Ah, the famous Friday night, where you meet up with your good buddies to play some friendly poker.
Friendly? Well not exactly, as this traditional event is the perfect time to show your testosterone-producing abilities and that we can outsmart anyone else.
Although, theses weekly meetings have tended to disappear in recent years. Your buddies have more obligations than before and organizing theses events has to surmount many logistical issues, not counting the objection of your significant other.
Thanks to Absolute Poker, this great old American pastime is getting a second breath, as the online poker game sites are one of the few who give you the ability to create your own poker tournament.
So what do you think? Are you manly enough to spend your Friday night in front of your computer? That's what we thought, and the following online poker review is just for you.
What’s new?
- 100% First Time Deposit Bonus- Get up to $500 when you make your first deposit! Enter coupon code: AP500
- Brand new, revamped newsletter: filled with updates, discount information and fun poker news!
Reasons to play on Absolute Poker
- Choose your own poker skin: Want to have your own customized room? Browse the online selection of skins and have your own private ambiance!
- Hand History Retrieval: Become a better player by analyzing your 200 latest hands! And no, you can’t analyze any of your friend’s hands, even when asking politely.
- Instant Hand replay: What was that? Activating the replay feature will show your hole cards in previous hands as well as the winning hand (if another player won the pot)
- 6 Tables play: You become a better player, and want to maximize your hourly gains? Play on up to 6 tables at once and watch the money roll in!
Star Reviews’ Favorite Feature: Your own private poker tournament: A little competition amongst friends is always healthy. Organize your own private tournament and invite your friends online for a friendly wager and you have the recipe for a good night of fun! An added bonus: nobody will be drinking and driving!
Interface and playability:
Absolute Poker has been plagued with a reputation of high disconnection rates. In our case we didn’t even disconnect once in our online poker review. We installed the software within two minutes, as the install wizard is user-friendly.
Next, we stumbled into the online lobby. We though the layout was neat and well-balanced, without any unnecessary hoopla. The engine does use a high slice of your computer’s memory, so your grand-father’s computer will likely not make it through.
The menu shows you all available games, from the high-limit to the money-conscious table. You will be prompted for your e-mail address and password, or fill out the new user questionnaire.
We actually had a lot of fun playing on Absolute Poker. From a live player chat through which you can have fun with your opponents to uploading your own player picture, everything ensures a great friendly poker experience. The search player option is also useful, so you can find your friend, or a player you have success against (This also mean someone can also be looking you up!)
Apart for the small mention of using a 128-bit SSL protocol for encryption, we couldn’t find any precise security information on their website. A quick search in the most trusted online poker communities did not reveal any bad user experiences, which means we are left to assume the strength behind their security level.
Playing fees
Like other online poker games sites, Absolute Poker impose a rake “schedule” on its tables, depending on the number of players and stakes at play.
The usual 3-4 player $2.00 - $4.00 game is charged $0.25 for every $1 in the pot, up to a maximum of $2.00. This makes Absolute Poker one of the best online poker sites in terms of rake fees.
Absolute Poker has a strong loyalty program in place. You can turn your player points won during the game to buy official merchandise online, like the official gear of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi. We can’t promise you will look as cool as Michael, although it will intimidate your friends.
Customer Service
Of course, not a single online poker site is perfect. Absolute Poker doesn’t provide a lot of options for its customer services, as there is no telephone support available.
They do offer an automated e-mail feature that does not look very solid, although we received an answer to our question within three hours. Not too shabby!
Their website is interesting, to say the least. There is a good amount of information in the online FAQ and different poker games descriptions, although some features are a bit intriguing. For example, you can browse through a business directory that feature sites unrelated to poker.
Although for all the manly poker players around here, you can download wallpapers of Absolute Poker’s model Selinda Swan. You can see pictures from Absolute Poker’s events featuring, of course, more ladies.
Absolute Poker is truly a winner in our online poker reviews. Its features are amongst the best in the industry, as we absolute love setting our own private tournament to play on a Friday afternoon in the office.
Since nothing is perfect, Absolute Poker needs to improve their customer support. We would also appreciate finding information on their security, although for the price you pay for, this is one of the best online poker games sites.
Upside: Great playability – Create your own tournament – Low rake fees
Downside: Limited customer support options – Hidden security information