Poker Ghetto

PKR – not just a pretty face

It would be hard to disagree that PKR is the godfather of 3D poker. Their privately developed software is second to none in creating a real-time, online ‘I could actually be in the casino’, poker experience. Avatars can be customised down to the most intricate detail and given emotions via ‘Emote Control’ technology – all designed to bring banter back to the rail and re-introduce the physical ‘tell’ to the online game. OK, so that can get seriously annoying sometimes, the huge range of ‘emote’ options available means the game can become more about the banter than the cards. You can often find yourself on tilt when the guy who hasn’t shut up for the last 6 hands has snake-charmed his chips and called you a ‘loser’ in an Aussie accent for the 5th time in a row. But then, that’s kind of the point isn’t it?

PKR players

Further to the annoying Aussie above, you do get a lot of new and inexperienced players on PKR. The software makes it more approachable and seemingly less serious to newbies than what might be perceived as hardcore poker rooms. That means a lot of fish. Even the slightly more experienced players can get carried away with the graphics and banter and take their eye off their cards. For the experienced player with good self control, there’s a good deal of money to be made at PKR tables.

Games and tournaments

PKR offers Hold ‘em, Omaha, Omaha eight-or-better and Omaha Hi/Lo Split – the most popular variations of poker. These are offered in a mixture of fixed, no limit and pot limit betting structures. There are some decent big money guarantees including The Masters $100,000 played on the last Saturday of every month, The Sunday $30,000 guaranteed, The Sunday Open $20,000 guaranteed every Sunday at 6pm GMT and more.

There are a fair range of multi-table and single-table tournaments going on but traffic can be a bit low off-peak. The traffic flow has been increasing pretty quickly however and you don’t have to wait long at all to catch a ring-game.

PKR Bonus

PKR offer a pretty damn good bonus. They will match 100% up to the value of $800 – whatever you want to put in as your first deposit. You’ll also get 6 free tickets to their Premium Freerolls as well as a ticket to the weekly £1000 Premium Freeroll. What’s more, they’ll give you 1,500 PKR Points which can ultimately be exchange for merchandise or buy-ins for big-money Premium Freerolls. The Club PKR rewards scheme is player-friendly too – the points are quite easy to accumulate and the levels in the loyalty ladder fairly easy to climb. What’s different with the PKR loyalty scheme from many others is that once you achieve a membership level, that’s yours for life. You can cash in points or stop playing for a while and still maintain your Club level so you’re ‘always up, never down’ in the words of PKR.

Mainstream Mojo

In short, PKR is about re-creating bricks and mortar casino environment online – that’s why you’d play there. If you want unadulterated, multi-table, no nonsense poker, you’ll probably find PKR and their clientele annoying. But for all the frivolous, and very loose, game play there is a killing to be made – and it’s quite hard not to press the ‘loser’ emoticon in the face of said annoying Aussie when that happens!

Visit PKR to join the video carnage now.