Best Online Poker Sites

To form the list of top online poker sites, we’ve created 4 categories (A, B, C, D) and 5 evaluation criteria (cashout speed, bonuses, reliability, software, and customer service).

The better the scores, the higher the room’s category (rating). Thus, A represents the most trustworthy operators, and D – fraudulent ones.

In addition to these criteria, rake and rakeback, traffic, a choice of available disciplines, payment methods, and other essential aspects have been evaluated.

Our mission is to carefully study all the nuances and provide readers with a clear picture of the poker platform ratings.

Through our list of rooms, both regular and recreational players will be able to find a suitable variant.

Our Scheme to Rank Poker Sites

There are many online platforms to choose from around the world. Due to this, poker operators strive to surpass each other, constantly improving their services. We've determined the main qualities to pay special attention to when ranking them.

All poker rooms listed on this page are divided into 4 categories: A, B, C, and D. You may familiarize yourself with each group description below.

Searching Poker Platforms by Category

For some players, it is important that the room offers fast payouts, while others put soft field first. Everyone has different needs, so on our website, we provide the option of searching for the best platform by different criteria.

Using filters, you can quickly sort rooms that match your query (for example, available currencies, payment methods, operating systems, and others). You can also set the poker format and discipline you are interested in. This requires ticking respective boxes in the upper left of the page.

Best choice for novice players

In our opinion, the best place to play poker online for beginners is GGPoker. At the moment, it is one of the top operators and is growing rapidly. After passing through a quick registration and verification, you can immediately claim a first deposit bonus. Then enter the poker room lobby to appreciate the great software right away.

This is what the poker room's lobby looks like, and you may notice that a large number of different events take place here:

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For beginners, there are tons of freerolls and tournaments with affordable buy-ins and the largest guarantees on the market, as well as qualifying satellites for major events.

The online poker table is also very convenient. You can choose an avatar for yourself, as well as transfer stacks to BB, which is very convenient. In general, everything works quite quickly and without lags.

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Top Online Poker Sites: How to Pick a Good Room

There are a lot of criteria for selecting a poker site. We will acquaint you with the most important ones.

Reliability

The most trusted poker rooms fall into category A. They have a long background in the industry (often greater than 10 years) and a substantial player pool, numbering hundreds of thousands of poker enthusiasts. You can be assured that your money is safe.

One can determine whether the operator is reliable at the time of passing verification. There are also other benchmarks to consider, such as software quality, cashout speed, and customer service professionalism. Agree, if you are being fooled with verification and cannot withdraw a small amount of money for over a week, doubts about the administration’s good faith start creeping in.

Fortunately, Cardmates experts have inspected all the popular rooms and compiled the top most reliable sites 😇

By the way

When you sign up using our promo code, you get exclusive perks from the poker room 😉

But watch out, sites from category D are fraudsters with a, mildly speaking, tarnished reputation. We do not recommend that you register with these rooms.

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Software

This criterion is to assess poker rooms’ software and the possibility of using third-party programs when playing. Most professional players use auxiliary software, so if you understand poker math and intend to use poker stats as an added advantage, then you should check to see if such programs and tools are prohibited by the poker site you choose. There are also rooms with built-in software that allows abandoning any external trackers and HUDs.

Top 10 poker sites with high-quality software:

• GGPoker
• 888poker
• Partypoker
• PokerStars
• Unibet Poker
• Bet 365
• RedStar Poker
• PokerMatch
• William Hill
• Winamax

Playing field

The weaker the field of players, the more profitable it is for a person to play since they can consistently make money on their opponent’s mistakes. On the flip side, if you want to learn how to play poker well, it makes sense to play against the strongest rivals to gain experience.

The latter method is perilous and entails financial implications as newbies are easy prey for poker sharks. Therefore, we advise novice players to opt for poker rooms with a soft (weak) field. For convenience, our website’s functionality provides for a separate filter to sort fishy platforms, that is with the most number of weak players.

The easiest online poker rooms, that is with soft playing fields, are:

Level of traffic

Active play available at any time of the day, especially during peak hours, is an important criterion when it comes to selecting a poker platform. 

Perhaps you have come across this grim situation when you have a few hundred bucks on the account and they are literally asking for being spent, but… there are only three and a half opponents sitting at the tables... ☹️

To avoid excruciating pain, we suggest that you first read our reviews. There you'll find information on traffic.

Step 1

Go back to our list of sites. Click on the name (which interests you) or on the "Review" button.

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Step 2

Traffic during daytime and evening hours is listed in the key information section.

This way, you can save yourself nasty surprises and register in the poker room, which meets all your expectations.

Popular poker platforms’ traffic:

• GGPoker: by day – 70 000, at night – 220 000
• PartyPoker: by day – 5 800, at night – 12 000
• 888poker: by day – 6 000, at night – 11 000

New poker platforms

Many poker players have a special sentiment towards new rooms and we understand why 😉 Platforms that have recently entered the niche attract players through freerolls, generous bonus programs, and loyal attitude to users (fast verification, instant withdrawal, intuitive interface). There's some sense to pay attention to poker rooms that have been operating for no more than 5 years.

Relatively new poker rooms with top-notch software:

Best Online Poker Rooms with Great Bonuses

Now that we’ve figured out the categories, let's move on to promotions🎁

For beginners who have not yet built a sufficient bankroll, this characteristic is also very important. Some poker rooms offer no deposit bonuses to new users, that is, after registering, you immediately receive a few 💵 to your account or tournament tickets. There are known cases when players won thousands of dollars with them.

Promotions are shown to the left of the sign up icon:

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Most popular poker rooms with nice bonuses:

• 888poker
• GGPoker

• PartyPoker

Most juicy no-deposit bonus offer

What's the best online poker site to play on without deposit? 888poker definitely wins in this category. The room operates in more than 10 languages ​​and features an incredibly generous welcome bonus – free $88 for registering an account (credited in installments). It’s the main tool for attracting newbies, but there are lots of other advantages.

The poker platform also adheres to the principles of fair play, so it fights against bots, thereby increasing its reliability level. Users have access to daily freerolls, MTTs, and cash game tables. 888poker offers just Hold'em and Omaha, but players can also try interactive poker with the use of webcams.

“Read me”

As an added bonus, players registered through our links can occasionally take part in special freerolls that we announce on the site. This is a great way for a poker newbie to make money from scratch, without any investment.

Other Important Criteria to Note

Users that are new to poker review sites shallowly, without paying much attention to other crucial things like deposit and withdrawal options offered. A thorough study of the aspects below also helps us in ranking poker rooms. We wouldn’t be able to objectively appreciate one or another platform without this information.

Blacklisted countries

Online poker is legal across most of the world. Nevertheless, there will always be a number of regions where this or that room does not operate. Accordingly, registration and playing for citizens and residents of these countries are not available.

Be sure to familiarize yourself with the laws and regulations of your country as well as the chosen website's rules to be able to sign up. You can also check the best room lists for popular markets by using the matching filter.

Is it legal to use a VPN to play online poker?

Most operators prohibit using VPN and other tools of similar nature, so we recommend clarifying this before you sign up with a poker platform. Be careful though, because they can detect VPN usage and ban your account forever.

Mobile app

An adaptive mobile web site is 👍, however, downloadable programs for smartphones or tablets offer much more options. Almost all poker platforms with one or more years of experience have specialized portable device apps – this is a nice addition to the desktop poker client.

When writing online poker room reviews, we make sure to check how fast a mobile app works (if there is one), taking into account its ergonomics and functionality. Equally important is whether the client’s interface is easy to navigate; whether payments can be made. The poker websites we offer on this page are great for Android and iOS users.

Payment options

When one wants to play online poker real money, then they are to place a deposit first. There are dozens of available methods to make payments on the Internet.

The best online poker sites on our list offer more than enough options: bank cards, e-wallets like Skrill or Neteller, cryptocurrency, etc. Note that not all services are alike. Some of them are more suitable for beginners, while others support higher transaction limits (which is perfect for those who intend to play big). Also, some payment methods are much faster than others.

Payout speed is a common problem in many rooms. Sometimes you have to wait for days to get winnings via bank transfer, while crypto transfers are processed within 30 minutes.

Rakeback

For each hand in cash games, or for each tournament entry, poker rooms charge a certain “fee”. However, a number of sites return to players some of the funds back – this is called rakeback.

Refunds are usually direct payouts (their percentage depends on your status in the loyalty program) or paid in the form of various bonuses. We pay a lot of attention to this moment when compiling the best poker room rating.

Customer service

Efficient communication with a competent support team representative able to solve problems is the basis for successful cooperation with any poker site. The standards are getting higher and higher, which is why the best poker operators provide 24/7 customer support. This is especially important for novice players as they will definitely need assistance upon starting their poker adventure.

In our reviews, you'll find a corresponding paragraph with an assessment of various poker sites’ functioning levels of communication channels. Cardmates pays special attention to an individual approach to client and customer support’s work schedule. We are also considering a FAQ section availability. Websites cannot count on a high rating without the abovementioned points.

Real player reviews of poker rooms on Cardmates

You cannot always judge a poker room by user reviews, but it is still a very important selection criterion. Click the "Leave a comment" button on the right-hand side of the poker room’s name and you’ll be directed to the right section quickly. Here you can read real players’ impressions of the play.

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We strive to ensure that our readers find useful information and answers to questions of their interest in the comment section. So that after reading them, you can understand whether this or that poker room suits you or not, as well as decide for yourself whether it is worth registering and playing here. To combat spam, dishonest and uninformative commentaries, we have the "Rules for publishing reviews of poker rooms" on our site. We highly recommend that you read these rules before leaving a comment about your game experience.

Final Thoughts

Both novice and regular players understand how important the choice of a poker room is. For those who are just taking their first steps in poker, initial impressions of play can be decisive:

• If the poker client’s interface is intuitive and no problems with verification and withdrawal of money arise, a player will want to continue their career.

• If the room has low traffic, its customer service response time is slow, and the playing field is full of toothy regs using third-party software, there will be no desire to continue developing in this direction.

If you have any doubts about registering in a particular poker room, read the best poker site reviews on Cardmates or write to us – there is a contact form in the upper right corner of any page.

N.B.

To develop in poker and become a successful reg, it is important not only to learn poker strategies but also to join the table with a cool head, following the rules of Responsible Gambling. Good luck everyone!