Times are changing and online poker is back in the spotlight in the United States. Online poker was extremely popular in the USA up until 2006, which is the year the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed into law.
Since then, online poker has struggled to attract players and that’s largely because of the lack of processing. Poker rooms have a lot of trouble processing deposits and withdrawals using traditional payment methods, but things are beginning to change.
There are more US poker deposit methods available now then at any other time in the past decade. We’ve witnessed traffic at US poker sites growing the past year and as more players realize it’s easier to deposit/withdraw, traffic should continue growing.
Where to Play
There are more and more poker sites popping up that accept players from the United States. The problem with the majority of these poker rooms is the fact that they don’t have enough traffic to support 24/7 action.
Nothing is worse than wanting to play some poker and not being able to find a suitable cash game or tournament.
We recommend America’s Cardroom for multiple reasons. First, the poker room has been running since 2001 and at the time of publishing, there are over 3500 poker players in the poker room competing against each other.
New players are eligible for a 100% bonus for up to $1000, plus various other perks are available too.
One of the biggest selling points, even for experienced poker players, is the ACR rakeback deal. Remember the good old days of grinding online poker and earning a nice income just from the rakeback, bonuses and VIP rewards?
Playing MTTs
I’ve always been a multi-table tournament (MTT) player. Most of my online poker action is playing MTTs because I enjoy chasing down the big prize pools. There are no longer any million dollar MTTs running in the USA, but the prize pools are growing.
ACR runs a Sunday MTT with $150,000 GTD every week. Other poker rooms run regular MTTs with five-figure GTD prize pools as well. Despite lower traffic numbers in US poker rooms, there are still lots of opportunities to compete in large field MTTs.
Freeroll Poker Tournaments
Most US poker rooms offer freeroll tournaments, albeit with small prizes up for grabs. It isn’t as profitable for poker rooms to offer freerolls because there’s a limited pool of poker players, but there are still daily freerolls.
You’re not going to get rich playing freeroll poker tournaments, but you’ll be able to test out the poker room’s software and you can brush up on your skills. If you manage to cash in a freeroll, you can use the funds to play real money poker.
Deposits and Payouts
Credit cards will still work in some cases when depositing, but most won’t in the USA. Prepaid vouchers are more popular these days, but person-to-person transfers at Money Gram or Western Union remain the most popular banking method.
That could change in the next few years, though, as Bitcoin is becoming more widely accepted. America’s Cardroom accepts Bitcoins and offer BTC withdrawals. It’s the cheapest way to fund your poker room and quickest way to get paid.
When it comes to payouts, Americans can receive a check, bank wire or Bitcoins. Checks and bank wires have slow processing times, so many poker players are beginning to switch to BTC, which is easier than you think.
