PartyPoker

PartyPoker has "steps" tourneys which, as you win them, you get closer and closer to a seat at a large live tourney. While these events can be bought into, as you win entry into higher and higher levels, you cannot cash-out - that is the point of the event, after all, to keep winning until you get a $10,000 seat, right?

Unfortunately, PartyPoker software is not compatible with Linux and Mac OS.

Linux and Mac OS compatible rooms are from On Game Network - PokerRoom.com, Eurobet, etc.

Also it is possible to play in those rooms which have a browser-based client which does not require download - Pacific Poker and 24HPoker.

Many people have experienced long waits at PartyPoker and don't understand why - after all, if there are 70 people waiting for a .50 game, why not open up 7 tables? There is no good reason why this is happening, so it might have something to do with a lot of extra new customers or their software only set-up to hold a certain number of tables.

That's the great thing about online poker, though, because if you have some delays at one site or another, why not try another?

Please see online poker rooms list.

PartyPoker tracks your play with points. The more you play and the higher stakes you play at will generate more points for your account. These points are used to hit certain benchmarks for monthly bonuses from PP. You can also use them to buy merchandise at their online store and even enter certain tournaments.

In short: think of PartyPoker points like a gift certificate.

PartyPoker is being pro-active in the battle against possible bots. First, despite their being some conspiracy theorists saying that bots will invade poker, there has yet to be a single bot proven to be a winner in the game. That said, PartyPoker occasionally will check people to make sure a person is sitting in front of the computer, asking them to type in the word shown on the screen. Just type it in if it pops up - it's no big deal.

If you're looking for how many raked hands you've accumulated towards whatever bonus offer, normally you cannot view this info without first closing all of your tables (usually this is when you're done for the night).

If you want to access this information while you're playing to see how close you are, all you'll see is where you started - normally. However, follow these steps and you can see your info up to that moment:

Go to "Account Balance":

1. Click on "See all bonus offers"
2. Click on "Account balance"
3. Click on "Bonus details"

Yes, the term for doing this isn't nice but it's called "rat holing," where let's say you're playing at a small $100 buy-in No Limit game, you build your stack up to $500, you can stand up and sit right back down and start with $100 again. Most other sites would make you buy into that table for the $500 (you could buy into other tables for $100). Party, however, let's you protect these wins via this procedure.