History

Pokerstars was started in late 2001, at a time when online poker was first finding its legs, the major competition at the time was Partypoker, and a few other smaller online sites. Pokerstars soon began its meteoric rise to the stop, by providing excellent service, and software that is second to none. After the passage of the UIGEA in 2006, and PartyPoker withdrew from the United States, Pokerstars filled this very large vacuum, along with Full Tilt, and was soon the largest online poker room. Fast forward to a few years later in April of 2011, with the full shut down of Full Tilt by the US Department of Justice, Pokerstars was forced to withdraw its operations from the United States, but picked up a lot of traffic from Full Tilt, and still remains the world’s largest online poker site, even without American players.

Notable Events in Pokerstars History

September 2011 – Pokerstars goes into Beta

December 2011 – Pokerstars accepts real money players.

August 2005 – Pokerstars moves from Costa Rica to the Isle of Man, due to lucrative tax deals.

September 2006 – UIGEA is Passed, Pokerstars fills massive void left by Partypoker

Dec 27 2009 – Pokerstars hosts largest poker tournament ever, drawing 200,000 players.

March 31 2011 – 60 Billionth hand dealt

April 15 2011 – Black Friday, Pokerstars domain seized by US Government, Pokerstars pulls out of US

April 20 2011 – Domain returned to Pokerstars

Software

Pokerstars’ software has always been the best software on the market, possibly rivaled only by Full Tilt, but since Full Tilt isn’t a site anymore, Pokerstars’ software has become leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else. Their software is easily navigable, full of relevant information, very reliable, and light on resource usage on your computer, with some of the custom themes, it also looks quite attractive, their default theme could be slightly better is the only negative that can possibly be found. If software is important to you, you are very likely to not find a better piece of online poker software anywhere.

Bonuses

Pokerstars offers the standard $600 100% First Deposit bonus to its players , which isn’t anything to write home about, but what is worth writing home about is their ridiculous VIP System. Pokerstars VIP System offers up to one hundred thousand dollars a year in bonuses to its top grinders, consisting of large amount of cash, entries into the biggest live tournaments of the year, Including the Pokerstars Carribean Adventure, the World Series of Poker Main Event, and European Poker Tour events. Mind you these are only offered to the top of the top, the Supernova Elite. If you don’t find yourself playing poker twenty five hours of the day though, the lower levels are also quite lucrative, offering fair compensation that rivals rakeback of many other websites.Some smaller sites may be better, if you find yourself not grinding as much, Carbon Poker might be better for you.

Competition

Pokerstars is the largest site online, full of all types of players, if you plan on playing cash games, table selection is paramount, due to the very large number of grinders aiming for the highest level of Pokerstar’s VIP Rewards, if you intend on playing higher than .10/.25, be very careful with the tables you pick, odds are there will be many many regulars in these games. If you’re looking for some of the softest games online though, its hard to beat Pokerstar’s big money tournaments, their famous Sunday One Million Guarantee is likely the softest tournament online, costing only $215, and boasting 150k+ for the winner, it brings in most players on Pokerstars, and a lot of very terrible players, if this is too high a buyin for you, their $11 Buyin, 250k Guarantee tournament offers even more value for your buck, with a chance to still hit it big.

Conclusion.

If you don’t have an account at Pokerstars, odds are you’re new to poker, everyone needs an account there, its the most important site in poker today, You need to play here, there is no comparison.

To sign up at Pokerstars and receive the free $600 Deposit Bonus, click here.