- This online poker casino lets you play poker online for real money. It’s consistently rated as one of the best online poker sites for US players. The reason why it’s rated as one of the best online poker sites US players is due to its various features. Some of the features it has included a 100% casino match bonus that goes up to $1000.
- By Steve Beauregard. While each jurisdiction is different, the short answer for most of the country is “Yes,” it’s OK to play poker online for real money in the USA. There exist no federal rules or statues that criminalize playing poker on the internet.
- Jun 27, 2013 PokerStars was just one of many of the early real-money online poker operators including PartyPoker, Pacific Poker (Now 888poker) and Tropical Poker. 2003 – 2006 PokerStars’ claim to fame came in 2003 when an accountant named Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP Main Event 2003-2006 Las Vegas after qualifying on the site.
The United States can easily be described as the foster family of poker. Even though the game was carried over with the first European settlers, it has quickly struck a chord with the locals and from the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean to the deserts of Nevada, the game is one of the most popular contests among friends, self-styled pros,. Nov 17, 2020 i If you live in specific states where online gambling has been legalized and regulated, you can play poker for real money with other people in that state from your computer. As I write this, these states include Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
Online poker has changed a lot since I started playing in the mid-2000s. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised by this; after all, it has been close to 20 years.
I thought it would be fun to reflect on some of the changes in online poker, though, so here’s this post with some observations and thoughts about the state of online poker today.
Recreational Poker Online Is Still Alive
On April 15, 2011, the Department of Justice indighted Absolute Poker, Full Tilt Poker, and PokerStars. These were far and away the biggest three companies offering recreational poker online to United States players.
It didn’t take long for these sites to respond by pulling access to US players to their real money poker games. Online poker had been booming until that point, but it came crashing to a near-halt at that point.
After all, you didn’t have many places left to play.
Absolute Poker, which also owned Ultimate Bet, went out of business soon afterward. PokerStars acquired what was left of Full Tilt Poker, but they still don’t offer real money games to United States players.
This doesn’t mean you can’t play recreational poker online if you’re from the United States. Many – if not most – online poker sites will let anyone play their “free money” or “play money” games regardless of where they live. Global Poker is one of the biggest outfits specializing in play money poker, and they have a unique sweepstakes-based poker model that enables them to offer games that are almost just like real money poker games.
But you can also find a handful of sites still offering real money poker for recreational players in almost any jurisdiction. These are usually attached to a sportsbook of some kind, like Bovada.
In some of these states, recreational poker online for real money is still new. I expect more states to follow suit, which will expand the availability of online poker for actual cash.
The Offshore Poker Sites Accepting United States Players
Presumably, the United States government was acting to protect gamblers from shady offshore gambling sites that were going to take their money. Their legal action had the opposite of the intended effect, though.
When you outlaw the operation of an online poker site, only outlaws offer online poker.
Of course, there’s honor among thieves, but it’s hard to beat the kind of reliability and trustworthiness you saw from operators like PokerStars.
Of course, the newly legalized and regulated poker sites in the states I mentioned in the last section are trustworthy and reliable.
But as I write this, only five states have legalized and regulated online poker.
Poker players in the other 45 states only have a couple of options when it comes to online poker.
They can skip it entirely and just play in person. This is increasingly unrealistic as I write this in the middle of a pandemic.
Or they can roll the dice and play at one of the offshore sites that have so far managed to evade US law enforcement.
Some of these sites are reliable and pay out in a timely manner. They offer excellent customer service, too. Bovada is a good example of this.
But it behooves you to proceed cautiously.
When Black Friday rolled around before, many poker players had tens of thousands of dollars tied up in online poker accounts and had to wait months before getting their cash. I know one player who had over $100,000 in his PokerStars account.
I’m not the only one who’s noticed that you should be cautious with online poker from the United States these days. In fact, you’ll see a noticeable shortage of high stakes poker games happening online that are available to United States players.
It’s Not as Bad as It Might Seem
You might think that player pools are really small since the state gambling laws with legal poker restrict play to people playing from a computer in their state.
But this year they created an interstate agreement — a “compact” – which allows them to share player pools between the following states:
The other states that have legalized online poker are mostly still setting things up. I’m assuming they’ll enter into the compact with the other states. After all, that’s good for everyone participating. Larger player pools mean more action.
And that means more tax revenue for everyone involved.
Also, and just because I’ve characterized many of these poker companies as “outlaws,” who do you think are running the poker sites in the states that have recently legalized online poker?
Many of them are sites that used to offer poker “illegally” from offshore. Yes, that includes Party Poker and PokerStars, among others.
The Poker Bot Scare
I’ve only recently started dipping my toe back into the online poker waters, and I’ve stuck with the play money games for a couple of months. One reason I have trepidations is the rise of online poker bots.
An online poker bot is just software that makes poker decisions on behalf of a player. They’re not actually robots like C-3PO. They’re just programs that run on someone’s computer next to the game they’re playing, and they tell the player what the mathematically best move is. Sometimes they actually make the moves, too.
You can imagine how helpful a HUD might be. How you handle a bet from someone who’s categorized loose-aggressive by your HUD and how you handle a bet from someone who’s categorized as tight-passive by your HUD might be entirely different.
The idea that someone is using a HUD to beat me scares me.
The idea that someone is using an artificial intelligence to actually play against me scares me even more.
What Do I Do if I Want to Play Online Poker for Real Money?
My suggestion for what to do if you want to play online poker for real money is simple and straightforward:
Stick with low stakes games and only play with money you can afford to lose.
That way you can have fun without trying to earn a living from gambling online.
I don’t have much respect for anyone trying to make their living by running a poker bot on their behalf, by the way. It’s cheating, and nothing angers me more than a cheat.
I even frown on using a HUD during play. I prefer my contests to be a fair test of my abilities versus the abilities of my opponents. If you’re using a computer to help you make decisions, well… I’m not really competing with you anymore, am I.
How much pride can you take in winning a contest against another person when you’re not actually calling the shots yourself?
You might have an entirely different opinion about all these issues, and that’s okay with me, too. I can only advise you based on my own life experience and opinions.
Live Poker Really Is More Fun
I’m a big fan of live poker. You’re less likely to face cheaters. You don’t have to worry about the online cardroom being unable to process your withdrawal because they faced legal action from the US government.
And I’ve played live poker in casinos and in home poker games alike.
If you decide to go the live poker route during the pandemic, I encourage you to take appropriate steps to protect your own safety. Most casinos have strict procedures in place, but home games might be trickier.
Find out beforehand if masks are allowed and/or required. I won’t be playing in any games without masks, personally.
Also, if I do play in a home poker game, I’m going to bring a big bottle of hand sanitizer with me.
If the host is willing to open the windows and limit the number of players – even better.
Conclusion
The world of online poker in the United States keeps limping along. It might never reach the dizzying heights that it saw during the early 2000s during the poker boom, though.
This doesn’t mean the game is dying out. At least five states have legalized internet poker, and I expect more to follow.
And even if you live in a state that hasn’t legalized online poker, you have options.
Things are changing fast for online poker.
There are four states that have regulated games — Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania – plus legal, sweepstakespoker games in other areas. While the boom of 10 years ago is over, online poker for real money in the US is on the rise again.
This is a detailed guide to legal poker sites in the United States. We’ll provide you with information on the current legislative landscape, the best sites to play online poker and the different types of poker bonuses.
Real Money Usa Poker Sites
Best US Poker Sites in 2021
Free poker vs. real money poker
As soon as real money is at stake, the game of poker transforms.
Play money poker involves seeing a flop, hitting hands and never folding when there is even a shot at winning the pot. With no incentive to fold or think strategically, it provides light entertainment at best.
Once real cash is involved, poker changes into a mental battle. Playing every hand and trying to hit, will quickly become a losing strategy.
Real Money Us Poker Sites
Conversely, playing too few hands becomes predictable and easy to exploit. You’ll need to play a position, work out what your opponents’ bets mean and understand math concepts like odds and equity.
You can play online poker games for real money or for free. I can assure you that once you try for real money, free games will quickly lose its appeal. The beauty of real money poker is that you’ll never stop learning.
Real Money Online Poker In The United States
Even the biggest stars of the game are working on their strategy; poker takes five minutes to learn and a lifetime to master.
Is online poker legal in the US?
Poker has a long tradition in the US, from boom to bust. There is a new era in real money USA poker games as individual states license and regulate the games.
So far, there are four legal states for real money online poker: Nevada, Delaware, Pennsylvania (where PokerStars launched in 2020 and PartyPoker is expected to follow) and New Jersey. These states require that a brick-and-mortar casino licenses the poker sites.