We live in exciting times when entertainment is on-demand and choice is plentiful. To say that there is a shortage of great options to explore – whether you want to play video games, board games, or even poker – would be simply wrong.
In fact, there are tons of options for you to enjoy out there, but the question remains – which the most worthwhile recreations for you remain? Whether you are looking for a new TV series to binge-watch, a video game to try, or a poker website to pick, it’s good to know how to choose.
Today, we are going to take a look at what the best poker sites are, how to find them, and more importantly – determine whether a card room is good enough based on your own experience and knowledge rather than on a recommendation.
1. Starting Simple – Number of Cash Games
The first thing you can do to find a great online poker website is to take a quick look at the number of cash games available. This is an easy way to gauge what you are up against. In general, you want to find a card room that features sufficient cash games of varying buy-in levels so that you can have a fulfilling and worthwhile experience.
Players who find a card room like that would be able to play at pretty much any buy-in and level and will have the flexibility to choose their own levels. Having a large number of cash games is definitely good. It shows initiative on the part of the card room and demonstrates a commitment to the players who are free to pick their own betting levels.
Of course, a large number of cash games is not all there is to a great card room. This is where the second thing to look out for comes in.
2. Traffic in Peak and Off-Hours
The next thing to look out for is the number of players of course. Just because you have dozens if not hundreds of available cash games, this doesn’t mean that there are enough people to go around and play there.
This is why it’s important to check out what the peak hour and off-hour number of players are like. You want to play in a card room that has sufficient traffic and that will keep you busy whenever you decide to join.
This is not to say that if you play at a website with fewer people, you are actually playing at a bad site. However, the best online poker sites just have this way of pulling the most people around them and making it much simpler for players to find games, tournaments, and more.
If you are wondering what the most popular and busiest card rooms are, we recommend taking a look at the best online poker sites on this shortlist. This way, you will be able to quickly lookup card rooms that have a healthy number of players, which allows them to run cash games and events during the week and weekends.
3. Tournaments, Qualifiers, and More
A true gauge of a card room’s ability to provide players with some of the best online poker experiences is not just about the number of games or the number of players. Another important factor here is whether players can access meaningful events.
It’s not just about grinding low/high stake games, or participating in cash games. No, players should have access to qualifiers and satellite events, which can send them to tournaments that have millions of dollars’ worth of prize pools.
This could seem a little counter-intuitive – how are satellite events going to qualify you for multi-million dollar poker tournaments? Well, this is very much the case. There are some satellites that have as little as 0.01/0.02 buy-in and they can still land you in some of the biggest events.
This is why you should check websites that actually offer this feature. Tournaments should not be held in a vacuum. Players should have the opportunity to gradually increase their presence in a platform and even qualify for much better and bigger events as they go ahead.
4. Excellent Consumer Experience
The next thing to be looking for when trying to determine what online poker sites are better for you is to take a closer look at the type of user experience that you can find on said website. What this means is that players have a chance to explore the entire website and benefit from a range of experiences.
Apart from making the user experience smooth and easy, owing to advanced HTML5 technology, and mobile compatibility, players need also to find other features that will determine the reliability of a poker site’s reliability.
Those include dedicated customer support that can provide reasonably quick and helpful responses as well as a selection of payment methods. After all, what good is it finding a great online poker website if you are going to be struggling with the payment methods that have been picked?
Mobile compatibility is equally very important as it will allow you to play on the go and enjoy your experience from pretty much anywhere as long as you have a dedicated smartphone or a tablet with a stable internet connection.
5. What You Need Specifically Matters
Some websites may be great places to play tournaments, while others may focus on low-stakes poker games. In the end, the one thing that matters the most when it comes to online poker and your choice of a good platform is to ask yourself – what matters to you the most.
You need to find a platform that is not only bringing you great opportunities to make poker but one that makes the experience worthwhile and fun. Players who are new will definitely appreciate an online poker site that is flexible, player-centric, and brings tons of opportunities to enjoy yourself.