Poker Sites
The first online poker sites hit the internet in the late 1990s. These first poker sites were pretty basic by today’s standards, but they were popular in their own right. As time passed and online poker became an increasingly popular activity, poker sites became more and more advanced.
Today’s online poker sites are hundreds of times bigger than traditional live poker rooms and offer games at all stakes. It’s not uncommon to log on to an online poker site today and find more than 20,000 players logged in at a time. Compared to traditional brick and mortar poker rooms, internet poker sites are beyond big – they are gargantuan.
Best Poker Sites
Competition in the online poker industry has increased at a steady clip since the online poker boom of the early 2000s. With so many poker sites to choose from, it can be difficult to find the “best poker sites.” One of our main goals here at CasinoFYI.com is to help prospective poker players find the best poker sites possible.
The most important thing to consider when looking for the best poker sites is the safety of your money. Most online poker rooms are completely trustworthy, but we have heard of poker sites going out of business with little warning. If you want to completely eliminate that risk, your best bet is to play at large, well known poker sites.
Big poker sites are the best to places to play real money poker for a couple of reasons. First of all, these poker sites are extremely profitable. They are in no danger of suddenly collapsing. Secondly, these poker sites know that they have to do everything possible to maintain a clean reputation in the online poker community if they want to stay in business.
Real Money Poker Sites
All of the poker sites on this page are real money poker sites. You can sign up for an account at any poker site for free and then you can fund your account when you’re ready to play poker for real money. Each poker site has a list of about a dozen deposit methods that you can use to get started.
If you don’t want to play real money poker, you can always hit the play tables at any poker site. Each of the sites above knows that some people simply want to try out the software and play a little poker without actually betting real money.
In the end, though, we recommend real money poker for the most fun. To the uninitiated, it may sound crazy to play poker for real money over the internet. However, you will soon come to learn that real money poker is all about choosing the right cards, reading your opponents’ betting patterns and learning how to mix up your game. The live aspect of poker is over dramatized by movies and TV.
As long as you play at reputable poker sites, you will never have to worry about being cheated or losing your money. These poker sites are licensed by their country of residence and they have already withstood the test of time. These poker sites are professional, profitable and know how to provide players with a high class poker experience.
Poker Sites for US Players
The United States is the biggest market for online poker sites. There are more online poker players from the United States than any other country. At the same time, the USA has enacted laws that make it difficult for US banks and online poker sites to do business with one another.
As a result, not all poker sites accept players from the US. The good news is that there are still plenty of options for US poker players. In fact, some of the biggest poker sites on the internet target most of their marketing to US players.
Deposit options for US poker sites are somewhat limited at the moment thanks to those laws we talked about earlier. There are no federal laws against playing poker, but the government has told the banking industry to stop processing payments. This has proven to be a tall order, though, and there are still plenty of ways to fund your poker account.
Credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express can be used to deposit at US poker sites. Sometimes credit card deposits work for US players and sometimes they don’t. Once again, we can thank the government for that. If your credit card deposit does not work, there are still other options..
Most US poker sites also accept instant eChecks and e-wallets such as UseMyWallet. And if all else fails, you can always send cash via Western Union. We know this isn’t the most ideal situation in the world, but there are ways to fund your poker account. You just have to work at it a little harder than UK / European players do.
Once you get that whole deposit mess figured out, everything else is simple for US poker sites. With a real money poker account, you can play in a variety of cash games and tournaments at games at all levels. Some US-based poker players take home six figures a month playing online poker.
US Poker sites can also send you to major live tournaments if you’re into those. Big tournaments such as the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas have ballooned since US poker sites started holding satellite tournaments to those events. In fact, several Main Event winners in recent years qualified for the WSOP online.
Read more about USA poker sites.
Poker Sites for UK Players
The United Kingdom has a very poker-friendly atmosphere. Laws in the UK are designed to give poker sites licenses and to make sure that all poker sites treat their customers to fair games all the time. What this means for you is that you can play poker at any poker site in the world.
Depositing and withdrawing from UK poker sites is also very easy for players in the UK. Simple deposit methods such as Visa, MasterCard and bank transfers make funding your account and cashing out your money fast and cheap. Some deposit options even have debit cards associated with them so that you don’t even have to withdraw your money all the way back to your bank if you need to make a quick purchase.
Online poker in the UK is alive and thriving right now. The UK government took the right stance by completely legalizing and regulating online poker. They also allow international competition so that poker sites from around the world can compete with one another for your business. This has resulted in a situation that is very good for the individual poker player.
Read more about UK poker sites.
Mac Poker Sites
Mac users once had a tough time finding poker sites to play at. In the early days of online poker, nobody paid much attention to the Mac market. Fortunately, increasing competition has forced most poker sites to come up with a solution for getting Mac players in on the poker craze.
Many poker sites have already developed fully compatible Mac software. If you play at one of these poker sites, you’ll find software that was designed to be installed on Mac computers. Some other poker sites offer instant play versions of their software that require no-download and are fully Mac compatible.