Online Poker FAQ — Beginners' Guide

Sites welcoming US players

Full Tilt Poker
Highest limits, celebrity players, $600 deposit bonus

Ultimate Bet
Aruba and Bellagio freerolls, $650 deposit bonus

Poker Stars
Best tournaments and frequent player freerolls

Absolute Poker
Weekly $150,000 freeroll


Compare all sites.

Financial processors – how to move money around

Getting money into and out of an online poker site can be a little tricky. In the US, most of the large banks have decided to stop performing credit card transactions for online gambling, and they include online poker in this category. Your Visa or MasterCard is probably issued by one of these big banks. Paypal has also left the market. In their place, several other companies have stepped in to provide this service.

The most reputable of these new financial processors is NETeller, a publicly-traded Canadian company. NETeller provides a service very similar to Paypal's. You have an web-based cash account that you can use to transfer funds to and from your bank, your credit card, an online merchant or an online poker site. Since NETeller is not in the business of online gambling, the credit card issuers are happy to do business with them.

FirePay is another web-based cash account similar to NETeller and Paypal. Their reputation for customer service is worse than NETeller's and they charge a $5 fee for withdrawals. Therefore, we don't recommend FirePay.

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