The Best Online Poker Sites in the USA in 2020
Looking to find the best online poker sites for real money? We’re here to help. More than 15 years after the poker boom, playing real money poker online continues to be wildly popular on the internet in the United States.
Our guide to online poker will show you:
Best Online Poker Sites: Game Types
There are five main types of online real money poker that you are going to run across at most online casinos.
- Cash Games – Games that have no fixed time to finish, for real money. Players can leave whenever they want.
- Poker Tournaments – Players cannot cash out in the middle of a poker tournament. You play until your chips are out, and then you win a certain amount for finishing in a certain place.
- Sit N Go’s (SnGs) – The tournament starts when your table is full, and you can be finished in under an hour. When you lose your chips, you are done.
- Fast-Fold Poker – Quickly fold your hand and head to another table to play right away. Good for playing quickly.
- Lottery Sit N Go’s – An even faster version of fast-fold poker, most times, under 10 minutes.
Poker Variations
These are simply the most popular poker variations, although you might run across other variations on your travels.
- Texas Hold’em (Limit, No Limit, Pot Limit) – The most popular variation of online poker for real money. This is what you will see at the World Series of Poker Main Event.
- Seven-Card Stud (High and High/Low) – Make your best possible five-card hand from seven cards, which are a mix of both face-up and face-down cards.
- Five-Card Draw – The easiest real money poker game variation. It is the same as video poker.
- Five-Card Stud – Players receive one face-down card, but the rest are face up.
- Omaha (High and High/Low) – Players have to make their best hand from two of four cards dealt to them, along with three community cards out of five.
- Razz (Seven-card stud low only) – Instead of players going for high cards, the goal is to get a hand from Ace to Five.
- 2 to 7 Triple Draw Lowball – The low hand wins the pot in this variation.
Winning Poker Hands
A 52-card deck is a standard used in most poker games. The card ranking, from highest to lowest, is as follows: Ace (A), King (K), Queen (Q), Jack (J), 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2. In lowball, the Ace can also be used as a 1. Aces can also be used as 1s to complete a 5-high straight (A, 2, 3, 4, 5). A flush is made up of five cards of the same suit. Beyond that, there’s no ranking for suits.
Cards are not assigned point values and added together like they are in blackjack or baccarat. The hierarchy determines the ranking of each five-card hand, starting at the extremely rare Royal Flush and ending in the incredibly common One Pair. Here’s a table listing of poker hand rankings by best to worst hand.
| Poker Hand Name | Cards |
|---|---|
| Royal Flush | A, K, Q, J, 10 in the same suit |
| Straight Flush | Five cards in any sequence, all of the same suit |
| Four of a Kind | Four cards of the same rank, one in each suit, plus an additional card that doesn’t count |
| Full House | Three cards of one rank, and a pair of another rank |
| Flush | Five cards of the same suit in any order |
| Straight | Any five cards in order |
| Three of a Kind | Three cards of the same rank, plus two more cards |
| Two Pair | Two cards of one rank and two cards of another rank, plus one more card |
| One Pair | Two cards of the same rank, plus three more cards |
| No Pair | All five cards of different ranks and not all of one suit |
What You Need To Know About Playing Online Poker for Real Money
For those new to online poker or even professional players looking to open an account at an online poker room, finding the right poker site could be a little confusing. As the internet is flooded with a myriad of real money poker sites, like 888poker, it becomes tough to decide which one of them is the right one for you. In order to find a reliable and safe poker site that caters to your needs, you should consider the following.
Player Traffic
Player traffic helps determine whether the real money poker site is well visited by players. If there is a good volume of player traffic, which is generally calculated according to peak hours, that suggests the poker website is quite popular among players. The more players there are, the better the prize pools will be.
Software
Many new players don’t realize the important role the software plays in how much they will get out of their games. By reading through the reviews offered here, you will quickly learn just how important the software really is. You will also learn about the software that runs the online poker rooms reviewed and be educated on what it is that makes the software different.
One way of identifying a good real money poker room is by the features offered by the poker client. Another is the smoothness of gameplay, meaning that the games should be fast to load and run flawlessly without any interference whatsoever.
The software interface is an important part of your experience at an online poker room and so it is necessary to check out the client. An ease of use in way of navigation, the design and composition of the lobby, graphics and tools offered to enhance gameplay are some of the major considerations when deciding on signing up at a poker site.
It’s also a good idea to check on who licensed and regulated the site’s poker software. Make sure it’s a reputable company and third-party authority to keep your account and financial information safe and secure.
Bonuses & Promotions
Promotions are extremely common at the best online poker sites. Most large real money poker sites offer an initial deposit bonus, which matches your deposit up to a certain dollar amount (100% up to $500, for example). Poker bonuses are usually released in increments based on the stakes and number of hands you play. Other promotions to look for include bad beat jackpots, loyalty programs, rakeback, and giveaways to major tournaments like the WSOP. Be sure to do your homework on deposits and withdrawals before signing up for a new online casino account.
Variety of Cash Games and Tournaments
Checking out the cash games and poker tournament varieties is also a good idea, as many real money poker sites do not offer a very large choice. Since enjoying good competition and playing great poker games will be your reason for joining an online poker room, you want to know all about the games and competition that an online poker room offers. Some players are happy playing small buy-in tourneys and low-stakes cash games, while others may want the best high-stakes poker games they can find.
Poker Glossary
| Poker Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Chips | the tokens on the table that represent a certain value or dollar amount |
| Check | when no wager is made and the action is on the next player to the left |
| Call | when you match the highest bet currently on the table |
| Raise | when somebody to your right wagers a certain amount and you increase that amount by a certain amount |
| Bluff | when you pretend to have really good cards, but don’t |
| Slow Play (a Hand) | when you believe you have really good cards and try to lure the other poker players in to fattening up the pot |
| All-In | when you push all your chips into the center of the table in hopes of either winning the pot or busting out |
| Texas Hold’em | one of, if not thee, most popular poker games on the planet made popular by the World Series of Poker |
| Flop | first three community cards laid down by the dealer |
| Turn | after a round of betting, the fourth card laid down by the dealer |
| River | after a round of betting, the fifth card laid down by the deal |
| Five Card Draw | the most basic of poker versions where you try to make the best five card hand based on your original cards and/or card drawn from the deck |
| Seven Card Stud | a mix of face up and face down cards where you try to make the strongest five-card hand |
| Omaha (Hi/Lo) | player receives four cards, use two of them and three community cards to make either best hand via highest hand ranking or lowest ranking depending on version |
| Down to the Felt | out of chips |
| On Tilt | emotionally fueled poker betting void of reason or strategy, trying to make up for ones losses |
Online Poker for Real Money FAQ
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