Online Poker » Site Comparisons » PokerStars vs Aced

Deposit Bonus

PokerStars: 100% Deposit Bonus, up to $600 covering the first three deposits you make within the first 90 days of your membership; 17 X the bonus amount in player points will clear the full bonus; paid in $10 increments; expires in six months.

VS

Aced Poker: 100% Poker Bonus up to $500; paid in $5 increments at the rate of $1 per 250 VIP Points you earn; expires in 60 days. Bonus Code: ACED100

Verdict: The PokerStars bonus offers a slightly higher bonus with the opportunity to get cash back on your first three deposits, rather than just the first. However, the Aced Poker bonus is easier to clear.

Promotions

PokerStars: PokerStars promotions cover a wide array of opportunities such as guaranteed tournaments, big satellites, challenges, player competitions, freerolls, special online events, and the list goes on and on. There is virtually an unlimited amount of promotional events going on at PokerStars at any given time.

VS

Aced Poker: Aced has a very healthy promotional calendar for a smaller online poker room. Leaderboards, the Outs promotion, the reload bonus, Four Aces wins 40 X the big blind, Royal Flush Bonus, satellites, and many unique tournament events like the Flipament tourneys and the Blitzkrieg tourneys all make playing at Aced pretty exciting.

Verdict: While PokerStars has a lot of promotions all the time, Aced Poker’s promo’s are just as good and equally as innovative and lucrative as those at PokerStars with fewer players competing for the prizes.

Software

PokerStars: PokerStars has been around a while and has designed and re-designed their software multiple times to offer one of the best online poker gaming softwares in the world. This multi-lingual application offers a functional and organized user interface with Mac capability and ability to support up to 24 simultaneous tables open at one time.

VS

Aced Poker: Aced Poker operates on the Merge Gaming software, which also powers other popular online poker rooms such as Carbon Poker and is one of the most feature-complete options out there, though the graphics are just acceptable, and it is only available in download format for PCs. It does offer easy navigation and enhanced features.

Verdict: Multi-tablers will want to sign up with Poker Stars, but if you’re looking for a decent basic online poker room, Aced Poker has everything you need.

Tournaments

PokerStars: Sunday is the big-money tournament day at most online poker rooms, including PokerStars. They feature the Sunday $1.5 Million, the $250K Sunday Second Chance, and the $750K Sunday Warm-up, all with a $215 buy-in. Additionally, they host Multi-Table tourneys (including shootouts), Sit & Gos (Double or Nothing and Steps), Re-buys, Satellites, Deep Stacks, Turbo, 2 X Turbo, 6-Max, and 4-Max.

VS

Aced Poker: Aced Poker’s biggest Sunday tourney is a $50K Guaranteed. In terms of guaranteed tournaments, they offer a few other decent prize pool events such as Freezeouts, Deepstack Freezeouts, and Turbo Freezeouts. Aced Poker also offers Flipament tournaments and Blitzkriegs tournaments, which are alternative formats to the traditional tournament styles that you won’t find anywhere else. They also host Satellites, Bounty tourneys, Shootouts, and $1 Establishing tournaments.

Verdict: PokerStars has a lot more options for big-money tournament players and a wider range of tournaments available on their tournament schedule; however, Aced Poker is a smaller room with fewer tournaments and less competition.

Games

PokerStars: Texas Hold ‘em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, Stud, Stud Hi-Lo, 5-Card Draw, 2-7 Single and Triple Draw, Badugi, Razz, 8-game mixed, HORSE, and HOSE.

VS

Aced Poker: Texas Hold 'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, 7 Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, 5-Card Stud, HORSE, Triple Draw, 5-Card, Badugi, and other mixed games.

Verdict: Both rooms are pretty comparable in game variety.

Points

PokerStars: PokerStars gives up to 3 points for raked cash games and 5 points per $1 in tournament fees. A six-tiered VIP Club status ladder gives more frequent players additional benefits that include point multipliers, entry into exclusive tournaments, and other perks.

VS

Aced Poker: Aced Poker has the Aced Outs rewards program in addition to their traditional Swagger VIP Program. Outs award players with additional VIP points when they finish specific tasks while playing tournaments and cash games. The Aced Poker Swagger VIP Program ranks players monthly according to how many VIP points they earn. This is a four-tiered system that awards 1 VIP point per every $0.10 paid in tournament fees paid and a certain amount of points for cash game participation depending on players, stakes, and game format. Points can be redeemed for cash, tournament buy-ins, and Aced Poker merchandise including electronics.

Verdict: Aced Poker has the better point reward system. They offer cash back for points and also incorporate the Aced Outs competition, which makes for a more exciting online poker experience.

Traffic

PokerStars: 145,000+ players

VS

Aced Poker: 3,000+ players

Verdict: PokerStars is a much bigger online poker room than Aced Poker; however, if you like small poker rooms, Aced is one of the best.

Rakeback

PokerStars: None.

VS

Aced Poker: 30% rakeback.

Verdict: Aced Poker has it; PokerStars does not.

Deposit Options

PokerStars: All major credit cards, moneybookers, NETeller, ClickandBuy, PaySafeCard, WebMoney, EC ELV, Instant e-checks, Online Bank Transfer, and Local Bank Transfer.

VS

Aced Poker: VISA, ClickandBuy, EntroPay, Fonelinx, NETeller, Click2Pay, ECO, eWalletXpres, moneybookers, pic-club, ACH e-check, and Wire Transfer.

Verdict: Both PokerStars and Aced Poker have a decent amount of payment methods.

Customer Service

PokerStars: Email only.

VS

Aced Poker: Aced Poker has an online email form and offers an email address, both of which are available 24/7.

Verdict: Aced Poker support and PokerStars support are pretty much both limited to email.