After 20+ years of hosting real money cash games and MTTs, does partypoker still deserve a top spot in the online poker world?
The honest answer is yes – a long history isn’t the only thing keeping partypoker at the front of the pack. Game security and reliability have always been the company’s backbone, plus, the traffic on the site is high enough to satisfy and regular poker player.
Partypoker is one of the poker sites that has banned HUDs at the table, along with GGPoker.
We’re going to hear some real opinions about partypoker and we’ll share some of the best and worst things about the site (including their cryptocurrency policy).
Does Partypoker Have Lots of Poker Formats?
Partypoker has popular games like Texas Holdem and Omaha, but nothing else at the moment. If you usually play formats like 5-card Omaha, Short Deck, or Stud, you won’t find it here. Up until recently, players could play Short Deck, Omaha Hi/Lo, and Fixed-Limit Holdem. Partypoker streamlined the games they offer, which most major poker sites have done as well.
If Texas Holdem and Omaha aren’t your favorite games, check PokerStars for a little more diversity. They have a good amount of people online playing 5-Card Omaha, 6-Card Omaha, 6+ Holdem (Short Deck), and Omaha Hi/Lo.
For Open Face Chinese poker, head to one of our favorite mobile apps, PPPoker.
Opinions About Partypoker Cash Games.SNGs/MTTs
Partypoker’s cash games can satisfy regs and casual players, no doubt about it. The NLH cash games are busy at the micro and low stakes, with very active fast-fold tables. That being said, partypoker mainly attracts Holdem players, and the PLO tables are more active on other poker sites, like GGPoker, PokerStars, or mobile poker apps.
Sit & go tournaments are at partypoker. It's one of the few poker sites that still offer SNGs. A few poker sites have stopped hosting SNGs, but you can see from the partypoker lobby that there is real traffic here. They also have double-or-nothing SNGs. Games start at $1.10 and go up to $1,000.
The MTTs at partypoker are among the best in the online poker world – especially on Sundays. Daily Legends run every day and give away a combined $3,000,000 each week. Then there are The Supers, which are like the Daily Legends events, only with bigger prize pools.
Get online for Sundays for The Carnival, a tourney with a $22 entry fee and a $50,000 prize pool. The Sunday Party is a slightly larger buy-in ($109), so you’ll face few players for a larger portion of the prize pool ($150,000).
Updated Partypoker Player Traffic Report
We pull traffic from major poker sites and tell you how many players are in each format, which stake, and even table size.
Looking at the player numbers from partypoker, they have several thousand online at peak hours (5,000-7000, with a minimum of around 1,000 online. A large portion of those players are at No-Limit Texas Holdem cash game tables and another large portion will be playing MTTs.
We’d recommend partypoker for micro, low, and even mid-stakes cash games. Player traffic drops off past the NL200 Holdem tables though and PLO traffic is limited across all cash game stakes. Fast-forward (the fast-fold variant at party poker) is a better place to find PLO and there’s good Holdem action too.
Partypoker Welcome Bonuses Compared to Other Sites
In a lot of players’ opinions, partypoker has above-average welcome bonuses.
There are two options:
1. A freeplay bonus for a minimum $10 deposit.
$10 gets you $10 in Spins tickets (3-way hyper-turbo SNGs with a randomly spun prize) but a $20 deposit gets you $30 in tickets.
2. A 100% matched deposit bonus of up to $600.
This choice is better for players adding much more than $20, since they can get much more than $30 in Spins tickets.
Some poker sites don’t have any bonus at all, or let you have a single bonus, so getting a choice is nice for new players. 888poker, PokerStars, and GGPoker are also sites where you can choose from a couple of different bonuses.
What We Think of the Partypoker PC and Mobile Apps
Partypoker has been hosting online poker games for over 20 years, so they know how to build secure and reliable software.
Partypoker software is at the same level of sophistication as the top competitors, with all of the throwables and reactions that the fun-loving modern players want. It’s nice to see that partypoker didn’t go overboard with gamifying and emojis – just the right amount.
You can play on whatever platform suits you; Windows, Mac, iPhone, or Android.
Partypoker has changed all cash games to anonymous and also banned the use of heads-up displays on their site in an effort to level the playing field for poker players.
It’s uncommon to see crashes, but if they do happen, you can expect to get a resolution from party poker support.
How Are Partypoker’s Deposit Options?
It’s not difficult to get money into your partypoker account and start playing. They’ve got conventional methods in the cashier, like credit cards, but tons of online payment processors too.
Here’s the full list of partypoker deposit options:
- Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, Discover Card, American Express
- Apple Pay
- VIP Preferred Program (Direct Bank Transfers)
- Online Banking
- Neteller
- Luxon
- PayPal
- Skrill
- ecoPayz
- Instadebit
- Bank Transfer
- Maestro
- PayNearMe
Options will vary depending on your location – and that’s right – you can’t deposit crypto directly.
If one of your coins just went to the moon, you can deposit America’s Cardroom. When you want to withdraw your winnings, there’s no fee if you use Bitcoin.