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Table Of Contents
- Red Dead Online players may use VPNs to circumvent the restrictions and play poker, but with so many other things to do, that may not be worth it due to the chance of being banned from the game.
- Replay Poker is one of the top rated free online poker sites. Whether you are new to poker or a pro our community provides a wide selection of low, medium, and high stakes tables to play Texas Hold’em, Omaha Hi/Lo, and more.
- Our experts delve into the legality of playing real money online poker in the USA, rank & review the best poker sites to safely play, which scam websites to avoid, where to find the best bonuses such as exclusive free $10 bankroll offers and freerolls, as well as.
Are online poker sites legal and safe?
Every online poker site featured on our site is licensed and regulated in the U.S. It’s just as safe to deposit and play on these sites as it is to deposit money into a bank. So yes, the sites we list and recommend are as safe as it gets.
Top tier starting hands - top 2% of starting hands.Good Texas Holdem starting hands are typically hands like big pocket pairs and big connecting cards. Basic starting hand selection. Top 30 texas holdem hands. So some of the top starting hands would be:. AA.
On the other hand, as there are many online poker sites that are not legal within the U.S. and are not guaranteed to be safe with your money. There are online poker sites that accept American poker players even though they are not licensed or regulated within the U.S. These sites are operating illegally and are defying the U.S. Department of Justice, and your money is not always secure there.
We will never list such poker sites, but other websites might. If you would like to be 100 percent sure that a poker site is a safe place to deposit money, check to see if it’s on our list of U.S. legal online poker sites.
Which online poker sites allow you to play legal poker online within the US?
The list of legal online poker sites is growing very quickly. Therefore, the best way to answer this question is to point you to our list of legal US online poker sites that have either launched already or will launch soon.
Where can I play legal online poker in the US?
The quick answer: Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware, as of the end of November 2013. Other states may follow suit, but nothing is imminent. Check out our U.S. Online Poker Laws by State for the latest.
Online poker isn't likely to be legalized nationally in the immediate future, but there are plenty of states looking to legalize online poker on their own. Nevada was the first state to make online poker legal, and the first online poker sites are already launching.
Online poker isn't likely to be legalized on a federal level in the immediate future, but there are plenty of states looking to legalize online poker on their own. Nevada was the first state to make online poker legal, and the first online poker sites have already launched. New Jersey and Delaware also both went live in November 2013.
Other states that are seriously considering the legalization of online poker include California, Washington, Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Illinois, and Texas.
Do I have to live in a state where online poker is legal to sign up and play?
This is a three-part answer. You can register on these sites from anywhere. You may or may not be able to deposit money from anywhere. Some online poker sites will let you deposit from out of state, while others have disabled the deposit process unless you can also play there. You won't be able to play unless you're present within the borders of the state where the site operates. But you don't have to be a legal resident. It's just like visiting a land-based casino from out of state.
So, you could sign up for a Nevada online poker site while sitting in Texas as a Texas resident, and then you can deposit money and play online poker next time you’re visiting Las Vegas.
How does an online poker site know where I’m playing from?
Online poker sites use a number of methods to verify that you are currently located in a place that it’s legal for you to be playing. Most sites look at your IP address, which gives details regarding where your computer is connecting from. Many sites combine that IP address check with other methods, like triangulation via cell phone towers (they ping your registered cell phone number, and occasionally text you, to ensure that your cell phone is currently in your possession and in a legal state).
How can I learn how to play poker?
This is a tricky question, because everyone’s level of knowledge is different. If you don’t know what beats what, take a look at our easy-to-understand chart of poker hand rankings. If you don’t know the basic game mechanics -- what to do, and when you’re allowed to do it – we've also got a guide to playing Texas hold'em.
If you understand at least those fundamentals, the absolute best way to learn how to play poker is to jump right in and play! Experience is the best teacher, and there are plenty of options for online poker that allow you to play for free or very cheaply — as little as $0.01. (Keep in mind that the minimum deposit is usually $10.)
Once you’re comfortable with the value of hands and the structure of the game, you might want to start looking into more intermediate or advanced strategy. There are plenty of resources available for you to learn poker strategy, including poker books and training videos.
You can also branch out into different poker variants and learn an entirely new poker game! If you’re comfortable and having fun with Texas hold'em, you might want to try Omaha or seven-card stud. There are dozens of different variations of poker being played at casinos throughout the U.S.
How is online poker different from live poker?
Because the act of shuffling, handling chips and dealing takes time, online poker is a much faster game than live poker. In fact, though there are usually no time limits on decisions in live poker (though someone can call a staff member if you're too slow), in online poker, every decision has a time limit. It may take some time to get used to the pace of a typical online poker session.
How do online poker sites make money?
Online poker sites stay in business by collecting two things. The first is a fee from each hand played, called the rake. The second is a flat fee added on to each entry into a tournament, called the tournament fee. Check each online site carefully for the current rake and fee amounts.
How can I deposit money onto a legal online poker site?
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This question varies depending upon both the state and the online poker site. Most sites will allow deposits in some or all of the following ways:
- Electronic check / ACH
- Bank wire
- Major Credit Cards (if allowed, this often is considered a cash advance, and may incur an additional fee from the credit-card company)
- Mailed check
- In person cash deposit (many online poker sites are owned by companies that also own brick-and-mortar casinos)
How do I withdraw money or collect my winnings from an online poker site?
The most common method for withdrawing winnings from an online poker site (cashing out) is via a mailed check. Most online poker sites will send you a check for your winnings to your registered mailing address. Some sites offer additional cashout methods. For instance, if an online poker site has a land-based casino counterpart, it often is possible to cash out and then simply pick up your winnings from the casino’s cashier cage.
Where can I find out about the latest online poker promotions?
By signing up to an online poker site through Poker Atlas, you can gain numerous bonuses that will help you get ahead at the tables. To find out about the latest deals we offer, take a look at Overlay, by Poker Atlas.
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Are we missing something?
To play, or not to play. That is the question that millions of online poker enthusiasts have to answer due to the constantly evolving online poker regulatory landscape.
Whether or not you have unfettered access to online poker is vastly dependent on where you live, since laws and regulation surrounding the game are constantly being added or amended. For those fortunate enough to live somewhere smart enough to legalize and regulate online poker, there is not much of a debate. However, in areas where online poker is restricted, there are more than a handful of sites which operate outside of the law and are unlicensed and unregulated.
While we at PokerNews certainly do not support unregulated poker rooms, we do realize that players will still take chances to play the game they love. But should they? We look at both sides of the argument. Play ghost rider games.
Play if You Wish, But Be Careful
I'm not going to pretend you're not putting your money at risk playing on any of the unlicensed and unregulated online poker sites available to US players. Instead, I'm going to embrace the idea. After all, isn't poker all about taking calculated risks to begin with?
I'm certainly not suggesting you leave tens of thousands of dollars in limbo on these sites. For goodness sake, cash out large amounts as soon as you can. But if you like playing real money online poker for affordable stakes in the privacy of your own home while you wait for painfully slow legislators across the country to make it legal, these offshore sites the Department of Justice continues to ignore are your best bet.
After all, the chances that you run kings into aces for your entire bankroll seems infinitely greater than the sites cutting and running with your money, the DOJ finally getting around to shutting them down, or somebody hacking your account and dumping the cash into theirs. As long as you're being smart about it, and playing with money you can afford to lose, any one of these scenarios actually happening can simply be chalked up to another bad beat, and if you can't handle one of those, you shouldn't really be playing poker to begin with.
Last I checked, this was the United States of America: The land of the free and the home of the brave. When it comes to online poker, the average American's freedoms have been limited over the years, but this is a still a place where we're free to play on any online poker site we like until the DOJ comes knocking at the door. It's also a country where fortune favors the bold, and particularly in poker, those who take the biggest risks, reap the biggest rewards.
In what would have to be considered a worst-case scenario, the DOJ will finally get around to actively pursuing these grey-market operators and shut them down like they did PokerStars and Full Tilt. Despite some major hiccups, and a rather slow and arduous payout process, the majority of US players' funds were ultimately returned, and one would hope the DOJ forces these currently operating unlicensed and unregulated online poker sites to do the same should they be targeted. No matter what, ensuring you don't have the kind of money tied up on these sites that can have a major effect on your finances is key to being able to weather whatever storm comes.
The bottom line is this: Yes, you're taking a risk with your money when you play on an unlicensed and unregulated online poker site, and of course, you should act accordingly, and limit the amount of money you risk to an affordable number. But for those who want to continue to play online poker now, it's certainly a risk worth taking.
-- Marty Derbyshire
Just Stay Away from Unregulated Sites, It's Not Worth the Risk
I love poker. If you're reading this article, chances are pretty good you love poker too. People like us who love poker are often willing to take chances to play it. If you need evidence for this, look no further than the lofty perch Bodog/Bovada occupies on the traffic rankings at PokerScout.
Every day, thousands of people play poker on these unregulated sites. They risk their hard-earned dollars, heedless of the inherent and very real risks involved. Should they be doing so?
In a word, no.
It seems many poker players have memories about as sharp as that of the average goldfish. It was merely a little over five years ago that we all logged on to our accounts on PokerStars and Full Tilt only to find we were ordered to cash out on one site and had our funds frozen in limbo on the other.
So now, these other sites have popped up and are welcoming our money with open arms. It's not hard to see why people are biting. We all miss relaxing at home and firing up a tournament or sipping a beer while playing games like Omaha and stud that are hard to find even at most casinos that spread poker.
But players who give these sites their business are not getting the experience of PokerStars and Full Tilt of yesteryear. They're risking their money for crappy products from untrustworthy companies.
Take Bovada, for example. I have played on this site, and like anyone else who has done so, I can attest that its software is complete garbage. Software glitches and freezes are routine. Sometimes, whole tournaments get canceled, or worse, exploited.
This very situation happened to a friend of mine, who was deep in a tournament only to be locked out by a software freeze. He waited over an hour to finally reconnect, only to find some of the players had gotten in before others and were eagerly pillaging blinds and antes, building monstrous stacks at the expense of everyone else.
Did Bovada make things right? Hardly. With no regulators to answer to, why would they? At best, my friend received a tournament ticket as recompense, while those who attained an unfair advantage made off with thousands in prize money.
Even worse what allegedly transpired over at another unregulated site recently, where pro poker player Alex Foxen learned first-hand the dangers of having substantial sums on unregulated sites. According to Foxen, a scammer managed to hoodwink a poker site employee into thinking he was Foxen and cleaned out his account not once, but twice. Foxen claimed losses of $11,500 in the incident.
The wisdom of keeping sums like that on unregulated sites can certainly be questioned, but this is a tale of someone simply rattling off a few of Foxen's vitals and gaining instant access to his account. If that doesn't get you turning and running the other way, I don't know what will.
They say those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it and that's exactly what's happening to anyone who willingly places money on an unregulated online poker site. Instead of spending their time grinding on these sites, they should be lobbying lawmakers for regulated online poker for all.
Keep enjoying those online tournaments and cash games if you like, please don't holler about the inhumanity of it all when the Department of Justice beats down the doors of these scummy, bottom-feeding entities that have taken over the scraps from PokerStars and Full Tilt's tables.
-- Mo Nuwwarah
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*Please note that the thoughts and opinions expressed in this article reflect those of the author and not PokerNews. PokerNews strongly advises players to avoid playing poker on unregulated sites. You can see a full list of regulated poker rooms in your area here.
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