Online Poker » Site Comparisons » PokerStars vs Absolute

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Deposit Bonus

PokerStars: 100% up to $600 on first three deposits. The subsequent two deposits must be made within 90 days of the first, but the bonuses do not expire for six months. You must wager 17 X the bonus amount in order to clear you bonus in full; however, this bonus is released in $10 installments.

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Absolute Poker: New players at Absolute Poker will receive a 150% deposit up to $500 on all first-time deposits with bonus code AP500. At entry level, you will receive $1 of your bonus for every 20 points you generate playing real money cash games and tournaments at Absolute. Therefore, your first $5 will be credited to you when you clear 100 points, and you’ll have 60 days to clear the bonus.

Verdict: The PokerStars sign up bonus is better for players who plan on depositing frequently within their first three months of registration. This bonus is also good for players who tend to take longer to clear a bonus; whereas, Absolute gives it to you all up front with a lower deposit-to-bonus ratio at 150%, but with a significantly shorter expiration date.

Promotions

PokerStars: PokerStars promotions are fast and frequent, covering a wide variety of events from standard guaranteed tournaments, big-money satellite feeders, and freerolls, as well as revolving events such as leaderboard challenges, special events that offer television spots and other crazy prize packages.

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Absolute Poker: Absolute Poker gets every player involved with leaderboard challenges that payout out from a $1 million prize pool. They also have a bad beat jackpot, online blackjack points race, Million Chip Hall of Fame, reload bonuses, and more.

Verdict: There are a lot of promotional offers at both of these poker clubs; however, PokerStars is flooded with players, so you may have a better chance at winning a promotion at Absolute.

Software

PokerStars: The PokerStars software has adapted many times over the years to accommodate the changing needs of online poker and its players and continues to do so regularly. This software is multi-lingual, graphically enhanced, user-friendly, and Mac-compatible with the capability to support up to 24 multi-tables for one player simultaneously.

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Absolute Poker: Absolute Poker’s software is regularly updated when new features and gaming options become available. With unique features like the rabbit cam, instant hand replay, the time bank, and customizable avatars, and other player functions make this poker software a state-of-the-art application. With crisp graphics, a user-friendly interface, and 14-table multi-tabling capabilities, this is an above average online poker room. No-download flash software is available for Mac poker play.

Verdict: Absolute Poker’s software is exceptional, but PokerStars is also. Both have different things to offer, depending on your individual preferences.

Tournaments

PokerStars: PokerStars hosts tons of guaranteed tournaments including a huge Sunday schedule that features the $1.5 Million Guaranteed, the $750K Sunday Warm-Up, and the $250K Sunday Second Chance, all with a buy-in cost of $215 and tons of weekly satellites feeding into all of these events. There are also specialty tournaments available at PokerStars such as Deep Stacks and 2 X Turbo, among others.

Absolute Poker: Absolute offers a comprehensive tournament line up that consists of daily and weekly big-money guaranteed tourneys. In fact, each weekend, Absolute gives away more than $250K in guaranteed cash prizes. In addition, private tournaments can be organized, and there are many other exciting tournament formats available as well.

Verdict: PokerStars will obviously have significantly more tournaments than Absolute to accommodate their massive player base, but if you enjoy a large poker room more so than a super poker room, Absolute is capable of keeping their tournament traffic busy and active.

Games

PokerStars: Texas Hold ‘em, Omaha and Omaha HiLo, Stud and Stud HiLo, 5 Card Draw, Badugi, 2-7 Single and Triple Draw, Razz, 8-game mixed, HORSE, and HOSE.

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Absolute Poker: Absolute Poker has a good bit of games available including all the standards (Texas Hold ‘em, Omaha, Omaha Hi and HiLo, 7 Card Stud and HiLo), but they also offer Razz and HORSE.

Verdict: PokerStars has more options in terms of mixed games and a better chance of finding a table in the less popular games.

Points

PokerStars: At PokerStars, you’ll get up to 3 points for cash games that collect rake and 5 points per $1 in tournament fees paid. They offer a six-tiered VIP Club with elevated benefits for more frequent players such as point multipliers, exclusive tourney entries, and more.

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Absolute Poker: Absolute’s FAME loyalty program awards points and deposit bonuses for frequent players who work their way up the status ladder. It is very easy to excel in this program and it turns out to be very lucrative and exciting. Points are awarded depending on your position in the program.

Verdict: These two loyalty systems are actually pretty equal in terms of structure and benefits.

Traffic

PokerStars: ±145,000 simultaneous players

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Absolute Poker: ±20,000

Verdict: Absolute is great because it gives you the feel of a big poker room, but it’s not so big that you get lost among 100,000 other players.

Rake

PokerStars: max $3 per hand; dealt

Absolute: max $3 per hand; contributed

Verdict: Your personal rake preferences will determine this one.

Rakeback

PokerStars: None.

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Absolute Poker: 30% best offer

Verdict: If you want rakeback, Absolute Poker is your only option here.

Deposit Options

PokerStars: All major credit cards, NETeller, ClickandBuy, moneybookers, Paysafecard, WebMoney, EC ELV, Online Bank Transfer, Local Bank Transfer, and Instant e-checks.

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Absolute Poker: Credit cards, Delta, Solo, NETeller, ClickandBuy, moneybookers, Fast bank transfer, paysafecard, giropay, postepay, Poli, postepay, iDeal, CartaSi, and many others.

Verdict: Both offer a wide variety of options; however, Absolute has more region-specific methods. PokerStars does offer e-checks, though, which is great for US players.

Support

PokerStars: Email only with on-site FAQ sections.

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Absolute Poker: Email and on-site help section.

Verdict: comparable