Most Popular Poker Sites
While the difference between a busy live poker room and a not quite-so-busy room can just be a handful of tables, the difference between the most popular poker sites and an average one can be hundreds, if not thousands of tables.
Obviously bigger isn't always better, but there are definitely some real advantages to choosing rooms with larger-than-average player bases. What is it about poker sites with a lot of traffic that makes them more appealing to online poker players? We're going to unpack that question, but first let's talk about our top-rated poker room among the largest rooms, why big rooms aren't always the best for players and the slight of hand involved in figuring out which room is actually the largest poker room online.
Why You Should Choose To Play Poker at a Bigger Site Over a Small Poker Room?
The biggest (and best) reason to play at a large poker site is security. If an online poker room has hundreds of thousands of members then the odds of the site being disreputable are extremely low. Simply put, bad businesses don’t stay in business very long. A great, big poker website got that way for a reason and that is by doing right by the customers that have used them which has kept them from leaving.
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Poker Room
Bonus
PC
Mobile
Poker Room Highlights
Review
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25% up to
$900
- Receive a 25% instant cash bonus on all deposits
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Over 5,000 players during peak hours
- Offers poker as well as casino games and sportsbetting
Another great reason to play at a large online US poker site is that there is always a game to be played. Many sites tend to peak around certain times and the tables get relatively sparse. This is great for you if you are online during those peak hours, but if that time frame doesn’t match up with your schedule than you are out of luck. At a poker site with the most traffic there will be a wait time during the peak hours and plenty of tables to play at during the off time.
Some of the other great reasons to play at a popular US poker room include:
Sit N Go Tournaments: At a smaller site you might sign up for a sit n go tournament and wait awhile before the tournament fills up. Meanwhile at the busiest poker sites, the tournament can fill up in just a matter of seconds. For this very reason, poker rooms with lots of traffic, there might be more buy-in amounts offered than at a smaller site.
Multi-table Tournaments: Players who enjoy playing in multi-table tournaments will enjoy the busier poker site for one simple reason: larger pots. The more players in the tournament, the more money in the pot. Multi-table tournaments also tend to happen more frequently at the bigger poker sites while with some smaller sites you might only see one or two tournaments per day.
Cash Games: We’ve all been at the table that was once full, but then slowly started losing players one by one until the ten man ring game suddenly becomes four handed. That’s never any fun and that has a lot smaller chance of happening one of the largest US poker sites than a small one. Another nice thing about choosing a poker room with more traffic is having more limits to choose from with players actually sitting at the tables.
Fishy players: Inexperienced or “fishy” players are a great way to make money playing poker online. Easy to beat players who see a lot of hands add a lot of money to pots that a smart player might not. A site with a larger base is more likely to have more fish and thus have more money to be made.
What are the Largest Poker Rooms for USA Players
The most popular poker sites for US players on the internet today are a mixed bunch. Some, like Sportsbook.ag Poker and Bovada Poker, have been around for a very long time and have a strong history of loyal customers. Others like Sportsbetting Poker or Lock Poker haven’t been around as long, but have built strong reputations for themselves in their short histories. There is no one thing that makes a site the best of the best in US poker sites, but one thing that these sites all have in common is quality software and excellent customer service. Without those two things many people wouldn’t keep coming back.
Are the Most Popular Poker Rooms Always the Best Rooms?
Not necessarily. While there are certainly a number of benefits that players at popular poker rooms accrue, it's not all upside. The busier poker rooms might not work for highly individual reasons; perhaps there's a certain time you like to play tournaments or a particular live event you want to play online satellites for and none of the big rooms meet your needs. It might also be that you play online with a certain group of people and have gotten comfortable at the room where your games are hosted.
A good parallel is comparing the corner market to the massive big-box retailer. The large store offers more options (and generally better prices), but the small market can provide you with highly personal service and may be more convenient for your needs. We make the analogy to drive a simple point: When it comes to online poker sites, bigger can be good, but it's not inherently the best.
The Bigger Poker Sites Varie by Game and Limit
Identifying the biggest online poker site seems like a pretty simple task - until you start digging into it. Then you quickly realize that the term "biggest" is pretty subjective when it comes to online poker rooms. There's biggest for cash games and the biggest for tournaments. There's the largest for euro-based games, GBP poker games and dollar-based games. Within cash games, there's the biggest site for high stakes games, small-stakes games and micro-stakes games, and then even more subdivisions for No Limit, Pot Limit Omaha and so on. You get the point: Biggest is a relative term when you're talking about online poker rooms, so you're always going to want to take claims made by any room with a grain of salt.
Advantages of Playing at High Traffic Poker Sites With the Most Players
It comes down to one word: Variety. Variety of games, variety of opponents, variety of stakes - the largest poker rooms online just have more of everything. If you're a player who always wants to try the latest games and formats, then biggest poker rooms are definitely going to cater to that need better than small or medium-sized sites. Big sites also tend to offer a wider variety of promotions and banking options, although that's not quite as universally true as the rule of game variety.
To experience the advantages of playing at the biggest online poker rooms online, have a look at the poker list above to setup your account and start playing at the best big poker site in just a couple of minutes.