Paradise Poker Review

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Overall Score 6.4 of 10 (OK) Popularity 5 Security 8 Competition 9 Software 5 Support 5 Ethics 8 Promotions 5 Examples of games at Paradise Poker

The Quick Summary

ParadisePoker, founded in 1999, is one of the oldest online poker sites on the internet. Paradise's traffic was hit hard when it pulled out of the US market, but it recently joined the International Poker Network/Boss Media, so it has decent traffic at most hours and a wide variety of games for all skill levels.

Popularity: 5 of 10 - OK

There are usually anywhere from 2-3,000 players on Paradise at any given time. There's a pretty good selection across all game types and levels

Security: 8 of 10 - Excellent

Paradise Poker is licenced by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. They use SSL encryption provided by Thawte Inc.

Player Competition: 9 of 10 - Excellent

Paradise Poker is filled with fish. There are also sharks that prey on the large school of fish so it's important to pay attention and figure out which players to target.

Site Software: 5 of 10 - Poor

Paradise's software is pretty standard. There really are no special feature to brag about, but it gets the job done, albeit a little slowly at times. Sometimes it can take a little while to get around the lobby with various "loading" screens that you don't tend to get at the biggest sites, but the table/poker software itself is pretty fast.

Customer Support: 8 of 10 - Excellent

There are many customer support options at Paradise Poker. Along with email support (obviously), Paradise has toll free phone support in many countries including Canada, England, Australia and many more. If that isn't enough, Paradise also has live chat support on their website (although, as of the writing of this review, the live chat was marked as "Offline").

Company Ethics: 8 of 10 - Excellent

As a part of a publicly held company, Paradise is held to a very high level of accountability. Player issues are resolved in a timely manner.

Site Promotions: 5 of 10 - OK

Paradise has a 100% up to 500 Euro signup bonus. At current conversion rates, that's about a $770 bonus, so that compares favorably with options such as Full Tilt's 100% up to $600 bonus. On Paradise, you have 180 days to clear the bonus and the bonus is released in 5 Euro increments for every 100 Frequent Player Points that you earn on the site. In cash games, you will earn 1 point for every 0.25 Euro you rake. For both Single Table tournaments and Multi Table Tournaments, 4 points will be earned for every 1 Euro in tournament fees paid.

In addition to the new player sign up bonus, Paradise also has "Beginner Freerolls" although that title is not 100% accurate. Every Monday night, Paradise runs a 250 Euro "freeroll" at 19:00 GMT. The entry is not truly zero -- it's actually a 5 FPP point entry. Of course, 5 FPPs are barely worth anything, so it's very very close to a true freeroll. The catch is that the freeroll is only open to you if you sign up in the last 28 days, which means you will get to participate in a maximum of four of these freerolls. That's a double-edged sword because you can only play the freeroll a few times, but the good news is that the field size stays small and the players in the freeroll are pretty likely to actually be beginners.

Overall Review: 6.1 of 10 - OK

Paradise is a very basic site with a lot of fish. It can be fun to play on but it is not one of the mega-sites that are out there today.

Official Website: www.paradisepoker.com