Pacific Poker Review

Overall 89 Ease of Competition 95 Tournaments 89 Customer Service 72 Software 85

(Click photo to enlarge.)

Please note: Pacific Poker does not accept real-money players from the United States.

Overview
The competition is easier at Pacific Poker than at most sites, making it a potentially profitable place to play. However, they also have one of the worst rake structures of any online cardroom, so a lot of those extra profits may just bleed away in rake.

Their software used to be fairly poor, but it has improved significantly lately and now includes 3-D player avatars. They also have their software translated into German, Swedish, Spanish, French, Danish, Dutch, Italian, and Portuguese.

Bonus
Pacific recently changed the size of their deposit bonus. Previously, our readers were eligible for a 60% deposit bonus up to $100. This was a much nicer bonus than the standard 25% up to $100. Now, players from everywhere can receive the same bonus, 100% up to $400.

This first time deposit bonus is nicer than bonuses at many other sites because some of the money is released to the account immediately upon depositing. 25% up to $100 is immediately placed in the account.

The remaining 75% up to $300 is a pending bonus. To receive this bonus, a player has to collect 14 comp points for every $1 in bonus money. This pending bonus expires 30 days after the first deposit. It should also be noted that the comp points required to release the pending bonus are calculated across the entire bonus. So while $100 of a $400 bonus will be released immediately, one will need to earn comp points on $400, not $300, before the pending $300 is released to the account. So for example, if one takes advantage of the full bonus offerings, they will need to earn 5,600 comp points (14 x $400) within 30 days of their deposit in order to receive the pending $300. At mid- to high-stakes, earning this many comp points shouldn't be too hard. However, small stakes players might have a tough time accomplishing such a feat within 30 days.

Pacific also gives bonus dollars for your play. For every $10 you wager, you earn one point. For every 100 points, you earn a free dollar. For lower limits, this means little. However, for higher limit players, this is a very nice feature.

Promotions
Pacific Poker has jackpots for high hands and bad beats. The bad beat jackpot is won by losing with four-of-a-kind 8s or better. The high hand jackpot pays out prizes to four-of-a-kind and straight flushes. To win the entire high hand jackpot, one would need to make a spade Royal Flush. For all jackpot promotions, winning hands must be made using both hole cards.

Tournaments
Pacific Poker is a small stakes tournament player's paradise. The tournaments are soft, frequent, and cheap. Because this site offers so few large buy-in tournaments, there are very few strong players on this network mopping up the money. Lately there have been consistent overlays in their regularly scheduled tournaments with guaranteed prize pools.

Each Sunday the site holds a $88+$8 buy-in $80,000 guaranteed event. The most popular sit-n-gos on this site are played 3-6 handed, as opposed to 9-10 like most other sites.

Software
Their software is available in both Java and downloadable form. If you use a Mac, this is one of the few poker rooms you can play without getting a program like Virtual PC.

The software interface itself is decent. It used to be fairly poor, but Pacific has improved it a lot lately. Now 3-D avatars enhance the visual appeal of the gameplay. The lobby was recently upgraded to feature an improved game filter and easier access to account balance information.

Historically, people have had problems getting disconnected from Pacific Poker's servers.

Rake
It should be noted that Pacific Poker charges a higher rake than most online poker rooms. Notably, instead of a standard 5% up to $3 rake, the maximum rake is $4 in limit games of $3-$6 to $30-$60 and for all no-limit and pot-limit games. Furthermore, most poker rooms cap the rake at $2 for 4- or 5-handed games, but Pacific caps the rake at $2.50.

Table Statistics
They display the flop % and average pot which is nice.

Competition Level
Soft competition is the main reason to play at Pacific Poker. The players are fishier here than at most sites. There are a lot of calling stations and some maniacs exist. However, this may skyrocket the frustration level if your premium hands are cracked. If you can put up with their poor rake structure and customer support, you might be able to profit consistently from this site.

Customer Service
Pacific offers both phone and email customer service. They do a decent job at answering basic questions, but they are pretty bad at helping out with more complicated matters. They also take a long time to answer emails. Just hope you do not have any major problems because you will not be dealing with the most knowledgeable or helpful support staff out there if you do.

Ring Games Offered
Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha hi-lo, 7-stud, 7-stud hi-lo

Fixed Limits: $.02-$.04 to $75-$150
NL & PL Blinds: $.01-$.02 to $10-$20

Tournaments Offered
Both Single-Table and Multi-Table

Single-Table: $0.25 to $750
Multi-Table: $0.01 to $215