United States Poker Sites
Are there online poker platforms that accept players from the United States. The simple answer is yes. Prior to Black Friday in April 2011, the United States was a part of the global player pool such as Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker. There were a number of other platforms such as Ultimate Bet, Doyle’s Room and many others but the predominant players were Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt was embroiled in scandal and was eventually purchased by Pokerstars. The Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) made it illegal to process the payments for online gambling platforms but the actual playing poker online is legal in most states.
A few states such as New Jersey, Nevada and recently Pennsylvania have enacted legislation to allow online poker within the state but the player pools are small. The difference between the Pokerstars NJ site and the Pokerstars site is that the New Jersey site is limited to players physically residing in New Jersey. Pokerstars NJ runs its schedule of Festivals like the global Pokerstars site but the guaranteed prize pools are significantly smaller. 888 poker is also available as a regulated poker platform in these states along with the WSOP platform in Nevada. It is no where near the scale of the games that were available pre-Black Friday but it is a start. In order to learn more about the lobbying efforts to bring regulated online poker back to the Untied States please become involved in the Poker Players Alliance.
Since the Untied States has declined to regulate online poker, some poker platforms are still accepting United States Players with the largest being America’s Cardroom.
America’s Cardroom
America’s Cardroom has become the largest poker site for Untied States and now Australian players. The United States after Black Friday became closed to the larger and regulated online poker rooms.
America’s Cardroom offers cash games at all bankroll levels from $.01/$.02 no-limit hold’em to $50/$100 games. In addition to no-limit hold’em, America’s Cardroom offers pot-limit omaha as well as limit stud. These limit games are offered in both hi and hi/low varieties.
For those players who enjoy multi-table tournaments there are a number of daily tournaments for the micro stakes through the high stakes. There is a daily $10,000 guarantee for $11 buy-in and there are a number of the Sunday majors for the large field players. Recently, this site has introduced the Sunday Million for a $265 buy-in. Most of their tournaments are unlimited re-entry and the down side is that some of the tournaments have up to a 5 hour late registration. With the introduction of the large guarantee tournaments, some of these have had a significant overlay.
America’s Cardroom offers 100% match bonus up to $1,000 for a first time depositor. For additional offers, see our Deposit Bonus section. The bonus is released at $1 per 27.5 point accumulated and a minimum $25 deposit is required to qualify for this bonus.
How to deposit: America’s Cardroom accepts almost any major credit card (just remember to have international transactions enabled on the card) and has recently added a number of crypto-currencies to its platform. Just transfer from your crypot wallet onto the platform.
Withdrawals: The easiest way to withdraw from the platform is through crypo wallet. It takes around twenty-four hours to transfer from America’s Cardroom to your designated wallet. If you are in need of a crypto wallet and additional information about crypto-currencies visit Coinbase.
Bovada
Bovada accepts players from around the world including the United States. In addition to the traditional cash games and multi-table tournaments, it also offers zone poker. Zone poker is similar to the Zoom poker on Pokerstars which takes the player to a new table anytime they fold.
Bovada does not use screen names but assigns a number to each player when they take a seat at a table. This platform also does not allow for table selection at cash games. This virtually eliminates any advance that a heads up display (HUD) has at cash games. It is an attempt for the platform to make the game more attractive to recreational players.
Bovada has a number of tournament series with increased guarantees. The majority of the tournaments are freezeouts but there are a number of re-buy and re-entry tournaments throughout the schedule.
It is a smaller player pool than America’s cardroom and softer fields. The hope is that some day Bovada will have coordinated break times for those who simultaneous tournaments.
Bovada has a 100% welcome bonus up to $500 for a first time depositor. For additional offers, see our Deposit Bonus section. The bonus is released based upon levels of play and additional terms and conditions can be found on the Bovada site.
How to deposit: Bovada accepts almost any major credit card (just remember to have international transaction enabled on the card) and has recently added Bitcoin to its platform. Bovada does assess a transaction fee to each deposit made by credit card but does not assess a transaction fee for Bitcoin depoists.
Withdrawals: The easiest way to withdraw from the platform is through a Bitcoin transfer. Bovada does offer additonal withdrawal options inside the client. If you are in need of a crypto wallet and additional information about crypto-currencies visit Coinbase.