Each website has 6 different sections that it is graded on: Free Cash Promotions, Customer Service, Software, Player Population, The Fine Print, and Deposits/Withdrawals.  The 6 sections are graded on a 10-point scale (10 being highest and 1 being lowest), then are averaged together for an overall score.

Full Tilt Poker_______Poker Stars_______Sportsbook Poker_______Players Only_______Ultimate Bet

Full Tilt Poker
Overall Score: 9.4

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FREE CASH PROMOTIONS: 9
*100% deposit bonus on first deposit up to $600
*Refer-A-Friend: Each friend you refer to Full Tilt Poker can earn you up to $100 and your friend $25

CUSTOMER SERVICE: 9
Although they don't offer a customer service phone number, Full Tilt Poker has 15 specialized email addresses for different issues. Any email we've sent has been responded to the same day. Their responses are clear and informative, unlike some other websites who often give vague answers to specific questions.

SOFTWARE: 10
Full Tilt’s software is excellent.  It runs extremely well on almost any speed computer, and it’s never frozen up or booted us from a game.  You’ll find that navigation between tables and different poker games is a breeze. 

PLAYER POPULATION: 10
A diverse player population is another one of Full Tilt’s strong points.  At the lower limit tables you’ll find a good amount of inexperienced players.  This can be good and bad.  An inexperienced player’s erratic play can be confusing at times, but they can also be suckered by good strategy.  At the higher stakes tables more experienced players can be found, even the bona fide pros on “Team Full Tilt” (although we’ve never had the pleasure of playing with them).  Full Tilt takes pride in their huge team that includes some of the best poker players in the world such as Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, and Jennifer Harman among others.

THE FINE PRINT: 9
To receive your bonus at Full Tilt, you need to earn “Full Tilt Points”.  For each dollar raked from a pot, every player who was dealt cards for that hand will earn one point. You can earn partial points if less than one dollar is raked, and you can earn up to three points per hand. Each point is worth $.06, so you can earn up to $18 per hundred hands.
For every dollar paid in tournament fees, you will receive 7 Full Tilt Points. There is no cap on the number of points you can receive.
The bonus amount will be automatically credited to your Bonus Account where it will be held and released to your cash account in increments of 10% of your initial deposit, or $20, whichever you earn first. So if you do a one-time deposit of $100, each $10 (10%) earned will be instantly released into your account. Deposit the full $600 and your account will get credited for each $20 of bonus earned. At three points per hand, each $20 increment can be earned in fewer than two hours of play at only one table.
We’ve found that it takes a few hours of table play to receive the bonuses.  If you’re the kind of player that can play at multiple tables at the same time, you can earn points even faster.

DEPOSITS/WITHDRAWALS: 9.5
We suggest making your first deposit by Visa or MasterCard.  It’s by far the easiest and quickest deposit method with any online gambling website.  But remember, you won’t be able to withdrawal to these credit/debit cards due to the legislation that was passed last year.  If you have between $150 and $5,000 in your account you can request to make a withdrawal by check, but otherwise you’ll need to sign up for ePassporte.  ePassporte provides an easy and safe way to use your existing credit card or bank account to put money into a “Virtual Visa”.  You can use this to pay a variety of online merchants (including most popular gambling websites) and even request a physical card for use at brick-and-mortar merchants.  When you deposit money into the ePassporte account, they charge a fee based on this table:

This translates to the following: If you deposit using your credit/debit card, you’ll get charged $5 for every portion of $100 that is deposited into the ePassporte account, even if the deposit is less than $100.  For example, you’ll be charged $5 if you deposit anywhere from $10 to $100, and charged $10 if you deposit anywhere from $101 to $200, etc.

We suggest using a US Checking account to fund ePassporte if you’re able to do so.  You’ll only be charged $5 per $100 load or portion thereof for the initial deposit (same as Visa credit/debit card), then $2 per deposit afterward regardless of the amount.  This will save you a lot of money in the long run.

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PokerStars.com
Overall Score: 9.25

FREE CASH PROMOTIONS: 9
*100% deposit bonus on first deposit up to $50
*Occasional “reload bonuses” for existing players

CUSTOMER SERVICE: 9
Poker Stars has one customer service email address and no telephone support.  You’d think that this would be a problem, but we were surprised at the quality of responses we got to our email questions.  They usually give specific answers to your questions instead of sending a generic, pre-written response.    

SOFTWARE: 9
For the most part the software is excellent.  The only problem we’ve had is that we were booted a few times from tables when playing on a very weak wireless signal.  This is probably more the fault of the wireless modem, not Poker Stars. If you do get booted Poker Stars will pretend that you are “all-in” and create a side pot for you.  If you end up winning the hand, you’ll still receive your portion of the winnings.  A few of the high stakes tables don’t have the “all-in” protection, but you’ll get a pop-up message telling you this before you deposit.  This is a great security features that software clients of many other gambling sites don’t have. 

PLAYER POPULATION: 10
Just like Full Tilt Poker, you’ll find a diverse player population.  As with most poker websites, the advanced players tend to play on the high or no limit tables. 

THE FINE PRINT: 10
To receive your bonuses, you’ll need to earn Frequent Player Points (FPPs).  You can earn FPPs for both cash play and tournament play:
1. Earn FPP credits for cash game play
First Frequent Player Point (FPP) is awarded for playing a hand in which the rake reaches:

1. $0.40 for fixed limit poker games with stakes $1/$2 and lower
2. $0.40 for NL/PL poker games with blinds $1/$2 and lower
3. $1.00 for all other games

Second FPP is awarded for playing a hand in which the rake reaches:

1. $2.00 for all 6-max tables (this doesn't apply for games being played 6- handed at 10/9/8 player tables - just 6-max tables)
2. $3.00 for all other tables

Third FPP is awarded for playing a hand in which the rake reaches $5.00.

2. Earn FPP credits for tournament play

1. Five (5) FPP credits are awarded for each $1 in tournament fees paid.

For example, playing in a poker tournament with $20 buy-in and $2 tournament fee, each player will be awarded 10 FPP credits. Note that partial Frequent Player Points are always rounded to the nearest whole number.

We’ve found that receiving bonuses on PokerStars.com is easier than any other gambling site out there.  This could be why they cap the maximum first time deposit bonus at $50.

DEPOSITS/WITHDRAWALS: 8.5
If you want to cash out more than $50 and time is NOT of the essence (it can take up to 15 days to receive your check), you can withdraw by check.  Withdrawing by check is an easy method where you won’t be charged any additional fees, so if you meet the above criteria we suggest taking advantage of it.

Although Poker Stars accepts deposits using a Visa or MasterCard, we suggest using ePassporte for your first deposit instead. This is because ePassporte is the best withdrawal method available to US customers, and you need to make at least one purchase with ePassporte to be able to cash out to it!  Check out the fee table for using ePassporte above in the Full Tilt Poker review.  There’s one big pro and one big con about cashing out with ePassporte on Poker Stars:
PRO: Minimum deposit is only $10 (lowest we’ve come across)
CON: You can only withdraw an amount that is ABOVE the amount that you made with any other deposit method.

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Sportsbook.com Poker
Overall Score: 9

FREE CASH PROMOTIONS: 9
*100% first deposit bonus up to $650
*Occasional “reload” bonuses for members
*21% refer a friend bonus

CUSTOMER SERVICE: 10
Sportsbook.com has one of the best customer service departments we’ve experienced in the online gambling industry.   You can email them, live chat online until 9pm est, or call for support 24 hours a day.  We’ve always spoken to people that can actually speak and understand English well when we’ve called (not common anymore because of the enormous amount of outsourcing).  They also have a customer service email address dedicated only to their poker players.

SOFTWARE: 9.5
We really like Sportsbook’s poker software.  It’s easy to use, usually very quick, and we think it’s pretty cool how the player images look so realistic (you gotta see the female dealers, wow).

PLAYER POPULATION: 9
Very diverse player population with Sportsbook Poker.  As with almost all poker rooms, you’ll find the more advanced players playing at the high or no limit tables.

THE FINE PRINT: 9
To receive your pending bonus money, you’ll need to earn Frequent Player Points (FPPs) by playing in real money games.  Each FPP that you earn is worth $0.06 towards your bonus. Once you’ve earned $10 worth of bonus money, the funds are removed from your Pending Bonus account and added to your Sportsbook.com regular balance.  Here’s how you earn FPPs:

Real Money Ring Games:

For each dollar that is raked at a table where you are dealt cards, you will earn one Frequent Player Point (FPP). They’re accurate to the penny, so if your table was raked $1.25, you will receive 1.25 FPP or if your table was raked $3.00, you will receive 3 FPP. Each FPP is worth $.06 towards your bonus.

Real Money Tournaments:

For each dollar worth of tournament fees you pay, you’ll earn 7 Frequent Player Points (FPP) for them once you’re done in the tournament. Just like Real Money Games, we are accurate to the penny, so for a $0.50 tournament fee, you will receive 3.5 FPP.

DEPOSITS/WITHDRAWALS: 8
Deposits and withdraws are fairly simple to do.  You can deposit a minimum of $20 using either a Visa or MasterCard.  The industry standard for minimum deposits is somewhere around $50, so this lower limit may be attractive for some.  The only withdrawal method that Sportsbook accepts is by check.  The minimum withdrawal is $50 (remember this if you’re planning on depositing less than $50) and is sent out using courier service, which can take 2-3 weeks to be delivered.  Withdrawals of more than $1000 will be sent by priority mail, taking much less time to receive than the standard courier service.  Having to wait for your withdrawal may be an inconvenience for some, but only accepting withdrawal by check makes the process much simpler than it is on many other sites.  One strange rule Sportsbook.com has is that only your first withdrawal request made each month after June 17, 2007 will be free.  Subsequent requests in the same calendar month will be charged $40.00 each.

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PlayersOnly.com
Overall Score: 8.6

FREE CASH PROMOTIONS: 9
*100% first time deposit bonus up to $650
*10% reload bonus for returning customers

CUSTOMER SERVICE: 9
Customer service on Players Only has been great in our experience.  They offer support by email, live chat, and phone at almost any hour of the day.  The only problem we’ve seen is that the live chat is often down for maintenance.

SOFTWARE: 8.5
Although Players Only generally specializes in sports betting, their poker software is impressive as well.  Very simple to use and intuitive.

PLAYER POPULATION: 8
The name “Players Only” is somewhat appropriate for the site.  There appears to be more experienced players here, maybe because the site isn’t yet as popular for poker players as “the big boys” like Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars.  We have, of course, come across a number of inexperienced players as one will on any online poker room.

THE FINE PRINT: 9
Receiving your pending bonus is done by earning Frequent Player Points (FPPs). When you play for real money you’ll earn Frequent Player FPPs. Each FPP that you earn is worth $0.06 towards your bonus. Once you’ve earned $10 worth of bonus money, the funds are removed from your Pending Bonus account and added to your real money account balance.  Here’s how FPPs are earned:

Real Money Ring Games:

For each dollar that is raked at a table where you are dealt cards, you will earn one Frequent Player Point (FPP). They’re accurate to the penny, so if your table was raked $1.25, you will receive 1.25 FPPs. Each FPP is worth $.06 towards your bonus.

Real Money Tournaments:

For each dollar worth of tournament fees you pay, you’ll earn 7 FPPs for them once you’re done in the tournament. Just like Real Money Games, they’re accurate to the penny, so for a $0.50 tournament fee, you will receive 3.5 FPPs.

DEPOSITS/WITHDRAWALS: 8
Deposits and withdrawals on PlayersOnly.com are exactly the same as they are on Sportsbook.com (same parent company owns the two websites).  Click here to read the excerpt from the Sportsbook.com poker review on this topic.

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UltimateBet.com
Overall Score:

FREE CASH PROMOTIONS: 10
*111% First time deposit bonus up to $1100
*Occasional “reload” bonuses – currently 25% deposit bonus up to $250 for members
*Refer-A-Friend Program: Friend gets additional 50% first deposit bonus up to $50, you get double their bonus amount
*Refer 11 friends and get $1100 bonus dollars

CUSTOMER SERVICE: 7
UltimateBet.com only has one customer service email, but since they only specialize in poker and blackjack this isn’t a huge problem.  They claim that they answer all emails within 48 hours, but in our experience it has taken longer than 2 days to receive a response.  We’d prefer a telephone contact number for more urgent questions.

SOFTWARE: 8
Ultimate Bet’s software is very simple and easy to use.  This however, is also its weak point.  There’s no player avatars at tables, simply the name and chip count of everyone at the table.  If you’re into the visual stuff in online poker, you probably won’t enjoy their software.  One thing we really like about their software is the “mini view” option at tables.  Using this view shrinks the window so that you only see the players, their chip count, and the pot.  This is an excellent feature for those who like to play at multiple tables at once.

PLAYER POPULATION: 9
No noticeable difference is player population here than most other poker websites.  The more advanced tend to play at the high limit tables, and the novice play more at the low limit tables.

THE FINE PRINT
You receive portions of your pending bonus by earning UltimatePoints™.    

DEPOSITS/WITHDRAWALS: 9.5
UltimateBet.com offers 12 different deposit methods, which can be found here [http://www.ultimatebet.com/banking/deposit], but for USA players we suggest Visa or MasterCard.  Minimum deposit for credit cards is $50.  ePassporte is probably the next best way to deposit, which also happens to be their best withdrawal method.  Please see the “DEPOSITS/WITHDRAWALS” section of the Full Tilt Poker review to understand how the fees associated with ePassporte works.  You can withdraw by check as well, but it’ll cost you $8 via regular mail or $25 via FedEx.

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