My current top 3 poker sites offering real-money play to US players are Bovada Poker, Global Poker, and Ignition Poker. I've extensively reviewed each one and each has earned my trust for a number of reasons. Want to know the best thing about poker online? Real money games needn't break the bank. Leading poker sites will run cash games starting at just $0.01/$0.02, so even the smallest bankrolls can benefit from online poker real money action. A word to the wise: make sure you find a poker. When you join one of the top USA real money online poker sites listed on CardsChat.com, you will find lots of easy-to-beat players. You can use simple and secure banking options such as credit &.

Today, we’re going to talk about real money online poker. If you think you’ve got what it takes to take on the fishes of the online poker world, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to give you all of the best real money poker sites to get you started, as well as some other information you will need about online poker.

Best US Real Money Poker Sites

If you’re in the US, you have plenty of options for playing real money poker. All of the sites that we recommend accepts US players. A common question we get is whether or not it is legal for players in the US to play real money poker online. So, we’re going to cover that question and go over online casinos by state.

Is Playing Online Poker for Real Money in the US Legal?

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• Borgata Poker is the online poker site associated with Atlantic City’s hottest casino property. Both the land-based venue and Borgata Poker Online are part of the MGM Resorts portfolio.

Depending on which state you live in, there may be different laws about sports betting or playing casino games. However, no one in the USA has ever been prosecuted from playing real money online poker at safe sites like the ones we recommend.

Legal Online Casinos by US State

We have a dedicated section that lays out different legal online casinos for USA players based on their state. So whether you live in California or New York, there is an online casino to play real money poker for you!

How to Get Started With Playing Poker for Money

Now, it’s time to cover a few basic tips you need to be aware of before playing poker online. These are essential things to keep in mind that you shouldn’t gloss over if you are serious about wanting to win real money playing poker.

Why Site Selection Matters

If you don’t select the right real money poker site, you’re going to have a bad time. Why? Well, because of how many untrustworthy sites that are out there, it’s easy to get scammed. Our dedicated team spends hours vetting online poker sites that offer real money play to find ones that are legit and safe to play at.

After a grueling vetting process, the online poker sites we’ve recommended are ones you can absolutely trust with your money. These sites will pay you your winnings and have excellent customer service teams. They’re just all-around great sites!

Poker Terms You Should Know

• All-In – You go all in when you bet all of your bankroll on a hand.
• Ante – The ante is a bet you’re forced to put into the pot so the hand can begin.
• Blinds – These are required bets by two players left of the dealer.
• Bluff – This is the act of trying to trick other players that you have a good hand when you don’t.
• Flop – The flop is the first three cards dealt.
• Pot Odds – This is the ratio of money that it takes to call the bet on the table.
• River – The fifth of the five cards dealt in a hand.
• Tilt – This is when you, as a player, become visibly upset and starts making bad decisions based on your emotions.
• Turn – The fourth of five cards dealt in a hand.

How to Stay Safe Playing Poker Online for Real Money

Before you start playing poker for money online, you want to make sure you do the proper research to make sure you know how to stay safe.

Play at Safe US Online Poker Sites

This one should be self-explanatory. You need to be very careful about the US friendly online poker site you choose, and that’s where we come in. Our team of experts has already gone through the painstaking process of finding safe poker sites for real money, so you don’t have to worry about playing at the wrong ones.

Start out Small

Before you jump right in and start giving real money poker sites all of your bankroll, stop and consider a few things. We recommend starting out small and only depositing a little bit of money at a time. This will potentially help protect your bankroll if you are at all worried about losing your money.

While the real money poker sites we recommend are very safe, this is just a measure we recommend for anyone who might still have concerns, just for their peace of mind.

Bank With Cryptocurrency

This isn’t a must, but it’s highly recommended by our team at BestUSCasinos.org. Cryptocurrency is a fantastic way to keep your money safe when dealing with online banking. It also gives you the option of maintaining anonymity.

Best Online Real Cash Poker Sites

Real Money Online Poker Bonuses

One way to enjoy US online poker to its fullest is to take advantage of online bonuses and promotions that are offered. Here is an example of an online poker bonus found at Ignition Casino:

As you can see, you have the option to receive up to $1,000, or even more if you deposit with Bitcoin. There are many other bonuses like this at other casinos, most often a welcome bonus of some kind.

Other types of bonuses you’ll see are things like the following:

• “Bad Beat” bonuses
• “Royal Flush” bonuses
• And others

Free Poker Tournament Entries

Another thing many real money USA poker sites will do is have recurring tournaments. Here are a few online poker tournament examples, courtesy of Ignition Casino:

Again, many sites will have different promotions, there are just two examples of real money poker tournaments happening at the time of this writing. Many US poker sites for money will also have bonuses that may allow you to enter for free or match a deposit you make into the tournament.

Poker tournaments for real money are a great way to get your feet wet with online poker if you are new.

Online Poker Real Money Apps

You’ll find many apps on the App Store or Google Play store, but most of them will not be for real money. If you’re looking for a real money poker app, we recommend checking to see if it’s an app from one of the casinos we recommend.

If you’re just looking to play poker for fun and not worry about real money, then any of the free to play apps would be perfectly fine. Just be careful about what company you would be giving money to if you aren’t familiar with them, especially if it isn’t one of our recommended best United States online poker sites.

Start Playing Poker Online in the USA

Well, that about does it for today. We hope you have found the US online poker site of your dreams. Be sure to check back regularly as our rankings change quite a bit. Our team continues day after day to make sure we recommend only the best real money online poker sites out there.

Have fun, stay safe, and win big!

FAQ About Playing Real Money Online Poker

Now, we’ll cover a few of the questions we get asked most often about playing poker online for real money. If we haven’t covered your question here, please feel free to reach out at any time.

• Of course you can! To get started playing poker for real money online, just follow the steps outlined in this guide. And, make sure you stick with our recommended list of sites to ensure you are playing at only the best and safest real money poker sites.

• A growing trend today is the use of virtual reality for online poker games. Right now, many online casinos have not caught up with this trend of technology yet, but they’re not far behind. To find real money VR poker games would be a stretch, but if you do find someone offering real money games, just proceed with caution.

• Where Can I Play Real Money Online Poker in the USA?

  For online poker real money USA, you can play at any of the sites we recommended at the top of this page! All of these sites are safe for US players to use and vetted by our team of experts.

• As we stated earlier, unless they’re apps directly from the casinos themselves, we would hesitate before depositing any real money. However, there are real money poker apps out there that are safe to play at.

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!

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.

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

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

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

Best Real Cash Online Poker Sites For Us Players

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?

Best Real Cash Poker App

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 Real Cash Online Poker No Deposit

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.

Cash Poker Games Online

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

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!