PokerStars Poker Review

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PokerStars is the leading online poker site in the UK and around the world. It offers some of the largest online poker tournaments in the business, and there is a new game every second.

PokerStars software is superb, offering a strong selection of bonuses and promotions, and it caters to casual players, high stakes players, and everyone in between. Flutter Entertainment, the world’s largest online gambling company, owns PokerStars and is fully licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. It has a reputation for offering solid security, attentive customer support, rapid payouts and a very impressive user experience.

Pros
  • Some of the world’s largest online poker tournaments
  • Excels in terms of game variety, liquidity and traffic
  • Lots of attractive bonuses and promotions
Cons
  • No live chat support

PokerStars will give you £400 worth of rewards as an incentive for registering. You simply have to click on the link provided on this page, sign up for an account, deposit £10 or more and use the bonus code STARS400. Play your favorite games to earn points and release your 100% bonus.

Promotions Offered by PokerStars

PokerStars hands out thousands of pounds in cash prizes every day as part of its Spin & Go leaderboard promotion. New players can enjoy free-to-enter Spin & Go tournaments where you can win up to £10,000 in a matter of minutes, while there are also daily cash game leaderboards.

Registration at PokerStars

The registration process at PokerStars is quick and simple. Just click “Join” at the top right of the homepage, enter an email address, choose a username and password and click “Continue”. You can choose your marketing preferences, enter personal details and then click to create your account. You will need to upload documents that verify your identity, such as a passport and utility bill. All licensed operators require customers to complete verification, so this is reassuring.

Game Variety at PokerStars

PokerStars runs the world’s largest and busiest poker room, so you can play almost any game imaginable at any time of day or night and at almost any limit. Buy-ins are presented in USD, spanning from $0.01 to $400.

Poker Tournaments

You will find dozens of multi-table tournaments beginning every hour, ranging from No Limit Hold’em to less common variants such as Pot Limit Badugi. The most famous weekly tournament is the Sunday Million, while PokerStars also runs the World Championship of Online Poker, which has offered more than $1 billion in prize pools since it began 20 years ago. You can play multi-table tournaments, Sit & Go, freerolls, freezeout, rebuy, re-entry tournaments, progressive knockout tournaments, satellite tournaments, and much more.

Cash Games

PokerStars offers the largest selection of cash games in the world. Omaha, Omaha High/Low, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud High/Low, Razz, Triple Stud, Five Card Draw, 2-7 Triple Draw, 2-7 Single Draw, Five Card Omaha, Courchevel and Badugi games are all available, mostly in two-seat, six-seat and nine-seat versions.

Sit & Go Games

PokerStars offers a broad array of Sit & Go games, ranging from heads-up to 990 players, in both cash and satellite formats.

Live Poker

PokerStars-sponsored live events and card rooms have become the gold standard for high-quality poker across the globe. Its line-up includes the European Poker Tour, Asia Pacific Poker Tour and Brazilian Series of Poker.

PokerStars Poker Network Partners

PokerStars runs on its own network, which is the busiest in the world. It averages more than 15,000 people playing cash games and tournaments each day.

PokerStars Competition Level

PokerStars has the world’s largest customer base, so the competition level runs the gamut from fish to sharks. Generally speaking, it has a reasonably experienced player profile, so you will find a lot of tight games, and the general level of competition is slightly above average.

PokerStars Desktop/Mobile Experience

The user experience is excellent at PokerStars. You can download a highly-rated mobile app on the go, or you can play at your desktop. The desktop site is very easy to navigate, as the games are neatly compartmentalised. Pages load quickly too.

The team also deserves a great deal of credit for creating such a user-friendly mobile poker experience. The interface changes on a regular basis due to upgrades, but it is always a pleasure to use.

PokerStars also stands out due to the wealth of educational content it offers. It is a great site for beginners, as you can play games for free before taking the plunge and playing for real money, but it is also perfectly suited to veteran players.

Depositing and Withdrawing at PokerStars

PokerStars offers players a very long list of deposit options: Visa debit, debit MasterCard, Apple Pay, Maestro, Rapid Transfer, local bank transfer, direct bank transfer, PayPal, Skrill, MuchBetter, Neteller, PaySafeCard, Neosurf, PokerStarsTopUp, Google Pay and Trustly. Deposits are safe, secure and instant, and start at £10.

You can receive your winnings via Visa, Neteller, Skrill, MuchBetter, PayPal, WebMoney, direct bank transfer or wire transfer. Neteller, Skrill, MuchBetter, PayPal withdrawals arrive within an hour, whereas bank transfers take 3-5 business days and Visa withdrawals can take 3-10 business days to arrive.

Payment Method Deposit Amount Withdrawal Amount Withdraw Time
Maestro 10 min - 2-5 business days.
MasterCard 10 min - N/A
VISA 10 min - 2-5 business days.
PayPal 10 min - 1-3 business days.
NETELLER 10 min - 1-4 business days.
Paysafecard 10 min - N/A
Apple Pay 10 min £10 min Instant
Skrill 10 min - 1-4 hours
Google Pay 10 min £10 min Instant
Neosurf 10 - 1-3 business days
MuchBetter 10 - 1-3 business days

PokerStars VIP Program

The PokerStars Rewards scheme allows you to rack up points by simply paying the poker rake or fees across all tournaments and cash games. The points can later be exchanged for free play credit and personalised rewards.

A new recreational player will initially fall into the Blue tier, and your rewards improve as you scale the loyalty ladder. The next “Chest Level” – so named because you unlock a chest loaded with rewards – is Bronze, followed by Silver, Gold, Diamond and finally Black, which is the top VIP tier. You will unlock large rewards and monthly poker challenges if you reach that level.

The revamped loyalty scheme unveiled in 2021 features up to 65% of all rakeback and tournament fees paid by the players, returned via “Chests” and monthly challenges that will now be open to all players. This was designed to fend off the challenge of GGPoker, which has emerged as PokerStars’ top challenger in recent years.

PokerStars Customer Support

PokerStars has an experienced and attentive customer support team, but your only option is to fill out a form and wait for a response. We would like to see it add a live chat option and perhaps a dedicated phone line in future. On the plus side, it has a very thorough FAQ section, and a help bot can help you find information on specific topics.

Social:
Available Hours: 24/7

PokerStars Responsible Gambling Features

There is a dedicated “Responsible Gambling” section at the PokerStars site. It provides a comprehensive guide to the various ways in which you can impose limits upon your account, including deposit limits, cash game table limits and tournament limits. You can also self-exclude.

You will find tips on how to identify and reduce the risks of problem gambling, along with a useful questionnaire. There are also links to various external agencies that can help, such as GamCare and GAMSTOP. PokerStars clearly takes the issue of responsible gambling seriously, and it has created one of the most detailed guides in the industry.

Our Verdict

PokerStars truly stands out among the best poker sites in the UK and fully deserves its status as the world’s number one poker site. It excels in terms of site traffic, liquidity, poker game variety, breadth of buy-in and skill levels, guaranteed prize pools, user experience, quick and reliable payouts, and bonuses and promotions.

We would like to see more customer support options, but that is a minor issue. The revamped loyalty scheme should help PokerStars hold onto its crown, ensuring that it remains the market leader for many years to come.

PokerStars Information

Support Hours:

24/7

Address:

Villa Seminia, 8, Sir Temi Zammit Avenue, Ta ‘Xbiex, Malta

Website:

Supported Platforms:

Android, App, Desktop, iPhone, Mac, Mobile, Tablet, Windows

Social:

Payment Methods

Maestro MasterCard VISA PayPal NETELLER Paysafecard Apple Pay Skrill Google Pay Neosurf MuchBetter

FAQ

Is there a PokerStars bonus code for 2022?

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How good is the selection of games at PokerStars?

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Are the poker games at PokerStars mobile friendly?

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Is it safe to play poker at PokerStars?

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What is the average withdrawal time at PokerStars?

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