Absolute Poker Review

Absolute Poker Summary

Absolute Poker is one of the serious contenders for best poker site today. With huge promotions and offers, top notch software, and great rewards programs, there’s much to like on offer at Absolute.
The rewards program is one of the best on the market. It functions in somewhat the same way as PokerStars’ system, in that there are status levels, called FAME, which offer you different options and greater rewards as you reach them. At the first level you receive the standard amount of bonus points, and can’t yet use them for anything, but as your level rises, so does your multiplier, as well as granting you the ability to use your credits to buy gas, enter tournaments and special events, and even exchange them for cash. At the maximum level your account balance will even begin accruing interest like a bank account, as long as you maintain the necessary balance and rewards level. The rewards store is stocked with electronics, clothing items, jewellery, gift cards, and much more.

Absolute Poker Bonus

Absolute has a massive 150% deposit bonus match, up to $500, trumping the competition. Even better, the bonus money is released in $5 increments, giving you a constant stream of cash into your account as you play. There’s also a nice reload bonus on offer, giving you an additional 50% up to $400 on subsequent deposits.

Absolute Poker Promotions

Absolute offers a slew of different tournaments and further promotions, with guaranteed tourney’s, entries to the 2009 World Series of Poker, bad beat jackpots, and more. Another nice touch is their 10 million chips hall of fame listing, where players who reach 10 million play money chips in their account get $50 in real money added to their account, and a place in the hall of fame. A nice little incentive to free money players, and one that generally helps keep play money games from being too loose, although they still are in general.

Absolute Poker Banking Options

Absolute has plenty of different credit card and online banking options for players to deposit and withdraw fund via, though many of these are unavailable to U.S players, who are restricted to credit cards, checks, and bank transfers for both deposits and withdrawals. Withdrawals are processed within 48 hours. Players from outside the U.S can use sites like MoneyBookers, Neteller, ClickandBuy, Click2Pay, UKAsh, Giropay, and more.

Absolute Poker Traffic

Absolute is one of the most well trafficked poker sites, with 20,000+ players online during peak hours. The competition is generally fairly stiff, as they are not on an online casino or sports betting network, which often draws casual players to the site. The general rule of lower money games being looser still applies, but there’s some good competition at all levels. Game types include Hold’em, Omaha, Stud, HORSE, HOSE, and Razz. Omaha and Stud have solid traffic, while the other games have a very limited number of players, despite the overall traffic numbers. No limit Hold’em pots range from $0.01/$0.02 to $200/$400.
I like the software design, it has a very simple look, not overly intensive graphically, with good clarity. You also have the option of choosing between three different viewing angles, including overhead and isometric. Poker Tracker and Hold’em Manager can both be used with the software to enhance your playing capabilities.

Absolute Poker Cheating Scandal

Lastly, we have to close by mentioning the betting scandal that rocked the site two years ago. You’ve probably heard the premise before, “geeky hacker commits major felony to ‘prove’ it can be done”. That’s pretty much the hacker’s manifesto in a nutshell. Of course this guy was working from the inside, which is somewhat anathema to the hacking game, but the fact is he did expose a hole in the security system, even if that hole could only have been exploited by someone on the inside.

What he did was take control of an account that had been setup during the beta-testing phase of the software, and used it during live real-money games. The account gave him access to hole card information of his opponents, making him all but unbeatable. He amassed a large sum of money in a short amount of time beating many of the best players on the site, though that money was never withdrawn.

Like the Ultimate Bet scandal that followed, it took other players to uncover the cheating, and in fact Absolute Poker claimed to have conducted an internal investigation and found no evidence of cheating, emphatically stating that it wasn’t possible. This is almost mind-blowing given the evidence which can now freely be viewed on youtube and other sites, showing a recreation of the hand histories of this player. It would be one thing if the player had been smart about it, selectively betting hands to win the biggest pots, but he was blatantly coming into every hand pre-flop like no halfway decent player would, and making the right moves in all of those hands, that no player could possibly make at such a high rate.

More than even the scandal itself, the belligerence and seeming apathy of Absolute Poker in regards to the serious allegations throughout the early days of the scandal left a sour taste in my mouth. Granted I’m sure they get complaints of cheating from disgruntled players so often (and in most cases they’re completely unwarranted), that when a legitimate situation presents itself, it’s difficult to give it its due course, very much like Aesop’s fable of the boy crying wolf.

Regardless, the hacker, who remained unidentified, made his point, and the security hole was closed. While it’s impossible to say whether or not something like this could happen again, I don’t think Absolute Poker is at any greater risk of it happening than any other poker site.
If you can overlook the mistakes of the past, you’ll find a tremendous poker site at Absolute Bet. There are plenty of freerolls for new players to try their luck in, as well as big stakes for the experienced players looking for a challenge.