Top Online Poker Sites
Tuesday, February 9th
2021 Online Poker Site Reviews
2 days ago ABOUT CARDPLAYER, THE POKER AUTHORITY CardPlayer.com is the world's oldest and most well respected poker magazine and online poker guide.Since 1988, CardPlayer has provided poker. 888 Poker is our #1 recommended poker site for beginner poker players, as well as casual poker players. This excellent poker site attracts a lot of recreational players, so the poker games at 888 are typically much easier than on other online poker sites. Juicy Stakes Poker is another top US poker site endorsed by the community and frequented by players who don’t mind playing with fewer players at a time. Juicy Stakes is part of the Horizon Poker Network, which they share with Intertops Poker to boost liquidity further, a trick they have coined and the onshore industry has readily borrowed.
Poker Stars
- Cost: FREE
Poker Stars is a fantastic online poker website. To start with, the Poker Stars online poker free play section allows you to participate in all of their available online poker games using virtual money - you simply download their software in order to participate. They offer 24/7 customer support should any problems or questions come up during installation or play.
The Poker Stars poker room offers 11 of the most popular poker games: Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha High-Low, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud High-Low, 2-7 Triple Draw, 2-7 Single Draw, Badugi, Razz, 8-Game Mix and Horse. Clicking on any game gives you a detailed description of the rules. For new players, the Poker Basics section is highly recommended.
The Poker Stars website is very crisp and easy to navigate. They offer excellent training and tips for both the new and experienced player. The Home Games feature allows you to set up and manage your own poker club where just you and your friends are invited to play. The downloads are free, safe and easy to install. There is also a link to a Poker Stars blog site where you can share and exchange informationand read the latest professional poker tournament news.
Poker Stars is one of the best online poker sites we found, especially for beginning and intermediate players. They earn our highest rating.
888 Poker
- Cost: FREE
888 Poker has been around since 2002 making it one of the older, more established online gaming sites. Formerly known as Pacific Poker they changed their name several years back to be more inline with their parent company, online gaming giant, 888 Holdings, Inc.
Since the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006, 888 Poker has completely lost its U.S. player base. However, it remains very popular in Europe with over 2,000 game cash players and 8,000 tournament players online during peak hours.
The website is loaded with colorful, crisp graphics and offers players a wide variety of poker games as well as casino and sports betting. However, you cannot participate in any of these activities if you are a U.S. resident. Residents of Canada and most other countries will find the site and activities plentiful once the free download is complete. The site offers all of the major poker games, including Texas Hold'em,Omaha and Seven Card Stud and other variations of those same games. The site features personal avatars, including some from Marvel Comics.
They offer excellent customer support via either live chat, e-mail or 24/7 telephone. They also have a presence on Facebook in which by participating you can earn bonus points.
The site features information on rules and strategies for all of the various games available. This includes advice from their experts as well as access to a blog site where you can exchange, ask and share information with a community of poker players.
Unfortunately, there were no options to play any games with play money that U.S. residents could participate in. For that reason we must give it a much lower rating. However, if you live in another country, give it a good look.
Party Poker
- Cost: FREE
At one time, Party Poker was the largest online poker playing site in the world. Started in 2001 by an investment group which included a former adult film star, it quickly grew taking advantage of the surge in internet capabilities, faster web browser platforms and communication and the spike in the gambling industry. However, they departed the U.S. market in 2006 while maintaining a large market share in Asia andEurope.
Due to current laws, U.S. residents can only play games utilizing 'play money'. You must download software and set up an account even though you cannot open a deposit account. We found the download fast and simple but the account setup was somewhat frustrating because pop-ups kept coming up warning that U.S. players could not make a deposit but still must set up an account. It asked for a country code butgaveno clue of what numeric code that might be.
Once logged in, the site is a bit too full of text and information. The free play poker games offered are: Limit Hold'em; No Limit Hold'em; Pot Limit Hold'em; Limit Double Hold'em, No Limit Double Hold'em; Omaha, Pot Limit Omaha and 7 Card Stud.
The overall appearance of their web site is nice with easy to navigate topic headings and graphics. They offer a good variety of informational topics for the beginner, intermediate and master player regarding how to play the various games, strategies and tips to improve your play.
Through no fault of its own, many of the better games and features are not available to non money players in the U.S. The play money options are lacking and for that reason so is their overall rating here.
Full Tilt Poker
- Cost: FREE
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Full Tilt Poker offers a variety of the most common poker games online. Since online gambling is currently illegal in the U.S., only permanent residents of other countries can play their online poker games using actual money.
However, residents of the United States can still take advantage of some of the free online games utilizing 'play money'. The site offers a free download of software in which to participate in these games.
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Full Tilt offers eight varieties of online poker games: Texas Hold'em; Omaha Hi; Omaha Hi Lo; Razz; Stud Hi; Stud Hi/Lo; Draw Poker; and a Mixed Games option which allows to you play a variety of games without ever having to change tables.
Their site is pretty basic without too much information available. They tout their team of professional poker players as advisors but there does not seem to be an abundance of advice or information for either the experienced or novice player readily available on their site, although there are a basic rules and a small tips section available.
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We were less impressed with Full Tilt and their offerings. If you are looking to play poker online Full Tilt Poker is probably not worth your time.