Poker Sites with Best Software

It's tempting to think that all online poker rooms are the same.  After all, what is an online poker room but a collection of virtual cards, tables and player avatars?  How different could one really be from another?

Here it's helpful to think of live poker rooms as a way to illustrate the potential differences between online poker rooms.  If you've played in any amount of live rooms, you can certainly name features that distinguish one from the other, whether it be the size of the tables, the quality of the dealers, the location of the room or even the level of comfort the chairs provide.  Online poker rooms are the same way - while they all serve a similar function (letting you play poker) the specifics of how they accomplish that function can really vary from one site to the next.

What online poker software is the best for players?  What are some of the important features you should look for when evaluating poker software?  Those questions and more are the focus of this guide to selecting the poker site with the best software.

Highest-Rated Poker Room Software

When we rate a room's software, we're looking for the obvious things like stability, security and functionality.  The software needs to run smoothly in a variety of environments, transmit player data in a secure fashion and allow players to participate in games without lags, crashes or other technical troubles.  We then consider the more superficial aspects of the room: Aesthetics, features, interface and so on.

Based on those criteria, we have selected BetOnline Poker as the online poker site with the best software for players.  Stable, secure and feature-rich, BetOnline Poker manages an impressive balance with its poker room software, providing both new players and experienced players with the elements they want from an online poker site.

What sorts of elements?  We'll discuss a few features important to players below, but BetOnline Poker offers options such as private games, 3-D Poker, webcam-based poker and a no-download version of the software.  Those features, when combined with the rock-solid security and stability the BetOnline Poker software offers, place BetOnline Poker at the top of our ratings for poker site software. 

Important Poker Software Features

If you're new to online poker and unsure what to look for in an online poker room in terms of software, here are a few features that should be on your radar:

1. Multitabling Support:  How many tables can you play at once?  What tools does the room provide to help you manage those tables?  Is the room stable with multiple windows open at once?
2. Hand Reviewer:  Does the room let you access past hands?  Is there a way for you to quickly access and review those hands?  What about tournament results and other data?  If you're a player that likes to analyze their game, being able to efficiently retrieve and review hands is going to be an important feature for you.
3. Third-Party Features:  What third-party software does the room support?  Can you use things like hotkey programs or hand-history database programs?  The larger the poker room, the more likely such tools will exist for (and be compatible with) the room.

Poker Software and Antivirus Programs

A quick note that new players will want to pay attention to:  Many popular antivirus software packages will issue "false positives" after you install poker room software.  These flags are a result of an era when online poker rooms and casinos were run by less-than-credible businesses, and the software that such rooms and casinos provided was malicious in some cases.  As a result, some antivirus companies simply applied a blanket warning to all gambling-related software downloaded and installed by a user, regardless of whether or not the software is actually a threat.

If you download the software directly from the room, you have nothing to worry about and can safely ignore any warnings presented by your antivirus software.  If you still have questions or concerns, you can contact support at the poker room for more information on what's causing the warnings and how to resolve them.