hide
U.S. Poker Sites Shut Down! Best Legal U.S. Poker Relevant pages:

Several popular poker sites have been shut down recently. There are now very few legal online U.S. poker sites.
If you would like to play online poker legally, then you can view our list of LEGAL U.S. POKER SITES.

legal us poker site

>> BetOnline Poker Review <<

US Poker Sites
Legal Poker Sites
Beginner Poker Stes
Real Money Poker Sites

Loose Poker Sites

Page summary: In the context of online poker, ‘loose’ describes players who play a lot of hands. The implication is that they play more hands than could be profitable – making a game with loose players a good place to be if you want to win real money!

What you will find is that some online poker sites attract a lot of loose players. Others are full of the opposite type, tight or even ‘nitty’ opponents who will not give you much action without a good hand. This page looks at the criteria for the loosest online poker sites in more detail – and gives you pointers to finding these very profitable games. After some thoughts specific to US and non-US players, I have also outlined some of the adjustments you can make when you encounter loose games.

Loosest Poker Sites - Easiest Poker Rooms in 2024

**** Do you want to play online poker and you are a US citizen, click here to sign up at BetOnline Poker. They accept US credit cards & eChecks. ****

Rank Poker Site Bonus Amount Bonus Code play poker online Start Playing play poker online
1 100% up to $2000 *Use Link IgnitionCasino.eu
2 100% up to $1000 *Use Link Bovada.eu
3 100% up to $2500 *Use Link BetOnline.com
4 100% up to $600 *Use Link Intertops.com
5 100% up to $2500 *Use Link SportsBetting
6 100% up to $2000 *Use Link America's Cardroom
7 100% up to $2000 *Use Link Blackchip Poker

How Do We Define A "Loose Poker Site"?

The quickest way to spot a loose poker game online is to head to the lobby of your site and check through the list of cash game tables. Most sites show two important statistics – the percentage of players seeing each flop, and the average pot size.

When the percentage of players seeing each flop is high, by definition you have found a loose game. Players at this table are willing to enter pots with a wide range of hands. When the average pot size is also high, you can imply that these same players build big pots with this wide range of hands. This is a potentially profitable table.

You still need to look at the table; it may be that a single terrible player is entering all the pots, and that reasonable players are calling ‘wide’ in an attempt to take the fishes chips on a favorable flop. In this case when the bad player leaves, the game may revert to being tight.

What Makes a Poker Site Loose?

Most online poker sites are loose at the lower limits, and only the biggest sites (especially PokerStars) have a large amount of professional ‘grinders’ in the lower buy-in games. What keeps a site loose above the micro-limits is new and inexperienced players joining the games. The best place to find this type of game is to head to poker rooms which are also attached to big sports betting brands. What happens is that people log on to place their sports bets, notice that there is poker room available, and head to the tables to check out the games…

Some online poker rooms encourage recreational players with promotions and offers aimed at amateurs. Other sites reward tighter players. If you see ‘rakeback’ offered, this will often cause ultra-tight players to sit in many games at the same time to ‘grind out’ their rewards. These pro grinders use special tools (called HUDs) to keep track of weaker opponents. If you see a site which actively bans these tools, or at least makes some effort to blunt their effectiveness – then there is a higher chance that this will be a loose poker site.

Finally, tighter grinders favor games which are easy to multi-table. These are usually the full-ring and 6-max NL Holdem tables. If you look outside of those games you are more likely to find loose games.

Loose Poker Sites for US Players

With the smaller offshore poker sites which allow US players not generally being grinder-friendly – you’ll get a lot of loose action online.

BetOnline are a great example, with their huge sportsbook providing a constant stream of new players to their poker room. As the biggest site on the Chico Poker network, BetOnline offer a good selection of loose cash games.

Ignition Poker took over the poker room from Bovada. This room has deliberately changed the way their site works to discourage grinders and keep the games loose and entertaining. Players are restricted to 4 cash game tables at once, and anonymous play makes HUD tools ineffective.

The other big US poker network (Winning Poker Network) allows rakeback and has volume based leaderboard type promotions. While both of these factors encourage grinding, you’ll still find the games fairly loose.

Loosest Sites for Non-US Players

The biggest online poker site, PokerStars, has a lot of positives – though loose games is certainly not one of them! Pro-grinders can be found at all levels, with players from lower GDP countries multi-tabling the penny games. There are still some soft games, with the Spin N Go games and the tournaments attracting a lot of first time players.

Next in the rankings, you’ll find a trio of sites which are comparatively very loose. These are 888, the iPoker Network and Party Poker. iPoker is a shared poker network which is used by many of the biggest sportsbook brands from the UK and Europe. Again, you’ll find that cross-over traffic makes the games loose (and wild at times). Party Poker still enjoys brand recognition from non-players which sees many first timers trying the games.

Adjusting to Loose Poker Games

Simply playing tighter than your opponents will give you a significant advantage in these loose games. For me, this approach still leaves a lot of money on the table.

In all poker games, your adjustments should be for specific players – and loose players tend to be those same ones which will call down with 2nd best (or worse!) hands and build big pots while out of position.

Since this type of player is rarely folding with any type of hand at all, the worst thing you can try to do is bluff too often. Continuation bets will often get folds when an opponent has nothing at all, though big river bluffs get called way too often in the loosest games.

If your table is loose you can adjust your starting hand selection. Hands like small pairs and suited connectors become valuable – as these can flop hidden monsters that will win big pots. Unsuited high cards (King-10 off for example) do way down in value multi-way. If there is an individual player with wild tendencies, then you should try and isolate them with a raise pre-flop. This should give you a chance for your superior post-flop game to count, giving you an exclusive shot at stacking them!