There are literally hundreds and maybe even thousands of online companies all offering potential players bonuses, promotions and a slew of other nicknack’s to entice us to play with their site. Most of us are attracted to the initial bonus we are awarded upon our first deposit, some are attracted to the poker software’s functionality and the rest of us are bonus whores going from site to site trying to get as much free money as they can by signing up and making initial deposits just so they can cash in. Some companies however have gone over all of these details to customize their bonuses and promotions in a effort to retain or keep their players coming back (a term known as Customer Retention in the gambling world). If players come back, they’re playing… If they’re playing, they’re spending… If they’re spending, they’re loosing and winning, if they’re loosing and winning, they’re making the company money. It’s a well thought out and planned method that keeps players coming back to the same site over and over again. In any case, that’s the way the game works.
Personally, I’ve played with many different sites and I’ve been enticed to continue playing with certain sites and not with others. My reasons vary from poker client functionality, presentation of the company and their products, bonus/promotion offerings, customer loyalty programs, etc. and I’m sure your reasons vary as well.
Below are my current Top 5 Favorite Poker Sites:
#1) FullTiltPoker.com – These guys are one of the largest and most popular online poker companies for a reason! Great poker client, great support and super fast server response. To build on this rather bold statement, let’s first talk about their custom poker client. Unlike so many other players in the online game, FullTilt is a strictly for poker enthusiasts. The spend millions of dollars a year on marketing and promotions that it’s no wonder they’re a household name. If you play with another site, I recommend you play for free on FullTilt just to experience their uniquely different poker client. Fun, highly customizable and easy-to-use.
#4) PokerRoom.com – I’ve been playing with these guys for just over 4 years. What sets this company apart from the rest is their uniquely satisfying poker software. It’s both extremely functional and I like the fact that I am identified by a character at the table instead of just a handful of cards. This might not matter to some of you, but for me, it’s a nice added touch. During special occasions (ie: Halloween, Christmas, etc), the characters are displayed wearing different costumes and adds a sense of humor to what can sometimes be a tense table. I was also drawn to them by their customer support. It’s always nice to have the option to speak directly to a customer service representative via online chat or telephone which case this company offers both. They also allow offer email support for less critical issues. When I first signed up with them, I had a really buggy poker client which I was able to get straightened out via online chat.
The actual poker client is very easy to navigate through and find what you’re looking for with respect to games. Each game lobby offers a chat window which allows to you to chat among friends or fellow players while you wait for your game/tournament to start. One thing I must bring up is that I have noticed, at times, their random number generator buggers up and I end up getting the exact same cards two or three times in a row. This has happened on several occasions but not as frequently as it use to. I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one experiencing this problem as they were made aware of this glitch.
With regards to payment processors, they offer the standards that most others do. Moneybookers, Visa, Mastercard, Click2Pay and a few others. A good selection of different payment options is always a good thing. Tournaments are well structured and overall they give their players an enjoyable poker experience.
CasinoCritic’s Rating:
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Top5 Worst Poker/Casino Sites Ever!
As I have discussed before, there are a lot of factors that must be considered when determined what makes a site fun to play on over and over again. Presentation, functionality, bonus/promotions, etc just to name a few. Most companies strive to at least factor in most of these when trying to gain a share of this multi-billion dollar industry and others fail miserably. Below are my list of least favor sites to play on and why…
1) Casino-For-Me.com and A-Winning-Hand.com (same company, same owner)
This Boss Media based poker site have not been around for long. A friend of mine had told me about their high paying bonuses and promotions for new customer sign-ups which brought me to their site in the first place. My first impression of the company left little to be desired. Their website was, and still is, crude to say the least. There is nothing eye catching or remotely professional about the presentation that would make anyone sign up based on first appearances. In reality, it looked very amateur but in any case, I signed up just to see what they had to offer. I wasn’t impressed with any of their offers and this company shows all the signs of a fly-by-night type operation. Rumors have been circulating within the gaming industry that the owner Alexander Duffy has been involved in many other illegal online activities with his most recent being selling illegal Viagra out of Dubai and is only using these sites for the laundering of money. I would strongly recommend that you stay FAR WAY from this company as there are many legitimate companies out there that are much safer to deal and play with.
