When players get good at poker they tend to do one of two things. Some will move up stakes, pitting their skills against the better players at the big money tables. Most will not move up very far in stakes. Instead they will opt to increase their hourly profits by adding more tables. Some decent online poker players regularly sit at 8+ tables, making a small hourly profit from each of the games. This adds up to a big hourly rate.
What you will find is that it does not take too many of these multi-tabling ‘grinders’ to effectively dominate the tables at an online poker site. For every new player sitting at one table, there are several pros sitting at 8+ tables. These types are known as ‘grinders’.
If you are looking for the easiest poker sites, you need to play where there are fewer grinders and a bigger proportion of recreational players.
Here are some of the things to look out for:
- Poker Sites which are part of big sports betting or casino brands. At these sites, many recreational gamblers ‘discover’ the poker room when they log on to make a bet, making the games easier overall.
- Poker Sites which deliberately restrict grinders. Bodog and Ignition Poker are examples of this. They have anonymous play which restricts grinders using 3rd part tracking tools to exploit newcomers, and also cap the number of tables at 4.
- Poker Sites which aim promotions and rewards at recreational players. 888 Poker are a good example of this. They do not reward multi-tabling, instead having giveaways and tournament offers which appeal to the more casual players.
Once you know that to look for, make sure that you make a note (or color code) the grinders at your site. This will allow you to avoid marginal spots with them, and to focus your attention on beating the fish instead!
Easiest Poker Site Bonuses
When you look at the offers from different poker sites side-by-side, these can all look very similar. When you then check the small print, they can look very different! You’ll find a big gap between the easiest poker bonuses and the hardest. In fact, the hardest bonuses can make it impossible for the average small stakes player to get the full benefits – you’ll never be able to collect enough points in time.
You need to look at how many points are needed to clear each bonus. Once you know this, you can see how many points are collected each hour at your stakes, and work out how fast your bonus will be cleared.
Some things to look out for include sites which release your bonus in increments. Some will need you to play for hours, and then release your matched bonus in one lump sum. Others, for example Ignition Poker for US players, have steps to get to, releasing your bonus in different sized pieces.
Remember that the main ‘100% match’ type bonus is only part of the picture. Many sites offer packages which include tournament entries and other extras. You should also look at the ongoing benefits, as these can make a big difference to your bankroll over the long run.
Easiest Poker Site Deposit Options
If you are based outside of North America, then you will have a wide range of easy deposit options available to you. This includes eWallets, debit cards and wires. For players in the US and Canada, there are banking restrictions in place. This makes looking for sites which have easy deposit methods important.
Many of the offshore US friendly sites will welcome credit card deposits. These do get blocked sometimes, though often you’ll be able to deposit first time. Visa and MasterCard are the most commonly accepted, with Amex also welcomed at some sites. There are three easy options if your cards get declined.
The first is a prepaid Visa, which you can buy from gas stations. Bitcoin is becoming the go-to method for many poker fans. Finally, person-to-person transfers using services like Western Union are very reliable. You’ll find more about all of these in our poker payments section.
Canadian poker players have some additional poker payment options. Interac works at many of the bigger global sites. iDebit is also welcomed, along with prepaid vouchers such as PaySafeCard.
