PokerStars has become a catalyst for the entire online poker industry, having risen among the ranks to the world’s largest poker room. The company set the bar for other poker sites to strive to match.

Just a few years back Party Poker was in their place, at the top of the poker worlds food chain. Party Poker is a publicly traded company though, so much to the benefit of companies like PokerStars, they stopped accepted gambling transactions from US Poker players, dropping in the ranks, and catapulting Party Poker to the frontline.

PokerStars has one of the most functional, feature-rich software platforms online with a massive variety of poker variants to choose from. That in itself is really the kicker. Whatever you want to play, at whatever stakes, PokerStars has it. It truly is the top poker site .

Because of the vast game selection available at PokerStars, they are the largest poker room in regards to traffic – averaging near 180,000 at peak hours – all of those games see constant action as well.

The tournament schedule is simply outstanding, paying out more than $13 million in guarantees every month, as well as sending players to just about every major live poker event around the globe.

Have you checked out the steps tournaments at PokerStars lately? You can start at step one for about 8 bucks, and end up at any major tournament around the world… who knows’ you may leave their a millionaire.

PokerStars has developed their own private software platform; complete with every statistic a player could ask for in the lobby and on the virtual felt. The graphics are very clean and crisp, but lack the resource-hogging avatars that slow down many other poker sites.

Most players appreciate the speed and ease-on-the-eyes this delivers at PokerStars. All of the standard features are available, like note taking, and 4 color decks, plus a lot of extras. A graphic replay of hands at the table are great for instant analysis, and the hand history functions are the best in the business; exportable and compatible with most poker tracking software programs like Poker Tracker.

Game-wise, you’d be hard pressed to find a better selection of poker variants. PokerStars of course supplies the standard variety, such as Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, 7 Card Stud and 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, but they’ve gone many steps further to include Razz, 5 Card Draw, 2-7 Single Draw, 2-7 Triple Draw, Badugi, H.O.R.S.E. And a unique 8-Game Mix. Stakes range from micro-limits (PokerStars was the originator of micro-limits in the online poker world) to ultra-high stakes.

There are even rumors that Baduci might be on offer at PokerStars very soon.

Satelite Tournaments, Overlays, Guarentees, and Million Dollar Tournaments – PokerStars has Them!
In terms of value and frequency, PokerStars has the ultimate online poker tournament schedule. If you’re looking for loose, juicy competition, however, you’ll have to stick to the cheaper buy-ins and freerolls.

PokerStars has a lot of veteran and pro poker players who love to haunt the bigger events. As a general rule of thumb, if you’re wondering if you’re playing with a pro, google their user name.

PokerStars biggest guarantees are held every Sunday, including the infamous PokerStars Sunday Million, which boosted it’s GTD prize pool up to $1.5 million last year due to the extreme level of participation. The Sunday Warm-Up is worth $750k GTD, plus another $200k and $300k GTD every Sunday evening. The standard entry fee is generally 10% of the buy-in, but no matter how high the guaranteed prize pool, PokerStars will never charge more than $200 buy-in for any tournament entry.

Another staple in the PokerStars tournament roster is a plethora of satellites, either to PokerStars’ biggest online events, or one of the many live poker events around the world. Players can win a seat in the WSOP, EPT, LAPT, APPT, PokerStars Caribbean Adventures, Aussie Millions, you name it, they’ve probably got it.

One of the most unique features is PokerStars SNG Steps Satellites. Instead of besting an enormous field of thousands, you only need to win 6 9-seater SNGs in a row. Step 1 cost only a few dollars, and if you can manage to come in 2nd place, you’ll at least win a ticket back into a Step 1 satellite. The further you get into the steps, the lower you can finish and still win a seat back into an earlier Steps Satellite to try again without paying the usual entry fee.

PokerStars Professional Poker Players

Being the largest, most popular online poker room in the world, you can expect to see a lot of famous names around the lobby. Many of these are PokerStars Pros who endorse the online poker room and play exclusively at PokerStars.

The lit of Team PokerStars Pros includes a number of past WSOP Champions. Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, Isabelle Mercier, John Duthie, Steve-Paul Ambrose, Vanessa Rousso, Victor Ramdin, Katja Thater, Bertrand Grospellier, Gavin Griffin, Alexandre Gomes, Ylon Schwartz, Dennis Phillips, Ivan Demidov, the 2008 WSOP Champion Peter Eastgate and many others make up the impressive roster of Team PokerStars Pros. If you ever imagined yourself competing on the felt against a real professional poker player, look no further than PokerStars.

PokerStars Welcome Bonus

PokerStars offers all new players a welcome bonus of 100% up to $50. It may not seem like much compared to some other online poker rooms, but the overall quality of PokerStars, and the incredibly easy bonus clearing requirements, more than make up for it. You’ll need only 10 Base FPP for each $1 of the bonus, so even the max $50 bonus would require only 500 points. The bonus is releases in full once cleared, but there’s no expiration to clearing it.

PokerStars Payments / US Players

One of the key points that drove PokerStars to the number one position is it’s dedication to US player acceptance. As such, the online poker room supplies a good number of fast, safe and secure payment options for all regions of the world.

Deposit Methods: Visa, MasterCard, Diners Club, Solo, Maestro, ClickandBuy, Click2Pay, NETeller, Moneybookers, PaySafeCard, WebMoney, EC-ELV, Online bank Transfer, Local Bank Transfer, Money Order, Instant eCheck and Cashier’s Check.

Withdrawal Methods: Visa, Solo, Maestro, ClickandBuy, Click2Pay, NETeller, Moneybookers, WebMoney, Direct Bank Transfer, Instant eCheck and Check.