Review of Pacific Poker

This is my top poker site, and I'll give you all the meat and blubber in our review of Pacific Poker. This is a well-established, secure, and stable poker site, but it plays as though some giant venture capitalist in the sky (or sea for that matter) dreamed up a very fishy recipe:

. . . take a few thousand people who only know poker from TV, take another few thousand who've skimmed through "Poker for Dummies", add a lot of money, shake everything around, and call it "Pacific Poker". This poker room consistently deals up the softest games for the worst players on the internet. The wild ring games combined with good customer service and promotions put this is at the top of my list.

Categories Reviewed at PacificPoker.com

Fish: 5
This site is the loosest online, plain and simple. The loose players are probably crossovers from Pacific's parent company, Casino-on-Net, the largest online casino in the world. It's tough to believe, but even a hammerhead shark like me can get all the fish he can swallow and then some. If you're looking for loose games and huge pots, Pacific is the poker room of choice.

Sharks: 2 (inverse rating)
With an endless supply of fish, it is only reasonable to assume that sharks like myself would begin to descend upon Pacific Poker looking to fill our bellies. Fortunately for you, the ratio of fish-to-sharks is still enormous. While you will find the occasional player who's there to pick off the fish, this poker room remains relatively shark-free even at the higher limits. That's fine with me, I usually work best when I'm not overrun by my own kind. I'm sure that you feel the same way.

Bait (promotions): 4.5
While the initial deposit bonus is pretty standard at 25% up to $100, Pacific is one of the few poker rooms that actually give you the bonus immediately in your cash account. Of course, you need to play a certain amount before you withdraw it, but it's nice to be able to see and play with your bonus right away. They also give loyalty points to regular players and host plenty of freerolls. The bait smelled pretty nice from where I was swimming.

Skin (software): 4
The software is simple and clean without a lot of bells and whistles. They also offer a no-download version that you can play directly from their website, which makes it Mac-compatible. While the graphics aren't the most sophisticated, I find Pacific's software to be very easy to navigate. For those of you who like hand histories, they have a cool feature that allows you to watch your past hands play out like a movie.

Prey (tournaments): 5
Pacific hosts a large amount of both freeroll and guaranteed big prize tournaments to satisfy your need for prey. I know that my stomach growls regularly, so I was glad the see that they host tourneys at least every half hour. They host a special offline $1,000,000 tournament in London, and they even offer a few free seats to top finishers in their daily freerolls. A nice aspect of their freerolls is that they run with 3 minute blinds and only 10 second decision times, which allows the tournament to be said and done in a reasonable amount of time.

Overall Pacific Poker Rating

Pearls (positives)
It's literally like owning your own aquarium when you play at Pacific. The number of inexperienced gamblers at this site is unmatched, and this can be one of the most profitable poker rooms to play at. The amount of bad players at this site is it's major selling point.

Hooks (negatives)
With so much poor play, you're going to get your big hands cracked more often. Game speed is also a little slower than many poker rooms.

The Hammer (overall rating): 5

♣ Visit pacificpoker.com

Tips for Playing at Pacific Poker

Meat (tips)
Remember that you want to be playing the opposite style of the rest of the table. Since you're mostly going to be sitting at a table full of loose opponents, you should tighten up and play only strong starting cards. When you do play, tend to raise a larger amount to make potential draws pay. Don't go into battle with a bunch of fish without the sharpest teeth, if you know what I mean.

Blubber (babble)
While we commonly assume that most of the bad players are coming from their casino, I think that it actually has more to do with their name, "Pacific Poker". I live in the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Maui in fact. I can tell you that I often run into an enormous amount of octopi in my area and they're terrible poker players. I think that they all flock to Pacific because they all live in the Pacific. Just a theory…

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

     

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