The best real money poker sites online give you an advantage -they make it easier to build a bankroll with great initial free sign up bonuses and many offer new depositors special freerolls or bounty tournament entries. All have convenient easy to use deposit and withdrawal methods and excellent 24 / 7 Support. Some sites offer poker training or schools that help you play poker for money more profitably. Others have soft competition and VIP loyalty programs that turn your average player at one site into a profitable one at another.
You want to size up the competition that you are up against. PokerStars and Full Tilt are known for some tougher competition, where popular rooms like Americas Cardroom draws has a lot of fish. your initial deposit at 100% or more when you play cash poker. Ensure that you get your poker bonus code to ensure the maximum poker bonuses.
The fastest way to deposit at most online poker sites is VISA or MasterCard for most countries. For Canadians another good alternative is Instadebit. Moneybookers is very good for large amounts over $1000, (not available for US Players). In the UK and most European countries Netteller is fast and convenient. There are also a large number of e-wallets like PayPal, Click2pay, Ewallet Express, PIN Debit (popular in USA), Clickandbuy, Web Money, Entropay, Ukash and instant EChecks. There is also Bank Drafts and Wire Transfers, Western Union can send a wire transfer to most online poker sites fast. Most deposit methods except VISA and MasterCard also work as Withdrawal methods. To use a withdrawal method for the first time you must make a deposit through that method in order to verify your identity. Most Deposit / Withdrawal Minimums are $10, with some sites a little higher at $25. An alternative to funding your account is through player to player transfer which can be done for as little as $1 for most sites. If none of these methods are available to you or you do not have the money to start, play in freerolls to start your poker bank roll. Withdrawals can also be made by check and take from one to two weeks depending on where you live. UB has the best range of deposit and withdrawal options.
Playing for real money online for the most part is done in US dollars($), Euros(€) and British pounds(₤). The standard currency varies from room to room but is usually US dollars. For example Titan Poker has a lot of Euro and British Pound Tables, Titan Poker has multicurrency options so you can keep an account in Euros and play at Euro Tables with no exchange rate fee. You can play a wide variety of currencies at PokerStars and 888, Americas Cardroom is primarily in US dollars. Playing at a real money poker site in your own currency can reduce your fees and increase your profits.