For a poker site to be considered the best in regards to game variations, it needs to have two things — variety and traffic. And these two characteristics go hand in hand. Having a ton of variety or a ton of traffic doesn’t make a site great. But having both will.
With that being said, picking a site solely based on the idea that they have a large variety of games and traffic isn’t optimal either. You may sign up to that site only to find that they don’t have the games you like or that despite the traffic they get, the games you like to play are dead. So there is much more to choosing a site based on game variation than just variety and traffic. You need to break each of these characteristics down further.
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Poker Game Variety
I feel that for a poker site to stand out, they need to have variety. They need to have more than just a couple of variations to be successful. If they can’t do that, what makes them better than the next site? After all, people like choices.
But more than that, poker sites should have variations that can’t be found anywhere else. There are several good examples of this. PokerStars is one. They have their Double or Nothing (DON) tournaments and Fifty(50). Full Tilt is another. FTP has their Matrix tournaments and rush poker. A site that has different games than their competitors tells you that their trying to think outside the box — come up with ways to improve your experience. All sites have “turbo,” “deep stack” and “bounty” tournaments. But they don’t all have DONs or Rush Poker.
Choosing a Site Based on a Specific Game Variation
You’ll notice when you sign up for a site that one site is better for certain types of game variations that others. Or at the very least, you’ll notice it in poker forums. I’ll use PokerStars and FTP as an example.
If I want to play 18 or 45-man turbo SNGs, where do I go? PokerStars. Why? Well, these games run. And they don’t run as often on FTP. However, if I want to play 90-man SNGs, I go to FTP. Sure, PokerStars has them and at higher stakes, but the ones on FTP run regularly, at least for US players (7am to 11pm PST or so). So while both sites have the variations I want, one site will be better then the other depending on what I’d like to play.
Something worth mentioning too is the differences in similar game variations. The turbo structure on PokerStars is 2 minutes longer than it is on Full Tilt. This is a huge difference. Also, many of PokerStars SNGs also have antes whereas FTP’s don’t (most). So even though they’re the same game, they really aren’t the same game — try them for yourself and you’ll see what I mean. This will make a different as to what may be the best site for you.
Poker Game Traffic
I can summarize this whole section with one phrase — it doesn’t matter how cool or fun a game (site) is if there isn’t traffic. Without traffic, games don’t run, period.
So how much traffic is needed? I think that depends. At the very least, I would think 7k to 10k players at worst during peak hours. 5k or so would be fine in the off hours. Keep in mind that you can never have too many players though, just too few.
Now, just because there is a lot of traffic, that doesn’t mean your favorite game will be running. As I said above, if you want to play 90-man Kos, you don’t go to PokerStars. Yeah, their 90-mans are “ok,” but they’re much, much better at FTP. So it’s much more than a lot of traffic — it’s targeted traffic. To find sites with targeted traffic to your preferred games, you’ll have to do a little bit of research. But that shouldn’t be heard. Just log in to the poker client and see if those games are running. Alternatively, you can check poker forums to see if other players are playing them and where.
Last, another consideration consider in regards to traffic is that a site will small amounts of traffic is said to be software. This is because the majority of better players are grinding on the larger sites with more traffic. This is definitely a plus. That said, a site with a ton of traffic will allow you to table select with ease. And the more players there are, the bigger the fish to non-fish ratio is. So it can go both ways. But it’s something to consider nonetheless.