Party Poker Review

Party Poker is a fun online poker site that offers a decent range of common card games, including Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and 7-Card Stud. The software plays nicely and there’s a lot of solid traffic. If you’re looking for fish, lots of promotions, and a generous first-deposit bonus, then you’re in luck because Party Poker has all of these and more!

History Worth Celebrating

Party Poker has been dealing good times since 2001, when it helped pioneer poker online. Over the past 13 years the site has evolved from its infancy to become one the planet’s most popular poker rooms. In 2011, Party Poker merged with Bwin, a leading casino operator, to form bwin.party digital entertainment. As a publicly traded company on the London Stock exchange, you can expect the site to be completely transparent and accountable to all stakeholders, including you the player.

Today Party Poker operates from its headquarters in Gibraltar with a license from the Gibraltar Gaming Commission. With unrivalled safety, rock solid security, an incredible selection of games, huge guaranteed tournaments, rewarding promotions, and stellar software, it’s easy to see why Kiwis choose to party here.

Casino Screenshots

Always A Party

As far as gatherings go, Party Poker is one of the biggest on the block. Although no longer the hub for US player that it was five years ago, the site always ranks among the top five sites in the world in terms of traffic. It’s not uncommon to see close to 5000 players online with 3000 players hitting up cash games during peak periods. You can expect to compete against lots of New Zealanders and players from all continents.

If tournament action is what you’re after, expect between 1000 and 1200 players competing for the weekly $200K yet only 200 or so players vying for the High Roller $100K guarantee. Thanks to regular advertising campaigns both online and offline, you’ll find plenty of novices on the site too. Expect easier games with greater success over time, especially if you know poker.

Pros & Cons

Amazing Guarantees

Party Poker doles out major money every day of the week. The party hits its peak every Sunday with over $450K in guaranteed cash. Compete for your share in the $200K guarantee every Sunday. You don’t have to be a high roller to earn your spot either with direct satellites starting at $10.

You’ll find at least $70K in guaranteed cash every night of the week and close to $60K every Saturday. It all adds up to $130K in guaranteed money each and every week. That’s a lot of partying!

Party Poker can help catapult you into the limelight with live WPT seats. Win your way to televised events on the World Poker Tour and party in Montreal, Prague, Nottingham, and other notable spots.

Party Favours For All

Even when fun is the official name of the game, loyalty deserves to be rewarded. When you play at Party Poker, you’ll automatically be enrolled in the VIP program. Whenever you hit the tables you’ll earn valuable points. The more points you earn, the higher your status. Higher status members earn points at an even faster rate and the cycle of rewards continues. You’ll be able to redeem your points in the Party Poker store for luxury items, clothing, electronics, and other desirable gear.

Nonstop Promotions

New players will profit instantly at Party Poker with a 100% deposit bonus. Once you get settled, you’ll want to make your party more social by participating in missions and achievements. It’s easy to earn badges of honour, cash, and even kudos from the community.

Missions come in varying levels of difficulty with different objectives. You might be required to play a certain number of tournaments in a given week and win a few different type of hands. You’ll find cash game missions, tournament varieties, and even combinations. All you need to do is accept the challenge and complete it by the deadline. The prizes range from cash all the way to coveted seats in live landmark tournaments. It’s easy to see why this particular party means business!

Convenient Deposits

Party Poker offers New Zealand players a choice of deposit options. Choose from a variety of ewallets, credit cards, bank transfers, Neteller, Visa, MasterCard, Entropay, Diners Club, Skrill, and direct bank wire transfers. Unlike many other sites, Party Poker doesn’t charge you deposit fees, even if you opt for the speed and convenience of credit card deposits. Depending on the method you select, you can take your seat at a real money table within a couple of minutes. That includes downloading the software, registering your account, depositing, and finding a game that suits your style.

Swift Withdrawals

What good is winning if you can’t spend your riches? Party Poker gives Kiwi players a choice of withdrawal methods. Access your cash via Skrill, Neteller, wire transfer, electronic cheque or by mail. Like at most reputable poker rooms, cashout options may depend on how you deposited your cash. That means you might not be able to withdraw money to your credit card if you used a bank transfer to fund your account in the first place. Cashout speeds are in line with industry standards and you’ll usually have your cash in hand within a few days. Cheques by courier or post can take longer than digital methods.

Exceptional Customer Service

You have to wonder why some poker rooms are happy to take your credit card number but won’t give you their phone number. What are they trying to hide? The answer to that question doesn’t matter if you play at Poker Stars. The site offers amazing customer service including by phone. Just call their toll free number, which actually works in New Zealand, send an email, or take advantage of the live chat feature to get 24/7 service.

The customer care team actually lived up to its name by resolving all of our issues quickly. Whether we had sign up questions, technical difficulties, or needed help with a withdrawal, we always encountered courteous and knowledgeable staff.

Solid Game Variety

Like all good parties, there’s a lot of different kinds of excitement happening at once. Party Poker is no different. Whether you love big tournaments, sit and gos, or cash games, you’ll always have seemingly unlimited options at all stakes. Choose from limit hold’em, pot-limit hold’em, pot-limit Omaha, pot-limit Omaha hi-lo, 7 card stud, and 7 card stud hi-lo for starters. If you are new to the poker world, need a refresher course, or want to take your game to the next level, visit the free online poker school and really learn how to party hard. New players will love casual cash games, which are real money games restricted to players playing one hand and table at a time.

Modern Software

Party Poker overhauled their software in late 2014. No matter what platform you choose, you can expect a clean interface and gameplay that’s smooth as silk. Everything from the lobby to the tables themselves are beautiful and easy to navigate. We’re not talking about crazy animations or novelties, just great functional design. It’s probably the most modern and beautiful site out there, but ultimately it comes down to personal preference.

Rather than being confronted by endless columns and rows of games, you can see clean icons of your preferred games at a glance. There’s no need to put the party on hold with our favourite special feature. Take advantage of fast-fold poker and you can instantly transport yourself to a new table whenever you fold your pocket cards.

Easy Access

Party Poker makes it easy to join the fun no matter what kind of device you have. Take advantage of software downloads for your Windows PC or Mac. Enjoy the flexibility to play instantly with a no download version. Experience your favourite games in any browser without the hassle of installing software. It runs perfectly on Linux setups and Google powered Chromebooks. It’s also ideal for playing at work or any place where software installations are frowned upon.

Mobile Options

Why stop the party when you can take it on the road? Experience all your favourite poker games on your android smartphone, tablet, iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Whether you like lengthy tournaments or squeezing in a couple of cash games while waiting for a flight, Party Poker’s mobile apps deliver that kind of flexibility. All you need is a WiFi, 3G, or 4G connection to get in the game. Windows Phone and surface users can take advantage of the instant play version too. Whatever device you use just make sure to keep your battery charged since you never know when poker will call!

Conclusion

Party Poker is a well-known and highly respected online poker room. Along with providing a sound selection of the most popular games, they also offer a very exciting version of speed poker, FastForward Poker.

Sign up me now!