EmpirePoker

I have been playing on Empire for about a year now as well as some other websites. I have not had any problems until recently. A couple days ago I received an e-mail saying that I was eligible for a 100% redeposit bonus up to $100. In fact, I got a pop-up saying the same thing when I signed on. After depositing, I received an e-mail confirming that the bonus amount was added to my bonus account. However, I noticed that the bonus status was "elapsed" and contacted customer support. Here is the first problem with Empire Poker, the Customer Service is at best Terrible. It is impossible to get immediate assistance. There are is no telephone support therefore, I was relegated to e-mail. Upon sending my e-mail, I received a response about an hour later, saying that I could not collect my bonus as I withdrew from my account 7 days ago and management just enforced this new rule effective immediately. NOTICE: This was no where listed on the disclaimers that all bonuses had. So, of course I replied saying how I thought this was "poor customer service, ete." To make a long story short I am about 7 e-mails into this process and have not received any adeaqute responses. In fact, one e-mail said I would have my bonus by the end of the day, while another about an hour later said the most they could give me was $10. That should give some insight into how bad customer serivce there is. I suggest people go to other websites. When it comes down to it, there are a lot of fish on a lot of different sites, so the little things, or big things LIKE CUSTOMER SERVICE really matter. True Poker seems to be a good site. Nice skin and good immediate customer service (like you were using AIM). Plus, they got heads up games which are a nice touch.

Guys, please stop this nonsense about rigged sites. The only (proven) way sites stole player's money is much simpler than making biased shuffle - PokerSpot was the most prominent example. I'm 100% sure that _none_ of the big rooms is intentionally rigged. Once I've made a thorough statistical check of my hands on PokerStars - and came up with nothing beyond statistical expectations. So until somebody will provide a mathematical proof (rather than emotional "he got one-outer, it should NEVER happen, at least not to me") - I won't even consider such a possibility. Face it, guys - bad beats is an integral part of poker. And those who cannot deal with it, just should not play poker, ever - there are other ways to have fun in life.

All I have to say about Empire/Party Poker is that their customer service people are incredibly snotty. I wanted to play there. I tried to play there. After actually being called stupid right to my face by their wonderful customer service personnel, I decided to just keep my money under my mattress.

some of the reviews below have left me scratching my head. taking advice from reviews like that is like getting your news from supermarket tabloids. it should be pointed out to MJD15826R that 3 hours in a live game compared to 3 hours online would produce a ratio of hands played of about 1 to 5. possibly higher when taking into account that you can play 4 tables at once online. therefore the 8 to 40 flushes seen is mathematically correct. people will play questionable hands, and a certain percentage of the time they will win. that is part of the game. And, WhiteShark, are you smoking crack? the hands at party and empire ARE the same. empire is a skin of party. when you are playing at an empire table you are playing against party players as well. the site in general is good. the best feature is the availability of games. you can find any kind of game at any level pretty much 24/7. this is a huge plus and gives you many different levels of player. if you can't eventually make money on this site, you should probably go back to washing dishes at the diner.

The frequency of monster hands that come out at this site are ridiculous. Straights and flushes come out with much higher frequency than live games. Often on showdowns two players will hit flushes. This site reels in the fish because idiots that don't know how to play hit monster hands and that encourages them to keep playing. So often the so-called "fish" are the big winners. You will not improve your poker skills here unless you go play the very high limit games. If you play tournaments you'll find players will call with crap and often win. It's not uncommon for some ass with 4-6 suited to hit a flush all in while two other players with high pocket pairs will get beat with 3 of a kind after the flop. The first night I played here I played a combination of 10 (6) 10/1 , (2) 20/2 and (2) 30/3 sit and go's , winning 5 of them and having a top 3 finish in 8. I withdrew half my winnings and over the next month won only a single $250 multi table tournament in about 30 tournaments (only 2 final tables) and finished first in a 10/1 sit and go table only once in maybe 25 tries. Thinking maybe it was me I went to a live tournament 100/20 in Atlantic City and had a money finish first time out. In three hours of live play maybe 8 flushed came out. At Empire in 3 hours you'll see maybe 40. An example of a ridiculous beat would be Having 3 kings prior to the turn and having a player with pocket 7's hit a 7 on the turn and then the river. If you are going to play here , then put a lot of money in and don't make withdrawals for a long time. If you keep putting in the $50 minimum every so often , you'll never win. The only positive thing I can say is the graphics at the table look nice. Also expect frequent disconnects and long waits when you're in the top 40 of a tournament waiting on other tables. The initial bonus is easy to get.

3/4 of the players at Empire are fish. period. If you decide to play in the larger money tables most players will call no matter what the bet. Overall, I give the site good ratings. Customer support has been good during my two occurrences.

In my first half hour of Empire I was playing NL and saw AA vs AA preflop, which I have seen very little in the thousands of hands I've played online. Then to top that off there was an AA vs AA vs KK preflop, which I have never seen. In the midst of all this I got pocket Qs losers twice, that were cold called preflop by low suited connectors. It really made me think about the party poker juiced deck theory. Eventually, however, the low level of play came to my advantage as I was able to cash in against a slow played pocket pair with a flush on the river that I didn't even have to to pay to see and that was called all in once made.

Im not sure what it is about empire that strikes me. Ive played on a few sites in the months ive been playing but non of them gave me the sence i wanted to go back and invest more. (i was a little wild in the early days). The VIP section is something to really aim for and im looking forward to getting enough points. Interface is simply, which is really all im looking for, and the lack of stats i actuall find good, makes you pay more attention to the action. Best was is to just try for yourself.

Empire poker is just a skin on the Party Poker network. I'm sure most of you know that by now. But just when you think you can't improve on perfection, Empire Poker comes out with better player incentives - bonueses, freerolls, and VIP player points. Empire has made a good thing better. If you are playing at Party Poker, you should switch over to Empire. The action is the same but there are more player benefits.

I like Empire Poker the best of all the Party skins. In fact, I like Empire Poker more than any other online poker room at the time of this writing. I know people mention the interface is dated, and maybe they are right, but really, how pretty does a poker table need to be? Does that even really matter? The only issue I have with the interface is that the lobby does not show pre-flop %'s, only average pot size. With regards to the action and fish, Empire has the most... although it has become a better mix of fish and skilled players. Hopefully, you find the fish because they get eaten up pretty quickly. The bonus is great and easy to earn. Empire also occasionally has reload bonuses and player points for a VIP section.

The site is part of the Party Poker skin. There is always plenty of action but also plenty of very skilled players. It is a place where one time you sit down with beginners and the next table it is highly skilled professionals. Decent bonus. With the amount of money they are bringing in I wish they would invest it in a more appealling software.

Interface is one of the worst in the industry. Support almost non-existent. Action is good (especially fish is good). But if U want to have fun from play or U want to improve your skills - Party is not a good place to go.

Interface and Usabilitiy of this poker room is top notch. If you have ever played at party poker this is an identical setup. The poker room action is great with around 35-50k players on at any given time. The table sorting function is very easy to use so you can find any game you want in a couple of seconds. Also has a feature to hide full tables which is nice. Technical/Customer support leaves something to be desired. Could be a lot worse but you dont get a personal feel when you email back and forth with. 95% of responses seem to be pregenerated which is to be expected with as many players as they have. They do hook you up though if you bug them and will often give you a bonus code simply by asking for one if you dont have one available at the time. For this reason they get a 4. If it wasnt for that they would get a 3. Bonus setup is very sweet. They often have redeposit bonuses and the intial 20% up to 100 initial deposit bonus cannot be beat. You only have to play 5x the bonus amount in raked hands which is the easiest bonus out of all poker rooms to clear by far. You can clear your bonus your first day with very little difficulty. With playing 4 tables at the same time it can be done in 3 hours. Ease of Game is also very phat at this site. At the 25NL tables they are loaded with fish. I cant speak on their limit games but their NL games are very lucrative. I have been playing there for 5 months maybe now and the fish continually get replaced with new ones. Havent noticed any increased difficulty there. Maybe people get better and move up and limits and I just keep taking the rolls of all the new players. Makes no difference to me I have done very well there. Check it out for sure it will be worth your time!!!

EmpirePoker is awesome. Although it's the same software and poker room as PartyPoker, there is one difference. EmpirePoker offers FreeRolls and other nice amenities like a VIP club to it's loyal players.