Winning Online Poker

Note: All ratings out of 10 possible, 10 being the best and 0 the worst

Overall real money rating: 6 (Site security: very secure)

Overall play money rating: 10

Paradise Poker features great software, a stable server, and good customer support. Unfortunately, the games just aren't that good due to a lack of bad players.

Maximum Tables You Can Play at One Time: 3

Beatable Games: 3

At almost all limits and games, Paradise is tighter than the other sites, meaning you will have a harder time making money. There are times when the .50/1 7-stud tables will have average pots of $2, and the flop percentages for .50/1 hold 'em rarely get above 40%, even though this is where the loosest people should be playing.

Game Selection: 8

Paradise offers the best game selection of the big sites, including the standard five (hold 'em, Omaha, Omaha hi-lo, 7-stud, 7-stud hi-lo) and also 5-card draw, 5-card stud and Crazy Pineapple. They also offer pot-limit and no-limit games. The big problem is that the wait lists for popular tables are often 5 players deep or more, meaning you must be patient for awhile, and the game composition may change while you are waiting.

Player Traffic: 8

Though its traffic is not at the levels of Party Poker, Paradise has a big user base and their recent addition of multi-table tournaments appears to be helping. At most games and limits, you can find a game...if you are willing to occasionally sit on a wait list for it.

Deposit Bonuses / Player Rewards / Jackpots: 5

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Paradise's deposit bonus (25% up to $50) is mediocre, and it is fairly difficult to clear at 10 raked hands per dollar. They do occasionally offer 20% re-deposit bonuses for special events. As of now there are no jackpots and no player rewards program.

Software / Peripherals: 9

Paradise’s server software is excellent. The lobby is easy to navigate and contains all useful table info, the colors are beautiful, the tables and chips are very nice and professional-looking, and there are some cool effects like flaming and lightning-infused cards and smoking chips, which are fun for play money players. The only thing stopping the server from getting a perfect score here is the lack of a buddy list program like you’d find on Party or UltimateBet.

Tournaments: SNGs 6, Multi-Tables 8

Though they have very light traffic for all games other than no-limit hold 'em, there is a good selection of single-table tournaments on Paradise. They are new to the multi-table tournament game, but are doing well. Recently they have been hosting $30 buy-in events with $20,000 guaranteed every night.

Customer Support: 9

Though they do not offer 24-hour live help, their e-mail service often responds faster than the live help would anyway. They are very helpful and knowledgeable, unlike the support teams on some servers.

Server Quality: 9

Paradise very rarely crashes or has any other server errors. If you get frustrated by being unable to play on other servers, this is a good place to go.