Absolute Poker Review

Quick Stats
Open Since	2002
Player Traffic	25,000 +
US Players Allowed?	YES
Max. Tables	6
Bonus	150% up to $500
Minimum Deposit	$20 to $50
Network	CEREUS Network
Rating Summary
Software Quality	8 / 10
Player Traffic & Skill	4 / 10
Tournaments	4 / 10
Bonus and Promotion	5 / 10
Security & Support	0 / 10
Overall Rating	42%

Absolute Poker Overview

Absolute Poker is one of the premier poker sites today. I have spent lots of time playing at Absolute over the past few years and count it among my favorites. There is a good amount of player traffic at all times and it is open to players from the USA. There have been some security concerns at Absolute Poker over the past year (see the Deposit Options, Financial Security & Support section below), I am convinced that it is now one of the most secure, trustworthy poker sites on the net. Absolute offer a great sign up bonus and regularly has other great promotions for new and existing players alike.

Software Quality

Absolute Poker’s software is definitely one of its strengths. Absolute built a unique poker software platform when it entered the market in 2002 and the people behind Absolute have continued to improve it from year to year. They have both a download and a no download version of their software so Absolute Poker is compatible with all operating systems, including Macintosh and Linux.

In my opinion, the introduction of their oval tables (see pic above) in addition to the traditional racetrack tables greatly improved Absolute Poker’s aesthetic quality. I have never liked their original table design. I always felt it was way too cluttered and confusing. The new oval tables completely fixes that problem for me.

I have never had a problem with connectivity to the Absolute network, or any lag while playing. Absolute Poker has resizeable tables and the graphics are razor sharp at any size. Absolute has the best resizeable tables of any room.

Absolute has revamped their entire software look recently and I am really digging the slick interface and graphics. Within the last year, Absolute’s software has gone from a 7/10 to a 9.5/10 for me. I cannot name a poker site that has better software than Absolute Poker. I am thoroughly impressed with the improvements that they have made to their software recently.

Player Numbers and Skill Level

Absolute has pretty good player traffic, but the player you are playing against may be able to see your hole cards. Play somewhere else.

Absolute Poker ring games are not the easiest on the net, but there is enough player traffic on Absolute to find one at almost any limit at almost any time of day. Upwards of 25,000 players can be found playing on Absolute at peak times.

I would say that the average player toughness is about average to slightly harder that average.

Tournaments

You can generally find more than 10,000 players playing tournaments online at Absolute Poker during peak times.

Absolute regularly runs large premier events, including a weekly $150,000 and $60,000 guarantee on Sundays. There are many other guaranteed prize pool tournaments throughout the week. Absolute also runs tons of freerolls, sit and gos and you can even host private tournaments for your friends.

Bonus and Promotions

They offer a very solid 150% up to $500 sign up bonus, and they regularly offer reload bonuses. You should expect 6 or 7 redeposit bonus offers a month from Absolute.

The bonuses are pretty easy to clear, and they release them in $10 increments so you don’t have to wait forever for your big bonus to be released. All bonuses at Absolute are also “stackable” meaning that you can have more than one that you are working on at a time.

The bonuses do expire, but you are given a generous amount of time to work them all off. You will also receive multiple reminders before your bonus expires. With the amount of reload bonuses that Absolute Poker offers, you should almost never have to play without working on bonus money.

Deposit Options, Financial Security & Support

The cheating scandal is still going on.  Try Bodog if you want a secure poker site to play on.

This is the big hang up of mine about Absolute Poker. Absolute was involved in a cheating scandal in October of 2007 that involved one of the developer “super user” accounts that could see everyone’s hole cards. A rogue employee cheated players out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and was caught by his opponents.