| Cash Game Choice | 7.5/10 | Support Options | 8.0/10 |
| Cash Game Traffic | 8.0/10 | Financial Security | 8.5/10 |
| Cash Game Competition | 10/10 | Deposit and Withdrawal Choices | 9.0/10 |
| Rake Costs | 8.0/10 | Overall | 8.4/10 |
Pacific Poker is the home of one of the oldest online poker operations that has continued to exist from the moment it was founded earlier this decade right through to the present day. It looks like an old online poker operation, but Pacific Poker also has the experience to know what online poker customers want most. That is why they continue to be an excellent online poker website.
Cash Game Choice – (7.5/10)
At the current moment in time, you can expect to find the following five poker variants in cash game form from Pacific Poker:
Texas Hold ‘Em
Omaha
Omaha Hi/Lo
Seven Card Stud
Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo
These are collectively known as the big five poker variants because they tend to be the five most popular variants in any given online poker website. Pacific Poker does offer these five, but they do not offer any uncommon variants in their cash game operations.
Cash Game Traffic – (8.0/10)
The cash game traffic that Pacific Poker offers is exceptionally average. In other words, it is generally a medium-sized website that you can go to in order to get some good secondary gaming in. At the same time however, Pacific Poker has accomplished this as an independent online poker site rather than as a member of a poker network and that is indeed something that really works very well for them.
On average, you can expect around 1000 to 1500 people playing online cash game poker at Pacific Poker. The breakdowns work as follows:
950 to 1425 playing Texas Hold ‘Em
25 to 35 playing Omaha
15 to 25 playing Omaha Hi/Lo
10 to 15 playing Seven Card Stud
The remainder playing Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo
Cash Game Competition – (10/10)
If you talk to people that have a lot of experience when it comes to judging the relative softness of an online poker website, you’ll hear them say quite honestly that they believe that Pacific Poker is one of the softest websites in online poker. The fact of the matter is that Pacific Poker has that reputation and it is a reputation that is very well earned. If you play your online poker at Pacific Poker, you’ll definitely be dealing with some of the softest competition that you can find anywhere in the world of online poker.
Rake Costs – (8.0/10)
There isn’t much to say about the rake policy at Pacific Poker beyond the fact that it is competitive with the rest of the market. That means an average rake of 5% and a typical maximum of $3.00 per hand.
Support Options – (8.0/10)
Pacific Poker has two options available to anyone that would like to get some help for problems they might be having. The first of those two options is the FAQ documentation that is available on the website. This documentation will allow you to truly appreciate the extent to which Pacific Poker goes in order to help you troubleshoot problems on your own. There is a certain self-interest involved in this from their point of view, but at the same time troubleshooting is faster if you can do it on your own.
If it turns out that their FAQ documentation does not help you deal with the problems that you are facing, you can always go to e-mail support. You simply fill out the form on their website, attach any documents to the form that you’d like them to take a look at and then press the submit button in order to send the e-mail to them.
Financial Security – (8.5/10)
Pacific Poker is owned by Cassava Enterprises, the same people that are involved in running 888.com. Their financial security is quite tight, even to the point of being a little over the top. Cassava Enterprises operates under the philosophy that it is better to err on the side of caution, so while you can expect a little more suspicion from them on average, this is only so that they can protect your money while it is with them.
Deposit and Withdrawal Choices – (9.0/10)
Pacific Poker allows the following deposit options:
Credit Card
Debit Card
Bank Transfer
Boleto
E-Check
Wire Transfer
InstaDebit
POLi
Przelewy24
ClickandBuy
Moneybookers
NETeller
PayPal
WebMoney
PaySafeCard
Ukash
Pacific Poker allows withdrawals through any of the above methods as long as the method does support withdrawals and deposits. If in doubt, a quick e-mail to Pacific Poker or the payment processor in question will let you know which methods can double as withdrawal methods.
Overall – (8.4/10)
In the grand scheme of things, Pacific Poker is one of the better sites around. If you like easy competition and good transactional history, this website is the one for you.