Interface
Absolute Poker has a decent interface. It's not one of my favorites but its functional and allows users to get around the site without too much hassle. I find other poker sites to be superior in this category but Absolute Poker is a large site that isn't bad at all just the interface could use some touching up.
Game Variety
Absolute Poker has a slightly above average variety of the games it offers. I played on Absolute Poker for a short time and found the buy-in to pay-out ratio to be slightly below some of the other large sites like Full Tilt or PokerStars. However, Absolute has a very impressive qualifier/satellite system. Nearly a majority of their tournaments were satellites into much larger events. Absolute seems to focus players into attempting to satellite into its larger events. Not a huge variety of tournaments are offered for players with a smallish bankroll but the satellite system and large events are top notch.
Ring games are decent on Absolute. They range from $0.05-$0.10 blinds to $15-$30. I found the ring games fairly easy to rake in a profit as the players in the lower limits I tried out were fairly tight, trying to take advantage of the bonus and incentives system that Absolute offers.
Ease of Deposit/Withdrawal
Absolute Poker has a huge variety of payment processors for depositing funds. Regardless of your location, you should have no trouble depositing funds into your account. Withdrawing took a bit longer than some other poker sites but wasn't any more difficult than to be expected of a withdrawal from an internet poker account.
Security/Stability
Absolute Poker is financially sound and is one of the largest poker sites on the market. They recently purchased Ultimate Bet and that gives me reason to believe that the site is secure. Personally, I did not feel at risk while playing at Absolute Poker and stand behind its 128-bit SSL encryption and its PWC auditing.
Players
The players on Absolute are a decent mix of the typical loose-aggresive online player and the tight player looking to fold his way to bonuses and other incentives provided by Absolute Poker. The micro-limits have wild players that see a lot of flops but once you get over $1/$2 players begin tightening up quite a bit. The competition there is fair and would recommend for players of any experience level.
Bad Beats
The flops and boards at Absolute over the course of the few tournaments I played there were questionable at best. I saw a questionable amount of dual paired and 3-suited cards all out. A lot of multiple draw boards were present just about every hand. I rarely saw a board that completely missed the players involved in the hand. The worst hand I saw was a boat losing to a better boat, but that is a typical beat that I see live often. The beats are probably about average with the other poker sites, but be cautious of the seemingly ridiculous boards that I ran into.
Overall
Absolute Poker is a relatively new site, launching in 2003. The site has a lot of great bonuses and incentives for players to continue growing their bankrolls. I like the site a lot but the drawbacks of the interface make it difficult for me to play there, but thats because I'm picky as an interactive/game designer who has a soft-spot for strongly designed interfaces. If you like to satellite into tournaments this site is probably the site for you, the amount of qualifiers offered for large tournaments is far and beyond most of the other poker sites I've tried out. Absolute Poker does allow players from the United States.
Go to Absolute Poker
