How to Choose an Online Poker Room

Bonuses

There are more than enough sites offering a 100% bonus on your 1st deposit to be able to have a wide variety of venue and still cash in on these 'free money' deals, with many sites offering up to at least $200 and a number of them offering up to $500 and $1000.

Click on a link on the left of this page to claim a poker bonus now!

There are plenty of other rewards for shrewd poker players willing to do a little investigating, most sites run daily freeroll tournaments with $500 or $1000 prize pools; there are player points schemes where players earn points while they play which can be redeemed for cash, free entry into special tournaments or prizes like baseball caps and MP3 players.

Rake

Although the unofficial industry standard rakes are 5-10% for ring games and 10% for tournaments, it is worth checking out the website of the poker room you're interested in signing up with to see how competitive their rake structure is for the specific level(s) you wish to play. Some online cardrooms charge more rake than others, especially at the lower limits, make sure you are'nt being overcharged.

Financial Security

Again, it's worth checking the website of the poker room for details, the most reputable cardrooms provide all the relevant details about this on their website. There are a multitude of banking options available, arguably the most secure methods are credit cards such as Visa and Mastercard or by e-payment via Paypal and Neteller.

Opposition

This is often one of the most overlooked areas when it comes to choosing a site. It really depends on what you hope to achieve; there are sites that pride themselves on having the best quality players and there are sites that are known for having loose players and excellent earning potential. A good rule of thumb, if you are more interested in playing quality opposition then choose a site which is purely a poker operation i.e. they don't have a sportsbook or casino side to the company. If your primary goal is to make money from playing poker then choose a site which also has casino and/or sportsbook customers as the standard of poker play will invariably be a lot lower and therefore easier to profit from.

Table Traffic

Site traffic is divided up into 2 categories; ring game traffic and tournament traffic. Whichever game type you prefer to play, make sure there is enough traffic on the site for the times of day that you are most likely to play at. During offpeak hours, on some sites, it's commonplace to wait 15-20 minutes for a 10 seater Sit & Go to fill, whereas on other sites it takes only a few minutes. If you only have a limited amount of time to apportion to poker every day, this can be an important factor.