Overall

The goal of PKRis simple: advance the visual experience of online poker. This site does provide a significant improvement in terms of realistic 3-D software and the ability to actually create a personality at the table. Players can choose their facial structure, hair style, clothing, and other external visuals of their avatar. At the table, you can clap your hands, cry over a bad beat, or egg your opponents into a call. You can move the camera around the table at will and the graphics really are super. PKR has drawn some criticism for not being friendly to hardcore multi-table taskmasters and my response to that is usually, “So what?” As I always stress to new players, you need to examine your priorities before choosing an online poker site. If you don’t need to tile 4 tables around your screen and play 300 hands per hour but do care about things like visual experience, realism, and creating a customizable character, you might want to give PKR a try. I’ve had a lot of fun at this site so far if only for the ability to give a thumbs-up to my opponents before I call their all-in reraise with quads. Tournaments and ring games need still need to grow in terms of traffic, but the bonus offering and free perks are strong. Overall, this is a unique poker site that will please users looking for a more realistic, customizable visual experience. Unfortunately, I have decreased their score for their weak stance of not allowing US players.  

 

 

 

Bonus     

At the onset, new players can receive up to $250 free at a 50% bonus rate. This isn't overly enormous but isn't stingy either. For this month, you need to use the bonus code PKR50 to receive the full amount. Bonuses are released by earning PKR Points through ring games and tournaments. Depending on how large the pot gets, you can earn up to 150 points per hand and you need 125 points for each $1 of bonus. If you play at the higher stakes offered right now, this can go fairly quickly. In addition to the cash bonus, you'll also receive a free entry into their weekly $1,000 new player freeroll, which is a worthwhile prize pool to show up for. Finally, I like their "Welcome Gift" of a free copy of their self-published online poker strategy book. After you earn 3,000 points, you're sent a free copy. Along with the cash bonus, the free book gives you something tangible for your business.   

 

Fish:

While I mostly reserve judgment on ranking the number of fish at a new site without lots of traffic, my initial impression is that PKR will be a fairly loose site. At the lower limits, tables can reach up to 50x the big blind in average pot sizes. I feel that software has a significant effect on the looseness of the tables. If it feels slow and stiff, that will probably correspond to tighter tables. Because there are so many things to do and look at in this table, I think that it makes players pay less attention to their cards and gamble more. It's more fun to play a hand for a big pot than fold and wait around patiently and this software is centered around trying to be fun. I don't expect this site to be one full of stuffy players. 

 

Tournaments:

While tournament were especially lacking at the initial launch of PKR, their player traffic has really been improving as of recent months. These days you'll find multiple tournament going every hour with weekly $5,000 guaranteed events and other guarantees exceeding $1,000 throughout the week. While they aren't a tournament powerhouse yet, they have been heading in the right direction with guaranteed events. Sit and Go tournaments are also popular for lower stakes. PKR also holds about 10 daily freerolls with the best events requiring player points to buy in with. By restricting entries, this helps to keep the field smaller and the prizes larger.

 

 

 

Software:

Recently, I was invited by PKR to review their software during their Beta testing phase. There have been several startup poker sites in the past 2 years who have failed the really add anything different to online poker. PKR does plan to be unique in at least one major feature: their software. They’re really the first online poker site to come to fruition that actually offers circa 21st century graphics. I was very impressed by my first experience with the software as the graphics are truly light years beyond anything else available for Real Money right now. Instead of feeling the need to open another window to keep me entertained, I can have fun dobbling with the software instead. With that, let’s take you inside PKR and have a detailed look at the software…

POSITIVES:
-Advanced 3-D rendering, shadows, and detailed textures
-Customizable avatar facial structure, skin tone, hair color, eye color, etc.
-Customizable clothing, jewelry, and accessories
-Moveable camera, multiple camera modes
-Highly detailed background environments
-Avatars physically act out desired actions (i.e. cry, cheer, dance, boo)

NEGATIVES:
-Character voices (some might enjoy this, but I found it a bit annoying)
-Having to manually look at your cards (this is realistic but can be frustrating, so I recommend setting the software to “Auto Look” to automatically check your cards. They may remove the manual card-checking in the future.)

 

 

Limits range from 25¢/50¢ to $200/$400 for limit games and 5¢/10¢ to $50/$100 for no limit games. Lower limit games offer good value in terms of the rake. For $0.25/$0.50 games the rake is capped at $0.50 which is better than a lot of sites. For $1/$2 games a maximum of $1 is taken out. For higher limit games a maximum of $3 is raked.

Full Tilt is becoming a very popular site; the chance of playing No Limit Holdem with Phil Ivey or Pot Limit Omaha with Andy Bloch is certainly a big selling point for this poker room. Traffic ranges from 2000+ at off peak times up to 6000+ at peak. You can be sure if one of the stars are playing at a Holdem table, there will be a long waiting list for a seat, unless the star joins a table where you are already seated, it could take a while before you get to join in the action against a famous name. Holdem is well populated at all times, Omaha and Stud have a regular following but finding a game is easier at peak times.

Playability is very good, the software and graphics have a nice, smooth feel about them. The avatars can be turned on and off or made to show different facial expressions, such as smiling, laughing, angry and sad - a nice touch, if not very useful. Despite what some may describe as a "cartoon" feel to the graphics, the game play is quite serious with some of the higher stake tables containing very skilled poker players, however, the lower levels are easier to cope with and beginners should not be put off trying their luck here.

Full Tilt offer an excellent software platform for poker, players can choose from a variety of avatars to represent them at the table, the pro players have their own unique avatars. Players can choose expressions aswell, from smiles to frowns. The software itself is very smooth and has clearly been designed to provide the perfect mix of serious game play with nice graphics.
 

• Full Tilt Points - Collect these for great gifts, freeroll tournament entries and to keep track of your bonus account.
   
• See Last Hand - Check back on up to the last 50 hands you played with their feature.
   
• Notes - Simple to use and quickly accessed, the notes at Full Tilt will be very useful for most players.
   
• Stats - In an easy to read percentage format, the stats at Full Tilt are detailed and quickly available.
• Table View - Choose between Racetrack or Classic.

 

Titan Poker is focused on providing some really great low limit games. Limits range from $0.02/$0.04 all the way up to $50/$100 for limit games. No limit and pot limit games go up to $10/$20. In addition to 10 player tables, this site also has lots of 6 max games. So if you enjoy playing short handed, this site might be for you. Lower limit games (up to $1/$2) have a $1 maximum rake. Higher limit games are raked at the stock standard 5% capped at $3.

Titan Poker is an excellent site if you are new to poker and want to play low limit poker. You will find tones of players playing $0.02/$0.04 all the way up to $1/$2. Site numbers at Titan Poker for higher limit games are reasonably good as well. This site is growing quickly and is beginning to make inroads into the market. The rake at this site is also pretty good.

The lobby on this site has a very simple design and is easy to navigate. By clicking on the well set out menu tabs you can easily navigate to your favorite type of poker game. The Titan Poker client also lets you interface with the casino as well, where you can play a variety of casino games if you so desire.

The action buttons (fold/bet/call/raise) are neatly arranged when it is your turn to act, making an easy task to pick your choice quickly. There is an option to chat live with an assistant should you need it. This is always a helpful feature, particularly when you are new to a site.
 

Titan Poker's software was developed by Playtech. Playtech have a long history in the online market, and have used their experience to develop a first class online poker software platform which as all the trimmings. Once you download Titan Poker, you will see a very clean looking site with neat graphics and a simple user interface. The software runs smoothly with few hiccups. This site looks and feels professional.

This site is one of the few sites that support live chat. This is a great resource to have. You can also send questions via email, which are promptly answered.