As compared to other poker rooms, Paradise's deposit bonus is mediocre. The bonus clears $10 at a time and it is moderately easy to clear. 100 raked hands are needed to clear each $10 chunk.
Software (6)
Paradise Poker's software, while above average, has its pros and cons. Pros include personal statistics, player notes, custom avatars and a fairly simple user interface. Cons include buggy waiting lists, removal from all waiting lists once you accept a seat from a table, hand histories are not stored on your harddrive (you have to request them 100 hands at a time) and too many notification popups. Lobby displays average pot size, average players/flop percentage and number of hands per hour. Graphics are average with nothing of special note (which is a good thing in my book). You can play a maximum of 4 tables at once.
Traffic (7)
Paradise Poker site traffic ranges from 15,000 to 22,000 during peak hours.
Ring Games (7)
Paradise Poker's limit games range from $.02/$.04 to $40/$80 and no limit games range from a $2 buyin to a $500 buyin. Preflop percentages range from high teens to low 40's with the best time of day to play being evening hours of eastern standard time. Play tends to be a bit tighter than most, but you can still find berry patches if you pay attention to the pot sizes and preflop percentages in the lobby.
Tournaments (8)
Paradise Poker hosts about 50 multi-table tournaments per day ranging from freerolls to $300 buyin. Sit-n-Go's are offered around the clock ranging from $5+$1 to $300+$25 and are offered in 5, 8 and 10 player tables. Payout percentages for SnG's are 50/30/20 for the 8 and 10 player tables and 70/30 for the 5 player tables.
Variety (9)
Game variety at Paradise Poker is quite good. They host Texas Hold 'em, Omaha hi/lo, Omaha, 7 card stud, 7 card stud hi/lo, 5 card stud, 5 card draw and Crazy Pineapple. Most of the traffic is dedicated to Hold 'em.
My overall experience at Paradise Poker has been quite good. There are a couple of things I don't like about their software (their waiting list function, hand histories not being stored on my hard drive and the stinking confirmation popups for EVERYTHING), but that is outweighed by the positives (ease of use, stats and player notes). Player traffic is looking up with all of the advertising Paradise has been doing. Paradise Poker has also partnered with SportingBet.com. This partnership makes it EXTREMELY easy for you to transfer some of your poker funds to a sporting book to place some bets on sporting events.
