Paradise Poker review

Approximately three years ago, Paradise Poker was one of the very first sites I ever visited to play Online Poker. At the time, I really did not have any problems with the site. Everything worked fine. I recently visited once again to review the Paradise Poker site as it is today and I discovered not much has changed.

The Interface

The screen is very simple, but the features available are archaic compared to most of the other sites I have played. When it is your turn, three buttons come up asking you to Fold, Call, or Raise. Before it is your turn, one checkbox allows you to “Fold In Turn”. Another checkbox allows you to select “Auto-Post Blind”. That is pretty much all you can select before your turn. Most other sites provide you with buttons which allow you to Call the current bet, Call any bet, or Raise on your turn. While the site does allow you to take notes on other players, there is no indication on each player’s name of whether you currently have a note on the player. I take a lot of notes and now knowing who I had notes on was very frustrating. The features are in definite need of an upgrade.

Signing Up and Depositing Money

This process at Paradise Poker was very simple. I used Neteller to make my deposit. The process took seconds and my money was immediately available for play. I had forgotten my User ID and Password. When I hit the request Password button I had an Email 30 seconds later. The download took 20 seconds on a cable modem and the installation took just over a minute. It is very simple to see your bankroll information and your deposit and withdrawal history from the Cashier Screen.

Game Play And The Players

The first thing I noticed is how incredibly slow game play is. I think this is due to the fact that you cannot make most important decisions prior to your turn. Players are required to wait for their turn to get the buttons. You can easily play three tables at the same time on this site because there are long periods where nothing is happening at each table. The players are very bad and should be easily beatable for a good player. Having said that, I will admit I played here for three days and could not beat them. My hands were terrible. The players are so bad all I needed was a few good hands and I could have made a killing. Bluffs are no good at this site, the other players will call anything, so you have to play tight and have good hands to win. I would love to stay and play against these suckers forever, but I just can’t stand how slow the game moves. I did not lose anything either though, and ended up walking away with a nice deposit bonus (covered next).

The Deposit Bonus And Promotions

The promotions at this site are generally very good. Like I said, I had not played there in a couple of years, but I went back because they sent me an offer for a 50% deposit bonus. I am a sucker for these huge deposit bonuses and I always take advantage of them.

The Games Offered

Paradise Poker has an impressive number of game varieties. Many games offered here are not available on most other sites. In addition to the common games of Hold’em, 7-Card Stud, and Omaha, Paradise also offers Hi/Lo variations, 5-Card Stud, 5-Card Draw, and a game called Crazy Pineapple (similar to Hold’Em with Three cards dealt).

Tournaments

They offer many tournament structures including Multi-Table, Single-Table, and 1-on-1. They also offer many Free tournaments as incentives for their players. There are not very many people playing on this site compared to sites like Party Poker, so the number of players is typically small. This is the only site I have seen which will host a private tournament for you. If you have more than 20 people who want to play in your tournament you can create a password protected tournament with anywhere from $10 to $1,000 buy-in. For their big promotion this year, Paradise Poker sent 24 players to a World Poker Tour tournament in Paris.

Summary

I personally will not play at this site without a nice incentive bonus, but if you are patient and want to find some very bad players, this may be the site for you. The interface is due for a major overhaul and is falling way behind the other more sophisticated sites. Game play is very slow and can often be frustrating. The site is easy to use, sign-up for, and install. I would not recommend this site for poker beginners; the players are just too wild.