Online poker is an attractive and exciting game all by itself, so if you were to couple it with the glamour and appeal of some of the world's best celebrity players, you'd have something really special, right? Well, that's the idea behind Celeb Poker, the world's first celebrity poker room that gives ordinary Joes like you and us the chance to pit our wits against each other and even against the stars themselves. And we're not talking Z-list stars, either.

The list of celebrities here include Lou Diamond Phillips, Jimmy White, Mickey Rooney, Nick Leeson, Ken Doherty, Sam Torrance, Teddy Sheringham and many more. Impressive. But does the site itself match the quality of the guest list?

Before we could find out we needed to download the Celeb Poker software and open an account. Downloading the software took fifteen seconds - something of a record. It installed just as quickly, and - after entering the usual list of personal details - we were up and running just two minutes later.

If you have played many other online poker sites then it will be dead easy for you to find your way around Celeb Poker. Tables are listed in categories according to the type of game (Hold'Em, Omaha, 5 Card Draw, 7 Card Stud, Single Tourney and Multi Tourney) and table limits. You can either play for free on practice tables, or deposit some funds and play for real. And of course, you can watch games as a spectator if you just want to see what everyone else is up to.

Before you start playing, be sure to visit the Poker School section of the site. Here you will find everything from the basic rules of the games available and success stories right through to live lessons every night from professional players and online video Celeb Poker coaching from Lou Diamond Phillips himself. In all honesty, no serious online player can afford not to check this out, as there's information that will help improve your game no matter how good you are.

And now, back to the game itself. We've seen a lot of online poker sites over the years, but we have to say that the graphical and audio representation of the gaming environment at Celeb Poker is superb. The tables are blue with black (leather?) surround, the chairs are black with chrome and it all looks really nice. The audio is also very good, and adds to the atmosphere without being intrusive. Such aesthetics may not seem very important to the beginning player, but for those of us who like to spend several hours playing a game, what you look at (and listen to) for the duration really does have an impact on the overall experience.

As with most poker rooms, players at Celeb Poker have a finite amount of time to make their play decisions, and this is represented by a ring of coloured light which steadily turns black. The buttons for making play choices are more discreet than at some other sites, so will take you a little while to get used to, but this easily taken care of with a game or two at a practice table. Players can chat using the usual kind of text interface, and you can choose to view chat in a window at the bottom left of the screen or in speech bubbles above the relevant "speaker".

Our only disappointment here was that we couldn't choose to view the cards in four colours. The Celeb Poker cards are perfectly legible in their normal suit colours, but the option for viewing in four colours is one that we personally like to take advantage of, hence our minor peeve. Also, we haven't spotted any celebrities in live play yet, so don't think you can just sit down next to two or three of them. But apart from that, we have to say that playing at Celeb Poker is a genuine delight, and we highly recommend a visit.

Support:

24 hour customer service is available 7 days a week by e-mailing celebpoker@pokerresponse.com or by calling:

• 0808 2000 175 from the UK (Toll Free)
• 800 997 7303 from the USA (Toll Free)
• +(00)350 51710 from any other country

Money:

Money Depositing money into your Celeb Poker account couldn't be easier. Options include the use of credit or debit card, bankers draft, NETeller, wire transfer and cheque. Security is of an incredibly high standard, with data being secured by the SSLv3/TLSv1 encryption algorithm - in other words, the Fort Knox of secure socket communication.

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