Best Online Texas Holdem Sites For Us Players

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Zynga now has the largest poker site in the world with millions and millions of players online 24/7, 365. The partnership with the World Poker Tour makes for even more options – including tournaments. BetOnline Poker provides plenty of opportunities for new players to boost their bankrolls, especially players who take advantage of our exclusive 200% bonus on first deposits up to $2,500. The site hosts weekly cash races and leaderboard competitions at three buy-in levels to give every player a chance of picking up a valuable prize and BetOnline Poker would be our #1 US-friendly poker site. Whether you enjoy playing casino games or use online versions to increase your skill level for live plan at traditional casinos, there are three great sites for those that love to play Texas Hold ‘em. Sites like Ignition, Bovada and Intertops rate highest when it comes online gaming.

Freerolls, poker sites and your bankroll: there are few sweeter equations in the poker world than this. While it’s true that in life you don’t ever get something for nothing, you’ll find when you play poker online, freerolls are there to ensure that this isn’t necessarily the case.

Of course, there are certain restrictions when it comes to online poker freerolls, but these are, at best, minimal. In fact, in order to take part in any of the free poker tournaments at our top US sites, you basically need to create an account and play at least one real money hand.

Great! All this sounds fantastic, but what exactly are free poker tourneys? In a nutshell, a poker freeroll is a tournament that doesn’t cost anything to enter. Unlike MTTs that charge an entry fee plus rake, these no-cost poker events allow you to test your skills and compete for cash prizes for free. In general, at the best US poker sites, freerolls will run throughout the day and offer prizepools worth anywhere from $100 to $10,000.

How Poker Sites, Freerolls and You All Fit Together

If no-cost tourneys basically give you a chance to win money for nothing, then why do US poker sites host them? Although it may seem counterintuitive, poker site freerolls actually make good business sense for all parties. For poker rooms, free tournaments are a way of rewarding players, stimulating action and nurturing loyalty. By giving novice players a chance to build a bankroll from nothing, the best US operators are more able to retain valuable customers.

For players, online poker freerolls are a fantastic way to fill your pockets with cash.

Regardless of whether you’re a newbie without a bankroll, or a seasoned grinder looking for a cash boost, these free poker tournaments are a great way to enhance your fortunes.

In fact, free tournaments come in all shapes and sizes. Although many are aimed solely at new customers with small bankrolls, many of the best poker sites offer freerolls to VIP players. Usually taking place at the end of the month, the size of the prizepool is often dependent on a player’s ranking. For example, a low level VIP may be rewarded with a monthly freeroll worth $1,000, while a top-ranking player will be given a ticket to play in a $10,000 tournament, all for free.

  • U. S. Poker Site
  • Compatibillity
  • Editor Rating
  • Deposit Bonus
Best online poker sites for us players
  • Very player friendly
  • Generous cashback
  • Great mobile play

The Advantages of Freerolls, Poker Sites and Your Bankroll

When it comes to freerolls, poker sites want you to take advantage of them. As we’ve mentioned, these tournaments actually make sense for all parties concerned, but what positives can you learn from US poker site freerolls other than making money?

Patience: It’s often the case in online poker freerolls that players are crazy. Because entry is free and, in general, the fields are large, players are willing to take risks. This usually takes the form of a constant barrage of all-ins during the early rounds. Because of this, the key to free tournament success is to be patient. Moreover, the key to poker success is to be patient. Thus, when you play online poker free tourneys, you should build up a healthy amount of patience that will improve your overall game.

Better MTT Skills: When it comes to the best US poker sites, freerolls provide a great way to hone your tournament strategy. Because they don’t cost anything to enter, you can practice the skills necessary in order to thrive in each stage of an MTT (early, middle and late). Moreover, because free tournaments often contain a plethora of American grinders, you’ll gain valuable experience when it comes to tackling both live and online tournaments.

Tricky Plays: Free poker games are a great way to practice new plays. After reading a piece of poker strategy you’ll often want to test it out on your opponents. Of course, in a real money game this can be costly. However, when you play online poker freerolls, this fear of losing money isn’t there. Therefore, if you want to advance your skills and become a trickier player, free tournaments provide the perfect testing ground.

Bankroll Management: In terms of poker sites, freerolls offer a great way for you to manage your bankroll. Across America, players are losing their bankrolls on a daily basis because they take too many risks. Fortunately, when it comes to freerolls, poker sites offer an in-built safeguard against financial ruin. By giving you the ability to play poker and win money for free, you can avoid spending more than you can afford, thus, going broke.

Don’t Lose Your Values When Playing Free Online Poker Tournaments

Best Online Texas Holdem Sites For Us Players

One of the biggest traps novice players fall into when it comes to US poker sites, freerolls and overall strategy is fancy play syndrome (FPS). The key to success in all American free poker tournaments is to play solid poker. Often described as A, B, C, this strategy basically asserts that you raise with your strong hands, fold your weak ones and, generally, don’t do anything too tricky because the players around you aren’t skilled enough to read your moves.

When it comes to playing poker online, a free tournament is a great training ground so you should always see them as a way to practice sound poker strategy. Although it may be tempting to join the all-in merchants, we suggest you avoid this and follow our simple tips to free tournament success:

  • Only raise with the top 10% of hands (increase this to 15% when you’re on the button).

  • Don’t bluff.
Best Online Texas Holdem Sites For Us Players
  • If a player makes a re-raise and you don’t hold AA, KK, QQ, JJ, A-K or A-Qs, you should fold.

  • Only limp into the pot of you have a small or medium pair and there have been two limpers before you.

  • In the early stages, make sure you play extremely tight. Conversely, in the latter stages, you can be a lot looser.

  • Be patient. US freerolls contain a lot of player so don’t despair if you don’t win one. There are multiple MTTs each day so play as many as possible.
  • Don’t bluff!

The Best US Poker Sites: Freerolls and More

So now we’ve given you an overview of the business of poker sites, freerolls and everything in-between, it’s time to point you in the direction of our best recommended poker rooms. When it comes to our top US poker sites, freerolls form a major part of our review criteria. We only choose the operators with a large number of daily free tourneys for both new and established players. In fact, when you ante-up at any of our recommended platforms, you’ll find a slew of online poker freerolls offering five-figure prizes on a weekly basis. So, if you want to build a bankroll from nothing, make sure you take advantage of our latest freeroll offers.

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Are you looking for the best US legal online poker sites or a real money poker app? If the answer is yes, then you came to the right place. This is one of our many online poker reviews where you can find more about the best online poker options.

Without further ado, keep reading to discover how to play the best online poker for money and how to form an online poker strategy. So, let’s get started!

Contents

Best Legal Online Poker Sites

  1. WSOP
  2. PartyPoker
  3. PokerStars
  4. Pala Poker
  5. 888poker
  6. Global Poker

Is online poker legal? It's not always the same as legal online casinos and legal online sportsbooks. All new players who decide to explore the vast universe of real money poker sites should know that federally, online poker sites are illegal. However, on the individual level, online poker is legal in some of the states.

Some websites such as Global Poker (which is a sweepstakes poker site) are allowed in 49 out of 50 US states. Only Washington does not allow it. At the moment of writing our online poker reviews, only four states offer legal online poker websites in the United States. These are the following: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware.

For more information about some of the available sites, make sure to consult our Global Poker review.


US Legal Online Poker: State by State

Is online poker legal in your state? If the answer is no, keep in mind that the situation can change pretty quickly. Unsurprisingly, Nevada was the leader of regulated online poker. Once the ice was broken, the domino-effect followed.

One by one, many states tried or are still trying to pass the legislation. As you can see, some of them even succeeded. The last one to recently pass online poker is West Virginia, and we expect more legal US poker sites to be launched in the future.

When it comes to future predictions, we believe that chances are pretty good for some of the states to overcome all the legal obstacles and finally launch real money poker sites so their residents become able to play legal online poker.

Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, New York are some of the states that’ll probably make some innovations when it comes to the possibilities of playing poker online. These are the states that have active supporters of online poker in the state senate.

What’s more, regulated real money poker sites in neighboring states can only have a positive effect on public opinion. Additionally, within the borders of the aforementioned states, you can find a considerable number of land-based casinos.

Many of them come with the best online poker rooms where you can play various variants of poker, including the most popular one - Texas Hold’em. In other words, these poker offline options make it easier to launch legal poker sites and eventually start to offer legal online poker.

States Where Legal Online Poker Seems Like a Distant Dream

From this point of view, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah are just some of the states where we can see a certain legislative hostility towards online gambling. Therefore, we don’t believe that we won’t be able to play Texas Hold’em online there for quite some time.

Sweepstakes Legal Online Poker - Play Poker Free No Matter Which State You’re In

As said before, Global Poker, a sweepstakes legal online poker site, can be accessed in all US states except for the state of Washington. This legal online poker platform was launched in 2106, and since then, many players use its services. The virtual currency gaming business model is what makes it unique.

Instead of playing for real money, players play poker free, using gold coins or sweeps cash. That’s why Global Poker often appears when players search for “play poker free” or “play poker online, free”.

To understand how sweepstakes poker works, let’s start with some poker basics and make sure to understand sweeps poker terminology clearly. There’s a difference between gold coins and sweeps cash, and there’s a reason for which “play poker online, free” is actually a bit of a misnomer here.

Gold Coins are the name for the virtual currency in Global Poker, and they are equivalent to what regular legal online poker sites usually call “play money”. In other words, you can’t cash them out, but you can use them to play Texas Hold’em online or participate in some of the available tournaments with other players. On the other hand, “$weeps cash” is a promotional, virtual currency that can be cashed out through PayPal.

To sum up, you can buy gold coins that don’t have any monetary value and can’t be cashed out. “$weeps cash” is obtained as free of charge once you buy Gold Coins. Because of this virtual currency online poker model, Global Poker is not quite considered an online gambling activity. Therefore, it’s allowed in almost all of the US.

Where Can I Play Legal Online Poker in the US?

Pennsylvania is the last state where online poker had become legal when PokerStars was launched there at the end of 2019. Right now that’s also the only available option to play online poker for money in Pennsylvania.

Best Online Texas Holdem Sites For Us Players

Best online texas holdem poker

If we don’t count Global Poker, which can be accessed in 49 states, all the other legal online poker sites come with pretty restricted access. For example, Pala Poker and PartyPoker are only available in the state of New Jersey.

However, they are not the only NJ poker sites one can access. WSOP, America's top legal online poker site, is available in the Garden State, and it’s also accessible to all Nevada online poker fans as well. Likewise, PokerStars NJ, available both independently and within the FOX Bet app

Claim the WSOP promo code in New Jersey and Nevada to get a $1,000 signup bonus!

Where Can I Play Poker Live?

Most of the land-based casinos across different states include special poker rooms where you can play live poker. Playing Texas Hold’em online is definitely the most popular option. After all, poker is an American thing, so it’s no wonder to see it available in the vast majority of mortar and bricks casinos.

In fact, instead of listing all the states where you can sit back, relax and try out your luck with live poker, it’s better to list all those where you can’t play poker online. It’ll be easier to remember this list:

  • Alaska
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • New Hampshire
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Utah

We must add that in Texas, private poker clubs aren’t forbidden. As long as no house makes a profit from the game, poker can be played in private places for fun.

US Online Poker Basics

When talking about the current status of legal US poker sites, there are two especially important laws that you should be aware of. Let’s take a look at these two federal laws that govern online poker in the country.

The Wire Act

The first one is the Interstate Wire Act of 1961, often called the Federal Wire Act. As you can see, it passed long before online poker or even the internet existed. However, it prohibits certain types of betting businesses to operate via wired communications.

In 2011, the US Department of Justice concluded that the scope of the act was limited to sporting events. Therefore, states, where online poker is now regulated, found that the bill didn’t apply to online poker nor other forms of gambling.

However, in 2019, the US Department of Justice reversed its opinion. The new opinion concludes that the Wire Act applies to all types of online gambling.

The UIGEA

The other relevant law is the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) from 2006. This law made it illegal for US banks to proceed with transactions for offshore gambling companies. That’s how they were pushed out of the market.

History of US Legal Online Poker

Texas

Online casinos started to appear back in 1994. They were usually situated in Antigua or the Isle of Man. However, the vast majority of their users were US-based customers. Two years later, in 1996, online gambling was also brought to the North American market soil.

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission was established just outside Montreal. They started issuing licenses, and pretty soon, it was possible to find hundreds of new online gambling websites.

Once again, two years later and again in Canada, the first-ever poker online website saw the light of day. Planet Poker was the favorite source of fun to thousands of Americans who were spending endless hours playing the first real-money online Texas Hold’em.

Over the next few years, thanks to technological advances, better online poker software was developed, while the number of websites kept increasing. These online poker operators also started to offer various tournaments and cash games and got a solid fan base all over the world.

The Industry Kept Growing & Then It Collapsed

Even though there were different interpretations of the law, especially of the famous Wire Act, the newly developed industry kept growing.

The year 2003 is especially important in the evolution of online poker. Using an account from Tennessee, Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker after participating in the event through an online satellite. In Chris Moneymaker's case, we guess, it's okay to say that name determines destiny.

This online poker strategy was live-streamed on ESPN. Suddenly, the whole nation knew about Chris's story. A good number of Americans were hoping to be the next. All of a sudden, poker was everywhere on TV. Live games were followed carefully, and commercial breaks had one purpose: promoting online poker for money and playing Texas Hold 'em online.

The great number of promoted sites were, in fact, offshore online poker sites. A lot of them disappeared from American browsers after Congress passed the above-mentioned UIGEA in 2006.

However, even though a lot of sites weren't accessible anymore, online poker couldn't be erased that easily. Some of the offshore gambling companies had found a way around the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, but not for long.

In 2011, some of the largest online poker operators, including PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet, were accused of violating UIGEA and money laundering. These websites were definitely excluded from the significant US online poker market, which seemed to come to an end at the time.

Legal Online Poker Sites Rise Again

Also in 2011, the DOJ released a legal opinion that the Federal Wire act exclusively applied only to one form of gambling: sports betting. A few states saw this as a possibility, paving the way to regulated online casinos and legal US poker sites.

In 2012, Delaware was the first state that managed to do just that. Then, in December 2013, Nevada followed the example of passing online poker legislation. A week later, the Garden State became the third to legalize online gambling, and plans for NJ poker sites were made.

The first-ever regulated US online poker site was launched in Nevada in April 2013. Delaware and NJ poker sites went live that same year, a few months later. In 2017, Pennsylvania became the fourth state to join this group. West Virginia is the fifth state where online poker was regulated in 2019. Probably, more states will try to do the same thing in the near future.

Which State is Next?

Is online poker legal in California or New York? This is one of the frequently asked questions that people search for in the USA. They also search for different terms of poker terminology that sound unfamiliar to them. However, that’s another question that we could discuss on some other occasion.

Let’s get back to our question of legal online poker sites and the possible new markets in the USA. Michigan has made significant efforts to legalize online gambling, particularly online poker, while California, New York, and Massachusetts also seem to be moving in the right direction.

Real Money Poker App: How to Find the Best Poker App

It doesn’t matter if you are a Pennsylvania online poker fan or a regular visitor of NJ poker sites, the good news is that you can play poker whenever you want, anywhere within the borders of one or the other state.

Best Online Texas Holdem Sites For Us Playersor Us Players

Many of the best online poker websites have launched a dedicated real money poker app that you can easily download and install on your device. The best poker apps are available for both iOS and Android operating systems.

In order to find the best poker app, make sure you visit one of the websites we listed at the beginning of our review.

Texas Holdem Real Money Usa Players

Also, before you replace your poker offline adventure with the one that can be found on the internet, make sure to read some of the online poker reviews and get to know the poker terminology used by the players worldwide. After a brief introduction to the poker basics, it’s time to create your own online poker strategy and join one of the legal online poker communities!