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It´s okay, we´ll help you build one!PKR Poker Review - 3D at its best
PKR.comPKR offers online poker players a truly difference gaming experience with 3-D playing.
Software
If you want to run PKR on your computer, be prepared for a processor hungry application. Don't believe me? Look at the required specs: a 1Ghz Pentium processor or better and a graphics card equivalent to avidia GeForce3/ATi Radeon 8500. Whew! And the software comes in at a whopping 929MB.
And running the application is a task as well. Even with my 1.9GHz laptop with 2GB of RAM, starting PKR took a few minutes to load. If you ask me, that's too long to load a poker game. And oddly, PKR requires that you have Internet Explorer 6 or better. Most online poker sites don't care what browser you use. But with PKR, you update your profile and load money via IE.
Fortunately, PKR offers a "low detail" play, which dramatically improves gameplay, especially when playing multiple tables.
Aesthetics
The site's biggest selling point is that it offers world's most "advanced" online poker room, with 3D graphics and fully customizable characters. Welcome to Sims Poker. The look and feel of PKR is much like the popular game, full avatars are playing poker instead of emblems or photos like what online players are used to elsewhere.
And when they say customizable, they mean it. Players can nearly customize everything, from the facial hair of their avatar, clothes, age, weight and even the chip tricks performed at the table. Heck you can even choose to have an Australian or American accent. But not everything is free. Some of the options, like the chip tricks, require PKR points, which are earned with time playing at tables.
Players also have the option to change the angle from gameplay, including point of view, overhead and from different angles on the table. While these are interesting options, they are for the most part disorienting. The "dynamic" view gives players an experience very much like watching a television poker game but I just found it distracting to the game. For most players, the old and boring overhead view, a standard on the vast majority of poker sites, works just fine.
PKR also has an exclusive feature called Emote Control, which allows players to select actions while in a hand. Options include clapping, calling someone a chicken and even standing up after pushing all your chips in the center. Though novel, the feature can get a tad irritating, especially if other players start abusing it and ignoring the game at hand. In keeping with the "real experience," players' whole cards are only shown when first dealt and players must click to view them again, which is viewable to other at a table and a possible tell!
As cool as the 3-D feature is, it's all about the game right? Don't get me wrong, playing poker at PKR is a great and refreshingly new experience but I'm afraid it's not going to meet the expectations of online poker veterans who are used to the fast pace of playing cascades of tables at once.
Because of the heavy graphics, multiple table play is fairly restricted, only up to four tables at a time. But even though restricted, PKR makes the most of it by putting all active tables in a single window and enlarging the table with pending action, while the others are minimized to the right.
While trying to take players to a new level of playing poker online by offering more of a 3-D rendered environment, it actually bogs down the actual gameplay.
Games
Stakes
PKR is a site that restricts U.S. players from real money gaming. In fact, the site doesn't even allow U.S. players from observing real money tables or seeing the list of real money games.
Oddly, the stakes are rather small at PKR. No-limit stakes range from $.01/.02 up to only $5/10 and limit stakes range from $01/.02 to $100/200.
Tournaments
For being a new and small site, PKR offers a decent amount of tournament options (remember, U.S. players are barred from all real money games). Tournaments offered at PKR include satellites, bounty tournaments and big scheduled tournaments like their $100,000 guaranteed monthly, their $30,000 Sunday game and others.
Bonus
PKR offers a 100% bonus up to $800 when you use the PKR bonus code NPF800. One could even say that they offer too many different poker bonuses which makes it difficult to find out which one is better for you. We've listed the details and how to clear the PKR bonus in our bonus section.
Cashier
While U.S. players are not allowed, everyone else is allowed to play at PKR. Deposit options include credit cards, Maestro, iDeal bank transfers, Moneybookers and Entropay.
PKR lets you withdraw through most of the same deposit methods. However, it is always possible, and recommended, to contact PKR support to find out which withdrawal method is the easiest and fastest for your specific location.
Overall
PKR really does offer a truly unique gaming experience. That experience is, at the very least, going to draw attention and will get some players to download the program just to check it out.
While the site does go tad overkill in the customization, it can be a lot of fun and can make for a unique experience.
Beyond that, PKR is probably not going to be for the hardcore, big stack players. The gameplay is just too slow and the option of multiple tables is just too limiting.
PKR Review