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Summary: A
Party Poker is one of the two largest online poker sites, boasting upwards of 90,000 players during peak hours. Cash-outs are relatively quick, and they have an outstanding selection of games, popular Steps tournaments and bad beat jackpot tables. Party’s recent software upgrade introduced several enhanced features such as improved multi-tabling and table resizing capabilities. Although their customer service leaves much to be desired, the poor players that continue to populate the Party tables make this an attractive place to play.
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Software: A -
Party has some of the better software on the market: it’s easy to install, attractive, fairly quick, and intuitive. They recently introduced a number of features that have become quite popular, including raising the number of tables that can be played at once to a generous twelve, and introduced table-resizing functionality that allows users to comfortably view all of their tables with minimal overlap.
They also have a very user-friendly and quick multi-table tournament interface. There are occasional small (yet mostly unobtrusive) bugs -- such as the live chat feature which has been non-operational for over a year. Some people remark that the colorful chairs and characters make the screen too "busy". An industrious fellow has actually created some easy-to-use modification image files that remove those graphics, making the table much easier on the eyes. They can be found here.
Caliber of competition: A +
The skill level of the typical Party Poker player is well below average, since it is one of the sites at which many novices begin their online play. A word of caution: this factor does not necessarily translate into instant profitability. Beginners are notoriously difficult to read, because they play hands that more seasoned players would correctly fold, and often call large bets with longshot draws. So get ready to stomach your fair share of bad beats, but you smart analytically-minded legal scholars will recognize that in the long run, these are the players that will be shipping you chips. The lower limit games can be extraordinarily profitable. Beware, also, the numerous sharks that these novices attract...you may have to search around for a good Party Poker table, but with its huge player base, this is never a problem.
Customer service: B -
It's surprising and frustrating that the largest player in the industry satisfies itself with often mediocre customer service. Although they provide phone support, which is a nice benefit not offered by most online sites, callers have complained of long hold times and unhelpful phone reps. Email support is somewhat hit-or-miss as well: some of our inquiries are answered courteously and promptly, but others produce less satisfactory and ambiguous replies. |
