PokerStars Review
PokerStars is the largest online poker site in the world.
Read our review to find out what the poker site has to offer.
Huge range of poker games
Good sign-up bonus
The best site for professional players
Prestigious competitions
A rake structure that improves as you move up in stakes
Chests and Rewards rakeback system
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The most prestigious competitions in online poker
PokerStars will the biggest poker site in the world and has the most famous and prestigious competitions on the internet.
Their weekly Sunday Million, Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) and Micro Millions for lower stakes players attract thousands of players to their events and festivals.
It's the place to be if you want to make a living playing poker and the formats and size of player pool gives players everything they need.
Pokerstars Sign-up Bonus
PokerStars offer a generous sign-up bonus. They match 100% of up to a $600 first deposit meaning that players can double their money if they play enough poker within the first four months.
These bonuses are rewarded for rake paid by the players, making it a rakeback bonus.
How Pokerstars Sign-up Bonus works
You earn 5 redemption points for every $1 of rake/tournament fees paid.
Every time you reach 75 redemption points (spending $15 in rake), your account will be credited $5.
To unlock $600, you would need to pay $1800 in rake, which means you would need to play a lot of poker.
As with all rakeback bonuses, these are good ways to make money back on your poker, provided the bonus doesn't affect your game, by either encouraging you to play more than you want to or higher stakes than you otherwise would.
Being aware of the bonus is important, but don't allow it to affect your play.
PokerStars Chests and Rewards
Not only is there a strong welcome bonus, but PokerStars also has a generous rakeback system that rewards players long after the initial sign-up bonus has gone.
Similarly to the sign-up bonus, you unlock bonuses as you pay rake/tournament fees, and this is transferred into points that you can cash in for tournament tickets, hard cash, or merchandise.
These are given to the player through chests that they open which they unlock by paying rake and playing poker.
As with other rakeback systems, players move up in chest level, giving better rewards.
If 28 days pass without a player having won a chest, their progress bar resets and they are moved down a level.
PokerStars also rewards players who reach the silver level of chest (the third tier) with monthly poker challenges which give players the opportunity to earn additional rewards.
PokerStars Rake - full ring cash
PokerStars' rake structure favours players at higher stakes, with lower stakes games being raked more aggressively. Rake is never a good thing, but this structured approach can encourage players to improve so that the rake reduces as they move up in stakes.
$0.01/$0.02 - 3.50% capped at $0.30 (15 big blinds)
$0.25/$0.50 - 5% capped at $2 (4 big blinds)
$3/$6 5% capped at $3.50 (0.6 big blinds)
PokerStars Rake - tournament fee
$11 MTT - Tournament fee $1.20 (10.9%)
$55 MTT - Tournament fee $5 (9.09%)
$109 MTT - Tournament free $9 (8.25%)
Built with professional players in mind
PokerStars is the site for the professional and aspiring pro. It has the biggest and most prestigious games on the internet and attracts huge fields of players.
That's not to say that every table is filled with professionals - it's not. With so many people playing on this site, you will find every level of player.
But if you're looking to go pro yourself, or want to take on the best players as an amateur, this is the best site to do it.
Impressive variety of formats
Just because PokerStars is a professional site, doesn't mean that it doesn't know how to offer fun.
Aside from the heavy-duty MTT (multi-table tournaments) with huge cash prizes, they also offer a wide range of smaller and less serious games.
They have loads of different variants of poker for you to try, and they offer Spin & Gos, Sit & Gos, and creative formats such as The Tempest and Kick-Off that give players challenges to complete for a chance to win cash.
In conclusion
PokerStars is the biggest and most successful online poker site in the world.
It boasts the biggest and most prestigious poker tournaments anywhere on the internet and attracts huge fields of players.
The large number of players means that the quality of your opponent will vary significantly. meaning there is likely to be weaker players at most tables.
PokerStars offers a solid welcome bonus and rakeback rewards to keep players coming back for more, and they provide such a range of games, formats, and stakes that the site really caters for allcomers to the online felt.