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PokerStars was on the verge of taking its company public and getting listed in the stock exchange when the US passed the United Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006, . Luckily for them they stayed privately held and with that decided to keep services U.S. poker players. That commitment has turned them into one of the largest online poker sites in the industry. PokerStars is also home to arguably the greatest annual event online in the World Championship of Online Poker and have some of the best poker tournaments anywhere.
There is wide variety of poker games being offered at PokerStars including, Limit and No-Limit Texas Hold'em , Omaha Hi and Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud Hi and Hi-Lo, H.O.R.S.E., H.O.S.E., 2-7 Triple Draw, Five-Card Draw and Razz. They offer limits starting at $.01/$.02 and still one of the very few sites offering these micro-limit poker tables. Fixed limit ring games seat 10 players. Poker Stars also started the micro-limit table trend when they introduced games for as little as 1¢/2¢ in Hold'em and Omaha Hi. At these micro-limit tables, there is no rake.
There sit-n-go tournaments are unique in the fact the blinds increase based on time and not number of hands as must other sites. Blind in the S-N-G tournaments go up every ten minutes and players start with 1,500 in chips. Faster blind levels can be found on there turbo sit-n-go tournaments.
Again setting themselves apart from the rest, PokerStars spreads there poker tournaments across all their game options and not just the Holdem and Omaha versions. Their tournament tables seat the full complement of ten players. The software is privately owned and developed and they do not share their players with any poker network. The software is one of the best in the poker industry, extremely stable, fast and reliable. It has handled many updates in the last year and rarely has gone down all the while handling close to 120,000 players during peak times.
Poker Stars is the home of Chris Moneymaker, Greg Rahmer and Joe Hatchem and has quickly grown into the place to play online poker. There are many games to choose from and the ring games at the higher limits tend to be pretty tight meaning viewed flopped percentages are low. On the positive side, and also plenty of decent/good players know how to exploit the tighter games. Poker Star is considered a large site and there is no problem finding tables at any game level as well as any competition level..
Poker Stars offers a loyalty program that is Frequent Player Point (FPP). FPP's are awarded for each raked hand and five FPPs are awarded for each $1 paid in tournament registration fees. The FPPs can be redeemed for entries in weekly and monthly special tournaments and other promotions, as well as at the very well maintained member's store. Poker Stars also offer's a VIP program where it is possible to reach 5 different levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Supernova.
Your level depends on how many VIP Player Points (VPP points) you reach on a monthly or yearly basis. The benefits of a high VIP status is faster FPPs are earned, meaning it is easier to clear bonuses and be eligible for more merchandise and VIP tournaments.
There is good lobby information with table flop percentages, average pot size, etc. Table Avatars can be loaded through Poker Star support to offer a more personal touch to the tables. Mac users can play at Poker Stars using Virtual PC emulation (Available from Microsoft) Poker Stars must be installed on a PC and then the Poker Stars folder copied to the Mac.
