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Paddy Power Poker Review
Reasons to Join |
The best value site for MTTs (in our opinion)!
Players are friendly but not very skilfull
Easy to use site with good table selection data so you can avoid the sharks.
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 | Signing Up |
Being an existing Paddy Power customer I was able to use my sportsbook login details to gain access into their poker site, the installer literally took seconds to download via a broadband connection and about a minute to install.
Within another minute, I had transferred funds from my sportsbook to the poker account. Very straightforward indeed.
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9/10 | Software |
A textbook lobby with a simple looking interface, which makes navigation throughout the whole site a doddle; there are filters under each section to further reduce the amount of time spent looking for a suitable game.
New customers are able to access their entire hand history since joining the site, existing customers are able to retreive their hand history from as far back as March 2008, there's unlimited space to write player notes on each opponent and you can play up to 15 tables at a time...it might be a good idea to pick up a few LCD monitors in the Points 4 Prizes store first though! |
8/10 | Ring Games |
There are thousands of cash tables to choose from.
Table selecting to find the softest opposition is incredibly easy you need never sit at a table of sharks ever again.
The traffic on the Texas and Omaha Hold'em tables is superb at all times of the day, especially during peak hours, as would be expected Texas Hold'em is by far the most popular variant though.
There are 5 and 7 card Stud tables but traffic can be sparse. I only managed to play a few hours at both the low stakes no limit and pot limit Texas Hold'em tables and made a slight loss; I'm certain that the standard of play on the vast majority of cash tables is poor enough for a decent cash game player to make money from them, especially at the lower limits such as the 10c/20c and 25c/50c tables.
The rake is only 5% at all stake levels which is incredibly competitive seeing as many rival sites charge as much as 10-15% rake for playing at their micro limit tables. |
9/10 | | Tournaments |
I simply have'nt found another site that offers as good value when it comes to multi table tournaments, Paddy Power is head and shoulders above the rest.
Not only is the competition beatable but the buyins are tiny in comparison to the size of the prize pools; you're literally getting double the value for your investment when comparing to many rival sites.
For example, they run a daily $35,000 rebuy which only costs $10 to enter, normally I'd expect to pay closer to $30+ to register for an event with such a large prize pool.
There are satellites leading to numerous offline events all over the globe; qualify now for the Poker Cup in Australia, Sun City Million in South Africa, Asian Poker Tour in Macau or Irish Winter Festival in Dublin. Satellites for these events start from as little as $1.60 and are abundant.
During my weeks play on Paddy Power, I managed to win the $5,000 rebuy event, beating 332 players and scooping slightly over $1800 in the process; I also had numerous other cashes including 7th out of 167 players in the $2,500 Rebuy to win $161. I finished the week over $2,000 in profit from MTT's alone. |
10/10 | Sit & Gos |
The Sit & Go scene on Paddy Power is well populated and rather friendly, I played mostly at the $5 and $10 levels where the tables filled quickly and the action was'nt overly loose, I noticed the traffic up to the $200 buyin Sit & Go's was plentyful, so whatever your stakes there's a game just about to begin.
For those of you with a high win rate, Paddy offers Jackpot Sit & Go's where players can earn huge cash bonuses for winning 4-6 (depending on stake level) tournaments in a row, or, a small cash consolation prize for finishing 1st or 2nd in 4-6 consecutive Sit & Go's; the current jackpots for the $2, $5, $20 and $50 levels are $2k, $50k, $55k and $100k respectively; bear in mind the jackpots are progressive so are likely to fluctuate, details of the jackpots can be found on the Paddy Power website under the promotions tab. |
9/10 | Support |
Manned by friendly Irish staff 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, they are equipped to answer most questions on the spot. I had no disconnection problems or other issues so did'nt need to speak to them much, I also found their email support to be quick and helpful.
I recommend using either the live chat facility or the toll free number if calling from Ireland or the UK and using email or live chat for the rest of the world as the phone support is chargeable to residents outside of the UK and Ireland. |
8/10 | | Banking |
Depositing and withdrawing money can be done via a number of methods, all major debit and credit cards are accepted, aswell as Neteller, Moneybookers, bank transfer and even by sending a cheque.
The processing time is immediate for all methods other than bank transfer and cheque, which take 1-5 working days. |
9/10 | Standard of Players |
There's a strong European tone to the site with a significant amount of English and French.
I found the majority of players to be friendly and plenty were unskilled enough to ensure a profit.
The Sit & Go's play a little tighter than the MTT's.
I believe the real value on the site comes from the cheap buyin MTT's and would suggest to anyone with 5-7 hours spare that they try them
Ff you have less time to commit and fancy a quick, chatty tournament then definitely give the Sit & Go's a try. In the week I played on Paddy Power, I made over $2400 profit with most of the winnings coming from playing MTT's.
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9/10 | Loyalty Promotions |
Promotions are rife on Paddy Power, at the time of writing, there's a rather hefty 150% first deposit bonus where they give you $600 for depositing $400, players earn this bonus by accumulating Paddy points while they play at the real money tables.
Paddy points have many uses; you can buy cool stuff from the 'Points 4 Prizes' store such as poker tables, Nintendo/Playstation/Xbox games, DVD's, MP3 players and even LCD monitors.
If you play a lot of poker you will be eligible for the Paddy VIP program where you can earn up to $600 in cash per month by trading in your Paddy points, you will also be able to earn these points more quickly if you have VIP status.
There are also several daily tournaments which you can enter using your Paddy points too.
Their Bad Beat and Bubble bonuses look useful; if you suffer a bad beat having gone all in preflop with a dominating hand, Paddy refunds your stake in the form of a tournament token for the next Bad Beat or Bubbles tournament.
If you finish on the dreaded bubble in one of these tournaments, Paddy generously gives you a free entry into a $50+$9 Jackpot Sit & Go! |
8/10 | Summary |
I believe the real value on the site comes from the cheap buyin MTT's and would suggest to anyone with 4-5 hours spare that they try them. I simply have'nt found another site that offers as good value when it comes to multi table tournaments, Paddy Power is head and shoulders above the rest. |
8.8/10 | |
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