Poker Ratings- Games: variety/action

Games: Variety/Action

Last Updated: Janaury 3, 2007

Like the site/services and software/graphics categories, the importance of this one as it applies to the overall site rating should be obvious, and carefully considered as well. We like a poker site to offer the three standard poker (both ring and tournament) games: Texas Hold’em, Omaha and 7-Card Stud. While each game may have several variants (Hi-Lo, No-limit, etc.), we think a good poker site should at least have Texas Hold’em and 7-Card Stud. We acknowledge the explosion in popularity of Texas Hold’em, but all of poker has gained from it, and a world-class poker site should not only offer the three main poker games, but should also have regular action for each. It is no surprise to us that all of the top online poker sites offer the three main poker games mentioned. So for this category, we considered the variety and volume/action for ring games, as well as the variety and volume/action for tournaments. It may not matter to you whether a site has $3/$6 7-Card Stud action at 4 AM or not, but we like to at least consider such a factor on some level, and as it relates to competing sites. However, if a poker site does not offer 7-Card Stud games at all, two points were automatically subtracted from their score here to account for it, as well as to give more weight to this category overall. Also, when we refer to traffic during "off-peak" hours, we mean between 2am-10am ET (GMT-5).

Which sites offer a good selection of games with the best action/traffic?

Rank

Poker Sites

Weighted Score
(out of 10)

(Average Weighted Category Score: 8.3)

With the exception of and Noble Poker, the rest of the sites offer the usual array of games. Noble Poker is a really promising new site, but I also enjoy playing 7-Card Stud, and feel that all good poker sites should offer the popular poker game. Until recently, DoylesRoom also did not offer 7-stud, but we have yet to see if it will drive any substantive traffic to their site. Between the two, Doyle’s Room has been around a little longer, gaining some hold'em fans, and has managed to have at least some action around the clock for both hold'em ring games and tournaments. But I definitely encourage people to try out Noble Poker, because it’s such a good site, that the one factor that would make it as good as any other site is more traffic. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed to give Noble a try, especially if you’re solely a Hold’em player. Who knows, maybe with more traffic, they’ll open up some 7-Card Stud action. For overall action/traffic at all hours, it’s no secret that PartyPoker leads the pack by far. Poker Stars and Paradise are usually neck-and-neck at second and third in this sub-category, with Poker Room, Green Tie and UltimateBet rounding out a broad third spot.

A respectful fifth ranking goes to Pacific Poker, which has become a popular site primarily for the same reasons supporting their strong scores in this category, and in the Players category as well. They may have a lower average number of players than Green Tie or UltimateBet, but we regularly found some decent action across a wider spread of games (type of game and table limits).

TPR's Online Poker Ratings

Games: Variety/Action