It is, objectively, worse than every poker website at everything except player count. It has worse prizes for SNGs than 888, it has fewer MTTs freerolls than 888, a worse rewards program than PartyPoker, and even doesn't have that great software and apps compared to both the others. They also don't have a great deposit bonus.
I could understand having the biggest playerbase among new players just because of marketing, but even a lot of professional players go there despite most likely getting 6-15% rakeback instead of the 40%+ they could get elsewhere.
I'm not being facetious - I'm trying to decide which website I should play with and am just baffled by the size of PokerStars despite it's almost complete inferiority. Is there something I'm missing?
1) High page rank of the website is guiding new poker players to PokerStars.
2) Great investments in advertisement is guiding new poker players to PS.
3) The more new players join the game - the more fish and money there will be.
So the questions are - do you worry about rakeback or do you worry about high winnings?
PokerStars offers the best software in the poker industry, 888 and party and rest of the rooms don't even have 80% of options that PokerStars offer. You can modify fonts, background of the tables and so on.
Talking about the number of tourneys - are you serious that 888 offers more MTTs than PS? Maybe you have filters turned on at PS, get rid of them and you will see that PS offers x2 times more tourneys and biggest tourneys can't be compared at both sites.
888 has probably the worst software, few options, terrible lobby, ugly avatars and so on. They can tell nice stories about the fish coming from their casino site and nice freerolls and rake back, but actually it all simply depressing, ugly and personally i want to leave 888 right after the first hand dealt.
PartyPoker is much better, but still can't compare with number of easy money around.
I like to play at iPoker network, it's small and full of regs, most of the kick outs in 5eur+ MTTs are happening because of something like JJ vs AK. You know why I like to play there? Cause it's like ancient Sparta, and when I start playing ACR or PS after playing iPoker I feel like i'm playing at much easier level with idiets who go all-in pre with A7os and think that it's normal. Brasilians at PS and Americans at ACR simply never fold A-rag to a preflop raise. Well, 90% of them don't fold...
PokerStars is a leader in the industry and this site is like a dictator. It offers the best service and that's the reason why they charge high fees for that service and pay less rakeback. Rest of the pokerrooms have to survive somehow, that's why they're offering freebies, bonuses and rest of the trash to attract the players.:bandit: