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Party Poker Review
Party Poker - the Wal-Mart of online
poker rooms - was my very first poker room, which probably puts me
in a classification with most internet poker room players. I
think it is fair to say that I joined Party Poker first because it
is a safe choice - One, there is a huge database of other players.
Two, it is very conducive for beginners. And third, Party
Poker is a trusted name, and is by far, the largest poker room on
the Web.
Although I personally know how to
play poker, I never really did so with any specific strategy or with
any seriousness to win some money. As such, I guess you could
call myself a beginner. And considering I had never played
online poker, I was in for a learning experience. I have to
say that Party Poker was a good choice for several reasons.
INTERACTIVE TOUR & TUTORIAL
This is a fantastic feature for
beginners since it is free to use and does not require any
downloads. I first took a tour of the lobby, which was through
a "Poker School" link on the main page of the website. This
was nice to see before actually downloading the software. It
only takes a couple of minutes, and is very helpful in showing you
what you can accomplish in the lobby, such as reading table stakes,
average pot sizes, and how to actually join a table. I wasn't
intimidated at all, and so decided to take the Virtual Poker School
Tutorial. This is by far one of the best features Party Poker
offers to those who are unfamiliar with online poker - whether you
know the rules or not. In addition to showing you how to
actually put down your bets, fold, make calls and the like, the
tutorial explains what community cards are and such. It does
it in such a simple manner that - as I said - whether you know the
rules or not, the overall tutorial is quite bearable and takes only
a couple of minutes.
SIGNING UP
After I felt good about playing
there, I decided to download the software. Looking back, the
download took longer than other poker rooms (about 3 1/2 minutes).
Although I was using a high-speed connection and a brand new
computer, I wonder if it froze up at one point. Regardless,
all the components were downloaded and I got a message to open an
account. What confused me at this point was the empty box for
a Promotion Code. I knew a bonus was available to new players
but did not see any bonus code printed on the main website.
Now that I was being asked for the code, I thought that I passed up
my chance for a bonus. Anyhow, I later found out that you have
an opportunity again to use your bonus code when you go to open a
real money account with the cashier. If you just want to play
poker for fun, you can bypass the real-money registration and do it
at a later time. Just remember to save your welcome email.
This has a link to get your bonus promotion code, which you will
need when you deposit funds for the first time.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Not the best in the world.
Perhaps the Wal-Mart analogy is truer than I thought. Not only
did tech support and general customer service never reply to my
emails, the first person I spoke with over the phone seemed like
they were so busy that all of my newbie questions were annoying
them. I guess that's the price some people are willing to pay.
Anyways, I asked this person how to get my bonus promotion code.
They were clearly knowledgeable about what they were saying.
However, their English was not so clear. I kept having to ask
them to repeat what they were saying - and this seemed to only fuel
the fire of perturbation even more...One strike for Customer
Service.
Other than the Customer Service and a
Players Club that was somewhat of a joke (the best item in their
online store is a pair of beach sandals), Party Poker is a great
place to get some online poker action - especially if you are a
beginner. The tournaments are around the clock, with large
jackpots to match. There is a buy-in for everyone's bankroll,
and the software is up to the industry standard, meaning you will
find the same graphics at just about every other large online poker
room.
Click here to visit Party Poker
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