Say you're an American living in Texas and you want to play online poker. You're savvy enough to know that "Black Friday" in 2011 rendered almost all poker sites (and all the big ones like Poker Stars and Full Tilt) unavailable to U.S. Players. But you also know the Feds didn't bother to go after every last site available to U.S. players. So what's left?
It can be surprisingly hard to get a complete answer to that, because most sites that portend to disseminate such information are affiliated with one or more of the sites. That is to say, they have a financial interest into steering you to just 2-3 sites.
Take, for example, usafriendlypokersites.com. It lists five sites that accept Americans. In reality, there are over twice that. But even worse, they are really only giving you three sites, because two pairs of them belong to the same network. That means the same player pools, same tournaments and games (for the most part), just a different URL and marketing gimmick.
The only site that is seemingly both unbiased and comprehensive is pokerscout.com. Right there on the main page, you will see green checkmarks for sites that accept U.S. players. Some of them only accept players from Nevada, New Jersey, and/or Delaware, three states that have entered agreements with online poker companies.
That leaves 12 at this writing that take players from across the country (but be advised that some state Washington have prohibitions in place for these sites), and I have played at all 12. Consider this your handy guide.
First though, a couple of caveats: 1) While I've been playing more cash games lately, I am primarily a tournament player and my reviews and musings reflect that. 2) One day if I enter a big tournament and send my bankroll on a site into four figures, I'll cash out. Until then, I'll keep building my bankroll and as such, I cannot comment on perhaps the most important thing: how quickly and easily you get paid when cashing out. I have heard scuttlebutt from trusty sources, though. Finally, I can't comment on the state-specific sites, having no experience with them.
The Big Boys
1) BOVADA — This rose from the ashes of Calvin Ayre's Bodog. Remember Bodog? Of course you do. Anyway, this is far and away the most popular poker sites for Americans, and they have a tournaments starting practically every 10 minutes or sooner, with nice guaranteed prize pools.
Pros — Constant tournaments. More cash games going at lots of stakes than any other US site. Based on what I've heard, quicker payouts than other US sites.
Cons — All players are anonymized here, so if you use a poker tracker to help you not or remember tendencies of different players, they will do you no good here. Way too many good players.
Bottom Line — I will always keep a little money on this site just because of all the tourneys and cash game options.
2) MERGE — I basically consider Merge to be Bovada lite. The second best at tournaments and ... I would say second best at cash game volume/variety but Poker Scout tells me that's not even close to being accurate. Right or wrong, I still consider this to be the bridesmaid to Bovada's bride on the U.S. poker landscape.
Pros — Nice tournaments with high guarantees. Best layout and graphics of all these sites.
Cons — Like Bovada, a very tough place to win with very few fish in.
Bottom Line — Same as Bovada. I'll always keep a bit of money here.
3) CHICO POKER — Chico poker is a network that has ONE site, or "skin," available to U.S. players, and that's betonline.ag. So if you want to play here from the U.S., that's the site you must go to.
Pros — A ton of cash games always going. Great for microstakes players (you can play at .01./.02 tables) and tons of freerolls. Nice graphics, very fishy play.
Cons — Tournament selection is atrocious. Very, very few tournaments with a high guaranteed prize pool compared to their peers.
Bottom Line — I'm up big there thanks to donkey-infested cash games, but I don't think I'll be reloading if I bust.
4) WINNING POKER — The most visible skin for Winning Poker is America's Cardroom, but there are others. Their hook is that they sometimes (indeed, every Sunday in October) have $1 million dollar tournaments, just like the good old days at a bygone American-friendly Poker Stars.
Pros — Best place to take a shot and get rich on one tournament as an online player in the US. Has nice "freebuy" tournaments with prize pools far beyond that of other freerolls, with the caveat that you can re-buy if you're knocked out, giving the advantage to players with money on the site.
Cons — This site is better suited for players with larger bankrolls. $20 will go a ton farther in guaranteed tournaments at Bovada and Merge than it will at Winning. I am not a fan of their audio and sound prompts.
Bottom Line — I'll start putting money there when they run, say, a $7.5K tournament (or greater) for $11 every day like Merge and Bovada do.
5) EQUITY — I'm not quite sure how they do it, but they have better nightly tournaments (in terms of value, or buy-in vs. prize pool) than Chico and Winning, which have larger player pools. They also don't allow late registration for tournaments. That's key, because most of the other sites you see listed here will allow late registration anywhere from one to five hours, in the hopes of getting as many people to buy in as possible and thereby have to cover less of the guarantee themselves. They use the same software, but not the same player pool/tournaments, as Chico.
Pros — Super fishy, terrible players. The lack of late registration in tournaments means they don't take all night to play. Surprisingly big prize pools for low buy-ins for a relatively smaller site.
Cons — Word on the street is, payouts take forever. I'm always vaguely afraid they will go under because their business model (as I see it), while great for players, seems unsustainable.
Bottom Line — My favorite site. I mean it when I say they have terrible players; I've run my deposit of $25 up to $856 so far, and I've done so over many tournaments, not just getting lucky in one.
6) REVOLUTION — I almost put this section in with "the minnows." They used to be a lot bigger when they were known as Cake Poker Network. I'm not sure why they are such a shell of their former selves. Presumably, they must have had widespread payout issues that made players leave en masse, but most sites that can be said about go under, but Revolution continues to tick along. I believe their only U.S.-facing site is Juicy Stakes, so go there if you want to play this network.
Pros — Fun, cool graphics. Fairly fishy games. Neat promotions, like gold cards (that you get randomly in cash games) and gold chips (that you accumulate with a lot of play) that you can redeem for tournament entries or, in the case of gold cards, cash on a secondary market.
Cons — Very light player pool. Biggest weekly tournament is just $8.5K. Their high-pitch warning beep when you're almost out of time to act makes me want to kill a man.
Bottom Line — I'd probably put money there if they rebounded into a higher player pool or could afford to put out better value tournaments.
The Bitcoin Sites
Unsurprisingly, cryptocurrency buffs have taken to opening poker sites, where it's a lot easier to get your "money" in and out. There are four sites I am aware of that offer bitcoin as a deposit and cash-out option. There's Betcoin poker, which is affiliated with Winning, so there's a huge player pool. But they still have a lot of Betcoin-only tournaments. The other ones have tiny player pools, smaller than Revolution, and no 4-figure tournaments (let alone 5, 6, or 7).
My favorite of these is Nitrogen, which runs freerolls every hour. There's also Seals With Clubs, run by the polarizing poker figure Bryan Micon. SWC's main attraction is they run unusual games, like badugi, badeucy, Chinese poker, and courchevel. BurnTurn doesn't seem to exist anymore.
The Minnows
There's actually just two of these, but all of the bitcoin sites besides Betcoin basically count as minnows too. There's Grand Poker, run by 5Dimes. 5Dimes is much more well-known for their sportsbook, and the poker room seems to be an afterthought. Then there is First Fidelity/YouWager. I remember them having nice freerolls years back, but as of now they are offering no freerolls so you must deposit to play.
As a final note, I will advise you that the smaller sites are still well worth your time. Most of them have freerolls that, unlike larger sites, get only a couple hundred players or less. Nitrogen's hourly freerolls sometimes only have about a dozen players; it can be a very easy way to start a bankroll. Secondly, I don't know why this is, but the more obscure the site, the weaker the players. It's anecdotally true in my experience and remarked on by many others. So go ahead and sign up for that tiny-site freeroll!
Leave a Comment