Best Online Poker Sites

As the popularity of online poker has increased, so has the number of online poker rooms. This has made it difficult for a player to know where to play, and there is always a risk that they end up doesn’t really have much to offer. While it is fair to say that the overall standard of poker sites has improved over time, there are really only a few that genuinely stand out as being of the highest quality.

However, pretty much every site will advertise itself as being the best – so naturally players face a challenge in sorting out the top sites from the others. To try and make things easier for you, we have researched and tested a great many poker websites and compiled the list you can see below. This list contains the best online poker sites currently on the web, which all come very highly recommended.

For more information on exactly why we rate these sites so highly please continue to read, as we have explained in some detail how we go about assessing them. We have also offered some advice on choosing the right site for you, and ranked the top sites in a few specific categories. For those of you that are completely new to online poker, we’ve provided some information on how to get started.

Assessing Online Poker Rooms

In order to decide which poker rooms to recommend to our readers, we first assess what they all have to offer. We look very closely at a range of different attributes that we believe are essential for any top quality poker room, and shortlist those that have the required qualities. We then compare those that make the shortlist, see which ones perform the best, and then rank them accordingly. The most significant things that we consider are reputation and trust factor, quality of software, player traffic, banking options, customer service and any bonuses offered.

There are lots of other things we take into account too, but the ones we have just mentioned are the key considerations. Reputation and trust factor are clearly important, as you should only ever play where your money is safe and your personal details protected. Most sites are safe enough to be honest, but we choose to recommend only those that meet the very highest standards in this regard.

The quality of the software is also extremely important, as this has a large impact on the playing experience. A reliable and stable platform is essential really, as it can get very frustrating playing on software that does not perform as it should. The best poker sites are constantly making improvements to their software, and they frequently add new features too.

We look closely at player traffic for two reasons really. Firstly, at sites where there are plenty of players it is much easier to find a game when you want to play. Secondly, if there are a lot of players then that is usually a good indication that the site is doing something right and keeping its customers happy.

We take the banking options into consideration because we believe it should be as easy as possible to deposit and withdraw. Players from some parts of the world can find it a bit of a challenge to get funds in and out of poker sites, but it tends to be a lot easier when there are plenty of different options. The reason we look at the quality of the customer service is simply because we feel that help should be readily available if required.

Choosing the Right Site

As we have explained, we go to great lengths to ensure that we only recommend the very best poker rooms to our readers. We are very confident that you will have a good experience whichever of the sites we have listed above you decide to join. However, we should also point out that it is a good idea to think about which aspects of site are particularly important to you, and make sure that you pick somewhere suitable.

For example, if you want to play mostly tournaments then you should choose somewhere that has a good tournament schedule. If you prefer cash games, then you should choose somewhere that has plenty of action at your preferred game and stake. You might also want to check that your ideal deposit method is available, or that there is decent traffic at the times you prefer to play.

You can usually find out everything you need to know by just taking a look at a poker room’s website, or you can contact customer service if you have a particular query. A lot of players try out a few sites and then decide which one they like the most, and that can be a good way to go too. If you want to play a particular type of poker, you might like to take a look at our poker games section, where we have listed the best sites for each game.

We have also ranked the top sites in the following categories, and these are worth checking out if you have some specific requirements.

• Mobile Poker Sites
• No Download Poker Sites
• Beginner Poker Sites

Joining an Online Poker Site

Signing up to a poker site for the first time can be a bit daunting, but you will find it is an incredibly simple process. To register you will usually have to provide a few personal details, choose a screen name and password and that is pretty much it. If necessary you will have to download the software client, and once that is done all you have to do is make a deposit and you will be ready to go.