Mobile Poker Client Review – PokerStars

PokerStars has established a reputation as the biggest international poker room on the Internet.

Sponsors of a host of top stars, including poker ace Daniel Negreanu and tennis legend Rafael Nadal, PokerStars is a truly international application which attracts users from all across the globe, with a purported 50 million registered players.

The site is also famous for being the first online poker room to see a player satellite into the World Series of Poker and win the event (as Chris Moneymaker did in 2003).

The site began operation in 2001, with the mobile poker clients for iOS devices launched in January 2012 and for Android devices in February of the same year.

PokerStars has recently bought one of its main rivals, Full Tilt Poker, in a $731m deal. You can play for real money, or play cash, though in this review we will be focusing only on the real cash games.

PokerStars Mobile Software At-A-Glance

Device Support – PokerStars Mobile app is available for all iOS devices, including iPad and iPhone as well as being officially supported for several Android devices. The app will also work on several unofficially supported Android devices.

Access – The PokerStars app is one of the most easily available apps you can find, due chiefly to the popularity of the site with players. It is available from both officials app stores for Apple and Android devices and can also be downloaded by visiting the PokerStars website. Once the app is downloaded, the poker room can be accessed via a single tap of the link on your chosen device.

Games Available – The PokerStars app offers the widest selection of games available on a mobile device of all apps that we have reviewed. There are four broad categories of poker game available on the site; Sit & Go games, Zoom Poker (which is a version of speed poker, where players are dealt immediately into another hand against different players when folding), Tournaments and Ring Games (cash tables).

In each category there are a vast number of different options available that can be sorted in a number of ways (by buy in size ascending or descending or the number of people enrolled in the tournament).

You can also filter your search by a large number of options depending on the type of game selected.

Typically this includes items such as currency, game type, limit, buy in, players per table, speed, number of entrants and listing games that are registering only (and have not yet started).

Any other software restrictions – Given that PokerStars doesn’t have links with its own sports betting site or similar, this is not a consideration for the site and there are no restrictions, other than being able to afford the buy in for a selected game or tournament in place.

PokerStars Mobile – Overview

Downloading the PokerStars Mobile app was very easy indeed. The app is popular so is always one of the first apps you come across when compiling a search on your device for mobile poker apps. The download is quick and installation is also very easy to follow. Joining the site is also straightforward, though it is clear that the form to fill in was designed more with an American player in mind.

It is also rather small when entering your player data, which isn’t too problematic on a larger tablet device, but can be more of an issue when using a smaller screen such as on a smartphone or similar.

Once you have registered and made your deposit you are ready to go. Each time you log in the app remembers your user name, so you only have to enter your password and the game loads quickly from the first tap.

At first glance, to a novice poker player the PokerStars app may look a little daunting. The sheer number of games available listed down the right hand side of the screen can appear daunting and the app isn’t quite as user-intuitive as many others. However it does not take even beginner users long to figure out the left hand side menu allows you to select the type of game you want to play (from the four options mentioned previously) and that under that, you can filter the results to find the games you want to play.

What is particularly good about Poker Stars is not just that they have so many different options for each type of poker, but that all the options are packed with players waiting to play. On other sites, even waiting for a six-player table to fill up can be time consuming. On PokerStars, you can take part in a Sit & Go tournament with 300 people and it will fill up within just a few minutes.

All the main variations of poker are available including Zoom Poker and Ring Games, which people from other parts of the world may know best as Cash Tables.

This is a good point for players to note. It is clear from how the app is set up that PokerStars is predominantly an American game and as such, terms more familiar to American players are in common use across the app. This isn’t a problem if you are aware of this, but if you are based in the UK or elsewhere and are looking for Cash Tables, it can initially be a tad confusing until you realise that Ring Games means the same.

It also means that there are considerably more options for games if you select the dollar as your currency, rather than the other available currencies in use on the site (GBP, FPP, CAD and EUR).

The sheer wealth of options in the Sit & Go and Tournament sections in particular mean that you will never be short of games to play on the PokerStars app and you can start playing from as little as just a few cents entry, up to the real high roller amounts for the top-level tournaments and tables.

This means that there are always plenty of tables to select from at all different buy in levels.

Once you’ve selected a tournament to enter or a table to join, the poker software client will load up and take you to the table. As you can see from the screenshot below, the table itself is brightly realised and is very easy to follow.

The cards are dealt quickly and the betting is generally quicker on the PokerStars App than on other comparable apps. Why this is, is not clear. It may well be that PokerStars players are more used to playing so bet more quickly, or that the App just processes the bets more quickly.

Selecting your action is straightforward but the standard of play at the tables across the site is generally higher than you would find on other comparable apps, but then again, with 50 million customers, it is always likely to be.

We found that the financial side of the site operated flawlessly during the review process. Our initial deposit was easy to make and showed up in the account immediately, all financial transactions to and from the account in winnings and paying for buy ins were also executed flawlessly and speedily.

PokerStars Mobile – The Positive Points

Without doubt, if you have even the most basic appreciation of poker and are not a total beginner, then PokerStars Mobile App is one you should download onto your device as it has so many positive aspects:

• Hugely popular, easy to locate, download, install and register.

• The sheer wealth of options available mean that you would not need to visit another site if you want to play high stakes, or low stakes games, PokerStars offers it all, across all formats of play.

• The attention to detail of the site is excellent with plenty of information available about the tournaments and games you can register for.

• The sheer popularity of the site means that even tournaments requiring hundreds of players to register, do not take long to fill up.

• There is a vast choice of different games available to select from with particular attention to larger tournaments involving 100 or more players.

• The ability to personalise your table and card options is a big plus for the site.

PokerStars Mobile – The Negative Points

While PokerStars Mobile app is undoubtedly very good, it is not quite perfect, especially if you are looking at the site from a couple of different perspectives:

• The way the site is designed is, initially, not particularly user-friendly and the huge long list of tournaments can be offputting to a novice to the site. There is no ‘beginner friendly’ option or demo which explains the site in more detail to novice players.

• The lack of introductory offer (though PokerStars do sometimes offer them – though whether you get one seems to be down to luck or chance) is a big disappointment. A few extra dollars to play with when you join is always welcome.

• The site is an American site and as such the terms used are more Americanised than on other apps. This can be confusing if you are used to other terms. For example, many novice UK players would not know that a Ring Game is the same as a Cash Table game.

• Perhaps the biggest downside of the site is that the standard of play is so good and the tournaments so large, that it is just very difficult to win on compared to other apps. If you finish in the cash prizes on PokerStars, you’ll certainly have earned it.

• The app could do with being tweaked so that Tournaments that have already started, but which you can still register late for, are displayed more clearly. It is very easy for a novice player to sign up for a tournament thinking they are joining at the start, only to find they are on a table with 1,500 chips against 9 other players each with around 10,000.

PokerStars Mobile – The Conclusion – 9/10

As a Mobile Poker App, PokerStars is without question the best that is available at the moment. It has enough options to cover the needs of all poker players from beginners who want to play for micro stakes, right up to the professional high roller who is only interested in the big money games.

The sheer wealth of games available at any one time means that you spend less time waiting around for tables to fill and more times playing and because the site is so popular, finding a game to suit your buy in level is quick and easy, especially if you can master the filter system.

The playing experience at the tables is quick and the standard is very good, however there is a downside to this in that actually cashing out in a tournament or sit & go event or similar is very tough. For beginner players, I’d advise sticking to smaller stakes Ring Games and Sit & Go games with fewer players to start with.

Overall, while this is a great app, it still isn’t perfect, but it is the best around at present for the UK mobile poker player and it should be a must have download for your mobile device if you are a serious poker fan.

If you are a UK-based online poker player, don’t miss our roundup of the best UK no deposit poker offers.