PlayersOnly Poker Review

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Since going live in 2006, PlayersOnly Poker has been an impressive poker site. They got off to a slow start with a small player base, but joined the Merge Gaming Network in 2010. Since then, PlayersOnly Poker has experienced stunning growth.

One thing that impresses us about PlayersOnly Poker is that they are never holding still. After joining forces with Merge, PlayersOnly Poker continued to innovate by revamping its software, releasing a Mac version of its software and staying in constant contact with players to get their input. This feels like the type of poker site that an online poker player would make if he had unlimited funds.

PlayersOnly Poker Bonus – 100% up to $1,000

All new players at PlayersOnly Poker automatically receive a 100% match bonus on their first deposit there. The standard bonus maxes out at $650, but if you use the bonus code POBONUSPK, the bonus maximum jumps up to $1,000. This is a great bonus whether you’re building a bankroll or simply want a wad of free cash.

After you make your first deposit at PlayersOnly, you will see the bonus funds sitting in a pending account. This money is released by participating in real money tournaments and ring games. When you join real money games at PlayersOnly Poker, you earn VIP points.

For every 75 VIP points you earn, $1.00 of your bonus money will be considered cleared. Every time you accumulate $5.00 worth of cleared bonus money, that amount is moved to your real money account. You earn 1 VIP point for every $0.10 you pay in rake or tournament fees.

Remember, the current PlayersOnly bonus code is POBONUSPK.

Click here to get your poker bonus today

Free Cash Bonus – $200 Free

PlayersOnly Poker has an alternate bonus you can claim if you do not want to make a large deposit. With this bonus, you’ll get $200 free as soon as you sit at any real money ring game or tournament. This free cash bonus is a little weird, though, so pay attention:

1. Visit PlayersOnly.com and sign up for an account at the website.

2. Visit the sportsbook section of PlayersOnly.com and log in there with your account.

3. Make a deposit of any size through the sportsbook cashier.

4. Now go back and download the poker software and log in with your existing account.

5. Sit at any real money table and $200 will be dropped into your account.

We think this bonus is set up like this to help get existing sportsbook members to cross over and try out poker. So they have set it up to reward existing accounts for visiting the poker room and joining a game. Kind of a strange setup, but it works. You can read more about it at the PlayersOnly website.

PlayersOnly Poker Tournaments

PlayersOnly Poker is strong in its offering of small and medium tournaments, but does not offer much in the way of high stakes tournaments. On a more positive note, we have found some of the softest tournaments on the internet at PlayersOnly. Their biggest weekly guaranteed tournament is a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool that takes place every Sunday.

PlayersOnly also has a variety of smaller guaranteed tournaments throughout the week. In addition, they host regular freezeout tournaments, freerolls, bounties and non-Holdem games such as Omaha and Razz. The variety is impressive as long as you’re OK with playing mostly $109 or lower buyin tournaments. If you need high stakes action, you should probably check out UB Poker instead.

Sit-n-Go tournaments are pretty much the same story as well. The games are varied and stay the busiest at the low and medium stakes levels. On the SNG side, PlayersOnly Poker hosts tourneys with buyins that range from $0.60 to more than $5,000. Most of the action congregates at the low and medium buyins, but you will find the occasional player ready to rumble at the high limit matches.

Cash Games

The cash games at PlayersOnly Poker include a mixture of no-limit and fixed limit Holdem plus a variety of other poker variants. The Holdem and Omaha tables are fairly busy at all times, but you will not find a whole lot of action at the stud, Razz or draw games.

If you primarily play Texas Holdem, you’ll find the cash games at PlayersOnly Poker are much softer than at most poker sites. The players here are pitiful – especially at the lower levels. This probably because most of the poker sharks like to hang out at bigger poker sites where they have more tables to choose from and higher limits.

Speaking of limits, the no-limit ring games at PlayersOnly poker run at stakes from $0.02/$0.04 with a $4 buyin to games as high as $300/$600 with a $60,000 buyin. You will find players at all stakes, but the high stakes games can get pretty quiet during off peak hours. The fixed limit games run at stakes from $0.02/$0.04 to $50/$100.

PlayersOnly Poker Software

The PlayersOnly Poker software is lightweight and straight to the point. The games lobby is divided into categories to make it easy to see where the games are that you want. Various filters can be used so that you only see games of certain types. For example, you can set it up so that you only see tables at your stakes with at least one player seated.

The actual poker tables are designed with a simple theme that we like. There’s not a lot of extra junk decorating the tables. The purpose of the tables is to make it easy to see what’s going on and whose turn it is. In that respect, PlayersOnly Poker succeeds admirably.

The one problem with the software is that the games list seems to update randomly. If you switch away from the poker lobby for a few seconds and then come back to it, the games list will take a few seconds to refresh. This isn’t a huge deal, but it’s a bit annoying when you had your eye on a specific table.

Click here to download the PlayersOnly Poker software

Mac Compatibility

The entire Merge Gaming Network released Mac-compatible software in late 2010. The software works with all Mac computers and it functions pretty much the same as the PC software. Both PC and Mac users alike can enjoy the real money games at PlayersOnly Poker.

You can visit the PlayersOnly website from any computer and hit the download button to get started. You will automatically receive the format that you need. If you’re visiting from a Mac, PlayersOnly will send you the Mac download by default.

Player Traffic

Player traffic was once a major problem for PlayersOnly, but things have really picked up since they joined the Merge Gaming Network. Depending on the time of day, it’s not uncommon to log in and see upwards of 7,000 players logged in at the same time. This is definitely not the bigger poker site on the internet, but it’s also not totally dead.

You’ll find players ready to play at all stakes – especially at the no-limit Texas Holdem tables. We do not see a lot of ultra high stakes games, but we do often see people waiting at the highest tables. The low and medium stakes levels have tables running all the time. This is one of the fastest growing poker networks today, so it’s all uphill from here.

Safety and Security

Safety and security have never been a concern at PlayersOnly Poker. The PlayersOnly company has been involved in online gaming in some form or another since 1996 and they know how to run safe games. They also highly value their reputation and will never do anything to jeopardize that.

You can feel completely safe playing for real money at PlayersOnly Poker. The games are run in a straightforward and professional manner. This is always the first thing we look at before we recommend any online poker site.

PlayersOnly Real Money Deposit Options

PlayersOnly Poker is open to residents from the United States, so their list of deposit options depends on where you live. They have a high acceptance rate for US credit cards and can also process deposits over the phone. A few of the most well known real money deposit methods include the following:

• Visa
• MasterCard
• Cash Transfer
• eCheck
• UseMyWallet
• Click2Pay
• My Voucher
• Moneybookers
• Neteller
• EcoCard