Party Poker is the fourth largest online poker room. It used to be the largest, but it was forced to cease offering its services to U.S. customers in the fall of 2007 when the Unlawful Gambling Internet Enforcement Act was passed. That law essentially makes it illegal for online poker rooms to operate in the U.S. Since Party Poker has shareholders to answer to (they are a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange), they couldn’t risk putting their owners in legal jeopardy.
When two variables are accounted for, 1.) size of online poker room and 2.) ease of competition, I believe Party Poker is the best online poker room to play at. Sure, there are a few places where the games are a little softer and other places where there are more games to choose from. However, it’s hard to top Party Poker’s perfect blend of size and ease of competition.
No American Players
The fact that Party Poker doesn’t have any American players helps make their games generally a little easier. Poker has been popular for over five years now in the U.S. Most American players have been playing for a while now, so they’ve gotten to be pretty decent. At Party Poker, you see more of a “newbie” cross-section of the poker playing world. Most of their players are from Europe, where poker is still developing in popularity. They also have a nice handful of players from Latin America who generally speaking aren’t that good at poker.
Advertise to the Right Players
Online poker rooms that are larger than Party Poker like to use well-known poker pros in their marketing. This “play with the pros” approach to marketing tends to attract more serious players who aren’t as likely to spew away their money. Party Poker uses almost zero pro-based marketing. As the name of their room suggests, they tend to maintain a “fun, friendly, care-free” vibe in their advertisements. Since they don’t take themselves too seriously in their marketing, people who don’t take the game too seriously are more likely to choose Party Poker for their online poker playing needs.
Great First-Time Deposit Bonus
Almost all poker rooms offer players a first-time deposit bonus. The size and clearing-rate of this bonus can often be the difference between a winning or losing player while they’re first getting started. A good Party Poker bonus code should give you 100% up to $500 on your first deposit. Party Poker is well known for their bonuses being fairly easy to clear. This means that they release the bonus money to you without requiring a whole lot of playing time, whereas some online poker rooms make you grind it out for hours to get a few dollars of your bonus.
Remember, poker is all about value. To win, you need strong skills and easy competition, and of course, a little luck. New poker players can aid their development greatly by starting out at Party Poker in favor of a tougher, less-inviting online poker room.