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Online Poker Sites

Playing poker over the internet lets you play poker against people from all over the world. They provide a wide range of games to play, ranging from Heads Up one on one tables to massive multi-table tournaments pitting thousands of players against each other. The games run 24/7, and cater to every budget, from big money to playing for pennies.

How does online poker work?

You start by downloading the software from their website and installing it. Once started it'll request that you create an account - at this stage you don't have to commit to transferring any money. The site will provide play money tables so that can see what it looks like, and to try it out for free. Important - you may be missing out on some bonus offers even at this stage! Before choosing a poker site and downloading the software read the section on bonuses - often once you've signed up without using a bonus code it'll be too late, especially concerning rake (rake is how poker sites make their money - for every hand played they take a small percentage as fee (usually one or two cents per dollar) - like a poker 'tax'! It is possible to get some of that rake back as part of a sign-up deal - again, definitely read our bonus offers to see how this works, and how it can earn you extra money.
Once you've created an account you can start playing - try out the play money tables first to get used to the controls. Once you're ready go to the cashier section and it's time to get out the credit card. Poker sites actually offer a wide range of putting money into your poker account, including credit cards, debit cards and online payment sites such at neteller. You can withdraw your money from the poker site at any time too.
Games are offered at a variety of stakes with the minimum referred to as microstakes - these are games where the big blind is 25c or less. There are even free tournaments called freerolls, although you'll playing against a lot of people in these!

The Biggest Sites

The largest sites are also the best to sign up with. Why? The bigger the playing field, the more likely you're going to be playing against beginners ('fish'), and also you're going to have an easier time finding tables to play at.
Currently the biggest sites are PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. Both sites have excellent software, plenty of players and give regular bonuses and special offers. Coming up below these two giants are the iPoker and Cake networks. These are poker networks that allow other companies to provide a 'skin' (the look & feel) to the same underlying poker network - that means separate software, but you'll still be playing against the same pool of players. For instance, Red Star, Players Only, and Power Poker are all Cake network sites, and Titan and Mansion are iPoker sites.
If you're only going to play at one site, we'd recommend Full Tilt Poker. The main reasons why are the huge numbers of players and rakeback - rakeback isn't offered at PokerStars, and so you'd be missing out on get 27% of your poker 'tax' back!
See our offers page to choose a site - just about every site offers some form of rakeback, and most give a deposit bonus too - for instance, you sign up to a site and deposit $100 to play with. As you play and build up frequent player points they'll match your deposit and give you $100 (or more) for free!