Absolute Poker has built itself a solid reputation of a quality poker room with good customer service and accept US players. They are constantly reinventing the room and recently added a bad beat jackpot which has been won multiple times over the past few weeks. The most recent was on July 16th 2007, where the winner received an astounding $464,000 for his bad beat. This of course is adding to the exciting line up of multi table tournaments and cash games available. The site carries a high amount of traffic with some very competitive players and is poker tracker compatible.
Competition
Absolute Poker offers a very lucrative new sign up bonus and as such you will find that the tables are competitive. They seem to attract plenty of bonus hunters who play an extremely tight game to clear this sign up bonus. You will find some mid staked tables but these are not as frequent as the low cash games which is by far where the most action is.
Software
Absolute Poker offers a standard approach in color scheme and graphics. The lobby is easy to navigate and self sufficient which makes it very easy to get used to. All your standard options and functions are readily available in the lobby including flop percentage, hand history, menu filters. These allow you to filter through the games and stake that you wish to play making your choices that much quicker to find. The software itself is quick
Tournaments
AP offers a great selection of tournaments that every bankroll can afford. Starting at $1 leading up to $200 you can usually find one that suits your needs at any of the variations of poker Absolute provides. Qualifiers and satellites are available for the larger tournaments including the weekly $150,000 GP where you can qualify your way through for as little as $1. Peak hours for Absolute carry thousands of players online, making tournament registration an all time high. The odd tournament overlay may take place but with the boost in US players these are seen less frequently. Sit n Go tournaments are very popular with wait times down to a minimal of seconds. They offer 1, 2, 3, and 5 table Sit n Go which all have a steady stream of traffic throughout the day.
Ring Tables
Absolute Poker offers six variations of poker in their ring games, which hold a large amount of traffic. Players can multi table up to 6 tables simultaneously. AP reaches a player volume of 2500+ during peak hours with the main focus being at the Texas Hold em tables. Omaha action can be found at the low stakes for both regular Omaha and H/L, Razz and 7 Card Stud is very slow unless during peak hours.
Games supported
Texas hold em ( NL, PL, and L),
Omaha ( H/L, PL, L, and NL)
7 Card Stud Fixed
7 Card Stud H/L
Razz
Customer Service
Absolute Poker only offers email support at this time. Due to this they have broken their departments down into smaller areas i.e. cashier, tech support etc to allow for a more timely response. This is a great benefit as your questions or concerns are handled by the appropriate staff who are knowledgeable in their department. Response time is about standard for larger sites.
Bonuses
AP offers up some of the most lucrative bonuses not to mention frequent loyalty bonuses for their existing player base. The most recent bonus at Absolute is a 100% match up to $500, if that's not enough for a limited time only they have reduced the amount of points required to claim your bonus. For every 20 points you earn playing ring games or tournaments you will receive $5 of your bonus. Absolute features a refer-a-friend program along with a huge array of featured ones for loyal customers including a rewards program, VIP program and exceptional tournament packages. Absolute Poker is one of the top rooms for making sure their players have a bonus of some sort to take advantage of.
Deposit and Withdraws
Absolute Poker accepts US players and have tried to
make every attempt possible at having a good
variation of depositing options that are user
friendly and secure. Players never have to worry
about their information with Absolute as they have a
internationally accepted industry standard
SSLv3/TLSv1 encryption algorithm that is there to
protect the privacy of their customers and the site
itself. AP has the following methods for deposits
NETeller
Visa MasterCard
Debit cards (Solo, Switch, Visa Electron, Maestro,
Delta)
ePassporte
Instadebit
electronic check
Click2Pay
FirePay
Moneybookers
bank transfer
CentralCoin
Withdrawing from AP must be done through the same
means as your deposits or checks, this request can
take a couple of days for processing, and can not be
requested till 48 hours after your last deposit was
made. If your withdraw is over $3,000 US be prepared
to forward a copy of identification and proof of
residency in order for your withdraw to be
processed. Check withdraws are free and done through
regular mail with an estimated waiting time of 15
days. Withdraws include;
NETeller
FirePay
check only