Father Ashley presents his painstaking Absolute Poker review

It's taken Father Ashley over two months to complete this in-depth playtest of a new site.

As you'll know if you've been with us for a while, we take every precaution before we even dream of giving a poker site our seal of approval.

After all, it's your hard-earned bankroll that's on the line if we get it wrong!

Absolute Poker review: first impressions

The site is clean and well-designed, as you'd expect in such a competitive market.

It's USA-friendly, which means there's plenty of traffic from disgruntled former players who were booted from their previous sites.

It's still not the busiest, with around 18,000 players on a Friday night and more at weekends, but you'll rarely if ever struggle for an opponent.

During my review period, I played mostly no limit cash games. Action is brisk up to $2-4NL at most times of the day. Peak times, you can find games as high as $3-6 and $5-10NL.

Limit players will find tables open as high as $25-50 in peak times.

Sit and Gos are very busy, with regular games up to $500 + $20 spread. Most of the action is at $200 + $15 or below. Rich enough for most people's blood.

MTTs are rich, varied and fun, as are the promotions the site offers. The Absolute Poker action point store carries a fine selection, especially if you make VIP.

200,000 points may be cashed in for $3,000 if you're the top level VIP, which is great because many of the better AP store prizes would be subject to import duty outside of the US.

Avatars may be uploaded (once) from any graphic that's not considered unsuitable. This is slowly making the game more interesting, but the majority of people don't even bother and there's plenty of AP logos around.

Absolute Poker review: features

The software is mostly very sound and has some interesting ideas implemented well. First of these is RabbitCam.

The RabbitCam is a little bunny that shows you what the next card would have been if anybody had called the final bet. Fun, though an experienced player will quickly regret selecting the option. Nice idea,.

Poker players who review the other options with a right click on the table surface will see the Change Skin option. You begin with only the one available, but can download others. Again, fun, but most of us won't bother. The default skin is simple dark blue table and natural fibre-coloured carpet. Clean and easy on the eye.

Instant Hand Replay makes up for the hand history's rather boring text. It's similar to many of the other sites in that it shows the last 50 hands in graphic form. If you need to go back further then the text version will oblige, storing all your hands since the session began.

You can turn off player or observer chat, which can sometimes be very useful. Otherwise most of the functions are straightforward. Unlike some sites, doesn't cram little buttons into every nook and cranny.

Bad news: lack of audio alert when screen is on top is a real pain. This means you can't step away from the PC to stretch your legs during a lengthy "Absolute Poker review session", unless you remember to click on another program first.

The NL slider bar gets very dangerous if you have a big stack, jumping up fast as you move it, but typing the amount will solve that problem if you prefer not to risk it.

Absolute Poker review: player fishiness

You'll find a really mixed bag here. Probably you should avoid the daytime hours: mostly it's pros grinding. Early evening EST is a great time and from then on it gets better and better as the drunk Europeans and gambling Americans get busy.

The average six-seater cash game attracts two pros, two weaker players and a fish. Ten-seaters are tighter in general here as elsewhere.

Once you make your own review and identify the rocks, you'll know who to avoid.

The usual short-stack crazy all-in move works as well at AP as everywhere else. Pick 'em off!

Absolute Poker review: Conclusion

 is a fine site, with solid support, great graphics and a good selection of games without any funny variants to turn your head (if you exclude Blackjack).

It's become my regular haunt. Say Hi to FatherAshley if you happen across him!

Father Ashley’s Rating!

Visual presentation: 94% -- Clean and unfussy. Stick to the default skin.
Audio: 60% -- Lack of "your turn" sound when screen is on top is a real pain.
Software features: 90% -- The RabbitCam is the highlight.
Ease of use: 86% -- Slightly fiddly NL slider bar, no audio alert.
Fishiness: 80% (no limit) –- A solid earner if you're bold and stand up to the bluffers.

OVERALL SCORE: 93%

 is a great site with plenty of traffic and lots of earning opportunities. Give it a try! You'll be Absolutely impressed.

Read our Absolute Poker review and want to give it a whirl?

If you have any concerns about trying that this review may not have addressed, be sure to write to us first at Letters, Pray! (opens in a new window). We'll be happy to help.

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