Poker Sites :: Grading

Grading Criteria

• Software - We grade the look, feel, graphics, playability, interface design, usability, hand history, sounds, notes, and other features available at each poker room.


• Security & Banking - This includes the ability to make deposits, withdrawals, and the security of the financial stability of the poker site itself.


• Traffic - Do you want to always be able to sit at a table or do you want there to always be action? We give random statistics of how many players are seated on random days.


• Tournaments - Are the tournaments often or far and few between? Are the tournaments filled with 2500 people or can you get in a tournament of only 200 players? We will tell you.


• Player Strength - This is our personal feeling of how good the overall players we encountered while playing at each room. You might want to play at a low player strength rated room to make easier bucks. You might want to hone your skills against better poker players. Your choice.

Software

Does the software work? Is the software functional? Can you access various sections within the software easily? As an example, if you can't get to the cashier or find the hand history easily, we will not score it high.

Security & Banking

Did we run into any problems cashing in and out of the poker site within our trial periods? If we did they will not get a high score. For instance we had to send in several photos of bank statements and driver licenses to cash out at Golden Palace Poker. We did not score them high in the Banking department. Although their financial security is rock solid.

Traffic

Traffic includes ring game traffic as well as tournament traffic. For instance Party Poker boasts it has 70,000 players. Yes its true, there are alot of waiting lists to get on certain tables there on a Friday night. However, you can get on any table you practically want at Full Tilt Poker (except when there is a poker celeb on). Party Poker scored 5 diamonds on traffic because of their huge player population. While Full Tilt Poker was graded 2 Diamonds.

Tournaments

If there are tournaments every hour or even sooner than every hour with loads of action, then this will get a good score. For example, PokerStars, scored a high 5 Diamonds in this category because they run several tournaments every hour.

Player Strength

Player Strength Rating is our own personal opinion of how well the player base has done against us while at the tables. We measure this by tournament and ring game play.