Pacific Poker Review

Overview: 7.2/10

Pacific Poke has come along way in 2008. In 2007 they were lagging behind in a lot of areas, but now they have picked things up a lot to have a competitive poker room. This year they have upgraded their bonus to make it a lot more appealing. They have added a lot more promotions and have even run Australian focused promotions. Last year they had a software upgrade, but it is still way behind the rest of market in this regard.

The downside to Pacific Poker is that there can be limited traffic to go along with the sub-par software. The traffic isn’t terrible but at times you may struggle to get a game of your choosing. This along with the software, that in my opinion, is still fairly ugly to look at can put a dampener on your experience. If you aren’t fussed with frills and just want to make some money, then this is certainly achievable here.

The players that play at Pacific Poker are the worst in online poker. A lot of them come from the 888 casino and are just looking to get their money in the pot. There is a huge potential to make a lot of money here, and with the recent bonus upgrade to 100% up to $400 its well worth the time to check it out.

Software: 5/10

The software at Pacific Poker has had an upgrade in recent times, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. The interface doesn’t look very nice at all and it has an old look to it. When you are looking at upcoming tournaments it isn’t easy on the eyes as you can’t view all the information at once. You have to make a column longer to read the full information, which makes the other columns smaller and unreadable. This along with the colour scheme of the lobby doesn’t make for a great mix and overall it is poor in quality.

• Player Search
• Multi Tabling
• Resizeable Windows
• Hand History Text
• Hand History Graphic
• Heads Up Cash
• Heads Up SNG
• Mac Compatible

The tables themselves have been given a facelift in the last software upgrade and have improved quite considerably. The cash and tournament tables are simple, yet effective and make the software playable. The room does not have avatars which I feel would be a good addition to this room.

• Download Now
• Go to Site

One thing that you will notice is that when you win a pot and someone folds, the pot that you win includes your bet. Its only a minor issue, but, when you go all in and your opposition folds, you want to be able to know how much the pot was that you won. There are minor issues like this but the software has most of the basic features.

• 
• 
• 

The tournament lobby is basic but provides most of the details that you need. It shows the blind structure, starting chips and prize payouts. You can click on your name and find out what rank you are in the tournament, which is a standard feature. It doesn’t offer any extra features and is also below the industry standard. Overall, the software doesn’t offer anything new and in some cases, can be more of a negative than a positive.

Promotions: 9/10

The promotions that Pacific Poker have been running of late are nothing short of exceptional. In 2008 there has been no better room at running large, unique promotions. This is especially good news for Australians because they have really stepped up to the place for us.

The year 2008 has seen Pacific Poker sign Shane Warne as an official endorser. Shane Warne has teamed up with the guys at 888 and marks the beginning of a very bright future for online poker and Australians. In April Pacific Poker ran the “Win a Home Game with Shane Warne” promotion and it was a huge success. Congratulations to Shane Perry from NSW for winning it.

Cap Cana Cup. Play in the Cap Cana Cup qualifier and give yourself a chance at a $5000 package that will see you playing in the Caribbean between August 3-10, for a stab at the $100,000 GTD prize pool. Mondays, at AEST 7am. Satellites and sub satellites are available.

Pacific Poker is starting to help out Aussie Players with great promotions. They have started the ball rolling and April’s promotions have seen it win the Poker Room of the Month award.

Tournaments: 5/10

The tournaments that are available at Pacific Poker aren’t as regular as other poker rooms because they don’t have a huge amount of traffic. That said though, they offer a daily 20k Gtd tourney and a weekly Sunday 80k Gtd tourney. With rooms like Pacific Poker, if you don’t mind waiting for a nice tourney then you will reap the rewards. The players at Pacific Poker are nothing short of terrible, and there is a great opportunity to cash in the Weekly 80k Gtd. The buy-in is $120 + $12, on Mondays at 5:35 am, or satellite your way for as little as 65¢. If you can handle the early wake up on a Monday morning, this is a really nice tourney to play in.

Aside from the few bigger tourneys at Pacific Poker there isn’t a large variety to play in. It is a little disappointing that there isn’t a lot more available. Choose your tourneys wisely, as you will have to if you want to play in the good ones as they aren’t available regularly. Make the most of the decent ones, and you should see some decent success if you play well.

Traffic: 5.5/10

The traffic that Pacific Poker receives is just enough, if you play at the right times. You will find that there are a fair number of Aussies playing at Pacific Poker so you shouldn’t have too much of a problem during our prime time. In peak times for Europe and America you should able to get a few cash games going at once.

Although you might get a couple of cash games to play, the traffic at Pacific Poker is not great. They are currently the 13th largest network, so they don’t have a huge amount of players. You will get a game, but you will have to choose your tourneys sparingly, as there aren’t a great amount of entries in them.

The best thing about the traffic though, is that it is fish central, and you can take full advantage of them. In the months to come you will see an incline in the traffic in Aussie prime time due to the promotions that they are running.

• Hold Em
• Omaha
• Stud
• Razz
• Horse

Bonuses: 8.5/10

As of July, 2008 you can now receive a 100% bonus up to $400 at Pacific Poker. This replaces the old bonus and has increased the value for players when depositing for the first time. With the 100% up to $400 bonus you also receive 25% of your bonus instantly into your poker account. That means if you deposit $400, you will receive $100 instantly. You will then receive the other 75% as you unlock the bonus.

• Download Now
• Go to Site

This bonus is one of the more competitive bonuses on the market today because of the 25% instantly put into your poker account. It presents great value, and I don’t think you will have a problem winning even more.

Fish: 10/10

For those of you who are looking for easy money, then this is the place. Pacific Poker has the worst players in online poker. A large portion of players are from the 888 online casino and can’t even play poker. The players are loose aggressive and can’t wait to get their money in. If you play solid poker, you will make an absolute killing here. You won’t find any other online poker site with as many fish as what they have here. They are nothing short of terrible and are well renowned for it.

Customer Support: 7/10

The support at Pacific Poker is about average. They offer 24 hour email support as well as live chat. Although these are good things they provide, only average customer support comes with it. I for one don’t enjoy writing the email on their website. It’s not a huge deal but it makes things a lot easier if you can just simply email straight from your email account without any hassle.

The response time with the live chat is about standard as well. In all the dealing I have had with them they responded in an average time. It did take live support a little while to find an answer to my queries, but they did find me an answer.

The support is quite helpful, and can at times take a little extra time than one would expect. Overall though, they provide adequate customer service for their players.