USA Poker Sites
USA Poker Sites - Best Poker Sites for U.S. Players in 2010
Online poker has been slightly different for US players since the 2006 UIGEA US legislation was passed. The legislation regulated online gambling and forced some sites to no longer accept US players, such as Party Poker. However, there are a number of poker sites out there that do currently allow US players. The best poker sites for US players are Full Tilt Poker, Sportsbook Poker and Bodog Poker.
USAAllowed
Bonus Code: HR600
Traffic: 115,000 Players
Mac Friendly: Yes
New to Full Tilt Poker?
Full Tilt Poker Top Rated USA Poker Site
Full Tilt Poker is a large online poker site that generates a high traffic volume. The reputation of Full Tilt is very solid. The professional team that represents Full Tilt has taken the poker giant to great heights on the world stage at events such as the WSOP.
New players at Full Tilt will be rewarded on their first deposit. The new player bonus gives players a 100% match on their deposit. The maximum amount allowed for this incentive is $600.
Full Tilt offers ring games, sit n go's, multi-table tournaments, freerolls and satellite tournaments. Players can play ring games for as low as a $.05/$.10 going up to a $1,000 a hand. The traffic at Full Tilt assures players that there is always a lot of action taking place; so finding a game should rarely ever be a problem.
Full Tilt tournaments are some of the best tournament in the online poker community. Players will enjoy tournaments running around the clock. The most popular tournaments tend to be the $750k guaranteed that runs every Sunday. There is also a $250K Sunday Brawl tournament that features a knockout format. This is where players receive a bounty or payout for each player they knock out in addition to the prize pool. Full Tilt runs satellites to get into all their larger tournaments for a lower buy-in as well as live events. Some of the live events include the Aussie Millions and the WSOP.
Full Tilt players will need to visit www.fulltiltpoker.com to download the software in order to play. There is a Mac version available as well as a Windows version.
Full Tilt offers variations of Texas Holdem, Omaha, Razz and 7 Card Stud. They also host some mixed games and all of them are available in the common formats to include limit, pot-limit and no-limit. However, some games may not offer a no-limit format.
100% up to $600 Sign Up Bonus Full Tilt Poker Review
USAAllowed
Promo Code: PWBONUSPK
Traffic: 0 Players
Mac Friendly: No
New to Sportsbook Poker?
Sportsbook Poker 2nd Best USA Poker Room
Sportsbook Poker is an excellent site for US players as they only accept players from the US and Canada. The competition is fairly weak and players will find that Sportsbook Poker is a great breeding ground for inexperienced poker players.
New players will receive a rewarding bonus incentive when making their first deposit. Players will get a 100% match on their deposit of anything up to $650. New players are also given an entry to a $500 new player freeroll tournament upon making their first deposit.
The Sportsbook software is relatively user-friendly and it can be downloaded at www.sportsbook.com/poker. There is currently only a Windows version available. However, Mac users always have the options of running a Windows emulator or Boot Camp to play at Sportsbook.
Sportsbook offers players a tournament schedule with tournaments running daily. The popular tournaments tend to be the guarantee tournaments that range between $1,000 and $25,000. Sportsbook also offers a $250K monthly guaranteed tournament. Sit n Go's are also quite popular and Sportsbook incorporates a bounty format into a Sit n Go style multi-table tournament regularly.
Sportsbook offers players plenty of variations to Texas Holdem, 7 Card Stud and Omaha. They also accept US credit cards and they use a third-party processor that eliminates US banks from blocking the transactions. This is somewhat necessary due to the UIGEA in 2006.
100% up to $1000 Sign Up Bonus Sportsbook Poker Review
USAAllowed
Referral Number: 2463653
Traffic: 10,000 Players
Mac Friendly: Yes
New to Bodog?
Bodog 3rd Best Poker Site for U.S. Players
Bodog Poker is another site that is excellent for US players to sit down and play at. They accept US credit cards and they offer a rewarding new player incentive. New players can earn 10% instant cash on their first deposit. In addition, they can a 100% match on their deposit. This is determined based off of your play during a 60-day probationary period. The bonus is released in increments as you play.
Currently, existing players can also receive a 100% match on any deposit as a promotional reload bonus. If players decide to refer a friend to Bodog Poker, they can receive an additional $100 bonus for each friend referred.
The Bodog software offers plenty of customizable options to include the table color and personal icons. To access the needed application, players will need to download the software at www.bodog.com. Unfortunately, there is only a Windows version available. Players that are Mac users always have the option of using Windows emulators or running boot camp.
Bodog Poker provides players with a $100k tournament every month that is guaranteed. Bodog also runs satellites to major live events and larger tournaments such as the $100k guaranteed. Bodog also incorporates an interesting concept with their beginner poker tournaments. These tournaments stretch the payout structure to where a larger percentage of players get paid out and the amounts are slightly lowered at the top.
This allows more players to make the money and gives beginners a chance to compete with a higher chance of earning their money back plus some. The sharks are most likely going to stay away from this one since there is not as much opportunity to make the big bucks. However, this is a phenomenal concept for beginner players looking to advance their game.
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Why Are These The Best U.S. Online Poker Sites?
These three sites are the best opportunities for players in the US looking to play online poker. If you're looking for high traffic volume and huge payout opportunities, stick with Full Tilt. If you're looking for a good beginner poker room with fairly weak competition and tournaments to reflect that, check out Sportsbook. If you are looking to find a good balance between these two extremes, Bodog Poker is recommended. Bodog is just large enough to host some big poker tournaments and just small enough to have a lot of soft games.
Additional Information on the Top USA Poker Sites
Each one of the referenced sites has a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section on their website that is extremely handy. A lot of common questions have been asked by new and experienced players a thousand or more times. Please feel free to read the FAQ sections and you may very well find what you're looking for.
The US has a little tricky way around the 2006 U.S. poker legislation in which online poker rooms often use third-party processors such as ewallets to accept US payments to avoid banks from rejecting player banking transactions. US players should have no problems depositing and withdrawing from any of the three referenced sites. If you have any questions or concerns, each poker room offers a very resourceful and courteous customer support staff. Feel free to contact them.
Depending on what you're looking for, you should find it fairly comfortable and user-friendly to play at Full Tilt Poker, Sportsbook and Bodog Poker as a US player.
Playing Poker for Real Money In The United States
Many people search for “real money poker USA” because it is widely believed that online poker for real money in the USA is illegal. This is completely false. While it is difficult to find real money poker in the USA that has easy and reliable real money banking methods, there are several online poker sites that accept and cater directly to American poker players.
When someone searches for “real money poker USA” they may be searching for several things as “real money poker USA” is quite a broad topic. When I see someone reach this site by searching for “real money poker USA,” there are many possible questions that person may want answered. The more detailed questions that I think these searchers may be trying to find answers for are:
- “Is real money poker legal in the USA?”
- “What sites can I play online poker for real money in the USA?”
- “Are there casinos that I can play real money poker for in the USA?”
- “How can I deposit to play real money poker in the USA?”
I also see questions related to individual online poker sites and whether USA poker players can play poker for real money at these sites. Many of these searchers probably signed up for the “dot net” version of the poker site (i.e., PokerStars.net), which all offer nothing but free play to US poker players. No dot net poker sites offer real money poker to USA poker players. Many of their “dot com” sister sites do offer legal poker for Americans and I will highlight the most popular ones below. The most common search terms that I see for this site are:
- “Full Tilt Poker real money USA”
- “PokerStars real money USA” or “Poker Stars real money USA”
- “Party Poker real money USA”
- “Sportsbook Poker real money USA”
I will go over all of these topics on this page. Just scroll down to the question you need answering in the sections below.
Is Real Money Poker Legal In The USA?
Yes. While poker is legal in most of the United States, it is illegal or “possibly illegal” in 14 states. I say “possibly” because some states have old laws on the books that may define online poker as illegal if they were to be interpreted in certain ways. The 14 states you should watch your back in are:
- Illinois – Misdemeanor offense and possibly more (felony).
- Indiana
- Kentucky – Governor tried to IP ban online poker sites. That didn’t work.
- Louisiana – Felony to gamble online.
- Michigan
- Missouri - Most against online gambling but not a felony
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New York
- Oregon
- South Dakota
- Utah
- Washington – FELONY to play online poker for real money in the US
- Wisconsin
The bolded state names are the states that have concrete laws on their books that criminalize the act of playing real money online poker. Although it may be legal to play online poker for real money in the other 11 states, you should NOT take any advice on this site as legal advice! Seriously. Check with your local government before playing any online poker or any other online gambling at all. If you play real money poker in a state that you shouldn’t, it is your fault — Not mine. …just to be clear. We list poker law websites in our poker directory.
What sites can I play online poker for real money in the USA?
There are dozens of real money online poker sites that accept USA players, but there are only a couple that I personally recommend. The sites I recommend are in no way the only ones that are trustworthy and are certainly not the only poker sites that accept United States poker players.
My favorite real money online poker site for Americans is PokerStars.com. You may have seen TV commercials for “Pokerstars.net”, which is the free play site. PokerStars offers the easiest and most reliable deposit method for USA poker players: Instant E-checks. To use an e-check, you simply enter all the info from one of your physical paper checks from your checkbook and money is instantly taken from your bank’s checking account and deposited into your online poker account. You can read more about E-checks a little further down this page.
Other real money online poker sites that I recommend are Full Tilt Poker and Sportsbook Poker. Both of these poker sites offer real money poker action to Americans and they are both easy to deposit and withdraw money from. Full Tilt accepts echecks like PokerStars does and also has an okay (40-60%) credit card acceptance rate.
Sportsbook Poker is the best real money poker site to play at if you are an American and want to deposit money using a credit or debit card. Sportsbook Poker has been in business since 2007 and has boasted an 80% plus credit card acceptance rate the entire time.
Are there casinos where I can play real money poker in the USA?
There are lots of land-based casinos in the United States, most noticeably in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Up until about 2005 though, not many American casinos offered real money poker. Sure, you could find video poker machines all over the place, but it was very difficult to find real live poker with a dealer against real opponents. The best place to find real poker was in small local card rooms like the ones that popped up all over California in the late 1980’s.
Since poker “blew up” after Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker in 2003 though, almost every Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Indian casino have their very own live poker room now. Real money live poker has become so incredibly popular that a lot of casinos take a loss just running their poker room to operate real money poker games to draw poker players into the casino, hoping that they will play other gambling games as well.
How can I deposit money to play real money poker in the USA?
Instant E-checks – As I mentioned before, “Instant E-checks” are the best way for USA poker players to deposit money online. To use an instant Echeck for online poker, you simply enter the information from one of your personal checks and money is instantly credited to your online poker account. The information that is commonly required to process an instant echeck is listed below:
- Bank name
- Checking account number
- Checking account routing number
- Social security number (SSN)
- Date of birth
- Phone number
- Deposit amount
Online poker sites that accept instant electronic checks instantly credit the money to your poker account, while the electronic bank transfer takes up a week to clear on your bank’s end, so make sure you take that into account when figuring your checking balance. The best US real money poker site for Instant E-checks is Pokerstars.com.
Credit cards – Credit cards are also an option to deposit money to play real money USA poker. There are several U.S. poker sites that list U.S. credit cards as a deposit option, but there are only two poker sites that have high credit card acceptance rates. Sportsbook Poker and Playersonly.com both have 85%+ acceptance rates for American credit card deposits.
Real Money USA Poker Sites
Many people search for terms related to whether individual online poker sites allow real money poker play to American citizens. While it is true that the majority of online poker websites do not allow US poker players, several poker sites do allow real money poker for Americans. We will go over several of the terms that internet users search for to find this page and the answer to each inquiry.
“Full Tilt Poker real money USA” – Full Tilt does allow real money USA poker play on their website. “Fulltiltpoker.net” is the free poker website and does not allow anyone to play poker for real money, but to play real money poker, simply visit Fulltiltpoker.com and sign up for a real money USA poker account.
“PokerStars real money USA” or “Poker Stars real money USA” – Pokerstars.com does allow USA real money poker play. In fact, Pokerstars has the most American real money poker players, with over 20,000 real money poker players online at peak traffic times. Pokerstars.net does not allow real money poker play, so visit Pokerstars.com to play poker for real money.
“Party Poker real money USA” – Party Poker does not allow Americans to play poker for real money. PartyPoker allowed real money US poker prior to 2007, but stopped allowing United States players after UIGEA legislation was passed by the USA, disallowing some types of financial transactions relating to online gambling. Partypoker.net does not allow real money USA poker play. If you would like to play poker for real money, visit any of the other poker sites listed on this page.
“Sportsbook Poker real money USA” – Sportsbook Poker does allow USA real money poker, and is one of the easiest poker websites to deposit money onto for Americans. Sportsbook.com features an 85% approval rate for American credit cards, which is the highest approval rate in the online poker industry.
