It’s a Poker Party, and you may or may not be invited!

Fun fact: If you’re a fan of online poker like me, it sucks to be you. Back in April, the US government took steps to block US citizens from playing poker online, and took down the largest poker sites, PokerStars and Full Tilt as well as many others. As a loyal patron of both sites, I shook my fists in the air and yelled “Obama!” so loud it echoed in space! As such, I was intrigued when we were asked to review the site Party Poker.

“Could it be? A decent poker site that has chosen to ignore the US legislation and fly under the radar accepting US players?”

As it turns out, no.

For some reason that I can’t possibly imagine (wink wink nudge nudge), they ignored the fact that I am American, and most of our readership is also American and thus we will be unable to play or give them any money. In fact, they even asked that when I link them it be to their Italian site. I guess for our 0.70% of readers that are Italian (and yes, I checked) they really want you to play. So ignoring the fact that I couldn’t play for real money, I decided to play a bit for play money. This review will be based on that experience, and I’m going to assume that real money players play exactly the same.

First let’s talk about the interface. Anyone who’s played on Full Tilt, or PokerStars should be awfully  familiar with this interface. Checkboxes in the lower right hand corner to quickly check, fold, or auto post your blinds, and sliders to adjust your raise amounts. Unlike some other sites, the quick bet buttons aren’t as robust (it can be a pain to do bets like 2/3 pot size), and you can’t change the slider to be based off of the pot size instead of big blinds. Still, the interface is fairly standard and you won’t be too far off from other sites. Poker Party is also supported both by the HEM hud, and PokerTracker, so you’ll have all the stats you need (I couldn’t, however, figure out how to get the program to export hands so my hud would detect the players but not actually track hands.)

Now for what you really care about, the player base. Again, I’m American so I could not play for real money. However, I’m sure players play for real money exactly like they play for fake money, so no biggie. I played around a bit at a $50/$100 No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em table. And you would not believe how stupid some of these players are. “$100 big blind? Better raise under the gun for $17,000.” I even saw a guy go all in with 2-7 off suit! I would recommend that you sit down at a table right now for as much money as humanly possible, wait until you have pocket aces, and go all in. Everyone will call you and you will win massive money.*

If you want a party, you may as well consider Poker Party. Sure they’re not the biggest, and their interface is more or less copied from other larger sites with more players. But hey, every site starts somewhere. If you want a change from the norm, there’s no reason not to try here. There’s a party in my poker and you’re all invited.

*Top Tier Tactics is not responsible for any losses related to you taking our clearly satirical advice.