Decide what's Important


What do you want in an online poker room? Do you want a room that offers lots of promotions and bonuses? Are the graphics on your site and smoothness of gameplay your priority? Are you looking for a room that offers a bunch of sponsored pros to play with? Take some time to figure out what features and options will offer you the most enjoyable online poker experience.

Determine the Legality


Unfortunately, online poker games are not legal everywhere, and some sites are not available everywhere. The United States has some confusing laws regarding online poker, so not all online poker companies want to provide services to American players. Other countries may have other laws govering online poker that may deter others. Make sure the sites you are interested in are actually available in the country where you play.

Read Reviews


To help you make your choice, PokerJunkie.com gives you comprehensive poker site reviews on virtually every aspect of the most popular poker rooms. You can learn about the graphics, the level of traffic they get, even the skill of the typical player. The best thing about checking reviews first is that they often come with great sign up bonus codes if you sign up through the site. These sign-up bonuses can as much as double your initial deposit.

You can also talk to friends who already play online about their favorite sites, or check out poker forums to see what people on the bulletin boards think about the best sites.

Compare Sites

It's important to compare different websites to find ones that offer the right variety of game rooms and betting options. Don't pay for online poker games unless it's a great service that also allows you to securely bet money or credits.

Getting Ready to Play Online


Once you've picked a suitable Internet site to play poker on, make sure you brush up on the rules of the particular site. Each site tends to have a different symbol or marker to denote the dealer and chip sizes. Also, while most sites use the similar terminology like bet, call, fold, raise and re-raise, make sure you know the particular terms and abbreviations used between players during an online game of poker.

Playing Online Poker Games


The rules for playing online poker are the same as when playing offline. Antes or blinds are posted, followed by rounds of betting called the flop and the turn during which an additional card is revealed for play.

Finally, there is one final deal of one card called the river, in which players can make their final choices of card to get the best combination of five cards to beat opponents and take the pot. Royal flush (A K Q J 10 of the same suit) beats any other hand, working down through straight flushes, four-of-a-kind, full house, flush, straight, three-of-kind, two-pair, one-pair and the simple high card.

Try to get the "late position" when playing online poker, the last person to draw and bet at the virtual poker table. It allows you to see everyone else's move and strategies for each round before you must make your bet or chose to fold.