Poker Sites

Welcome to BestPokerSites.org! Our site is a collection of poker toplists that are designed to help you find the best poker sites. To get started, check out our picks for the three best online poker sites:

If you would like to start playing online poker right away, choose one of the poker sites above and click the poker room's logo, the poker room's name, or the poker room's website to be lead to the site's homepage so you can get started. Or, if you would like to learn more about the poker sites, read on.

Online Poker Site Reviews

If you would like to learn more about these poker sites before you start playing, you should definitely check out our poker site reviews. We have written up complete reviews of the top ten online poker rooms - each review takes a look at the poker site's sign up bonus, software, player competition/traffic, deposit methods, and support options. Click the links below to start learning:

If you would like to learn about sites other than the three listed above, check out our full collection of online poker site reviews. Or, read on to check out our poker toplists (you may also want to check out our online poker guide).

General Poker Toplists

These toplists are the most popular on our site because they apply to the majority of players. Check out the most popular lists below, or browse all of our general online poker toplists.

Online Poker Blog

Another major section of our site is our online poker blog. Here are the three most recent posts to the blog, which contains poker news, tips, and humour articles:

Has Online Poker Gotten Harder? An In-Depth Analysis…

California Casinos Join Commerce Casino Opposing Online Poker

Is 2010 the Year of the Quitter? – Three Players Who Gave it Up

Poker Country Toplists

Certain countries have specific legislation regarding online poker. Only the best poker sites accept players from every country, and the toplists below will show you which sites accept players from which countries:

Poker Game Toplists

These lists are perfect if you only play one game and want to find the best site for your specific game. Check out all of our poker game toplists, or view the most popular pages below:

At the moment we are working on adding more toplists to our site, including rankings of the best USA poker sites and many more. Make sure to bookmark our site and check back soon to learn more about the best online poker sites. Also, check out our poker currency toplists, poker deposit methods, and poker game type toplists in the mean time. Alternatively, you can view the BestPokerSites.org sitemap to see a list of every page on the site.

Choosing the Best Poker Site

Choosing the best poker site is the first step in your online poker journey. It’s also an important step because each poker site out there has its own advantages and disadvantages. The term “best” is relative in this sense because what may be the best poker site for someone else may not be the best poker site for you.

When evaluating poker sites, you want to consider your own playing style and goals first. For example, some poker sites offer bonuses that are perfect for high stakes players but others offer bonuses that are much better for low stakes players. And that’s just one example out of many.

No one factor should be the end-all decision maker for your choice in poker sites. When looking for the best poker site, you want to take all factors into consideration and then choose the poker site that best fits your needs. In the grand scheme of things, there isn’t a huge difference between one poker site and the next, but it’s still worth spending a little time to find a high quality poker site.

Poker Room Reputation

The most important factor of all is reputation. It is absolutely vital that you only play real money poker at poker sites that have positive reputations. Most online poker rooms are safe places to play but there have been isolated examples of poker sites that took forever to process cashouts and give players their bonuses.

You want to play at poker sites that are known for being safe, secure and trustworthy. With online poker, you have to have a lot of trust because you can’t see the games right before you like you can in live poker. The entire foundation of internet poker is based on trust and reputation. Fortunately, we know of many poker sites that have earned the trust of players over the past decade.

Poker Deposit Bonuses

Deposit bonuses are a great way to build your bankroll and earn extra spending money. Every online poker site has some sort of real-money bonus that they give you for signing up and depositing. At all poker sites, these bonuses are given out as match percentages of your first deposit there. For example, a poker site with a 100% bonus will match your first deposit dollar for dollar.

If you’re a medium or high stakes player, you will want to look for the poker site that has the highest maximum bonus amount. Bodog Poker, for example, has a maximum bonus of $1100. If you play lower stakes games, you’ll want to find poker bonuses that are easy to release quickly. In that sense, Full Tilt Poker comes to mind because its bonus can be cleared by most players very quickly.

Player Traffic

When it comes to player traffic, most online poker sites fall into one of two categories:

• High traffic, difficult competition
• Low traffic, easy competition

High traffic poker sites offer players the advantages of lots of game selection, high stakes games and action at all levels. Low traffic poker sites do not have as many games but the players there are much softer. The reason for this is that professional players like to have hundreds of tables to choose from so they can pick and choose and run 12 tables at a time.

When I say “low traffic,” I don’t mean poker sites that only have four players logged in. I’m talking about poker sites that always have several thousand players logged in and playing at the real money tables. At the low and medium stakes levels, you will usually have a dozen or more tables to choose from.

High traffic poker sites have hundreds of tables at each level but there aren’t as many fishy players. The good thing about high traffic poker sites is that you can find soft tables if you practice the art of table selection. Finding soft tables is not as easy at high traffic sites but it can be done.

Speed of Software

This may sound like an odd criterion in identifying the best poker site but it actually has a major effect on your poker experience. I’ve noticed that some poker sites have software that takes forever to deal out each card, process each player’s actions and then dole out the pot at the end of each hand.

These little pauses and hesitations drastically affect how many hands you can see per hour. If you’re a winning player, this translates directly to a lower hourly rate simply because of the poker site software. PokerStars is a great poker site but their software is unbearably slow. If you compare their software to the software at Ultimate Bet, you’ll see a huge difference in how quickly the hands are processed.

Poker Player Incentives

All online poker sites have some sort of loyalty program for their players. These programs are based on frequent player points and those points then determine what types of benefits you get. The more points you earn, the more free cash, free items and free tournament entries you receive.

At the lower levels, poker loyalty programs are pretty much the same across the board. As you move up in stakes and play more often, different programs start to stand out for their incentives. Sportsbook Poker has a great player rewards program that gives straight up cash to loyal players. Some other poker sites pale in comparison.

Making Your Final Decision

Remember – the most important factor of all is picking a safe, trustworthy poker site. Once you have that out of the way, you can use all of the above-mentioned factors to help you choose the best poker site for your action. Deposit bonuses, player traffic, software, loyalty programs and all around quality should all be considered when making choosing the best poker sites.

In the end, these factors are worthy of consideration but no single factor will make or break a poker site. What’s most important is that you find a poker site you enjoy and can maybe even make a little money at. The online poker sites mentioned here are the ones we trust the most and that we think you’ll enjoy the most. So enjoy your stay while you’re here and good luck at the tables when you leave. Stop back any time for more poker site recommendations.