Party Poker and Empire Poker are actually skins of each other. That means that you are actually playing the same people and tables with either one.

Both Party/Empire and Pacific Poker have many weak players (a.k.a. fish). This means that a solid player can make a steady profit playing on these sites. While Party has a reputation for having soft games, they don’t compare to the incredibly loose/passive games you’ll find at Pacific.

If you’ve never played at Pacific, download the software, and just take a look. Your mouth will start watering. (Even the high stakes games routinely get flop percentages in the 50-70% range.)

Another major difference is that you can play at Pacific for a lot less money. First of all their minimum deposit is $20 (whereas Party’s is $50). Pacific offers micro limit games ($.05/.10, $.10/.20, $.25/.50) perfect for beginners not wanting to risk too much money. (Party’s smallest games starts at $.50/1.00.) Pacific spreads multi-table tournaments with buy-ins as low as $2.50. (Party’s smallest buy-in for a multi-table tournament is usually $20.)

Here is a run-down of both sites:

• Largest poker site on the internet, boasting over 40,000 players.
• Security. Your money is safe with such a large and time proven site.
• Large tournament pools. Most small buy-in tourneys get 1000+ people entered.
• Satellites to Party’s own World Poker Tour tournament, Party Poker Millions poker cruise.
• Some of the loosest players of all the poker sites.
• .50/1.00 smallest stakes.
• $50 minimum deposit for real money games.
• Offers plenty of No-Limit and Pot-Limit ring games.
• Allows you to play multiple tables at once (up to 4 at a time)

• Medium sized poker site, but backed by the largest online casino, Casino On Net.
• Smaller tournament pools. Most tourneys get less than 200 entries.
• THE loosest players of any online poker site.
• Great range of micro-limit games.
• Minimum deposit of $20 for real money games.
• Does not spread any No-Limit ring games (but they recently added No-Limit tournaments).
• Only allowed to play one table at a time.