Absolute Poker

Posted by Lassieham 24/02/09

7.0 / 10

Network: Cereus

Country of origin: Costa Rica

Established: 2003

Accept US Players: Yes

EU Based: No    

The site in general: Merging with UltimateBet in late 2008 to form the new Cereus poker network, Absolute Poker is now one of the largest poker rooms in the world, offering good 24/7 action, loose games and a greatly expanded player base. It allows U.S. players and the software is fast, good looking and playable. It also offers good customization and very good multi-table functions. Absolute Poker also offers a wide range of friendly and rewarding tournaments, alongside exciting and innovative promotions to suit players of all abilities.

Big name pros: Liv Boeree

Bonuses: Absolute’s $500 sign-up bonus is easy to clear, and they often offer re-load bonuses (sometimes up to 6 times a month). Their VIP and loyalty program are among the best of the industry: you can earn Absolute Rewards Points by playing for real money and use those points towards freerolls, VIP rewards or as cash in the Rewards store. Absolute Poker also has a referral program, which rewards both the referring player and the new sign-up with up to $75. Absolute Poker has a solid bonus package overall.

Software: Absolute Poker has always offered decent software, but traditionally lacked those little "extras" that would make it one of the best. With the recent updates and the move to the Cereus network, that's definitely changed. The latest version is sleek, fast and reliable and offers a lot of new features. The graphics are cleaner, and with custom table backgrounds, good customization options and various table views, all players can fit the software to their own taste. Absolute Poker have made sure to keep the same brand image, colour scheme and layout so their loyal players will still be familiar and comfortable with the software.

Tables: The latest version of the Absolute Poker software is very well-suited for multi-table play with new mini-views and automatic tiling and cascading for up to 10 tables. New scroll-wheel betting also helps multi-tabling, and players can pull up in-game statistics without leaving the tables. Absolute Poker's graphics have always been functional, but the recent updates have made them crisper and cleaner. Players can also now upload a picture to use as an avatar and it gives the option of blocking other people's images. The lobby and table functions are easy to learn and well-oriented.

Layout:

Special features: The Absolute Poker software offers the basic features, like a four-color deck and a detachable chat window, plus some nice new features added with the move to Cereus. Those include new table views, downloadable table skins, private tournaments, final-table deal making, rabbit cam, time bank, avatars and more. Players can change the table felt via downloaded alternatives. Absolute Buddy function allows players to track friends and chat with them within the software while playing. Players can upload their own photo for their avatar. Over 100 different tabletops and themes are available, many of which are user-generated. Mouse-free play possible with keyboard shortcuts. Instant Play, a download-free version of the software, is available and is compatible with Macs.

Player traffic: The player traffic of Absolute Poker is substantial, with up to 20,000 players at peak times. Their ring games and tournaments are usually busy, which makes it easy to find games in almost any variant, level and betting structure. If you are looking for action this is a great site - their SNGs can be filled in less than 20 seconds! At the time of writing (feb 2009), there were over 25,000 players online. Most will know that Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet have recently merged onto the same network (CEREUS) and this venture has seen numbers increase daily.

Ease of game: Absolute Poker has always been one of the softest sites to play on. With the move to Cereus, expect competition to get a little bit tougher, but not much. The bulk of the action will stay at the low and medium limits, with games varying from fairly tight to just plain loose. Games in the lower limits can have a viewed-flop percentage reaching 50-60% or more, which translates into action-packed, juicy games for the small-stakes player. In spite of being a large site, there is a high percentage of tight players in Absolute Poker – grinders who put in the hours to cash on Absolute’s attractive and frequent bonuses. But there are still plenty of fish in the sea, and at Absolute Poker they tend to concentrate on the tournaments rather than the cash games.

Game variety: Absolute Poker offers decent game variety with Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo and Razz, plus mixed games H.O.R.S.E. and H.O.S.E. The games range from heads-up to six-handed and 10-handed in No-Limit, Pot-Limit and Limit. The fixed-limit and pot-limit games vary from $500/$1,000 down to 2¢/4¢, although most games are still concentrated in the micro- and medium-limits. No-Limit games vary from $200/$400 down to 1¢/2¢, with the bulk of the action at the low- to medium-stakes.

Tournaments: Absolute Poker hosts a ton of tournaments and most poker players, whatever their preferences, should find something they like. Tournaments have buy-ins ranging from $1 up to $5,000 and are usually pretty full, loose and fast. Play at any level is still a bit looser and juicier than the average site, and even the bigger buy-in tournaments offer relatively loose play. Absolute Poker was already on the map for its weekly $150,000 and $75,000 guaranteed tournaments, with very high turnouts and great value in the loose and fast play. With the move to Cereus, it's now bumped the weekend tournament guarantees to an impressive $500k total. On top of the regular sit-and-go (which have good traffic)  and MTT lineup, Absolute Poker also offers lots of qualifiers to big live events, with plenty of low-buy-in satellites and chances to work your way up to big ticket packages.

Cash games: With the UltimateBet merge and move to Cereus, ring-game traffic at Absolute Poker is essentially double what it was. There is not usually a lot of high-stakes hold`em games running, but the mid- to low-limit games usually have plenty of tables to choose from (mainly six-handed tables: players at Absolute Poker seem to prefer shorthanded play). The number of populated cash games tables for the other offered variants (Omaha, stud, razz and H.O.R.S.E.) are relatively low (especially for razz), and virtually nonexistent in the higher-limits of these games. Absolute Poker now has peak cash-game traffic of 1,800 real-money players at peak hours as of February 2009.

Rake info: The rake at Absolute Poker is on par with standard in the industry. Absolute Poker uses a “no flop, no drop” policy, and the rake is 5% on all types of games (for all limits and number of players) to a maximum of $4 (only at $300/$600 Fixed-Limit with four or more players - otherwise max. is $3).

Rakeback: You are paid 30 % rakeback. All tournaments, SNG and cash game rake is included in the rakecalculation.

Deposit/Withdrawal: Visa, MasterCard, FPS, Click2Pay, ClickandBuy, PaysafeCard, Western Union, ukash, MoneyBookers, U.K. Debit Cards, Neteller, Bank Wire, Bank Draft and Cashier's Checks.

Support: Absolute Poker offers support only via e-mail (24/7 with a response time of 24 hours or less), but the quality and speed are good and support people are friendly and helpful.  

support@absolutepoker.com

Register through SmartGambler and you will in addition to a 100% sign up bonus up to $500 also get a 30 % rakeback and be a member of the site`s VIP program. 

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