Choosing an online poker room nowadays is a much more difficult task than it was just a few years ago. Online poker has grown by leaps and bounds just in the past few years and the number of rooms has grown and is growing at a rapid pace. When choosing an online poker room you should take into account at the very minimum the following: safety, quality and comfort. These are the 3 things that Gambling Gurus takes into account before beginning any of our online poker leagues.
Safety
By safety, it is meant how safe is it to move money in and out of the poker room. Take this into account first and foremost whenever trying out an online poker room. Since the industry is not heavily regulated by governing bodies and is mostly self-regulated you need to know you can trust the poker room you choose to handle your money.
For this reason, it is best to stick with poker rooms that have established themselves in the industry and have built a solid player base. Poker rooms such as Paradise Poker, Absolute Poker, PokerRoom.com and Party Poker have proven to be stable online poker rooms that are going to be around for the long haul. All of these poker rooms not only have proven to be reliable but have also not rested on their past accomplishments. Each of these poker rooms also has a 3rd party check their poker algorithm to make sure it is working properly and deals with fair hands time and time again. This quality check makes sure these poker rooms remain at the industry forefront.
Quality
Quality can mean different things to different people when discussing online poker rooms. In this case, it refers to a couple of different things. Here it is referring to software quality. Choosing an online poker room which is satisfying visually, in gameplay, and in reliability is important. Most online poker rooms now offer versions of their software to download and try out playing with play money before committing to playing for real money.
Gambling Guru recommends choosing a room which is satisfying visually in order to maximize the online poker playing experience. Some rooms take extra steps to make the table seem more life-like. For example, poker rooms such as Pokerroom.com have added people as avatars to their tables. Other rooms such as Paradise Poker do not have people at their tables but have added options where a player can order a drink or snack from a menu. This is something that personally keeps players entertained, however so slightly, while waiting in between hands.
Another option to balance into the equation is the quality of the gameplay. Make sure that the room chosen offers all of the features you need to make gameplay fun and easy. Decide if it is easy to follow the action going on at the table. Some rooms such as Pokerroom.com highlight the player whose turn it is to act. This seems obvious, but some rooms don’t offer this option. The player must keep track of the action in the chat dialogue box. If however, you are playing multiple tables, then you may want to be able to quickly click back and forth between tables and find out where the action is visual without having to scroll through a chat box to find out.
Finally, take into account software and server reliability. This is listed third here, but may be the most important factor in choosing an online poker room. It is definitely no fun to have to be constantly disconnected from the room during play, especially when a crucial decision must be made. If you find you must battle this problem often with your online poker room it will add additional stress to the online poker experience.
Comfort
Most importantly you need to feel comfortable with the poker room you have chosen. This means you must take every element from above into consideration and decide if the online poker room you have chosen is right for you. If you don’t feel comfortable with the poker room in any of the above categories then I would suggest finding a new place to play online poker. Whether you are logging on to play poker for fun or to try to make a career out of playing online poker, you need to have confidence in the poker room to deliver your money, deliver answer your questions quickly and accurately, and deliver an enjoyable playing experience.
