Absolute Poker
Absolute Poker focuses on online poker and really know their product. They allow US poker players and also offer a no download poker room for Mac users looking for instant play poker. Solid software and loose games suited to the low to mid range players make Absolute Poker attractive to a wide range of online poker players.
Full Review of Absolute Poker
Absolute Poker has been around since 2003 and has primarily focused on one thing, poker. They have branched out into bit of Blackjack, however, more about that later. Let's concentrate on the poker side of things first. Any online poker room that caters to Mac users gets an immediate big thumbs up. As a convert from a PC to a Mac I have to appreciate the no download poker room option. Not enough rooms cater to this market so finding a decent poker room that does is great.
Absolute Poker doesn't enjoy the same player numbers as some of the more high profile online poker rooms but that doesn't mean it should be ignored. There is enough to have a critical mass at most times and you should be able to find a game to your liking. That said, they do focus their attention on Texas Hold'Em so that's always more popular. Current stats show around 2000 rig game players at peak times. This is a poker room ideal for the low to mid stakes players. If you are a high stakes player then there are better poker rooms around. Just check out some of the other reviews. As far as the types of players, the games tend to vary from reasonably loose to as loose as you can get. This definitely makes for some interesting and profitable games once you have the playing styles sorted.
Tournaments is where Absolute Poker stands apart from the competition. They have been running top notch poker tournaments for years and winners have taken away some pretty impressive prizes and purses. As an example, there is $225000 up for grabs each weekend with $150000 and $75000 poker tournaments each weekend. In addition to these buy-in tournaments there are also freerolls available across the range of games including Texas Hold'Em, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud and more. Once you have achieved VIP status (5000 reward points) then you can even organise your own private tournaments which are by invitation only.
Software wise, Absolute Poker might not be as impressive as some of the others. This definitely doesn't mean it's buggy or doesn't work, rather, it's straight forward, gives you the minimum information and then it's up to you to enjoy playing poker. People have been critical of the graphics, however, you can download your own skins and upload your own avatar. Previous hand history (200 hands) is also available for download and analysis. If you just want a quick review then just use the instant hand replay to show your hole cards in previous hands as well as the winning hand and any live hands in which you are involved.
If it all gets a bit tiring then you can always play a bit of blackjack. Unfortunately this isn't available on the instant play poker version and you will need to download the poker software to play blackjack games.
This online poker room loses a few points for only having email support contact. Don't go looking for a toll-free telephone number to call. That said, the response times are usually pretty fast and there is an extensive FAQ section that should give answers to most of your questions.
Moving on to the financial details, there is a decent range of deposit and withdrawal methods, just be aware that some of these are not available to US players. Oh yeah, that's right, Absolute Poker welcomes US players with open arms. In fact they welcome all players with open arms with one of the best first deposit bonuses. 100% up to $500. There is usually a reload bonus on offer that changes regularly so keep an eye on it and deposit accordingly. Once poker players have signed up with Absolute Poker they tend to stick around. This is possibly due to the rewards program on offer. Points are given for hands played and tournament buy-ins. These can be redeemed for tournament entries and at the Absolute Rewards store. As stated earlier, once you accumulate 5000 points you are then a VIP and even more benefits.
Finally, this review wouldnt be complete without an update about the cheating controversy in 2007. Was this handled correctly by Absolute Poker? Definitely not. Have they suffered for it? Yes. Have they learned from it? Yes. With all the attention on them after this issue, this poker room is probably one of the most closely monitored and putting a foot out of place one more time would virtually mean they would never recover.
Absolute Poker doesn't enjoy the same player numbers as some of the more high profile online poker rooms but that doesn't mean it should be ignored. There is enough to have a critical mass at most times and you should be able to find a game to your liking. That said, they do focus their attention on Texas Hold'Em so that's always more popular. Current stats show around 2000 rig game players at peak times. This is a poker room ideal for the low to mid stakes players. If you are a high stakes player then there are better poker rooms around. Just check out some of the other reviews. As far as the types of players, the games tend to vary from reasonably loose to as loose as you can get. This definitely makes for some interesting and profitable games once you have the playing styles sorted.
Tournaments is where Absolute Poker stands apart from the competition. They have been running top notch poker tournaments for years and winners have taken away some pretty impressive prizes and purses. As an example, there is $225000 up for grabs each weekend with $150000 and $75000 poker tournaments each weekend. In addition to these buy-in tournaments there are also freerolls available across the range of games including Texas Hold'Em, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud and more. Once you have achieved VIP status (5000 reward points) then you can even organise your own private tournaments which are by invitation only.
Software wise, Absolute Poker might not be as impressive as some of the others. This definitely doesn't mean it's buggy or doesn't work, rather, it's straight forward, gives you the minimum information and then it's up to you to enjoy playing poker. People have been critical of the graphics, however, you can download your own skins and upload your own avatar. Previous hand history (200 hands) is also available for download and analysis. If you just want a quick review then just use the instant hand replay to show your hole cards in previous hands as well as the winning hand and any live hands in which you are involved.
If it all gets a bit tiring then you can always play a bit of blackjack. Unfortunately this isn't available on the instant play poker version and you will need to download the poker software to play blackjack games.
This online poker room loses a few points for only having email support contact. Don't go looking for a toll-free telephone number to call. That said, the response times are usually pretty fast and there is an extensive FAQ section that should give answers to most of your questions.
Moving on to the financial details, there is a decent range of deposit and withdrawal methods, just be aware that some of these are not available to US players. Oh yeah, that's right, Absolute Poker welcomes US players with open arms. In fact they welcome all players with open arms with one of the best first deposit bonuses. 100% up to $500. There is usually a reload bonus on offer that changes regularly so keep an eye on it and deposit accordingly. Once poker players have signed up with Absolute Poker they tend to stick around. This is possibly due to the rewards program on offer. Points are given for hands played and tournament buy-ins. These can be redeemed for tournament entries and at the Absolute Rewards store. As stated earlier, once you accumulate 5000 points you are then a VIP and even more benefits.
Finally, this review wouldnt be complete without an update about the cheating controversy in 2007. Was this handled correctly by Absolute Poker? Definitely not. Have they suffered for it? Yes. Have they learned from it? Yes. With all the attention on them after this issue, this poker room is probably one of the most closely monitored and putting a foot out of place one more time would virtually mean they would never recover.
Quick Start
General Information
Name
Software
Established
Overall Rating
Software
Established
Overall Rating
Proprietary
2003
7.7
At A Glance
Accepts US playersMac compatible
Download version available
No Download version available
Scorecard
Software
Financial Security
Support
Games
Tournaments
Competition
Banking
Bonuses
Promotions
Overall
Financial Security
Support
Games
Tournaments
Competition
Banking
Bonuses
Promotions
Overall
7
8
7
7.5
8
7
8.5
8.5
7.5
7.7
8
7
7.5
8
7
8.5
8.5
7.5
7.7