Paradise Poker

Paradise Poker were the first to bring our favourite card game to the internet way back in 1999, and they are still one of the most popular online poker rooms around, with traffic at levels that cause lesser sites to turn green with envy. It recently joined up with Sportingbet plc and in doing so became part of what is now the world's biggest online betting company, with shares listed on the London Stock Exchange. Paradise Poker also won Casino Player magazine's 2006 award for Best Poker Tournaments.

The Paradise Poker software weighs in at a little under 8Mb and is downloaded from the smart yet refreshingly simple home page. Installing the file will put a Paradise Poker icon on your desktop. Click on this and you will be taken to the main lobby. You can view any of the games on offer as a spectator straight away, but to play yourself - for fun or for real - you need to register a new account. This is a cinch and takes just a minute or so.

There is a wide variety of games on offer here, including Hold'em (both limit and no limit), Omaha, 7 Stud, Draw and Pineapple. Stakes for real money games start from as low as $0.02/0.04 and go as high as $40/80, with maximum no limit buy-ins at $2,000. As well as the usual ring games, Paradise Poker also allows you to play 1 on 1, or take a seat in a sit and go or multi-table tournament. Prize money for some tournaments hits the $1 million mark, and if you want to try and win risk-free, there are plenty of free-roll events to keep you busy.

The gaming environment at Paradise Poker is geared towards playability and functionality. Players are represented by gold-coloured name plates around an oval shaped table. The cards are nicely drawn and there is the option to use a four-coloured deck. The player interface is very intuitive and takes just a couple of minutes to get used to. The sound effects are simple and unobtrusive, but can be muted altogether via the options menu in the main lobby.

Because Paradise Poker has so many members, winning here does not require a degree in rocket science. At the micro and low stakes tables you will find plenty of fish and these can be a good source of income as long as you play to a good tight strategy and don't tilt if you get caught out by the occasional bad beat. As with most other sites, competition tends to get tougher as the amount of money involved in a game increases. Taking advantage of Paradise Poker's facility to make notes about the people you play is a good way of tagging the competition, and allows you to target weak players whilst avoiding particularly strong ones.

A very strong loyalty programme gives you points for playing with real money, and these can be used to gain entry into tournaments or simply be redeemed for cash. The number of points you are awarded depends on the stakes you tend to play with, but Paradise Poker's points programme is widely regarded as being one of the most generous in the industry.

Overall, Paradise Poker is a great site. It was the first on the internet and as far as stability, customer service and user friendliness is concerned, it is still one of the very best.

Money & Security:

You can fund your Paradise Poker account using credit card, Neteller or Firepay. All of the communications between the Paradise Poker server and the client programme running on your computer are encrypted using the internationally accepted industry standard SSLv3/TLSv1 encryption algorithm.

Contact:

24 hour customer service is available 7 days a week by e-mailing support@paradisepoker.com. A customer service representative will normally respond in around 10 to 20 minutes.