Looking at Playing Poker Online?

Get started online can be an exciting time - but also a slightly intimidating one. Playing online poker as a new player can take some time to adjust - especially if you have predominantly been more accustomed to playing in live or home games.

One of our goals is to make it as easy as possible to find a suitable site whilst getting you the best head start in building your bankroll. We have done all the work for you and have collected the best deals across the best online poker rooms. With thousands of poker rooms to choose from, shopping around before you play online is sensible, particularly as the experience and quality varies from one room to another (even for rooms on the same network). It might be that not all sites may offer your game of choice. Additionally, the type of game or preferred limits might not be available in the site you choose. There is also a fairly significant difference in traffic, software and of course rewards.

When choosing where to play and and what you need to consider, here is a brief guide as to what to look for before making your decision:

Key Considerations before selecting a room

 

Player Volumes on site - this is a key factor and has proved important in the demise of some online poker rooms. It is always worth checking to see if there are any postings that shed bad light on a poker room you are planning to play. Fortunately for you, we keep a track of this and detail anything pertinent within our reviews.

Variety of games on offer - If Texas Holdem is your game then you can pretty much expect to find it in every poker room you play on. Some of the other less popular games are not hosted on all sites. It is therefore a good move to check out what games are available before you play. It would be a waste of your time is you go through the registration process only to find out that your choice of room does not host your game of choice.

Ease of competition - this is an important factor for any poker player. Player skill will vary depending on which room you choose to play. The sites with big promotions and high stakes games and tournaments are usually where you find the big players (although usually playing the higher stakes). The idea of playing online poker is that you want to win money so it stands to reason you should choose a poker room that has players that you are better than. This is worth taking into account when selecting where to play.

Bonus Offer - all online poker rooms have player incentives, some good and some not so good. There is also a variety of poker bonus that could be offered (sign up welcome bonus, deposit bonus or a monthly reload bonus. If you are a new player the welcome bonus is what you will receive - We always negotiate top bonuses to ensure that you get the best deal when signing up. Read more on how poker bonuses work.

Promotions - promotions are a good way to keep you busy and motivated to play. This could be by the way of a promotional tournament or by offering you something in return for your play / loyalty. Remember all of the sites listed here have been done so because they offer an excellent range of promotions, including an excellent welcome bonus.

Software used - most of the top poker rooms have very good software and graphics, playing on platforms that are stable. It can be very irritating playing online and you lose connection (and lose a big one) or a tournament gets cancelled due to technical difficulties. Many of the smaller names still have bugs on their software and their sites are still disorganized and hard to navigate. All the poker rooms listed here have been chosen as they are the elitist rooms that rarely have any problems that will disrupt your play.

Support - it is important to know that if you run into any problems on the site that any issue will be resolved. More importantly you want to know that you can contact the host room easily and things will be resolved in good time. Most of the big rooms have live support as well as email and telephone support. Some however do not and rely only by email.

It is also important to remember that there are a lot of online sites available. Make sure you check out our reviews so that you guarantee that you get the best welcome bonus package available.

Getting Started

 

If you feel you are good to go, select one of our featured sites. When you visit the site, you will have to download their software (install it on your drives) and create a player account. You don't have to deposit into your account at any stage (if you just want to have a look before deciding), although a number of our generous offers are based in part on real money play, so to be given the full bonus you will need to make a real money deposit - this is entirely up to you whether to do this or not. Once your account is created you are pretty much ready to go. You are free to have a look around and use the practice tables if you do not feel you are ready to play for real money.

You might also want to check this guide to playing poker on the internet.

Our top recommended site is Titan Poker. There is a FREE $20 on offer for all new players. Alternatively check our our other bonus offers.