paid visa cards from convenience stores and gas stations, these work great – though there is a small fee at the point of purchase.
eChecks are the modern equivalent of the old paper checks people used to write. These are the preferred method for US Players whose card transaction gets declined. You electronically write a check to Pokerstars, who will clear his with your bank. The money is available to play instantly, though you will need to wait until the virtual check is cleared (10 days) before you can make any withdrawals. This is a popular deposit method with a very high success rate.
This method is currently only for non-US players. Electronic wallets are services which act as an intermediary between your bank and online merchants. These provide an extra layer of security – as you are not handing bank details to online merchants. They also allow you do quickly deposit and withdraw from poker sites as often as you like.
Brand names for eWallets include Moneybookers, Neteller and UKash. When you first set up you will need to verify your details and make an initial transfer from your bank. I feel these services are worth the effort – since after this you are free to move money around to wherever you wish.
Many countries have their own payment services, the good news is that Pokerstars accept a very wide range of these. Everything from WebMoney to Abacus, PaySafeCard and Moneta – plus too many to list from many other countries.
Old-school methods including local and international bank transfers work at Pokerstars. Cash transfer services include some well known high-street brands in this space. Last, though not least, you can use an old paper check – though you will need to wait for it to clear before you play.
With a reputation for being one of the easiest sites to deposit on, and 100s of deposit methods accepted – you will be able to get your money onto this site just fine. In addition, Pokerstars have a dedicated ‘Deposit Assistance Department’, friendly staff who go out of their way to help you. Remember the 2-code system, first Pokerstars Marketing Code PSP3108 when you register, then bonus code STARS600 when you deposit. We look forward to seeing you at the Pokerstars tables soon!
Here we will summarize tournaments in 3 categories, smaller buy-ins, higher buy-ins and satellite qualifiers. For more information you can visit Pokerstars.com and click the ‘Poker Tournaments’ link in the top menu. New players can use Marketing Code PSP3108 to claim a 100% match on their first 3 deposits (within 90 days!).
Starting with the completely free tournaments – a number of freerolls run throughout the week which award seats in a ‘weekly round 2’ event with real cash prizes. This is in addition to many free tournaments associated with various promotions. VIP freerolls for real money players are very generous indeed, up to and including the $1,000,000 monthly ‘Turbo Takedown’ event.
Tournaments start at just $1 at Pokerstars and include many forms of poker and different structures including turbos and rebuy events. Popular levels include the $3 and $5 rebuys and $11 entry guaranteed events with prize pool guarantees going right up to $250,000. Expect very large fields in many of these events attracting several thousand entrants. Players who prefer smaller fields can head for the 180 player SNGs or 360 cap tournaments instead.
With huge numbers of tournaments in the $5 through to $33 range having guaranteed prize pools it is impossible to do the schedule real justice in a short article. I recommend checking out Pokerstars.com for more information.
Pokerstars is one of only two online poker sites where a bigger buy-in tournament player can find a full schedule of games (the other one being Full Tilt Poker Tournaments). The best known of the big buy-in events is the Sunday Million, which has a prize pool of $1,500,000 every week and regularly pays out $250,000 for the winner. This $215 event has satellites running all week so everyone has a chance to qualify. Sundays are actually packed with events, including the Sunday Warm Up, Sunday 2nd chance, Sunday $500 and many more.
If these were not enough, Pokerstars also feature a range of games in the $55 to $500 range running throughout the week. These range from the soft fields of the ‘Nightly $90k guaranteed’ to the comparatively tough $100 and $200 rebuy events.
Twice a year, Pokerstars run huge tournament events known as the Spring Championship Of Online Poker and the World Championship of Online Poker. Both feature 3 weeks of big buy-in tournament events with some eye-watering guaranteed prize pools. Check out Pokerstars.com for the dates of the next events now (don’t forget Marketing Code PSP3108).
It can be hard to ignore the number of satellite qualifiers available at Pokerstars, especially as they tend to list them all on the main tournament tab listing in their lobby. Since Stars own many of the major tour brands such as the European Poker Tour, NAPT and LAPT, you can expect the biggest and best selection of satellites anywhere.
Buy-ins for the qualifier events start low ($1 in many cases) and the variety of games is absolutely huge. I can definitely recommend Pokerstars for anyone looking to qualify for either a larger online event or one of the many live tournaments held around the world.
I hope that this has given you a flavor of what is available at Pokerstars. The variety of tournaments really is too huge for a detailed article. Stars are the biggest poker site for a good reason, they are also the best at providing the games and prizes that players are looking for. This is simply an excellent poker site, and with 100% matched up to $600 on your first 3 deposits with Marketing Code PSP3108, there really is no excuse – check out Pokerstars for yourself now!
Pokerstars are the largest of the stand-alone poker sites, with over double the traffic of their nearest rivals and making anyone outside the top 5 or 6 poker networks look like small-fry in comparison!
When you see the kind of promotion which gives away a Lamborghini (oh and a million in total) for free then you can start to understand why this site has such enduring appeal. I actually believe it is the great game selection, top software and industry-leading player rewards system which make the difference – but hey, this will not be stopping me from taking a shot at the big prizes in this particular promotion…
Click To Play At Pokerstars Now!
Marketing Code = PSP3108
Starting on July the 25th there are 12 daily freerolls which feed into a weekly final, the top 18 players in each freeroll win seats (that’s 2-tables). Weekly finals are then held at 14:30 ET each Saturday, here the top 2000 finishers will go forward to the ‘grand final’ held on October 3rd… and the top 4,000 finishers will receive prize money!
You can also buy-in to daily satellites, something which I think could offer some excellent value. There are $1+10c and $11+$1 satellites which run every 2 hours daily. The top 27 in each game win a seat in the weekly final. The twist is that the prize pool is distributed normally – ensuring that these games should be busy. Think about how many ways you can exploit both inexperienced tournament players and those who attach importance to hitting one of the free seats in the weekly game.
Well, you wont be driving away in your dream car without trying, this is as good as online promotions get and I recommend all readers to get involved. If you have not already discovered Pokerstars for yourself then now is the time to find out why this is not only the biggest online poker site – but also the best. Claim a 100% match bonus on your first 3 deposits (max $600 total, within 90 days!) with marketing code PSP3108 when you check out Pokerstars for yourself!