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Updated In March, 2025 - In 2025 there are very few online poker rooms that can seriously compete with Pokerstars. Full Tilt Poker, their closest competitor, is only half their size in terms of traffic at the real money tables. Yesterday's online poker giants like Party Poker would need to grow by 1,000% overnight to be on par with Pokerstars. Poker Stars was the top US poker room until they left a while back. They have consolidated their superiority in virtually every category over the last few years. Here is a list of categories that Pokerstars has dominated:
In this 2025 Pokerstars review we will explain why we feel Pokerstars dominates other poker rooms in these important fields. We will also share our thoughts on what Pokerstars is lacking from an online poker player's point of view.
The best online poker sites for US players in 2025:
Pokerstars offered the lowest bonuses in the industry for several years. In 2025 they increased their new player bonus from a measly $50 to $600. That certainly isn't the largest bonus I've seen and the clearance requirements are on par with what you will find at other poker rooms so what makes their bonus so special?
You may have noticed that I said "new player bonus" instead of "first deposit bonus", as they are usually called. Instead of just matching your initial deposit Pokerstars will match your first 3. From my experience only around 5-10% of people make a large enough first deposit to claim the entire bonus. This leaves a lot of money on the table for a vast majority of players. Most usually make a small test deposit initially to test out a room. Not to many people want to dump $600 onto a room that they may not like, just to claim the largest bonus.
By matching your first three deposits Pokerstars makes it much much easier for you to get the most out of their new player bonus program. You will have 90 days from your first deposit to make two additional deposits. This is by no means mandatory though. You can make two $300 deposits and claim the full bonus. These 100% match bonuses will be added together. Some rooms cancel an existing bonus when you claim another one, not Pokerstars. To claim this bonus you will need to follow these directions.
Once again Poker Stars has upgraded their already award winning VIP program. How they manage to pack more value into the industry's most popular promotion I will never know. There are so many benefits that I have it would take 10-15 pages just to provide an overview of each part of it. here are some cliff notes that will help you get a better understanding of the Pokerstars VIP program in 2025:
As an American poker player I tend to use e-checks for deposits and bank wires for cashouts. They have plenty of other options though. Their credit card processing has a very high success rate and e-check deposits never get rejected. Once a bank wire is approved it will be in your bank account within 5-10 hours of your bank opening. For instance, I had a bank wire cashout that was approved at 5:00 am. It was in my bank account by 11:00 am the same day. Echeck cashouts take a little longer, usually 24-48 hours. The only other room that can compete with Pokerstars in this category is Fulltilt Poker.
Smooth, fast and nice looking. That is what comes to mind when I think about the poker client at Pokerstars. Lag is virtually unheard of and bugs are non-existent. Pokerstars had their software developed with multi-tablers in mind. You can easily play at 10 tables at once due to their advanced multi-table options. The software is loaded with cool features that most rooms do not have. Their software includes more games than any other room with the exception of Fulltilt. they offer Hold'em, Stud, Omaha, 5 Card Draw, Razz, Stud HL, Omaha HL, 2-7 Triple Draw, 2-7 Single Draw, Badugi and a wide range of mixed games. Pokerstars get's an A+ in the software category.
I love the variety of tournaments at Pokerstars. It's not just that they run so many tournaments per hour, it's the different types of tournaments they offer. Turbo, hyper turbo, rebuy, knockout, heads up and many more tournament formats are available. Pokerstars offers more in guaranteed prize pools per day than any other room. They are also the home of the largest daily overlays. Not even Full Tilt Poker can compete with Pokerstars in the tournament category. The same is true for sitngos. I love their double or nothing sitngos. These are 10 man sitngos that pay the top 5. Each player will receive double the buyin. I know guys who make a living playing in 5-6 of these at a time for a few hours a day. It all comes down to playing tight.
Support response times at Pokerstars have gotten much better over the years. They still only offer email support but they always respond within 12 hours. You can contact them from within the poker client as well.