The thing I like best about Pacific Poker is the very crisp and clean table view. No stupid avatars like the nonsense on Full Tilt Poker, no goofy player characters ala Party and Empire Poker [review]. (Yes, I know you can turn those things off.) The Pacific Poker table view is just a standard 10 player table, empty chairs, and a deck of cards with unique graphics that I find appealing. A player notes feature has been added recently as well as a hand playback feature. Finally, there is no annoying chat window unless you want it, but be careful of the chat window as there is reported a problem that if you're typing when the action is on you, when the hot key are live, the keystroke you intend for chat could be interpreted as a hot key. My advise is to lay off the chat when you are in a hand.

Playability is pretty standard. You are given the standard set of "sit out", "auto muck hands", and "auto post blinds/ante" buttons. (Why is it that there are so many players who won't check the "auto post"?) The "auto muck" button works as expected, unlike Gaming Club Poker [review] which, even though you've checked "auto muck", still asks if you want to show or muck uncalled hands. You also get the standard set of play-ahead buttons, which are too close to where the live play buttons will appear for my comfort. Raise your hand if you've experienced the thrill of playing on a sluggish server and just as you go to click the play-ahead "check" button someone if front bets and your "check" click turns into a "call" with a gutshot straight draw? Pacific Poker has the same drawback that almost all site have, it only updates the pot size when the betting round is over. That means I have to pay attention and count the bets and do math to figure the pot size during the betting round. Call me lazy, but Gaming Club Poker [review], for one, updates the pot size during the betting round.

Table limits range from $0.05/$0.10 to $20/$40 with many choices in between. With a couple thousand players online, finding a Texas Hold 'Em game is easy. The other games are not as popular here so finding the right table may be a chore.

Single table tournament buy-ins starts at $2.50+$0.25 and goes up to $200+$15 with a few heads up tables thrown into the mix. Multi-table tournament buy-ins starts at $2.50+$0.25 and go up to $100+$9.

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