February 12 - 2007 will be remembered as a crazy and extremely trying year for online poker. There was a huge cheating scandal (see our worst poker room for the year, no surprises there), a winner of the WSOP Main Event who not only wouldn't shill for the poker rooms but had no interest in even playing online, and oh yes, the passing of the UIGEA bill meant an exodus from the USA for some of the major poker rooms, most notably Party Poker and the OnGame network.
The subsequent consolidation of the industry has created giants in Full Tilt and Poker Stars, improved the prospects of others (Bodog Poker, the iPoker Network), and severly hampered the bottom line of others.
Without further ado here are our independent Insider's Online Poker Awards for 2007 representing the very best and worst that the year had to offer:
Best Online Poker Room Of The Year - Full Tilt Poker
While many other online poker rooms suffered due to the mindless UIGEA legislation the one major poker room openly owned by USA citizens thrived. We can't work that out either but Full Tilt continues to advertise openly in America and takes on as many USA based players as they can find. The reason they stay is because this is a fantastic poker room with top promotions, very big MMTs with the second-highest guarantees on the planet, and software that is tough to find fault with. This was the year that Full Tilt established itself as a force, brushing aside the 1.0 generation of online poker rooms. A worthy winner.
Best Online Poker Tournaments Of The Year Poker Stars
Poker Stars was the other big winner as a result of the USA government meddling in the civil rights of its citizens. Privately owned in Israel Stars decided to stay the course and promptly became the largest online poker room the word had ever seen. The guaranteed tournaments held every Sunday have become ridiculous with well more than $1 million on offer every week. The WCOOP is the jewel in the crown and attracts all the best players in the world. That alone is enough to capture the best tournaments award!
Bodog Poker or Bodoglife Poker following their battle over the domain name has withstood plenty of challenges in 2007 not least from the trolls who attempted to hijack the Bodog brand. Bodog's Poker room is still a great destination for serious online poker players and attracts newbies with excellent promotions, sign up and reload bonuses, and a one-stop wallet for all online gambling delights. The customer service is superb, with professional and timely responses from staff that are actually knowledgeable about poker. This isn't the biggest online poker but the attention to customers makes it one of the best.
Worst Online Poker Room Of The Year - Absolute Poker
2007 was a spectacular disaster for Absolute Poker. The internal cheating scandal that cost players a fortune was handled so badly that it quickly escalated into a PR meltdown. But we have to give some credit to Absolute, who eventually did the right thing by paying out handsomely - ensuring that players who were swindled received more than they had originally lost. Since then Absolute Poker has naturally had to put a lot more effort into attracting new players and keeping the existent ones very happy, so 2008 might be a good time to check them out. The cheating was carried out by a couple of rogue elements within the company who have now been banished from the island. They richly deserve this award but we're willing to forgive them if they contine to make amends.
February 12 - 2007 will be remembered as a crazy and extremely trying year for online poker. There was a huge cheating scandal (see our worst poker room for the year, no surprises there), a winner of the WSOP Main Event who not only wouldn't shill for the poker rooms but had no interest in even playing online, and oh yes, the passing of the UIGEA bill meant an exodus from the USA for some of the major poker rooms, most notably Party Poker and the OnGame network.
