» Autor: Rick Ellers

Sure, there’s a lot of poker rooms online, but let’s face it. When it comes to finding the best competition, there’s one factor that levels the playing field: volume. Small and intimate poker rooms might be nice when you’re hanging out with friends, but if you’re looking to make some money, you need to go to where the action is.

The largest sites are home to thousands of players trying their luck and skill 24 hours a day, and it’s at these sites you’re sure to find some opponents on your level. If you’re looking to jump right in, these are the big daddies of online poker.

PartyPoker.com

Even when there’s not a tournament going on, which is rare, Party Poker has more players online than other sites can only dream about. Low to high limit tournaments run around the clock in a variety of games including the standard Hold`em and Omaha tables, and regular contests offer prize pools in the millions of dollars. Party Poker didn’t get to be the biggest by being slow; you’re ready to go within minutes of downloading the software and making your first deposit. The sign-up bonus isn’t too shabby either, with first time players offered 20 percent up to $200. New players are also given the opportunity to sit in a $5,000 free-roll tournament, a great boost to the bankroll of a sufficiently skilled player.

PokerStars.com

A force on the poker scene since 2000, Poker Stars has grown to claim the most tournament traffic of any online room in the world. Its satellite tournaments have produced two World Series of Poker champions, both of whom were just regular players on the site. Poker Stars is also home to the World Championship of Online Poker, the single largest tournament of its kind. As you’d expect from a site this large, the variety of games is decent, but not spectacular. Weekly Texas Hold`em tournaments offer a guaranteed prize pool of at least $1 million, and the site offers no-rake micro-limit games. The sign-up bonus is a low fixed sum of $25, but that hasn’t stopped thousands from making Poker Stars one of the busiest poker sites on the ‘Net.

UltimateBet.com

With some of the best sign-up bonuses in the industry, it’s no wonder Ultimate Bet has quickly grown to take its place as one of the largest online poker rooms in the world. Just for signing up, all players get a shot at a $1 million free-roll tournament, where one winner will take home $500,000. The software is some of the best around, and it allows smart players to keep track of multiple games with ease. The program also adds a little touch of the neighborhood poker game, with a buddy system that lets you know when friends are online. Ultimate Bet offers an excellent variety of games, and while Hold`em captures most of the attention; the action is pretty well divided among the different games.

PokerRoom.com

Considered by many players to be one of the best online poker rooms on the Internet, Poker Room is without a doubt one of the biggest. The site offers players the opportunity to play everything from blackjack to slots, but as the name suggests, poker is what put it on the map. With a variety of Hold`em, Stud and Omaha tables packed to the gills, Poker Room offers decent sign-up bonuses and non-stop tournament action. Poker Room is rare in that there’s no software to download; the user controls are Java-based and can be played on a PC or a Mac with no problems.

Rick “Stone Face” Ellers started playing poker while he was a paratrooper stationed in Fort Bragg, NC. He currently writes part time for PokerListings.com where you can read about Poker Chips and the exciting World Series of Poker.