The all new http://www.partypoker.com has arrived, marking a significant first step in the integration of social features into the real money gaming environment. The phase one release, which went live today,  is jam-packed with exciting new features and a fresh new look, logo and interface, mixing the best of the old with the new, in a player-friendly environment.

The first phase release of the all new partypoker.com is now available on Mac and PC in download and no download versions. The mobile product is available on Android and on iOS app for the first time, with more of the all new desktop features being introduced in a later phase. In the coming weeks a new tournament schedule will be launched – watch this space for details!

The refreshed next generation online poker product integrates great new features into real money gaming including a 1-Click Lobby and social features such as Missions and Achievements, Friends and much more. The new poker table also now sports a smooth racetrack shape and a cleaner table. Major highlights of the phase one release of the all new partypoker.com include:

1-Click Lobby:

Tailor-made games for a player all in one place! The 1-Click Lobby, unique to partypoker.com, offers the player all of their favourite games at a glance making finding a cash game or tournament to suit their style has ever been easier. Players see more of what they want and less of what they don’t with Filters and Favourites. Players can give their preferred games a blue star and find them quickly on the Favourites tab or use the lobby filters to narrow their search for the perfect table. For those who prefer the old style we’ve retained the classic lobby view but added a new feature that groups similar stake tables and segregates them based on 6-max, speed and normal tables group for the same stake tables.

Missions:

Missions give players targets to aim for, challenge them to try new things and improve their game. There’s no pressure – players take things at their own pace and see where the next Mission takes them. The aim of Missions is to improve poker skills but there are also great extra rewards for completing them: cash; tournament tickets; bonuses; and more. Information about players opting in or completing the Missions objectives is not visible to other players. Some Missions may be shown as ‘locked’ which means the player must complete another Mission first.

Example: Day 1 mission – sign up, sit down, play a hand, win a hand

Achievements:

Poker is about the little victories and personal milestones where a win leaves the player with a great tale to tell: it’s about a player’s Achievements. Every time a player collects an Achievement, it will boost their Achievement score which they can show-off to their friends via their profile page and activity feeds.

It’s not just playing poker that excites but the amount of fun that keeps a player engaged. We’ve created a wide range of Achievements, eg. a player gets dealt a great starting hand, meets a milestone of a set number of cash games or pulls off a win against the odds. Initially, 127 exciting achievements have been made available from launch – more will be added over time! An overview page provides an activity feed displaying a player’s recent Achievements, Missions and new additions to their list of poker friends.

We’ve categorised these achievements into three types:

1) Milestones – It starts with the ‘Poker Career I’ milestone from the very first hand of poker. After that? Just wait and see.

2) Collectables – Players get these for collecting things like poker hands. Got dealt a pair of kings? That’s the ‘Cowboys’ collectible right there.

3) Highlights – Big wins, big losses and those ‘OMG’ moments where players pull out a victory against all the odds.

Each player has their own profile page where they can be themselves and boast about poker achievements. This page is customisable via the privacy settings which can be tweaked to only provide access to the player’s intended set of players/friends.

Friends and Profile page

It’s not only where the player goes that makes a great time, it’s who they go there with as well. That’s why we’ve made finding and making new friends easier than ever. A player can easily search and add friends via screen name, email address or by looking up contacts from their email address book.  In order to help them find and connect with other players they may know or who are interested in similar things (e.g. play in same stakes), we offer automatic system suggestions based on various factors combined together to suggest the “best class” players for that player. To make staying in contact with friends as simple as possible we’ve created the friends list. We also offer automatic system suggestions based on various factors combined together to recommend the “best class” players for that player. Every player can see everything that they’re up to like friends they’ve recently added and who is currently online.

Each player has their own profile page where they can display their poker achievements. This page is customisable via the privacy settings which can be tweaked to only provide access to the player’s intended set of players/friends. Profiles are available everywhere, including at the tables. That means that the player can check out the profiles of the people they are playing with instantly and drop them a comment if they want to. A player can also post an update on their poker wall. Once they have connected with other players, they can keep up to date with them through the news feed. Personal data is safe with us. We offer players transparency, choice and control over their data so that a player always knows which data we use, how we use them and players can always have the option to adjust as you prefer.

Account / Rewards / Cashier:

We’ve completely revamped our other sections on the client in addition to the new features mentioned above. Keeping with newer technologies and industry trends, we’ve implemented the metro tile styling for account and reward pages. The account page now offers our players with a one-stop location to provide a list of:

Real Balance

Bonuses

Loyalty Points

New or active promotions

Tournament dollars

Messages in account inbox

There are also quick tabs to check more details on the account, transaction statements on gaming and inter-account transfers.