Review of Empire Poker

You'll find out more about this Party Poker skin in our review of Empire Poker. While skins of larger poker rooms don't typically attract a large amount of traffic, Empire has become a niche favorite for tournament players and of course for those who prefer blue software colors over Party's tan background. As Party is currently the competition-crushing giant of the online poker world, Empire shares in its enormous traffic numbers.

Categories Reviewed at EmpirePoker.com

Fish: 4
You'll find the same fish that you find on Party Poker, whose level of skill appears to be slightly increasing. The Empire/Party Poker network has the largest marketing budget of anyone in the industry, and doesn't appear to be slowing down. This naturally attracts a huge amount of new and inexperienced players, but it also attracts some of the larger sharks looking to cash in on the fishy newcomers. While poor play is the driving force at party, the games are not as crazy as Pacific Poker.

Sharks: 3.5 (inverse rating)
With the influx of new players, plenty of breeds of sharks have also descended upon this network expecting to find loose competition. While there are plenty of fish to go around, you'll have to observe your table when you sit down to peg the sharks at your table. As time has gone on, I have noticed that the fish-to-shark ratio has decreased.

Bait (promotions): 3.5
I give Empire Poker a lower score than Party because of their lack of the Party Poker Million tournament and only free $25 deposit bonus for new players. However, they are pretty generous about cashing it out. Some unique promotions to Empire include daily freerolls and other exclusive tournaments.

Skin (software): 4
The software is pretty well-detailed in terms of graphics but isn't too flashy. At times, the software causes games to run slowly. The Empire Poker software uses the same engine as Party, but with a blue color scheme. The hand history feature is pretty extensive, but they don't provide player stats.

Prey (tournaments): 4.5
The Empire-Party network offers lots of daily tournaments and freerolls. Their Sit 'n Go area is also a big advantage, as there are always plenty of players ready to go and they even offer multi-table SnGs. Another advantage to Empire Poker is their exclusive tournaments that are only available to Empire players, including a generous daily freeroll. One negative is the higher-than-normal house fee charged for each tournament. Where I come from, that kind of business management will get you a nice 4-row bite scar on the backside.

Overall Empire Poker Rating

Pearls (positives)
As with Party Poker, Empire Poker's main advantage is the active traffic at any time of the day. Empire also hosts some exclusive tournaments to its members.

Hooks (negatives)
Customer service seems to be slower than with Party, and ring games tend to run slower than other sites.

The Hammer (overall rating): 4

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Tips for Playing at Empire Poker

Meat (tips)
Observing your opponents is critical to any poker game, especially an online poker game. One of the few tells that you can pick up on from your online opponents include their betting patterns and their cards at the showdown. Examine how the other players at your table play certain hands and use that information to your advantage the next time you're in a pot with them.

Blubber (babble)
Have you ever been fortunate enough to just have everything going your way when you're playing online? Most fellow sharks have a frustrating experience online due to the enormous amount of weak draws that eventually crack their top cards. Sometimes, however, you'll play a hand completely wrong and still get away with it. The other day on Empire, I made only a small raise from under the gun with A-K. I got about 5 callers. That would be mistake #1: not raising enough with so many fish at this site. The flop came K-10-6, and I made a pretty large bet. Everyone folded except for this guy in late position, who went all-in. Maybe I was feeling perky, but I called him. He showed K-10 and I was beat, until the Ace came on the turn. I love when the better hand ends up coming out on top. It's just another reason why sharks beat the fish, including Empire/Party Poker fish once in a while!

♣ ♣ For further details and ratings for EmpirePoker.com, you can visit our basic Empire Poker review.

     

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