Now that we have had a couple of weeks to let the dust settle after the United States department of justice took down four of the top online poker sites. There sure has been a lot of clamoring going on. Here is where we currently stand:
Online poker sites have been getting their domain name seized by the government. Many of the former top poker sites now have an .eu or .ag next to their name instead of .com. This is to prevent the US government from taking their domain names.
Most online poker sites are not allowing US poker players anymore. Hopefully, there will be a law that changes this sometime in the future; just don’t hold your breath. The subject of online poker is going to be kind of dead for the next couple of months except for the random tournament or promotion offered by one of the smaller sites.
Questions and Answers
Are there laws against playing online poker in the United States?
This depends on the state that you live in currently. Take a look at this post which refers to laws against online poker players between the different states.
Why did PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker get shut down?
This is a long story, which you can read here but here is the summary. These poker sites were illegally accepting deposits and used payment processors to produce fake transactions.
Are there any US poker sites that are still up and running?
Shhhhh! It’s a secret. The one thing that is bound to be true is that this information will get outdated quickly. I saw advertisements for Carbon poker, who has since left the US market along with several dozen other small poker rooms including Play Aces, BetUS, Sportsbook.com, Players Only, etc.
The one problem that many of these places has was the complete influx of new players. In many cases, they couldn’t handle the overflow and didn’t want to draw the attention of the government.
However, you can still find a couple of places to play for the time being. Check out this article which is about a pretty popular website that I have played at before. Also, you may want to take a look at this article as I think that these are pretty much the only two good places left to play at.
Where did all of the poker players go?
In reality, most of the online poker players have stopped looking because they think online poker is totally illegal. It takes a little bit of persistence and initiative to deposit money with a lot of these sites. Most no longer accept credit/debit cards when you sign up.
A lot of the online poker players are scared to put their money into a poker site because they are afraid of losing money like they did when Full Tilt Poker went bankrupt. People may eventually get their money back if someone purchases the Full Tilt Poker name.
Eventually, the government will get a law through for playing online poker. Just don’t look for it to happen before the 2012 presidential election. There are too many other things that are on the table for online poker to get any support.
Video poker is a great game for any online player to add to their repertoire, especially if they enjoy video poker or traditional poker at the casino. However, it would be a mistake to lump video poker in the same category as those other casino games like craps or roulette. The reason is that video poker, unlike these other games, offers players the opportunity to minimize or eliminate the House edge when played correctly. As long as you know the poker hand rankings you’ll have a real easy time learning video poker.
Video Poker Pay Tables
To maximize your video poker opportunity, it’s very important that you find a game with the right pay table. For a traditional jacks or better game in which you need at least a pair of jacks to get any payback, the pay table to look for is a 9/6, in which nine coins are returned for a full house and six coins for a flush. For other games, other pay tables may be appropriate. You can find the best pay tables for each game online.
Video Poker Strategy
To reduce the House edge to less than one percent (and if you can find the right game, eliminated it entirely) there is a strategy you must follow. Playing hunches in online video poker gives the House a huge edge. Find a basic video poker strategy chart online and follow it as you play. In general, the strategy is to keep a made hand and go for what you are most likely to make, rather than the hand with the biggest payoff. It might be a good idea to try free video poker to get a hang of the game before you risk any real money.
Online Video Poker Progressive Jackpots
Most video poker machines offer a progressive jackpot, a huge payoff for making a royal flush. You can only win the progressive payout if you play the full amount of coins on each deal. Be sure to play the maximum number of coins each time so that you don’t miss out.
Another boring bonus code post, sorry guys! As you may well know, many poker rooms cease to accept players from the United States, thanks to the Safe Port Act. As such, most poker sites will now explicitly tell you which sites are US-friendly, and which aren’t. Both of these are!
PokerStars
The regular conditions of redemption apply:
- Players must play at the real money tables.
- Playing at the real money tables accumulates FPP (Frequent Player Points).
- Players must accumulate 10 * Deposit Bonus amount for the bonus to be released. (i.e. Deposit Bonus is 50$, player must accumulate 10*50=500FPP.)
More information on the PokerStars Marketing Code.
Full Tilt Poker.
Full Tilt Poker (FTP) has proven time and time again to be the top online poker site, world-wide. With a full slate of cashies and a wide array of tournaments, players can always find the time of game that they’re looking for. Utilizing the bonus code (ZZBONUS), players receive a 100% depoist bonus with a maximum bonus of 600$. In addition to the great bonus, you’ll get to go head-to-head with some of the biggest names in poker (real professionals) who also play online on FTP. Find out more about FTP and the Full Tilt Poker referral code.
Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 to $2.4 billion in 2005. Traditional brick and mortar casinos with a poker room are few and far between – the reason being that they aren’t very profitable for the house; they only earn money through the rake, or the hourly charge. Often, they’d make much more money if they were to remove the poker room entirely and just put in more slot machines.
This isn’t the case with online poker in the United States. There’s minimal overhead charges, because of the following:
- Adding an extra table is virtually free. (No table costs, or space issues)
- There are no dealers. This means 100% of the rake is kicked back to the house.
- They can offer lower limits (as low as 2c), or even freerolls.
In 2006, Online Poker took a turn for the worse. Bush officially signed the Safe Port Act, which is specifically designed to regulate online gambling. Basically, it prohibits online gambling sites from performing any transactions at American financial institutions. Which has made it extraordinarily hard to find any US friendly poker sites.
Many people don’t realize that online poker rooms offer referral codes to use for your first time deposit, which’ll give you the opportunity to review/compare poker rooms. It’s best to read the terms and conditions of bonuses on the poker sites. Some bonuses take longer than others to release, and some are even combination casino and poker bonuses.
| PokerStars |
50$ |
100% up to $50 bonus |
POKERSITE.ORG |
| Full Tilt Poker |
$600 |
100% of your first deposit |
WITT |
| Party Poker |
$500 |
100% up to $500 Extra On First Deposit |
500MATCH |
| Party Poker |
$50 |
$50 Extra on First Deposit |
FATCHIPS |
Click here for a full review of full tilt poker.
Click here for a full review of PokerStars
