Best Online Poker Sites

Quick Overview

William Hill Poker is one of the oldest and largest bookmakers in the U.K. Now part of the booming iPoker network, traffic and promotions at William Hill are first rate and a massive $16 million in prize money is now guaranteed every month on the network. Multi-currency deposit and play is also available, as is a wide range of games and a great selection of sit-and-gos.

The William Hill Poker software offers good functionality and is quite stable. The graphics are not among the best in the world, but most users seem to think they are more than adequate. The games are generally relatively loose, with a fairly high new player influx to the network and to the site - particularly with a lot of gamblers rolling in from the sportsbook. Real-money player statistics as of February 2012 show 10000 ring-game players and 55000 tournament players at peak hours.

Quick Overview

bwin Poker is one of Europe’s oldest and most popular bookmakers, and through the acquisition of the Ongame network in 2005 they also became Europe’s largest poker network. The game volume at bwin Poker and across the Ongame network is very good, providing good action on any level at most hours of the day. bwin Poker offers relatively juicy games, good game variety, great promotions and very good software, making it a first-rate poker room for most players.

A recent upgrade in July 2009 has added even more features, including direct seating from the lobby, resizable tables and a downloadable Mac client, putting bwin up near the top of the industry as far as software and design go. The software is fast and stable and offers a very nice playing experience, although it may be a bit resource intensive for multi-tabling on slow computers. Real-money player statistics as of February 2012 show 5500 ring-game players and 15000 tournament players at peak hours.

Quick Overview

Tired of grinding out hand after hand at the big sites without ever developing a big edge on your opponents? You might want to look into Bet-at-Home poker.

A member of the lesser-known International Poker Network (Boss Media), Bet-at-Home started out as a Sportsbook but has since expanded into poker. As such, the site is now known for having an abundance of non-poker players in their games.

IPN is one of the smaller networks but a lot of players rave about the experience. Sites on the network have access to a full assortment of games including No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha as well as some unusual ones like Five-Card Draw and SOKO.

The software itself is somewhat simple and rarely updated but that has done nothing to deter players from logging on and fishing for soft games.

Quick Overview

Party Poker is one of the leading online poker rooms in the world and has been for the better part of the 2000s, with great player volume in both cash games and tournaments. Party Poker has been able to maintain loose and juicy games over time thanks to a constant influx of beginners and gamblers from the casino looking for action. Party Poker also offers great promotions and very reliable software, making it a very good all-around poker room.

Party Poker was once the world's largest poker site and although it has been surpassed by PokerStars, it still maintains a very solid player base. Because of its phenomenal growth in the early days, Party Poker can also handle over 100,000 players at a time with no server issues. The software is highly functional, fast and very reliable. In terms of big events, it hosts the flagship "Party Poker Million" and offers plenty of guaranteed tournaments and satellites. Real-money player statistics as of February 2012 show 9500 ring-game players and 60000 tournament players during peak hours.

Quick Overview

Cake Poker launched in 2006 and quickly established itself as a top-notch alternative to some of the big-name poker rooms. As the flagship room of the Cake Poker network, Cake Poker is also one of the few online poker rooms open to U.S. players, making it a very appealing option for players locked out by the UIGEA.

The room itself offers solid software with great graphics, value-packed promotions and some of the worst players on the Internet. The software package is limited to Hold’em, Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo but the site offers ring games, tournaments and sit-and-gos in each. Most of the action is in the micro levels but there are some $2/$4 tables that are pretty juicy. Cake Poker also offers some great satellites into live events including the Aussie Millions, Irish Open and the WSOP. Cake Poker is definitely worth a look if you’re looking for soft low-stakes action with some amazing promotions.