Paradise Poker Review

Visit Paradise Poker

Summary (6.08)

Due to US legislation to prevent credit-card companies from collecting payments for bets, Paradise Poker has determined to suspend all their real money gaming business with US residents.

Paradise Poker was one of the pioneers in online poker and its software has served as the model for the entire industry. Today many sites have passed Paradise Poker in both software and player amount, and the U.S. online gambling ban was a hard blow to the player base.

Even though it is now a medium-sized site, Paradise Poker has great game variation with almost all games, as well good sit-and-go tournament coverage and plenty of heads-up games. Security and email support is well above average with a 10-20 minute response time. There are a few drawbacks: low bonus offers, few promotions and few special functions.

Real money player statistics for Paradise Poker: 800-1,100 ring-game players at peak hours, and 5,000-7,000 tournament players at peak hours.

Ring Game Traffic (6)

Paradise Poker was the world's largest poker site for years. After rapid development in the industry and the passing of new legislations in the United States, its traffic has declined. However, the traffic and game quality is still high enough to rank Paradise Poker among the better poker sites. The number of real-money ring game players at peak hours is currently 800-1,100.

Game variety (7)

Paradise Poker's game variety is among the best in the industry, including Limit, No-Limit and Pot-Limit versions of Hold'em, Omaha and Seven-Card Stud, and Limit and Pot-Limit variations of the more obscure games they spread. But it is the rarer games such as Five-Card Draw, Five-Card Stud and Crazy Pineapple that make the play so varied. The limits and blinds generally range from micro-limit $0.01-$0.02 to $20-$20. During peak hours there are usually tables running at all forms of poker, even the odd ones.

Soft competition (6)

Paradise Poker has never been a super loose site and used to be the main hangout for some very skilled Limit and No-Limit players. It seems, however, that lately the games have become looser and easier. It may be too early to tell if this is going to be a long-time trend, but historically Hold'em games rarely had a view flop percentage over 40%. This value is looking like it is on its way into 50% and maybe higher.

Loyalty bonus (4)

Paradise Poker offers a solid refer-a-friend program where the referrer gets a $50 bonus and the referral also gets $50 bonus (minimum deposit is $50). A generous frequent player point system provides for conversion into cash and tournament tickets.

Support (6)

Paradise Poker has great email support, extremely quick and always professional. You often get an answer in a minute. However there is no live or telephone support.

24/7 support: Yes
Website FAQ: Yes
Support Features: Email
Email confirmation/receipt: Yes
Speed: Good
Knowledge: Good
Friendliness: 80%
Avg. NETeller pay out time: 12-24 hrs
Withdrawal smoothness: 80%

Deposit & withdrawal options (8)

Open to US players
Deposit options:
VISA, MasterCard, NETeller, FirePay, wire transfer, bank draft.

Cash out options:
VISA, NETeller, FirePay and check.