When you're talking about online gaming, Party Poker is a household name. And before their decision to not accept players from the United States they were the undisputed Kings of the online poker world. Sure, things have changed, but not as much as you might think. Yes, the drop off in player traffic when the room shut its doors to U.S. players was fairly dramatic, but they still have more people playing at Party than almost any other room online, and Party Poker is still one of the three largest poker rooms on the web, ahead of many rooms that have decided to continue accepting U.S. players.
One area that didn't slow down at all is Party's tournament action – they're still one of the best values out there. They developed the multi-table Sit and Go's before anyone else offered them and were first to offer "Step" tournaments where players play their way through several tournaments until they hit the top "tier" where the cash prizes are awarded.
They've continued their tradition of tournament innovation by introducing "shootout" tournaments, where players play against their tablemates until the table is down to three players, Then move on to the next round of the shootout. It's fun, fast and profitable – for the right player!
The software at Party Poker has always been great, and it continues to be so. They brought in table resizing before anyone else, the hand histories are easy to find, and of course the room works wells with PokerTracker and your HUD.
The graphics are simple and clean; even though players do not get the chance to choose an icon or an avatar the player interface is so easy to use it doesn't matter. Of course, Party Poker is always tweaking the software, so more functionality is being added all the time.
Party Poker is still a giant among online poker rooms, and it should always be near the top of your choices when you're looking for a game.
