Online Poker > Online Poker Room Reviews > Paradise Poker Room Review
Paradise Poker is one of the oldest sites on the Internet with a reliability and trust that is only achieved after years at the top, Paradise’s strongest point is its terrific game variety; it has a wider choice of games than any other site on the Internet and, more importantly, a much higher player volume in these other games than its competitors. Paradise Poker also runs the online poker industry’s only million dollar free roll. Read More...
Our Ratings
Promotions/Bonuses
| Sign-up Bonus |
$50 |
| Deposit Bonus |
25% |
| Referral Bonus |
$0 |
| Deposit free bonus |
$0 |
| Paid to play |
$0 per hour |
Graphics
For a market leader Paradise Poker’s graphics are a bit of a let down: the tables look ok but there are no avatars (player characters). which undermines the table image with all seats appearing identical to the eye.
Playability
Table
Paradise Poker’s software is about the most reliable in the industry. The designers have also thought of some useful features such as player statistics. note taking software and so on. There are a few niggles as there are with any site (like the small pre-select buttons) but on the whole Paradise is strong in this area.
Lobby
Paradise Poker’s lobby is functionally very well designed. Finding the table you want is easy because no-limit Texas Hold’em games appear under a different tab from other (fixed-limit and pot-limit) Hold’em games. and to help you gain information about a table before you sit down the view flop percentage is displayed.
Player Numbers
Ring
Very good. Paradise is one of the top five sites in terms of real-money traffic with peak real-money player numbers consistently topping 30.000!
Tournament
Paradise boasts some of the best peak time traffic on the Internet and its tournament figures are no different; there are simply thousands of players.
Game Variety
As we’ve already said. Paradise is the unrivalled market leader in this department. Take your pick from Texas Hold’em. Omaha High. Omaha Hi/Lo. Seven Card Stud. Five-Card Stud Heads-Up. Draw. Texas Hold’em Pineapple and Pineapple H/L8. (Pineapple is a game which is identical to Texas Hold’em except that players are dealt three hole-cards. one of which is discarded after the flop).
Rake
The rake at Paradise Poker is fractionally higher than average: the maximum rake is $5 whereas the industry standard is $3.
Special Tournaments
This is another one of Paradise’s strong areas. Alongside the famous Million Dollar Freeroll you can take your pick from The Paradise Masters – a nine day championship with nine events and a guaranteed prize pool of over $3 million. a plethora of WPT qualifiers. loads of guaranteed pot tournaments (such as a daily $60.000 guaranteed pot). and many qualifiers to assorted live tournaments (including the Aussie Millions – which features a top prize of over $1 million).
Promotions / Bonuses
Sign-up
Paradise Poker doesn’t offer quite such large sign-up bonuses as other sites. Its 25 percent cash-back offer (up to a maximum of $50) is not particularly generous. but it is at least pretty easy to claim: you need only play 500 raked hands to claim the full amount and there is no time limit.
Loyalty
Paradise Poker’s assured position in the online poker market is reflected in its confident attitude to loyalty bonuses – i.e.: there are none! Clearly Paradise executives are confident that once you start playing here you won’t want to leave.
Payment Options
Deposit
VISA. MasterCard. NETeller. FirePay. wire transfer. and bank draft.
Withdrawal
VISA. NETeller. FirePay and cheque.
About Paradise Poker
Paradise Poker was set up in 1999 and was one of the first successful online poker rooms. It quickly became the leading company in the online poker industry and remained at the top of the field until about 2003 when PartyPoker began its aggressive marketing drive and became the dominant force in the industry almost overnight.
Despite this Paradise Poker remained (and indeed remains) a big player in the industry and an advertising campaign of its own featuring the supermodel Caprice helped further bolster the company’s profile.
In October 2004 the UK betting giants Sportingbet. clearly impressed by Paradise Poker’s business model. purchased the company for $347.5 million. becoming the world’s largest online gaming company in the process and adding further financial security to Paradise Poker’s already very stable operation.
Paradise currently has well over two million customers. with over 30.000 real-money players logged in at peak times. It is regarded as one of the world’s top five online poker sites.