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Best Texas Hold-'em Poker Online Sites
Looking for some action in addition to the neighborhood game? Want to find out where it's easiest to win some cash online? Below find our reviews for the top six online
Texas hold-'em poker sites. Sign up from one of the links below and you'll get access to exclusive deposit bonuses!
If you have any questions about what site is right for you or about playing online, send us an email.
The List
1. Noble Poker
2. Party Poker
3. Pacific Poker
4. PokerStars
5. UltimateBet
6. PokerRoom
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| Party Poker |
More than 65,000 players online now! Visit Party Poker and get a 20% bonus up to $100. Enter RAISE22 as your bonus code.
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| Comments |
PartyPoker is the king of all poker sites, with the most traffic for both cash games and tournaments. While its software isn't as intuitive or sleek as that of top competitor Pokerstars.com, its benefits include the ability to play multiple tables at once and keep notes on opponents. The quality of competition varies wildly, given Party's tremendous traffic (it draws about four times the number of players in cash games as Pokerstars.com, its closest competitor), so you should be selective about which tables you play. But given its traffic and often generous reload bonuses, this might be the best place to learn the game. |
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| Pros |
More players than anywhere else by far; generous reload bonuses. |
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| Cons |
Software is somewhat unwieldy and can be slow; swings in cash games can be wild, with many players diving in and out of games. |
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| Pacific Poker |
Get a 25% bonus up to $100 on your first deposit at Pacific Poker!
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| Comments |
Pacific Poker probably has a larger ratio of fish to sharks than any other
site. It attracts a lot of loose players looking for action because it's
affiliated with huge online casino 888.com. Pacific features popular
five-person no-limit, pot limit and limit hold-em sit-and-gos (three people
finish in the money) that are a good cheap way to learn the game. You won't
win a ton of money playing these, but there's usually one or two bad players
to prey on in each one. The cash games are full of wild players, so you can
expect some big swings, but the low-limit games are especially beatable if
you have the discipline and bankroll. |
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| Pros |
Easy competition; flexible sit-and-go structures; no-download option |
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| Cons |
Software only lets you play one table at a time, and doesn't show your
opponent's cards when you're all-in unless your opponent wins the hand. |
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| PokerStars |
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| Comments |
This is the site where Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer and David Williams qualified for the World Series of Poker, and it offers the most lucrative weekly online tournament: a Sunday afternoon bonanza with a prize pool of $350,000+. The buy-in for this tournament is $200, but as befits a site known for its satellite winners turned superstars, you can win your way in for as little as $3. Just don't expect this to be easy. The cash games and tournaments on this site are as tough as any online. Good thing is, the software might be the easiest-to-use of all the sites, and there are numerous tournaments and sit-and-gos to learn the game for $5.25 or less. |
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| Pros |
Good tournament variety; World Series of Poker champions won their seats here; huge weekly Sunday tournament. |
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| Cons |
Competition is probably tougher here than anywhere else online; site isn't known for offering bonuses. |
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| UltimateBet |
Get a 40 percent first-time deposit bonus at Ultimatebet. Enter bonus code RAISE20.
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| Comments |
The online home of pros like Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke and Antonio Esfandiari, UltimateBet has a decent software interface (with a convenient, easy-to-use hand history feature) and some of the biggest games online. Its $25-$50 no-limit game is legendary, with pros like Prahlad Friedman and Hellmuth matching up against celebs like Ben Affleck and unknown phenoms. The swings in that game can be thousands of dollars -- on a single hand -- which can be a lot of fun to watch even if you're nowhere close to playing at that level. Obviously, the competition at smaller limits isn't as tough, but with a lot of decent players on the site, the cash games and tournaments can often be difficult to beat. |
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| Pros |
Home of respected poker pros; high-limit action with the world's best players. |
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| Cons |
Cash games and tournaments are tough overall; bonuses require you to play a lot of hands. |
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| PokerRoom |
Win a seat on the World Poker Tour for just $7 at PokerRoom.com.
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| Comments |
This site has cheesy graphics, and its lobby for cash games can be hard to navigate (you have to click on each table to see the table's statistics). But its software (with note-taking and hand-tracking functions) is pretty good otherwise, and you don't need to download anything to play. Other benefits: The competition is usually pretty soft, you can start playing with just a $10 deposit, and there are also daily freerolls for real-money players. |
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| Pros |
Soft competition; mininum deposit requirement of just $10. |
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| Cons |
Cheesy graphics; lobby navigation makes it somewhat difficult to find the loosest tables. |
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Discuss Poker and Poker Strategy
SPECIAL BONUSES
Titan Poker
FoldorRaise.com users can get an amazing 100 percent deposit bonus up to $500. And we're sponsoring a $100 freeroll on Monday, September 12. Password is takeit. No deposit necessary.
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Titan Poker
New depositors are eligible for a $1,000 freeroll.
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Pacific Poker
Get a 25% bonus up to $100 on your first deposit at Pacific Poker, where we've found some of the softest games around.
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UltimateBet
Play poker with Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke at UltimateBet. Enter bonus code RAISE20 for a 40 percent newcomer bonus.
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OUR POKER BLOG
A Titan freeroll (9/1/2005)
Titan Poker just launched, and they're offering a great 100 percent deposit bonus up to $500. There's also a $1,000 freeroll for all depositors.
And perhaps best of all, FoldorRaise.com is sponsoring a.....
Our next freeroll (7/28/2005)
FoldorRaise is sponsoring a $50 freeroll on August 7 at Noble Poker. Password is proveit. No deposit necessary. See you there. Noble, meanwhile, is running a cool promotion. Win seven straight $10 sit-and-gos.....
Know when to hold it … (6/22/2005)
USA Today digs deep and discovers that the record turnout at the World Series of Poker is ... making it really hard to go to the bathroom at the Rio.
Meanwhile, the New York Post interviews Maxim's Erin Ness.....
Our weekend freeroll (6/16/2005)
FoldorRaise is sponsoring a Sunday night $100 freeroll at Noble Poker. Password is princepk. No deposit necessary. See you there.
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