Party Poker's little sister. Recently bought and revamped by PartyGaming (who run Party Poker), Empire Poker is in fact exactly the same as Party Poker but with different, and in my opinion, better graphics. Up until PartyGaming recently stopped accepting US players Party Poker was the biggest online poker site. After a sharp drop in numbers and the cancellation of some of their biggest promotions, they have steadily been gaining strength and are well on their way to becoming the number one poker site again. They have all their biggest tournaments at Euro friendly times which is surely drawing in a lot of new European players.

The software is stable and easy to find your way around, although it doesn't show made hands or show cards at a showdown when a player has gone all-in until after all the cards have been dealt. You can play Blackjack at your poker table which can keep you interested while having a dry run of cards and helps you avoid making bad decisions simply because you are bored.

Tournaments. Empire Poker has a full tournament program with big daily tournaments, plenty of guaranteed tourneys and the Euro friendly 300k Sunday MTT (5.45pm GMT) with satellites running all week from $3. For the beginners Empire Poker will give a full month access to their Rookie freerolls and a weekly 1K freeroll when you make your first real money deposit. With over $50,000 a month in country freerolls, the freerolls program Empire Poker is bigger and better than ever. You'll find exclusive $250 freerolls for players from specific regions running all week, with tourneys in Limit and No Limit Texas Holdem offered to UK, Canadian, German, Nordic, Oceanic, Alpine, Russian, Dutch & the Americas (not USA) players, Party is truely becoming the European players best choice for a poker room.

The Sit and Go's at Empire Poker have a good amount of traffic, with the additional benefit of Sit n Go Steps tournaments where you work your way up through 6 levels of Sit and Go's for a grand prize of up to $2000 from an initial buy-in of just $3.

Play in the daily satellites for the Monthly Million which is to be held on the 1st Sunday in the month at 5.45pm UK (12.45pm New York). Satellites are running now from as little as $1, don’t miss this monthly treat.

Now for the busy poker player there are Hellkat timebased Sit n Go tournaments, choose the length of tourney you want to play from 5mins to 30 mins with low buy ins from $3 to $11 and start playing! After the final hand, and the tournament will not stop mid hand, the top three will share the prize pool in proportion to chips held.

The World Series of Poker’s next stop is the WPT Festa al Lago at the luxurious Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, USA this coming 15th to 20th October. The prize packages are worth a very generous $14,000. The satellites are running now leading to Sunday Qualifiers where you can buy in direct for $750, this is where the prize packages are awarded. Last chance to win a WPT Festa al Lago prize package is on 3rd October 2010.

Win your place at the weekly $300K Guaranteed Sunday Tournament in the 50 Seat Frenzy when there are 50 seats to play for every Saturday at 6.35pm GMT (1.35pm ET). With three ways to get into the 50 Seat Frenzy Tournament, the choice is yours. 1. Buy in direct for $15. 2. Play in one of Party Poker's Country Specific Freerolls where the top 10 claim a seat. 3. Play in one of two $2 qualifiers, one on Friday at 8.25pm GMT (3.25pm ET) and one on Saturday Morning at 3.55pm GMT (10.55am ET).

Cash Games. As you would expect from such a large site, there are plenty of Texas Holdem tables to choose from at Empire, with both the Bad Beat Jackpot and normal tables always receiving high traffic. Unfortunately the other game variations, such as Stud and Omaha can be disappointing, with quite low traffic even in peak hours.

Promotions. One of Empire Poker's biggest draws is the Bad Beat Jackpot. Get beaten with quads 8's or higher and you'll receive a share of their unrivalled Bad Beat Jackpot. I've seen this get as high as $664,000 which is phenomenally high considering you are eligible for the jackpot with blind levels as low as 10c/25c and everyone active at the table receives a share of the jackpot as long as they were dealt in. Just pick a jackpot table when selecting your game and you're in with a chance.

PartyGaming are the kings of promotions and are introducing new promotions all the time. They also regularly offer reload bonuses which can be tracked easily through your Empire Poker account.

Competition. Varies although overall Empire Poker has some very soft competition. However, it can be difficult to choose your game wisely as the cash lobby doesn't display the 'player per flop percentage'.

Empire Poker Bonus Code details. Directory of Online Poker can give you a choice of 3 bonus offers. You will need to choose the bonus that best suits you and then use our special bonus codes when you download the Empire software and deposit for the first time. Remember to check out the Rookie Freerolls (available to all new depositors for a full month) and the weekly 1.5k freeroll exclusively for new depositors.

30% up to $150 - use Empire Poker bonus code: 30EMPIRE.
Claim your bonus a 30% deposit bonus when you make a minimum deposit of $25 and use the Empire Poker bonus code 30EMPIRE. You'll receive a 30% bonus up to $150 which you can redeem / use at Empire Poker.

Deposit $50 and receive a $25 bonus - use Empire Poker bonus code: 50EMPIRE.
Claim $25 free when you sign-up for the first time and deposit $50 using the Empire Poker bonus code 50EMPIRE.

120% up to $200 - use Empire Poker bonus code: 120EMPIRE This is a mixed bonus, first you'll receive a 20% bonus up to $100 which you can redeem / use at Empire Poker. Once you've played through your bonus requirements you'll receive a fantastic 100% of your inital deposit up to $100 to spend at Empire Casino. Minimum deposit $25.

Refer a Friend. $50 for you, $25 for your friend.