Paradise Poker Overview
Paradise Poker was once of the largest online poker rooms. Not surprisingly since they closed their doors to the US market; they had shrunk to one of the smallest. Recently, and due to a merge with Boss Media’s International Poker Network, they have increased their player data base. Their software is good and some players really enjoy the exotic layout.
They are a medium to large site and finding good tables is not an issue. Their games seem to be looser than Party Poker (for instance). Overall the action and software are good, with easy to clear bonus and lots of fish. Some features of their software need to be improved but, generally speaking, Paradise Poker has loose and juicy games; with a good software that is updated regularly.
Paradise Poker claims to have 2 million customers around the world which they offer transparency and accountability to. Since they are one of the first poker sites in the world, they have undisputed good reputation. However, recently, customers have been complaining about trouble doing transfers of money, since there is a minimum transfer of $5 which is not explained anywhere on the site. This gives customers the feeling of being held “ransom” on the site. Also, the Neteller e-mail address has to be the same as the Paradise Poker’s account for the transfer to be possible.
They share the same player base and software platform with all the other skins on the Boss Media Network, so if you have played at sites such as 24h Poker(Boss Media) or Poker Heaven, you will feel right at home.
Paradise Poker Game Features
Paradise Poker offers Texas Hold’em and Omaha along with Hi/Lo versions of Omaha, both 5 and 7 Card Stud and 5 Card Draw. They even have a reduced deck 7-A version of 5 Card Draw. At Paradise Poker the standard flavors of Texas Hold’em. You can play Limit Texas Hold’em with games from $0.02/$0.04, while for No-Limit Texas Hold’em, games range from $0.01/$0.02 up to $10/$20.
The tournaments offered are in Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha hi-lo, 7-Stud, 7-Stud hi-lo, 5-card draw. The Single-Table starting at $3 to $5000 and the multi-Table that ranges from $1 to $500. The multi-table tournament is big, action is great. Also there are satellite events to World Poker Tour, SKIP Masters, HOP Masters, WSOP and more. The largest tournament on Paradise Poker, however, is famous Million Dollar Freeroll, with a final table played at an exotic destination.
You will find a lot of fish in the Paradise waters especially at LHE Sit-n-Go tables where they can be pretty loose. Players will fold easily as they are not very aggressive. They have a fishy reputation as they have attracted many ‘newbie’ Europeans to their tables. Paradise Poker has a medium sized traffic, ranging from around 4,000 ring-game payers during peak hours. However, in off peak time you will need to struggle to find a wider variety of games. The Sit-n- go’s and the guaranteed re-buy tournaments are always populated.
Paradise Poker Software Features
Paradise Poker has unique software with the ambience and layout of tropical scenery. It is overall very pleasant but there is always room for improvement. They recently have done a few upgrades and modifications; for example: hands are dealt much faster and also they recently corrected the way the Raise/Call/Fold buttons because they used to appear until it was your turn. But there are necessary corrections that need to be done: if you are not used to it, some features at Paradise Poker can be a bit weird. For example: it can be a bit confusing when players sign into tournaments; because a repeated issue has been that people sign in re-buys by accident. Also, when taking notes about another player, the player’s name does not indicate so. A huge void is that you cannot see the pot size and bets in numbers; also NL tables in the lobby show max buy-in but not blinds.
The lobby has a very smooth interface, you can find very valuable information right there. You can be able to find a heads-up or multi table. The interface is unique, with cool features like the ability to order drinks.
Graphics consist of animations and the feeling overall, is very exotic. The sound effects at Paradise Poker are adequate and they can be turned off if the player wants to. Overall it is a slick software application but some features need to be added and functionality improved a bit.
Their shuffling is reviewed by J.D. Power & Associates. They also conduct payout reviews and have British companies auditing them on a regular period of time. Paradise Poker was recently purchased by Sportingbet PLC, which is a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange, so that makes this site a very safe one for you to put your money at. They have been around since 1999. They are very advanced with their banking options with a multi-country bank accounts method. At Paradise Poker security is the number one priority. They protect the customer’s personal data by an SSLv3/TLSv1 encryption algorithm, the same that most major banks use. Paradise Poker claims to have a sophisticated collusion detection method and they use random generators for shuffling.
Paradise Poker Support
The Paradise Poker site is pretty clear so IF you have issues then they offer an e-mail, telephone and live chat support. When you need to phone them, the scroll down “dialing from” is very useful since most countries are offered. The e-mail responses take a standard time to be answered, but assertiveness is not that good. Sometimes agents will have no idea on what the real issue is and it will take several e-mails to straighten the situation. At the interface there is a Frequent Asked Questions section that can be very useful and takes care of basic support questions. Having the interface take care of basic support questions is a nice feature.
|
