Best Online Poker Site Reviews

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Reading Time 12 minutes
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Online poker is big business. With so many online poker rooms for USA players to choose from, it can be rather challenging to know just which sites you should play at. Fortunately, that’s where Online Poker America comes in.

Our poker reviews are one-hundred percent unbiased, written by a passionate team of experts who loves and spends countless hours playing poker both online and off, just like yourselves.

The only difference is, each of our reviewers has been playing at a professional level for more than 10 years. And in that time, they have seen and played at pretty much every kind of sites out there – from the good, the bad, and the downright ugly poker rooms that you should avoid at all costs.

BetOnline 100% up to $1000 Read Review
Ignition Poker 150% up to $1500 Read Review
Juicy Stakes 200% up to $1000 Read Review
Americas Cardroom 100% up to $1000 Read Review
Intertops Poker 100% up to $1000 Read Review
Bovada 100% up to $500 Read Review
SportsBetting 100% up to $2500 Read Review
Real Money Online Poker Rooms
Poker Room Bonus Review
888Poker 100% up to $1500 Read Review
Americas Cardroom 100% up to $1000 Read Review
BetOnline 100% up to $1000 Read Review
Bovada 100% up to $500 Read Review
Global Poker SC$1,000 Freeroll Read Review
Ignition Poker 100% up to $2000 Read Review
Intertops 200% up to $1000 Read Review
PartyPoker 200% up to $500 Read Review
PokerStars 100% up to $600 Read Review
Sportsbetting.ag Poker 100% up to $2500 Read Review
WSOP 100% up to $400 Read Review
Play Money Poker Sites
Poker Room Bonus Review
Fresh Deck Poker 35,000 Play Chips Read Review
Full Tilt Poker 35,000 Play Chips Read Review
Replay Poker 500 – 2500 Play Chips Read Review
WSOP 20,000 Play Chips Read Review
Zynga Poker 60,000 Play Chips Read Review

If anyone knows what it is that you should look for in a trustworthy and ultimate online poker site, it is our team. We’ve been in your shoes before, and we know exactly what you want and need.

So why read reviews written purely for profits when you could be reading the best online poker site reviews written by real poker players, for poker players? That’s exactly what we do.

If there is an online poker room which accepts US players and genuinely offers a solid poker gaming experience, we know of it. All the poker reviews we recommend are ideal for all range of players, from complete beginners to veterans who’ve been around the block a few times. The poker sites that makes it onto our highly recommended list don’t just have to pass one test, but multiple criteria, and come out with flying colors.

If you play poker online for real money in the USA, then we’re happy to help. Let us first start by showcasing just exactly what it is we look for in our reviews.

improve our guides to improve your poker game

Our Poker Review Criteria in Brief

As we’ve said, our poker reviews must pass a pretty rigorous test, spanning several criteria. If a poker room isn’t worth our time, then it certainly won’t be worth yours. We grade poker rooms through several categories, to make sure that we can offer nothing but the best online poker site reviews for you.

We’ve been doing this for many years now, so here at Online Poker America, we look at six general criteria when reviewing a new online poker room. First, let us briefly introduce the six criteria we look at, then we’ll go into a little more detail about the specific things that make up the best online poker reviews in each category.

Online Poker Sites Reviews Criteria
User Experience It is vastly important that a poker site offers a quality gaming experience to its users. If we haven’t had fun playing at a poker room, you probably won’t either.
Visual Quality Online poker rooms don’t have to look stunning, but the visual quality certainly helps. Of course, all the poker sites we recommend will be presented in a neat and orderly way, so you don’t have to spend hours scrolling through menus to get to what you want.
Software Quality It helps when a poker room offers a lot of choices. Those online poker USA friendly websites that are the most successful are generally those which have the best software, and a great choice of games for players to pick from.
Device Compatibility Mobile poker is very much in. We at least think that a poker room should offer you the ability to play on your smartphones and tablets, even if you won’t necessarily do so.
Deposit Options What good is a poker room if it doesn’t offer some US-friendly banking options? What we want to see is a surplus of trustworthy, reliable deposit options which will suit most players.
Payout Speed Lastly, there are plenty of poker rooms out there which are more than happy to speedily accept your deposits, but then slack off when it comes time to dish out your winnings. We have made it our aim to call out those which are sloppy in this arena and praise those who excel at getting your winnings to you in a timely manner.

Real Money Poker Room Reviews

1

BetOnline.ag

4.9 / 5.0
Features
  • Trusted by US Players Since 2001
  • Huge Bad Beat Jackpots
  • Fully Licensed and Regulated
Payout Speed 1-2 Days
Exclusive Bonus 100% up to $1000
Secure, Fast Deposit Options
2

Ignition Poker

4.7 / 5.0
Secure, Fast Deposit Options
Exclusive Bonus 150% up to $1500
3

Americas Cardroom

4.5 / 5.0
Secure, Fast Deposit Options
Exclusive Bonus 100% up to $1000
4

Intertops Poker

4.5 / 5.0
Secure, Fast Deposit Options
Exclusive Bonus 200% up to $1000
5

Bovada

4.4 / 5.0
Secure, Fast Deposit Options
Exclusive Bonus 100% up to $500
6

Juicy Stakes

4.4 / 5.0
Secure, Fast Deposit Options
Exclusive Bonus 200% up to $1000
7

Sportsbetting.ag

4.3 / 5.0
Secure, Fast Deposit Options
Exclusive Bonus 100% up to $2500

Play Money Poker Room Reviews

1

Fresh Deck

4.8 / 5.0
Features
  • Real money cash prizes and promotions
  • Turbo speed tables and tournaments
  • Buddy lists to keep you connected
Payout Speed 1-2 Days
First Deposit Only 35,000 Play Chips
Secure, Fast Deposit Options
2

Zynga Poker

4.6 / 5.0
Secure, Fast Deposit Options
First Deposit Only 60,000 Play Chips
3

Replay Poker

4.5 / 5.0
Secure, Fast Deposit Options
First Deposit Only 500 - 2500 Play Chips
4

WSOP - Play Money Poker

4.4 / 5.0
Secure, Fast Deposit Options
First Deposit Only 20,000 Play Chips
5

Full Tilt Poker

4.2 / 5.0
Secure, Fast Deposit Options
First Deposit Only 35,000 Play Chips

Taking a Closer Look at OPA’s Poker Room Reviews

Like we’ve said, if we’re not happy, you probably won’t be either. As one of our core principles, we spend a lot of time playing poker online just like yourselves. You can certainly trust the word of our reviewers because they have a love of online poker which matches your own, and give everything from an unbiased point of view.

With that being said, it is time to take a more in-depth look at what we go for. What ticks the boxes when it comes to the very best poker site reviews?

we only recommend licensed and regulated poker rooms

User Experience

In a world where every online poker room is competing against the others, and there are so many for you to choose from, a solid user experience is an absolute must. After all, why settle for anything less when you’ve plenty of alternatives? Obviously, one of the easier aspects of user experience to look at is the interface a poker room offers. The very best poker rooms will have a user interface which sees players easily able to fly from one section to another. All the games they offer should be accessible at the click of a button (or the touch of a phone).

Moving on, user experience also comes down to customer support. Can you get the kind of help you need, when you need it? Forget toll-free telephone (which is nice, when it works), we’re talking about live chat here. It is a must. A poker room may not necessarily be filled with pro players, either, so it is important that rookies can also get the help they need, and as efficiently as possible.

Fully licensed and regulated poker rooms are another one of the ways in which we can ensure that a poker room is safe for our readers. If it is licensed, then it is usually secure and can guarantee fair play gaming to players.

Visual Quality

user experience paramount badge

User experience also branches off into visual quality, at least in terms of design. If a poker room contains a jumbled lobby, it is unlikely to impress many players. There are other aspects to look out for, too, though, such as…

  • • Jumbled homepages are seldom mobile-friendly
  • • Hidden terms and conditions are never a good thing
  • • Good graphics in games are important

Software Quality

The key here is being able to offer quality software. What does that mean? In short, it means that you should be able to select from a wide-range of poker games, preferably from several developers. Moreover, the software and games you can find shouldn’t be tailored just for pros. Newbies should also be able to play at rookie tables, and poker school software is a plus, as this allows beginners to try their luck at easier games before they wager their hard-earned cash on more challenging titles.

Bug-free software, glitch-free games and plenty of them are one of the criteria we judge strongly. Online poker USA rooms should be able to keep players entertained for years, not days, and having a good selection of software which works is one way to ensure that.

we make sure to keep our device compatibility list updated

Device Compatibility

You may not want to, but there are poker players out there who wish to play on their mobile devices. Can they? We ask that question of all the poker rooms we are potentially going to review. It isn’t just mobile compatibility that we are interested in. Not everyone wants to download software to be able to play in a poker room. If a poker room doesn’t offer instant play software (playable in just a web browser with no download necessary) then it won’t make our shortlist.

We try and keep our device compatibility list updated as frequently as possible. We test poker sites to ensure that they can run on all modern smartphones and tablets, and we are ideally looking for rooms which enable you to play even on older devices. There are limits, of course, so don’t expect to find a Nokia 3310 on our device compatibility list!

Deposit Options:

more payment methods great badge

We want to see lots of payment methods offered at online poker rooms. US players are naturally going to find deposit options limited (when compared to European players) so making sure that a poker room has at least a handful of options which are US-friendly is a must.

We want to see a poker room which offers:

  • • Credit Cards
  • • Wire Transfers
  • • Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies
  • • and e-wallet options

We want to know all about transactions fees, deposit limits and transaction times, and that means that we can then pass on that information to you. The best poker rooms won’t require you to take out a second mortgage to deposit, so we aim only to promote poker reviews which offer fee-free deposit options.

Payout Speed

always check payout speeds online

It’s all very well accepting deposits in a speedy manner, and not charging any fees for deposits, but what about withdrawals? This is where things get tricky, and it can be quite challenging to find a good poker room which doesn’t charge top whack for withdrawals. Fortunately, that’s where we come in.

Here at Online Poker America, we contact customer support at each poker site we review, to inquire about the ins and outs of withdrawals. We want to find poker rooms which have good track history with paying out their players in a timely manner. Moreover, we want to see withdrawal options which don’t include fees. Admittedly, this isn’t always possible. Checks and wire transfers usually come with withdrawal fees, in which case, we look for the poker rooms which have the lowest fees.

Making sure that a poker room also coughs up your winnings in a decent time frame is a must for us. We don’t want to wait around for weeks just to pocket our winnings, and we can’t imagine that you do, either. If a site dawdles, they won’t join our list of exclusive best online poker site reviews. It is as simple as that.

What Do People Say About Us?

I had a hard time finding the right beginner online poker site for me. Luckily I found this great list of reviewed sites which saved me a lot of time. Thanks OPA! – Rey Kleider, Poker Fan
As an aspiring poker player, I wanted a quick and easy way to sieve out the great sites to practice on. This website helped with just that and more! – Kai Lin, Aspiring Poker Player
Who writes the reviews for Online Poker America?

Like you, we love poker. Our poker reviews are written by a team of expert poker players, with years of experience in playing pro tournaments all over the world.

Why trust your reviews over others?

We have tried and tested each poker room and find them on top of their game. If a site is good enough for our poker reviewers, we can safely say that we are happy playing there, so you probably will be, too…

So, bonuses aren’t taken into consideration in a review?

Actually, they are. However, so many poker sites put so much focus on their bonuses, and that’s not always good. A big bonus does not make a great poker site. They may saddle you with massive wagering requirements. So, although we look at bonuses, we don’t think they are necessarily the be-all and end-all of a top poker room.

Should I start using bitcoins as a deposit method?

Bitcoins has certainly garnered a lot of attention within the online gambling scene recently. As a result, some of the top poker sites are now offering bitcoins as a deposit method. Whether or not you should choose this payment option compared to others is completely up to you. What we will advise is that you check out our detailed payment pages to see all the pros and cons of each method, and decide for yourself which is best suited for you.

Okay, you’ve convinced me. Should I change my poker site to one you recommend?

That’s ultimately up to you. If you are genuinely happy at your poker room, then we would never advise you to leave. But if our reviews highlight aspects that appeal to you (particularly ones which don’t appear in your poker room) you may wish to consider it. After all, who doesn’t want to play in a better poker room?

Adam, our resident poker guru, has extensive knowledge on both sides of the table. When he’s not playing on US poker sites, you will find him busy revising strategies to give him an edge over his opponents. He is also a firm believer that poker allows individuals to grow intellectually. And so, he has decided to put a significant effort in helping others catch themselves up and meet the highest standards of poker. A bit of a dab hand himself, Adam is active in several real money cardrooms, which he frequents not only for the sake of a review but also to test strategies.