PokerStars has emerged as the world's largest online poker site, and not just by a slim margin over #2 Full Tilt Poker. Featuring close to 40,000 players battling it out at the tables at peak hours, PokerStars is the hip place to be for online poker fans, with the widest selection of cash games and tournaments of any poker room on the planet.

PokerStars made a name for itself with its great tournament offerings, as well as the fact that it has been an active sponsor of poker pros, including Daniel Negreanu as well as many of the recent WSOP Main Event winners such as Joe Cada, Peter Eastgate, Joe Hachem, and Chris Moneymaker. The site sends a huge number of online qualifiers to the WSOP each year and is one of the best sites to find Main Event satellites and qualifiers.

Seats are available at any time of the day or night in cash games and tournaments, with action offered in Texas Hold'em, Omaha, H.O.R.S.E., 7 Card Stud, Razz, Triple Draw, and more. The large player pool at PokerStars means that you can always find a game running no matter what game you prefer, jumping into a game in a matter of seconds and raking in big pots.

PokerStars Poker Bonus Codes (8 out of 10)

PokerStars offers a 100% up to $600 new player signup bonus, matching the amount of the initial deposit a player makes when signing up. The bonus is cleared based on your play at cash games and tournaments and is released in $10 increments. Players have up to 6 months to clear the signup bonus.

While PokerStars rarely offers addition reload bonuses (usually only 2-3 throughout the year), they do have one of the best loyalty programs for frequent players. Acquire enough player points and you can trade them in for instant cash bonuses or use them to buy merchandise or even enter live poker tournaments around the globe.

PokerStars Poker Tournaments (10 out of 10)

Tournaments are where PokerStars really made their name in the past and that's still true today, with it being the online poker site of choice for online poker tournaments. PokerStars has tournaments for players of all bankrolls, from huge weekly guaranteed tournaments with over $1 million in the prize pool to plenty of tournaments that players can enter for less than $1.

PokerStars provides a full range of daily multi-table and single-table tournaments in formats such as No Limit Hold'em, Limit Hold'em tournaments, Omaha, mixed games, and more. If you're looking to play your way to a live event, PokerStars offers plenty of opportunities to do just that, running satellites constantly that award trip packages to EPT, NAPT, APT, and WSOP events.

PokerStars Poker Cash Games (10 out of 10)

PokerStars also shines when it comes to cash games, once again drawing on its enormous popularity with players to provide you with some of the best online cash games. More players means more active tables, which means that you can not only grab a seat faster and start slinging chips but that you can be choosier when it comes to the table you play at.

Unlike some smaller sites that only feature tables running for No Limit Hold'em (and maybe a few Omaha tables), PokerStars provides action and busy tables across all the major poker games it offers. Other sites don't even offer H.O.R.S.E. or Razz; PokerStars not only offers them, but tables fill quickly at a range of stakes.

PokerStars Poker Customer Service (9 out of 10)

While PokerStars support is only available via e-mail, the site dedicates a lot of effort to ensuring that its customer support staff is the best in the business. Response times are very quick and it's obvious that customer support representatives are knowledgable and take time to specifically address the issue that players submit, instead of just copy-and-pasting a generic response from a form.

PokerStars Poker Software (9 out of 10)

There's nothing fancy about the PokerStars software but it's intuitive and easy to use, enabling players to quickly find cash games and tournaments. The lobby area features various ways of sorting and filtering and shows quick stats on cash game tables such as number of players, average pot size, etc. Tournaments can be filtered and sorted by type as well as buy-in and whether or not it's a qualifier or satellite for another event.

The action at the tables is very speedy and only takes a few hands to familiarize yourself with it. The PokerStars software supports multi-tabling so you can play as many tables at one time as you can handle, unlike other sites that limit you to playing at 1-4 tables only.

PokerStars Poker Deposit and Withdrawal Options (9 out of 10)

Deposit options include eCheck, Visa, MasterCard, Neteller, Diners Club, ClickandBuy, Moneybookers, and Solo/Maestro/Switch, cashier's check/money order/bank draft (minimum deposit of $100), local bank transfer, ELV, online bank transfer, Paysafe card, WebMoney.

Withdrawal options at PokerStars include Visa, Neteller, Moneybookers, ClickandBuy, and WebMoney, as well as by check and bank wire.

Conclusion

PokerStars is the most popular online poker site and for good reason: its selection of cash games, tournaments, and a generous $600 new player poker bonus can't be beaten. Once you've pocketed the signup bonus the site offers one of the best loyalty programs available, which can translate into additional big cash bonuses or even a trip to a live poker tournament in exotic locales like Las Vegas, Monte Carlo, or the Bahamas.