Poker Plex is part of the large and ever-growing iPoker network. Although this is definitely good news to many, it also means that U.S. citizens are not welcome to play.

Poker Plex offers Texas Hold’em, 7 Card Stud, 5 Card Stud, Omaha High, and Omaha High/Low. iPoker is the 3rd largest network in the world and is full of busy cash and tournament tables. There are a large number of low and mid stakes tables running all the time, with consistent action up to the $.50-$1 level.

Their Sit & Gos are also very busy, although not quite as much as the cash games. Most of the players play for low to mid stakes, and there are multiple tournaments running up to $50 + $9. The scheduled tournaments are also popular. They have scheduled events ranging from $.50 up to $500. Many players are drawn in by the excellent selection of guarantees. There are daily guarantees as high as $45k, and a weekly Sunday $250k event.

Poker Plex offers a wide variety of rewards for its poker players including the Poker Plex VIP Club. The VIP Club consists of six levels and a player's placement is determined by their point average (referred to as Poker Plex Points) during the previous three months. Poker Plex Points (PPPs) are earned by playing in ring games and tournaments. As with other VIP Clubs out there, the higher the rank, the faster the accumulation of points.

Ladbrokes offers a wide variety of games for the poker enthusiast. They have Texas Hold'em, 5 Card Draw, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, 5 Card Stud, and Razz. Poker isn't the only thing offered on Ladbrokes though. Ladbrokes also has an online casino, sports betting, bingo, online games, and financial market betting. With everything else on offer the poker tables are sure to attract some novices.

Ladbrokes utilizes the acclaimed Microgaming software for their traditional 2D poker room that we previously noted as being very user friendly. Ladbrokes also offers a 3D poker client where players have the option of playing the same games but with a little added flavor.

At present, US players are still not permitted to play on this site and there is no current indication of when this will be lifted.

Bwin Poker is part of the Ongame network, which has the fifth highest traffic volume online today, only slightly behind Party Poker. It shares its tables with other popular Ongame rooms including Poker Room, Red Kings, Betsson, Eurobet, Euro Poker, Mansion Poker, Poker Loco, Hollywood Poker, and several others. Because this room doesn't allow US players there is much more traffic when Europeans are awake and available to play.

While you'll find a modest range of cash game stakes to play at BwinPoker, microstakes players might look elsewhere to learn to play No-limit Hold’em if $0.05/$0.10 is too rich for them. The highest No-limit Hold’em game supported by the site is $10/$20, which isn't really very high at all. If you don't like Hold’em you can also choose from Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, and 5 Card Draw. The number of tables for these games can be limited however, especially late at night. At 11 PM EST on a Saturday night, for example, we found a couple of low limit Omaha games, but no Omaha Hi/Lo tables running at all, only two 7 Card Stud tables, and one 5 Card Draw table.

There is a decent variety of scheduled multi-table tournaments available at Bwin Poker. One of their biggest tournaments is held every third Saturday and features a $220+$15 buy-in with $500,000 guaranteed. There are a variety of satellites available for this tournament (which guarantees $111,000 to first place). The structure is also fairly good, with a 3000 chip starting stack and 20 minute blinds. Other interesting tournaments include a $5000 guaranteed $2+$0.25 rebuy; a weekly 'Big Deal' tournament with a $150,000 guaranteed prize pool; tournaments featuring games other than Hold’em; and many other regular freeze-out type tournaments. Participation in multi-table tournaments range anywhere from 12 people to a few thousand people depending on the game and the buy-in. Occasionally tournaments will be canceled due to too few people registering (usually games other than Hold’em or satellites).

Those living outside of the United States will be able to enjoy cash play at one of the most well known poker rooms today. Before the Americans passed their prohibitive legislation in 2006, Party Poker was the place to play online poker. It still is for many people outside the US, but has since dropped in overall popularity. Many US players were very disappointed to have to leave the "fish fest" that Party Poker always was.

At Party Poker you will find No-limit, Limit, and Pot-limit Hold'em, Limit and Pot-limit Omaha (and Hi/Lo), and 7 Card Stud. Most of the cash game players are attracted to No-limit Hold'em and there are many full tables for every stake. One will notice that they have regular tables as well as jackpot tables listed throughout their games, but we highly recommend avoiding the jackpot tables if you can. These tables have an additional rake that can greatly impact one's win rate. If you also like to play Omaha or Stud, there usually are some tables running. However, most of these tables are low-to-mid stakes and only rarely it seems that a high stakes game is being played.

While playing for real money at PartyPoker, you will earn PartyPoints. The more PartyPoints you earn, the higher your VIP level (6 levels, Bronze through Palladium Elite) and the better the benefits you will receive. The best use of PartyPoints has to be the Cashback % bonuses. These bonuses work like rakeback which is built right into Party Poker and players can earn up to 40% in Party Poker Rakeback! Simply climb up the VIP ladder, play lots of poker, collect PartyPoints, then change them in for cash!

The site offers Texas Hold’em (Limit, No-limit, and Pot-limit), Omaha (Limit and Pot-limit), Omaha Hi/Lo (Limit and Pot-limit), and 7/5 Card Stud. They also offer all of these as Heads-up games from $.02/$.04 up to $300/$600, as well as Sit & Gos from $0.10 + $0.02 up to $5,000+$200. Lots of tournaments are scheduled although some of their guarantees may overlap. Titan Poker also turns your first deposit into free entry tokens to their $20,000 New Depositors Freeroll! There are often players who sign up for the tournament but forget to play it, which can turn out to be a easy money-making gem for those that do.

Tournament traffic is pretty good at Titan Poker. Scheduled tournaments usually have great turnout, but occasionally still leave some overlay. An excellent variety of game types and buy-in amounts is also present. Buy-ins start from $0 at their Freerolls and go up to $160 + $12. They also have a lot of invitationals for VIP players. This truly is a great room with an exceptional variety of tournaments for any player to choose from.

Points are awarded on a gradient scale based on the rake. From a low of .2 of a point on a rake of between 4 to 9 cents, up to 14 points for rakes between $3.01 to the max rake of $5. Tournament players also earn points at a rate of 17 for every dollar they pay in tournament fees. Points can be redeemed for entries to tournaments or turned into cash. To understand their cash value, here’s an example: say you play games where the rake is between 25 to 50 cents per hand where each hand gives you one point. Play 2000 hands in a month and you can redeem your 2000 points for $10 in cash. Allow your points to accumulate and you can redeem them for larger sums of money.

Full Tilt Poker is not a skin of another network, but it is its own bona fide poker room. As a unique network they have attracted a professional player base and, coupled the right advertising, have grown to become one of the top online poker destinations in the world. Full Tilt offers the most popular poker games played today: Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo, Razz; plus a variety of mixed games such as: HO, HA, HOSE, and HORSE. With its large player base you can find many games besides Hold'em in play. In fact, Full Tilt is the number one online site today for games like Omaha, Stud, and the mixies, with hundreds of tables spread across all limits. However, No-Limit Hold'em is still the game most people want to play. With an average of over 10,000 tables being played, you can rest assured you will not have to worry about finding a game!

Playing real money games at Full Tilt Poker earns you Full Tilt Points. Points awarded for playing at real money ring tables or tournaments are based on the rake or fees paid. You collect 1 point for every $1 in rake, including fractional points. For example, if the rake ends up being $2.20, you would collect 2.2 points. You can earn up to 3 points per hand, as $3 is the maximum rake. If you play tournaments, you earn 7 points for each $1 in fees that you pay. If you register for a $200 + $16 tournament, you would collect 112 points (7 times 16).

You can use your points in two ways: to enter special Full Tilt Points tournaments or to purchase exclusive merchandise from their store. While the store at Full Tilt offers items like poker books, DVDs, clothes such as custom jerseys (the jerseys like the pros wear with YOUR name on it), electronics and such, what make it unique is that they don’t accept currency! You can only purchase things by using Full Tilt Points. Get enough points and you can take home a Harley or a Mini Cooper. Check it out!

Arguably the best and most well known online poker room today, PokerStars, has come a long way. Stars was one of the originators of online poker and has been around since 2001. From its starting days, PokerStars had always been competing (and usually losing) with the (back then) dynamite PartyPoker. It was in early 2006 that Stars started to make its move, implementing a ton of new software changes, brand new tournaments, an amazing FPP system, and breakthrough technology that began winning over many players. And once PartyPoker closed its cash services to US customers in November of 2006, PokerStars' numbers grew to amazing new heights, over 9 million registered users!

Since 2002, PokerStars has been the host of the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker). It has grown beyond anyone's expectations since it started, from just 9 events and under $1 million in prize pools to 45 events and over $40 million in 2009. This is the most prestigious online series today, and it is still growing. WCOOP 2008 proved to be the largest yet! There were a total of 33 events, with $30 million guaranteed. That is twice as much money as 2007! The main event alone was a $10 million guaranteed with a buy-in of $5200. First place awarded over $1,000,000! If you can't afford direct buy-ins to the WCOOP, or any of PokerStars' tournaments, satellites are almost always running. Be sure to check out PokerStars for your shot at the next WCOOP!

PokerStars is a registered legal business located in the Isle of Man, in the British Isles and is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. Their random number generator has been audited and approved by two independent organizations, BMM International and Cigital, Inc.