Party Poker is the original Godfather of online poker sites. Until the passing of the UIGEA in the United States, this poker site was the top dawg as far as popularity went. Now the poker site is everything great in a poker site, without the annoyance of Americans. :)

Party Poker is a part of the PartyGaming network of gambling websites which includes among other things, the poker site, a bingo site, and a casino. Party Gaming was developed in 1997. You might be familiar with a very catchy tune offered by the marketers of Party Poker. Puh-puh-puh partyyy poker!

While the games are not available to U.S. players who want to play with real money, Party Poker does allow free play by American's and players from every other country that is able to access the poker website.

Party Poker Promotions

Poker Party offers a virtual plethora of promotions designed to entice the most savvy of online poker players crumble at the chance to play poker on the boisterous online poker site.

While some of these are geared more towards new players, while others are aimed at veteran players which is a pretty big deal in the online poker world, all to many poker sites ignore their loyal players and only market towards the fresh players.

Party Poker promotions change each month, so hold down that ctrl button, push D, bookmark this site and check back often for new offerings.

Current Party Poker Promotions

• The Gladiator – Win freeroll entries and up to $5,000. Players in this event also have a shot at winning a $10,000 seat in the 2011 World Poker Tour LA Poker Classic.
• The Five Star Poker Challenge – Every day in December you have a chance to win up to $5,000 and qualify for up to half a million bucks in prizes.
• Monthly Million – Each first Sunday you can win up to one million bucks playing in the Monthly Million Event.

There are also promotions for the new players on the website:

• The Welcome Bonus — Brand new players at Party Poker get a welcome bonus of 100% up to 500 dollars for joining. Note that the regular bonus from going directly to the Party Poker site is capped at $100. But if you use our link here or use exclusive party poker bonus code MYBONUS, you get a bonus up to $500.
• New Player Zone - Tables especially for the new beginning poker players. Think of this as a nice safe fish hatchery, shark free.

Plus, there are always other great ongoing promotions and bonus opportunities to keep things interesting. These include freeroll money, tournaments, and special plays for varying amounts of cash winnings. Sign in to the website often to check out the different kinds of bonuses and tournaments offered.

Bonuses - Clearing

Once you make your first deposit at Party Poker and receive your Party Poker bonus money, that money will be placed in your 'pending' poker bonus account. You can look at the free money there, and my oh my is it pretty, but you can't play poker with it. You can't cash it out, you can't trade it. All you can do with pending poker money is... look at it.

If you want pending money to become real money, then you'll have to clear it. To do this, you'll need to play poker at Party Poker. While you play, you'll automatically accrue Party Poker points, as you accumulate the required amount of points for clearing the bonus, it will instantly appear in your player account, where you can access it to play poker, trade, and even cash out as you see fit.

The amount of points required to clear a bonus depends on the original currency you used to make that first deposit. If you used USD you'll need to earn 8x the amount of the bonus in poker points to clear it. If you used EUR or GBP you'll need to earn 10x the amount of the bonus.

VIP Club and perks

If you want to be a Party Poker VIP, you have to join the Palladium Lounge. This is considered the ultimate membership club for gaming professionals. It can be used at the Party Poker site, as well as other listed gaming sites.

Members get unlimited personal concierge treatment, improved rewards, personal services, etc. If you want it and they can get it to you, or find it for you, then it’s yours! They also assign each VIP player their own host to give them individual aid as they need it. The VIP club information is explained in detail on Party Poker’s site.

Active Games

Party Poker is one of the oldest, and therefore most active online poker sites available. You'll never have any trouble finding action at the online poker site. Games offered at Party Poker:

• Texas Holdem
• Omaha
• Omaha Hi-Lo
• 7 Card Stud
• 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo

Party Poker has a stable of poker pros led but none other than Tony G also known as "The Mouth from Down Under'. This very vocal player is certainly giving a nice boost to Party Poker's image.

Weekly GTDs

Party Poker offers 250K in weekly guaranteed tournaments every single Sunday which adds greatly to the more than $10 million in guaranteed events Party Poker hosts every month.

Deposit Methods

Party Poker has been in the online poker industry a long long time, because of that fact, they offer all of the mainstream online poker deposit methods, as well as several of the newer methods not offered by every poker site:

• Visa
• MasterCard
• Bank Wires
• Bank Drafts
• eChecks
• Ewallet eXpress
• UseMyWallet
• MoneyBookers
• PicClub.com

Support

Even for the best of websites, there can be issues or questions by customers. Party Poker handles these concerns with its 24 hour, seven days a week customer service department.

All in all, Party Poker is a gaming site where the average player, as well as the professional player, can have fun playing the great game of poker. Below is a copy of the registration window.

Choose a screen name, enter your email and a password, specify your gender, state that you are over 18.

Enter bonus code MYBONUS before submitting. This guarantees you get a 100% bonus up to $500 instead of the regular bonus capped at $100.

Once you make your deposit, PartyPoker will credit your account with your bonus. If you deposit the optimal amount of $500, your account will be credited with an extra $500 in bonus. The way to monetize this bonus, i.e. to convert it in real cash is by playing at real money online poker tables at party poker. Play online poker and you will progressively release your bonus, that you can then withdraw from your account.