-
2025 pokerstars review - poker stars marketing code
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:
- Bonuses
- VIP Program
- Deposits / Cashouts
- Software
- Tournaments
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:
2025 Pokerstars bonus & code
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.
- Visit pokerstars or you can click here to download their software
- When you are just about done creating your account you will come to the marketing code page (see above). Check mark the friend referral option and use our Pokerstars marketing code PSP11820.
- When you make your 1st deposit enter the 2025 bonus code STARS600. if you decide to make a second and third deposit within the next 90 days enter this code again each time.
- Free $20 Pokerstars - Claim $20 in free Poker Stars money!
- Poker Stars news in 2025
2025 Pokerstars VIP Program
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:
- Comp point multiplier - There are 6 different VIP levels you can belong to. You can earn FPP (frequent player points) in multiples of 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3.5 and 5. This means that you can earn points up to 5 times faster then you did when you first started playing at Poker Stars.
- $1,200 In Stellar Rewards - This aspect of the VIP program is for the people who don't play often and the micro-stakes players. There are 20 benchmarks and each one comes with a cash credit (not a bonus, no clearing required). After a couple sessions you would have earned at least a couple. The first 5 are $10 each, the next 9 are $50, the next 5 are worth $100 and the final Stellar Reward is worth $200.
- Milestones - If you thought the stellar rewards were cool just wait til you start earning these. These come into play shortly after you finish the Stellar rewards. There are 16 in total and they range in value from $2,600 to $20,000. These are not bonuses and they have no clearance req.s'. It's just huge amounts of cash that you do use however you want. In 2025 each Milestone is 1 FPP, compared to 50,000 in 2025. There is a total of $136,800 up for grabs with the Milestone cash credits alone.
- VIP Reward Bonuses - In 2025 these were bonuses that you could buy. Bonuses that needed to be cleared. Nowadays they are instantly credited to your real money account. They come in $25, $50, $300, $650, $1,500 and $4,000 amounts. The larger ones have a much smaller FPP to $1 ratio but you'll need to be in a middle - high VIP tier to take advantage of that. You can purchase the same cash credit as many times as you want though.
- VIP Store - Pokerstars has thousands of items in their VIP store. If you want something that they don't have they will acquire it for you.
Deposits & Cashouts at Pokerstars 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.
Poker Stars software
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.
Tournament action at pokerstars in 2025
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.
2025 Pokerstars support
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.
-
U.S. Poker Rooms
2025 U.S. Poker Rooms
Poker Game Basics
Poker Guides
USA Poker Site
