You don’t have to be the best player in the world to do well at poker. With a little bit of knowledge, a dash of patience, and a decent run of cards, anyone can do well – as long as you’re targeting the best online poker sites.
We’re here to prove that. We’ll also reveal the top online poker sites based on your personal preferences – whether you’re a beginner or a bonus hunter.
Welcome Bonus 150% up to $2,000
9.9/10
100% Bonus up to $1,000 + 8 days of Tournament Tickets
9.8/10
100% Bonus up to $500
9.8/10
Bonus Code: PWB500
100% up to $2,000
9.7/10
150% up to $1,500 Poker Bonus
9.6/10
1M Bad Beat Jackpot on Ring Games
9.6/10
100% UP TO $1,000 + 21 Satellite Tickets code: NEWSB
9.5/10
200% Bonus up to $1,000
9.5/10
Bonus Code: 1000EGP
100% up to $2,000
9.4/10
200% Up To $1,000
9.4/10
Bonus Code: 1000JUICY
Best Online Poker Sites – Key Takeaways
- The three best online poker sites are CoinPoker, BetOnline, and Bovada.
- See the best online poker bonuses and how to claim them.
- Learn the basics of poker’s most popular games.
- Find out how to use poker apps and make payments.
- Tips for getting maximum value from the top poker sites.
Hand-Picked: 3 of the Best Online Poker Sites Reviewed
We recently challenged our poker experts to put their experience to the test and find three sites suitable for beginners and advanced players alike. After hours of research and analysis, we’ve ranked the three best online poker sites for new players.
If You Want the Best Online Poker Site for Tech, Try CoinPoker
🍪 Bite-Sized Review
- Cutting-Edge Tech: CoinPoker is a crypto-first poker site, which means it not only allows players to deposit and withdraw Bitcoin et al., but it also uses blockchain technology to run provably fair games.
- Always Earning: All players who stake CoinPoker’s CHP token earn 33% rakeback (similar to cashback) every week when they play real-money games.
- Total Privacy: The anonymity of cryptocurrency extends to all of CoinPoker’s services, which means you’re afforded complete privacy at all times.
Cookie Tracking
CoinPoker uses essential cookies for login and analytics, which can be disabled but may affect features.
Summary
Blockchain technology is changing countless industries, including online poker. CoinPoker has been doing it since 2017. The site is big on transparency, efficiency, and privacy. In plain English, you can use their tech to make sure your hands are actually random and not rigged.
It’s easily one of the best online poker sites with generous bonuses, reliable software, constantly increasing MTTs, and 24/7 customer support.
If You Want the Best Poker Room for Bonuses, Try BetOnline
🍪 Bite-Sized Review
- Added Value for All Abilities: BetOnline Poker’s promotions are aimed at every type of player, including newbies who want risk-free ways to play tournaments.
- Casino-Style Promotions: This site’s gambling roots extend to its poker room, which adds some unique casino-style features to the mix, including Jackpot SNG multipliers.
- Beginner-Friendly Games: BetOnline has plenty of low-cost tournaments and small-stakes cash games that attract inexperienced players.
Cookie Tracking
BetOnline uses essential cookies for site function that you can’t turn off. Additional tracking (e.g., analytics, ads) requires your explicit consent and can be disabled.
Summary
BetOnline stands as one of the best online poker real-money sites for bonuses because you don’t have to wager thousands of dollars to get something extra.
For example, the welcome bonus contains 21 tickets that allow you to play real-money tournaments for free. Add loyalty rewards to the mix, along with gamblers from the sportsbook, and you’ve got plenty of ways to win.
If You Want the Best Real Money Poker Site for Beginners, Try Bovada
🍪 Bite-Sized Review
- Simple Software: The best online poker sites don’t always have to look fancy. Bovada’s streamlined software makes it easy to understand what’s happening.
- Affordable Games: In addition to freerolls and low-stakes cash games with $5 buy-ins, Bovada charges a comparatively low 5% rake for cash game pots and 10% for MTT buy-ins.
- Fishy Players: The term fish means players who constantly get caught in traps and lose money. Bovada has more fishy players than the other top online poker sites.
Cookie Tracking
Bovada uses cookies for functionality and analytics. You can disable them via browser settings, but some features may be limited.
Summary
Bovada has been around in some form or another since 1994, and, during that time, it’s amassed a huge network of players.
Large player pools lead to great games because there are more weak players in the mix. Bovada’s simple interface and low rake charges make its games even more attractive to novice players.
Best Online Poker Site Bonuses
Smart poker players use bonuses. Even famous players you’ve probably heard of, like Daniel Negreanu, appreciate the power of poker bonuses. Why? Because poker is unpredictable. Even the best players in the world go through bouts of bad luck. This is when bonuses come into their own.
They boost your bankroll when results are going your way, but more importantly, they soften the blow when bad beats strike. That’s why you need to know how the best online poker sites give you more for less.
Best Poker Site for Bonuses: BetOnline
All three of our top-rated real-money poker sites are big on bonuses, but BetOnline has offers suitable for newbies. For example, when you register, you’ll not only receive a deposit bonus but 21 tickets that allow you to play real-money tournaments for free.
Welcome Bonus
What are welcome bonuses? Every journey starts with a welcome bonus because it’s the first reward given to new players. That’s why the top online poker sites put so much stock in their opening offers.
How do I get welcome bonuses? You join new real-money online poker sites and complete the entry requirements. Our secure links start the registration process for you, which means you can simply tap, join, and make a deposit to claim a bonus.
Top Tip: You should go for bonuses that are at least equal to your initial deposit. Bonus credits should be released in small increments, and you should have enough time to claim as many increments as possible.
The best online poker sites for real-money gaming have opening offers that hit these marks. For example, at CoinPoker, you’ll get 1.5x the value of your initial deposit up to $2,000. At Bovada, you can double your deposit up to $500.
Finally, at BetOnline, you get up to $1,000 in bonus credit and 21 free tournament tickets. That means you’ve got 21 extra ways to win cash prizes without any risk.
Deposit Bonus
What are deposit bonuses? Deposit bonuses, often called reload bonuses, give you extra credit when you add funds to your account. Welcome bonuses are the biggest deposit-based offers, so make those your primary target.
How do I get deposit bonuses? Once you’ve claimed a poker site’s first deposit bonus, look out for weekly or monthly offers. They’re typically worth between 25% and 50% of your deposit’s value. For example, if you claim a 50% reload bonus and deposit $100, you’ll receive a $50 bonus.
Top Tip: As it is with welcome bonuses, deposit offers need to have fair wagering requirements. Specifically, you want the minimum deposit requirement to be $50 or less, and the rollover to be within the 10% range, i.e., you get 10% of your bonus each time you wager 10% of its value.
Rakeback
What is rakeback? Rakeback is a bonus based on the rake you generate. Poker operators take a small fee from every cash game pot and tournament buy-in. This fee is known as rake, and it covers the operator’s costs.
How do I get rakeback? The best poker sites return a percentage of your weekly contribution. Let’s say you generated $500 worth of rake in a week. A top-rated poker site such as CoinPoker will give you 33% of that total back ($165).
Top Tip: The beauty of rakeback is that it’s always there. You don’t have to do anything. Just play your favorite games, and the credits accumulate on their own. Even better is the fact that rebates are paid in cash, which doesn’t have any wagering requirements. That means you can use or withdraw rakeback instantly.
| Poker Site | Rakeback (%) | Paid (weekly/monthly) |
|---|---|---|
| CoinPoker | 33% | Weekly |
| BetOnline | VIP Rewards | On Demand |
| Bovada | Reward Points | On Demand |
Games at the Best Online Poker Sites
If bonuses get you to join real-money poker sites, then games keep you coming back. The top poker sites have something to suit every budget and, more importantly, games that anyone has a shot at beating.
Best Poker Site for Games: CoinPoker
CoinPoker is the best overall poker site in the world right now, thanks mainly to its games. Instead of wasting time on variants most people don’t play, CoinPoker has a comprehensive collection of Texas Hold’em and Omaha games. From freerolls and low-stakes cash games to tables with multi-million-dollar guarantees, it really does have something for every budget.
Hold’em
Texas Hold’em is the most popular poker variant in the world. Everyone receives two hole (private) cards that can be combined with community cards (available to everyone). The aim is to make a better-ranked five-card poker hand than everyone else.
Alternatively, you can win pots by making everyone fold. And, because it’s online, you won’t even need a poker face to bluff!
Hold’em is particularly popular because the rules are simple. You can use the community cards to get creative and pretend you have a better hand than you actually do. For example, if the board is 5-6-7-8, you can act like you have a 9 for the straight and scare your opponent into folding a strong pair. This is extra important in No Limit games, because every player has the freedom to bet their entire chip stack at once.
Omaha
Omaha is quite similar to Hold’em. But, instead of two hole cards, you get four. The rule is that you must use exactly two of your four hole cards. Having two more hole cards increases the number of hands you can make.
When people have more ways to make ranked hands, it means more action. That’s why Omaha is often regarded as the crazy cousin of Texas Hold’em, even though it’s usually played in a Pot Limit betting format.
Not being able to bet more than the value of the pot means you can’t put as much pressure on your opponents. Less pressure and more hole cards mean people don’t fold as often. That leads to most hands going to the flop and beyond. So, if you play Omaha, be prepared to go to more showdowns than you do in Hold’em.
Stud
Stud is a bit different. Instead of community cards, everyone receives up to seven hole cards. Three of the hole cards are dealt face down. The rest are on display for everyone to see.
The aim, as it is with Hold’em and Omaha, is to make everyone else fold or have the best five-card hand. Compared to Hold’em and Omaha, it’s harder to win hands by force in Stud because it’s primarily a Limit game.
This means you can only bet and raise a fixed amount equal to the antes. You need to be skilled at hand reading because you’ll go to showdowns more often.
Other Games
The best online poker sites have started introducing spin-off variants of Hold’em and Omaha. The most popular spin-off right now is Short Deck Hold’em (aka 6+), which removes all cards worth less than a six from the game.
Another non-traditional variant is Five-Card Omaha. It’s virtually identical to regular Omaha but introduces a fifth hole card, which creates even more possible hand combinations.
Cash Games vs MTTs
The poker variants we’ve just discussed can be played as cash games or tournaments. In both formats, you’re trying to win pots by having the best hand or making everyone else fold. But the overarching aims of cash games and tournaments are different.
Cash games continue indefinitely, and the chips in play have a 1:1 cash value, e.g., a $1 chip is worth $1.
Poker tournaments have set start and end points. Chips don’t have any value outside of the tournament, and you’re eliminated when you lose your stack. The top 10% to 15% of survivors win some money, and the tournament ends once someone has all of the chips in play.
Payment Methods at the Top Online Poker Sites
You can’t sit down in cash games, enter tournaments, or claim bonuses without having cash in your account.
You can win money through freerolls, but the easiest way to get stuck in is by making deposits. The best online poker real-money sites allow you to make secure deposits and withdrawals via these payment methods:
Crypto
Cryptocurrency might still be new at US online casinos, but it’s quickly become the go-to payment method for players who value speed, safety, and privacy.
Decentralized blockchains aren’t tied to a specific country or banking authority. This allows you to make crypto poker deposits at CoinPoker, for example, from anywhere in the world.
Decentralized technology also facilitates the transfer of funds without any personal details or central authority. Because of this, crypto deposits and withdrawals can be processed almost instantly as well as anonymously.
eWallets
If you don’t use cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and USDT, eWallets are the best alternative. Digital wallets are designed for online transactions, which means the average withdrawal time for MoneyGram, Neteller, and PayPal is under 24 hours.
What makes eWallets even better is that they’re great for moving money around the internet. You can move your bankroll around the best online poker sites for real-money gaming with ease and in good time.
Credit and Debit Cards
Credit and debit cards, including Visa, remain popular payment methods, despite the fact that they offer slower withdrawals (between two and five days) than cryptos and eWallets.
People still use credit and debit cards because they’re tried, tested, and reliable. Plus, we’ve all used them to buy something online, so the process of making deposits and withdrawals feels natural.
The major downside to credit and debit cards is availability. In the UK, for example, credit card deposits at gambling sites were banned in 2020. In other countries, banking restrictions mean you might not be able to use your card for online poker payments.
How to Pick the Best Poker Site for You
We’ve shown you the best online poker sites and explained what makes them great. But our role as expert advisors wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t let you peek under the hood.
Here’s our blueprint for finding high-quality sites:
1. Safety and Transparency
Never play online poker for real money at unlicensed sites. A gambling license is more than a legal requirement. It’s a mark of quality.
It tells you that the operator runs a legit service complete with secure software, fair games, and safe payment processors.
2. Games and Players
The top online poker sites have something for everyone, as we’ve said. As a minimum, there needs to be low-, medium-, and high-stakes cash games. For tournaments, we like freerolls to be flanked by real-money MTTs and satellites to big buy-in tournaments.
95% of these games will be Hold’em and Omaha, but it’s nice to see novel variants in the mix, including Short Deck and fast-fold poker tables. Finally, for games to be good, you need a lot of players. Specifically, you need weak players who call too much and rarely raise.
Scan the lobby of a poker site for loose games. The main statistic to look at is VPIP (Voluntarily Put in the Pot). Games with VPIP values over 30% are likely to be filled with weak players.
3. Bankroll Boosters
Bonuses are essential. The best online poker sites in the USA will give you plenty of ways to earn extra credits. Not only that, they’ll make it easy to get extra credits, regardless of whether you’re a beginner or a high roller.
A hefty welcome bonus, such as CoinPoker’s $2,000 offer, is important, but don’t discount ongoing offers. Rakeback is basically the poker room giving you back a cut of their profits. So, look for poker sites that offer generous weekly rebates.
4. Fun Features
Features make online poker for real money more enjoyable. At BetOnline, for example, you can win upwards of $100,000 if you suffer a bad beat (i.e., get incredibly unlucky with a great hand).
Similarly, if you join Bovada, you’ll be able to ante-up at anonymous tables or enter single-table tournaments with random prizepools worth up to $250,000.
Expert Tips: How to Win at the Best Real-Money Poker Sites
Part of getting maximum value from the best poker sites is playing like a pro. We’re not saying you can go from newbie to Daniel Negreanu overnight, but these five tips will certainly put you on the road to becoming a better player:
- Learn to manage your money: Bankroll management is the skill of not playing games you can’t afford. As a general rule, you should have at least 50 buy-ins for cash games and 100+ buy-ins for tournaments.
- Game selection: Spend time scoping out games to find ones that contain at least one weak player. Poker is all about being the best player at the table, not the best player in the world.
- Make use of bonuses: The best way to win more when you’re playing well and take the sting out of losses is to claim as many bonuses as possible.
- Start low and slow: Don’t try to become a world champion on day one. Play freerolls while you’re learning the basics, then gradually move into low-stakes games as you gain experience.
- Take notes: Watch everything that happens in a game and make notes (mental or written) so you can take advantage of other players’ habits.
- Play ABC: The most effective playing style for newbies is referred to as ABC poker. In short, raise when you have a strong hand and fold when you don’t.
- Always be willing to adjust: Poker is a game of adjustments. If you do the same thing every time, people will figure you out. Make sure you switch up your tactics during cash games and MTTs.
Laws of Playing Poker Online
Online poker is legal in the US. Some states have their own regulations, which means you can use poker sites licensed locally.
Other states, such as Florida and Texas, don’t have online gambling laws or licensing systems. Internationally licensed real-money poker sites fill these gaps by providing safe ways to play via desktop and mobile devices.
Best Online Poker Site FAQs
CoinPoker is the most legit online poker site available right now because you can check the result of any hand in real-time. You can’t do this at other online poker sites. It’s possible because CoinPoker’s RNG is built on a blockchain (i.e., a public ledger). CoinPoker is also licensed by the Curaçao Gaming Authority.
Yes, US citizens of legal gambling age can play online poker for real money at licensed sites. In states without a local licensing system, US players can access international poker sites such as BetOnline and Bovada. These sites are regulated by international organizations and comply with the same regulations as their locally licensed counterparts.
The best online poker site in the world right now is CoinPoker. In addition to cutting-edge blockchain technology and instant payments from any location, CoinPoker has soft games and 33% weekly rakeback. Other top poker sites for US players are BetOnline and Bovada.
It’s possible to make $100 or more per day playing online poker, but nothing is guaranteed. Even though there’s a huge amount of skill in poker, there’s also an element of luck. This means everyone, even top pros like Phil Ivey, can lose. So, while it’s possible to win consistently, poker is also unpredictable.