PartyPoker has run as an independent room since 2001, and it is the one room on this page that made a deliberate decision about what kind of player it wants.
Tracking software is banned. Not discouraged, not limited to a session, banned. Every other choice the room has made follows from that, and it is why this review can be shorter and sharper than the others: one policy tells you almost everything.
What the tracker ban actually does
A heads up display converts hands into a permanent record of how specific opponents play. Over thousands of hands it turns a stranger into a profile, and the player with the bigger database has an advantage that has nothing to do with what happens at the table.
Remove it and two things change. The recreational player stops being catalogued, which means a losing player is not identified and hunted across the lobby by everyone with a database. And the winning player loses a chunk of edge that came from record keeping rather than from playing.
The room enforces this with seating restrictions and by limiting what third party software can read. There is no useful workaround, and looking for one is a good way to lose an account balance.
So the question is simply which side of that line you are on. If your win rate rests on population reads and colour coded notes accumulated over a year, this room removes the tool and you should play elsewhere. If you are the player those tools were pointed at, this is the friendliest room of the six.
Who is sitting there
The pool is worldwide and skews more recreational than a comparable room, which is the intended effect of the policy rather than an accident.
There is a second order consequence worth understanding. Because regulars cannot rely on databases, more of them play fewer tables and pay closer attention to the table in front of them. The average opponent is weaker, and the average strong opponent is more focused than they would be while twelve tabling somewhere else.
That changes what wins here. Live reading of betting patterns within a session matters more, and pre session research matters less. Players who came up entirely on statistics often find their first weeks here uncomfortable, and the discomfort is the point.
Games and formats
No limit hold'em, pot limit Omaha, six plus short deck, the Fast Forward fast fold pool, Spins lottery sit and gos, and a tournament schedule.
Fast Forward has an interesting interaction with the tracker ban. Normally fast fold is where a database earns most, because you meet a large rotating pool and only a record can tell you who is who. Without tracking, fast fold here is closer to playing a solid default strategy against unknowns, which suits a technically sound player and punishes one who leans on reads.
Spins are three handed hyper turbos with a randomised prize pool. The same warning applies as anywhere: variance is severe, the skill set is push fold arithmetic rather than general poker, and bankroll requirements in buy-ins run several times a cash player's.
There is a second effect of the policy that takes a few weeks to notice. Because nobody arrives at the table with a file on you, your own image resets constantly. A player who three-bet you twice an hour ago has no record of it tomorrow, so balancing your ranges across sessions matters far less than balancing them within one. That is a genuine simplification, and it rewards paying attention to the last twenty minutes rather than the last twenty thousand hands.
Money in and out
The operator holds your funds under its own licence and runs deposits and withdrawals through its own payment queue. Formal, documented, and paced by the operator rather than by you.
Methods and regional restrictions change often. Check the cashier for your own location rather than trusting any list on a review page, including ours.
We do not publish rakeback percentages for rooms. Operators move them several times a year and a printed figure misleads within months. Ask the room's support for the current terms.
Where a club seat beats this room
We run clubs and would rather you played in one, so check the following instead of taking it on trust.
PartyPoker wins if you are a recreational player who wants protection from being catalogued, or a strong player happy to work without software. It also wins on the usual room advantages: a desktop client, real multi-tabling, and a licensed operator holding the money.
A club wins on economics. The rake coming back to you is negotiated rather than published, and at low limits that figure often decides whether a competent player finishes the year ahead. It also wins on payment speed, since an agent moves money in minutes.
On field quality the comparison is closer here than with any other room on this page, because both are trying to solve the same problem by different means. The room protects the weak player by removing the tools used against them. A club does it by choosing who sits at the table and removing anyone who should not be there. Both work. The club version is faster and less absolute.
Frequently asked questions
Does PartyPoker allow HUDs?
No. Tracking software is banned as a matter of policy, enforced through seating restrictions and limits on what third party tools can read.
Why does PartyPoker ban tracking software?
To stop recreational players being catalogued and targeted across the lobby, which keeps losing players in the pool longer.
Is PartyPoker good for recreational players?
It is the friendliest of the six rooms reviewed here for that purpose, since the policy exists specifically to protect them.
Is PartyPoker worth it for a winning regular?
Only if your edge survives without a database. Players whose win rate rests on population statistics lose a real part of it here.
What is Fast Forward?
The room's fast fold pool, which moves you to a new table each time you fold. Without tracking it rewards a sound default strategy rather than opponent reads.
Worth saying once more, because it is the whole decision: no software policy is a feature for one player and a disqualification for another, and there is no middle position on it.
Who this room suits
Take PartyPoker if you are a recreational player who wants to be left alone, or a strong player who is confident playing without software. Skip it if a database is where your edge lives, because there is no version of this room where you get to keep it.
Compare the six in our reviews of the classic rooms, or look at the club apps we run for the other approach to the same problem. To ask how we handle field quality in our clubs, message @rpunion. Worth reading alongside this: what a HUD actually does for you and spotting a recreational player without software.
18+. Play within your means.