Overview:
 PokerStars's
software is hit and miss. The interface offers
player notes, your own statistics, and a very
nice, flexible hand history feature allowing you
to specify the number of previous hands, or hours,
or a day, or a tournament.
The Poker Stars lobby is
well organized and easy to find the game and stakes
you are looking for, and the Poker Stars table
design has some nice features. The graphics at
the table are nothing to write home about - basically
your avatar is an uploaded picture that fits into
a round icon area.
However, I think there are
a couple of issues that are less than ideal or
need improvement. First of all, the bet amounts
and pot sizes are not immediately apparent on
the PokerStars table. I'm used to looking at the
chip stacks and being able to immediately determine
the dollar amounts. The pot size is actually displayed
not in the center of the table, but at the top
of the PokerStars interface screen. You can hover
your mouse over the chips and the amounts will
appear also.
I think the Poker Stars interface
is a little sluggish, and overly simplified -
they could do with a bit of a revamp. Many people,
however, consider Poker Stars software to be the
clear industry leader for poker tournaments.
Tournaments and Promotions:
Poker Stars has a number
of promotions. First, they have a VIP program,
where players can use their FPP (Frequent Player
Points) to purchase an array of merchandise. Players
earn FPP by playing real money games at Poker
Stars, and these FPP can be used to by items ranging
from poker books and Poker Stars merchandise to
big ticket items like sports cars and WSOP entries.
Poker Stars also hosts many
satellites to major land-based tournaments. In
addition to sending many players to WSOP and WPT
tournaments, players can win seats to many European
Poker Tour events. Poker Stars does not have a
deposit bonus, though they often have reload bonuses.
Conclusion:
The lack of a deposit bonus
and software that I personally am not comfortable
with take a few points away from Poker Stars...
but they've been around a long time and do have
a good, strong community of players. Cashouts
are quick and customer service is pretty good
- but their software problems cost them big in
my opinion.
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