AlphaPlayers

PokerRoom.com isn't the largest room on the web, but it gets bigger every day and there's more than enough traffic to provide serious competition in cash (ring) games and tournaments. It's one of the more attractive sites (if you're into that sort of thing), both in the playing software and the site's web pages. And one nice difference from most other sites - you don't have to download software to play. PokerRoom offers both a downloadable version and a Java-based version that launches directly from their web page (the Java version makes it one of the rare sites playable by Mac users). Everybody competes together, only there are two options for getting to the table. We haven't noticed anything that makes one preferrable over the other.

PokerRoom offers Texas Hold 'Em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, and 7 Card Hi/Lo. Like most other sites the vast majority of the action is in Hold 'Em. Thousands of players can be found on the site just about any time of the day. There are big weekly "Big Deal" tourneys ($300+20), and the even-bigger "Main Draw" the last Saturday of each month. All of these, combined with "European Daily", "U.S. Daily", "Aussie Daily" and "Midnight Oil" tourneys every day, make this a top-level site for tournament players.

Perhaps the best reason to play at PokerRoom.com is the number of small buy-in tournaments held every day. Every couple of hours another $5+0.50 No Limit Hold 'Em tournament kicks off. If you're a beginner and you want to learn to play tournaments, these are a great way of learning, getting good experience, and eventually building a bankroll. Want to play with an even smaller buy-in? Then you'll want to be there for PokerRoom's daily "Lucky Dollar" tournaments, where the entry is only $1 and PokerRoom adds $1,000 to the prize pool - $2500 added on Saturdays!

The table software uses some mildly amusing 3-D characters, but they're permanently affixed in their seats, so if you sit in the center top position you'll always be the "old lady", if you sit bottom center, you'll always be "the cowboy". Too bad it's not more flexible, but it can sometimes be fun to play as the surgically enhanced blonde in the upper right position ;) PokerRoom.com has plenty of action for both real money and play money players. They provide most of the usual methods for making real money deposits. Visit PokerRoom to check it out.