Summary (7.5)

Empire poker is a high traffic site which is networked with Party Poker. Empire offers tons of free-rolls and special promos evey month. Expect random emails letting you know about cash giveaways and free-rolls. Empire also has a $2 Million guaranteed tournament every month! Being the sister site of Party Poker, Empire Poker is able to catch a lot of the loose players who come from Party Poker. It is not easy finding these players and sometimes you’ll end up in a really tight game. The multi-table tournaments on Party Poker which some players enjoy getting into are not available on Empire. The support isn’t the same as Party but the promotions are great for the experienced online poker player. A lot of the games held on empire are done during prime hour meaning more fish in the sea. Sometimes it’s a little backed up on the Hold’em tables but overall the play on this site is Good.

Software & Graphics (7)

The software on this site is very similar and almost identical to Party Poker. With the rapid speed of new comers, this site has increased their bandwidth to accommodate 60000+. However, there were a couple of incidents where players were disconnected from the tournament in which they were playing at the time. Being able to adopt Party’s graphics has given Empire an edge over the competition. Each player on this site is able to compete on four separate tables. It’s too bad that the view flop percentages are not presented or the hands per hour rate. (This has the benefit though, that the looser games are "Not seen by other players"). The personal playing statistics function is due for updating but does the job for now and also the player notes function is included. Overall this site has potential to dethrone its big brother Party Poker but it all depends on if they can keep on top of the bonus offers.

Game Variety (6.5)

The games that this site has available are good. They include Hold’em, Omaha and 7-Card-Stud in both High and Hi-Lo. Empire Poker doesn’t offer certain games such as heads-up matches, draw poker, and crazy pineapple. Also, there’s no pot-limit version in any of the 7-Card-Stud games or the Omaha High games.

Ring & Tournament Traffic (10)

Empire Poker's network (Party Poker) was the world's biggest in ring game traffic already by 2002/03. Lately the traffic has increased, in July 2005 reaching 25000-30000 ring game players at peak hours.

Rake (5)

The rake for Empire is not that great as it’s built for high limit players. The lower limit players won't enjoy the site as much due to the rake. The rake goes as high as 10% in $0.50/$1 and $1/$2 games, and 50 cent is raked when the pot reaches $5. This is also true for the tournaments, where the higher stakes players are favored, 20% fee in $5 games and 8% fee in $100 games.

Soft Competetion (8.5)

The competition is less than fierce on this site. They have advertised well bringing in a lot of beginners and lower quality gamblers. Any player who knows the game well can profit from this site.

Promotions & Bounses (9)

Sign-up bonus at Empire Poker is 20% deposit match bonus up to $100. Play 500 hands (mucked hands included) within 30 days of deposit to get $100. Empire Poker has a new VIP program for the experienced players. Also, there are free rolls and promotions for frequent players based on raked hands. The regular members are given a few types of promotions, based on the raked hands they have played, with free rolls and money added tournaments. They have a great sign up a friend program which pays $50 to the referrer and $25 to the new member.

Support (7)

The support at Empire is very knowledgeable on promotions and other trickier issues. They have 24/7 telephone support with great response times. Also, the live 24/7 floor person support has worked well during our testing. Email has worked OK, even though the response times were a bit long.

Visit EmpirePoker.com