After the Black Friday events associated with the closure of major USA poker rooms, the search for places with weak, but generous players from the United States has become significantly more difficult. Today only a few networks allow Americans to sign up. Even fewer networks open access to both Americans and players from other countries at the same time. In this article we will take a look at the largest networks and rooms that currently accept poker players from the USA and where players from the former Soviet Union countries can go. We will also talk about mobile poker applications that accept poker fans from all over the world, including the United States.
History of online poker in the United States
Online poker originated in the United States. The game itself, according to some versions, was also invented in that country. There is still debate about the origin of poker, but the assumption that this card game began to be played in the 19th century in the settlements on the Mississippi coast is quite convincing.
During the 20th century poker became very popular in America. This game was counted among the national sports disciplines. With the advent of the Internet poker migrated to the network. In the early 2000s, the first poker rooms began to appear where players could register not only from the USA, but also from other countries of the world.
Poker became very popular on the internet after Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event of the World Series in 2003. The American was selected for the main poker event through a satellite at PokerStars and managed to beat all opponents, becoming the first. The amateur’s victory sparked a poker boom, after which Americans started signing up for poker rooms en masse.
Black Friday in online poker
On April 15, 2011, four of the largest American poker rooms were blocked by order of the FBI, as the executives were accused of fraud, money laundering, defrauding the authorities, bribery and some other crimes. These events were preceded by the release of a law prohibiting poker rooms from accepting U.S. citizens (2006). Because of the violation of this law, 11 executives were indicted and the rooms were blocked.
In addition to the arrest of the employees of the poker rooms, the authorities also blocked the accounts through which transactions between the rooms and the players took place. As a result, players could not access their accounts and withdraw money. The main consequences of Black Friday were the erosion of trust in the major poker rooms, the closure of the online poker industry and the migration of traffic to European rooms.
Online poker legalization
In the USA, there is no legal framework regulating the activities of the Internet gambling industry. The organization of the operation of online venues is based only on two acts. The first, which was issued in 1961, prohibits betting by phone. This law was later extended to the World Wide Web. The second act came out in 2006, and it prohibits transactions with foreign sites.
As a result of the violation of the second act, the events of Black Friday took place. Later, the online poker market began to gain legal status. Five states in the United States allowed online poker to be played on legal sites that had obtained licenses. One of these sites was wsop.com, which brought together a pool of players from three states. But players in Michigan and Pennsylvania formed an even larger pool at PokerStars. It is expected that the number of states in which online poker will become legal will only increase over time.
Where to play with players from the USA
Despite all the bans and blocking of sites, offshore poker rooms are still operating in the United States. These rooms, unlike legal rooms operating under license, provide their services all over America, not only in certain states. Accordingly, the pool of players at these sites is significantly higher.
In addition, offshore poker rooms can offer more interesting and profitable bonuses, a variety of poker disciplines and formats, as well as alternative ways of financial transactions (cryptocurrency). At the moment, the most popular poker networks accepting players from the USA are Winning Poker and Chico Poker Network. In addition, it is possible to play against Americans in special mobile applications, like PPPoker and PokerBros.
Americas Cardroom
Winning Poker is the largest poker network hosting poker fans from the United States. In the world ranking of networks with the largest cash traffic WPN is steadily in the top 10. Winning Poker poker rooms play at 6-max and 9-max tables. The average daily online cash traffic is 1,900 people. There is a fast poker game called Blitz. Hold’em and Omaha are played on limits up to 5K/10K. It is possible to play in lottery tournaments (Spins) with buy-ins up to $50. The network allows you to collect statistics on opponents with trackers directly.
The largest Winning Poker room is Americas Cardroom. This room is focused primarily on players from the United States. The team of professionals includes Chris MoneyMaker himself. Here is a unique format of cash tables – 7day no rathole.
If you have a Americas Cardroom account, you can also play at another WPN rooms – PokerKing and Black Chip Poker. Contact our managers to sign up for the best deal.
- An impeccable reputation and 20 years of presence in the online poker market
- Relatively low rake even at micro stakes
- High fixed rakeback and even higher rakeback for loyalty program members
- The ability to deposit the account and withdraw money in cryptocurrency
- Very weak lineups, represented mainly by recreational players from the United States
- Support for poker trackers and HUD
- Difficulties with registration
- Small number of bonuses
BetOnline Poker
Despite the fact that Chico network is inferior to WPN by cache traffic, almost twice, you will find much more 9-max tables here. In addition, this network is consistently ranked as the 12th most visited network in the world. The most popular limit is NL100. The network includes three rooms: BetOnline, Sportsbetting, Tigergaming.
The Chico Poker Network, in addition to the standard cash games, has fast poker on the NL10 limit. Up to 100 people play fast poker at peak times. Spins are available on 18 limits, with buy-ins up to $200. The network’s poker rooms support the H2N poker tracker directly and others through converters. Rake is 5.5% and rakeback reaches 60%.
In the popular poker room BetOnline you can not only play poker, but also bet on sports and visit the casino. Naturally, these two sections are an additional source of recreational players. Therefore, the strength of the field in the room is quite weak. BetOnline has a weekly rake race with a prize pool of $10,000. The first 100 people on the leaderboard are rewarded with cash prizes – this can be considered an additional rakeback.
Mobile Poker Apps
Mobile poker apps are online platforms designed to play poker in private clubs. Such apps are positioned as online platforms for organizing private games among friends. The game is played with conventional chips, which is the main difference between mobile applications and poker rooms. However, these chips are purchased for real money through intermediary agents. Such organization of the game and financial transactions opened the access to online poker for the residents of the countries, where gambling is prohibited. That is why American poker players began to actively register in PPPoker, PokerBros and other applications.
PPPoker
PPPoker is one of the most popular mobile applications. PPPoker has gained the leading position due to the following advantages: active and effective fight against bots, the use of the classic rake withdrawal scheme, multifunctional, convenient software, holding large tournaments. Cash games are played on Limits from NL20 up to NL1000. In addition to Hold’em, you can play Omaha and Chinese poker here. The rake is 5% and limited to 3 BB. Chinese poker has a lower commission of 3%. If you sign up for PPPoker via Bastion Poker, you can expect increased rakeback, up to 50%-80%.
PokerBros
PokerBros is another poker app with advanced graphics and flexible settings. Considering that the main audience of the majority of PokerBros clubs are Americans, the peak attendance is in the evening of US time. Cash is played on limits from NL10 to NL1000. Sometimes you can find tables with more expensive play, up to NL5K. Pot-limit Omaha is played at similar rates. PokerBros has tournaments with guaranteed prizes. Depending on the club, the rake can range from 3 to 5%.
Upoker
Upoker is a young app, which appeared in 2019 and combined the best features of its competitors. Clubs here are divided by geography – Asian, European, American. You can join a club with poker players from the United States, where mostly recreational players roll. The most traffic is concentrated at 6-max cash tables. Limits range from NL10 to NL5000. There are also MTT tournaments with guarantees reaching several tens of thousands of dollars. The rake is the same everywhere – 5%, rakeback depends on the club and is 10-35%.
Other American Poker Sites
KingsClubPoker
KingsClubPoker is an American private room where you can register by invitation only. In this room you will find a huge variety of disciplines, from standard Hold’em to 5-card Omaha and Pineapple. Peak attendance is in the evening, U.S. time. About 40 tables are played at this time. This poker room is suitable for medium to high limit players. There is no game here at low stakes. The rake in KingsClubPoker is 5%, for Pineapple it is 3%. The poker room has not developed its own application, so you can play only in the browser version.
Bodog Poker
Bodog Poker is another American room, which appeared back in 1994. The average daily attendance is 2,000 people. The lineups are very weak, as recreational players from the USA and Canada prevail here. The choice of limits is quite large – from micro-limits to $10/$20. The main feature of the room is the anonymity of all players, which eliminates the possibility of collecting statistics on opponents. Multitabling is limited to three tables. In addition to cash, there are tournaments with guarantees up to $120,000. The rake is 5%. Bodog Poker has a fairly generous bonus program that allows you to get additional rakeback.
Conclusion
Bastion Poker Affiliate Team will provide you with comfortable access to all of the poker rooms and applications discussed. You’ll be able to receive increased rakeback and enjoy exclusive bonuses. In addition, our staff is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help you with any questions you may have.
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