Best poker room for a player at my level?

Where would be the best poker site for me. I’ve been playing for about a year now, I find I’m doing ok but recently took a huge down swing. I guess it’s bound to happen but I had flushes beaten by full houses straights beaten by flushes and three of a kind etc. etc.

I’m thinking of depositing $100 and playing the $20 nl (.10sb .20 BB) ring games and the occasionally $5 +.50 sit and go or $2 MTT. My playing time s would be between 7PM Eastern to 9 PM Eastern. I know that’s a small bank roll, but I once turned $2 into $150 and $10 into $500. I’m a resident of Canada and was playing at VIP.com I believe it was a skin of MPP.

A lot of players around here were on poker room and said it was good. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. I'm looking for a lot of players with limited experience.

Thanks Dave

I would highly recommend depositing $200 at hollywood poker - its a pokerroom skin that is very soft. Also right now they are offering a 100% deposit bonus up to $200, so if you deposit $200 you have a nice juicy $200 bonus to clear. I have cleared a bonus at hollywood and it was fairly easy and i wasnt playing all that much either.

Hopefully youll get some other opinions on this one.

I'd suggest either PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker as they seem to be the best two outposts remaining.

However, if your country doesn't have the restrictions we do, I might suggest either Party Poker, Sun Poker or Mansion Poker. I enjoyed those sites back when I could play there.

Look for a site that offers rakeback as that is a bonus for your bankroll.

If you have only $100, I'd be a bit leary of the NL tables. Typically you want to play at a level that you have at least 15-30 buy-ins to avoid the variance and busts that happen with NL.

I personally like Pokerstars and FullTilt, both have user friendly interface and decent traffic (pokerstars more then fulltilt)

Thanks TLR after doing some more research that's what I'm begining to think as well.

Here's a recent reveiw about Hollywood Poker:
HP's management has misinformed the players, lowered, or completely stopped player rewards without any notice. Recently they cancelled four player reward tournaments and stopped trading Poker Points for cash and tickets for the most part.

davekp2003, you'll do fine with PokerRoom. From what I hear it's really fishy. PartyPoker is a good choice too. Stars and FulTilt are okay at lower stakes but there are definitely easier rooms.

If you're outside the US (as you are) then you may as well avoid Stars and FT because you can get rakeback and bonuses elsewhere on softer sites.

What about Ultimate Bet?

fish-finding is a numbers game. you either look for:

- a site with a sportsbook attached...Bodog
- or the site with the largest numbers of players...stars/fulltilt

where the people are, the fish are.

if you are not in the US do not play on full tilt or stars.
The games on many other sites are sooo much softer, bodog, pokerchamps, prima, everest come to mind and all have sign up bonuses.

i know this is not popular, but i disagree that stars is tough.

i have played there for over a year and a half, and its my best/softest sight. i carry a much higher winrate there than anywhere else i have played.

dont like absolute (rocks), pokerroom (no action), ultimate bet (that may be variance, i think the players are bad, i just cant beat them for some reason...they showdown crap). have not tried bodog, but hear its good for crappy players. fulltilt is my 2nd best site; have consistently posted a winning rate there, though not more than a couple BB/100.

once party disappeared, stars and fulltilt got the majority of their traffic...thats where the fish went, you may have to play at lower levels, though. why would i play at 100, if my winrate is 8-10 at the 25 NL tables, and only 1.5-2 at the 100's? less risk, same or a little better profit.

Originally Posted by Chopper

i know this is not popular, but i disagree that stars is tough.

i have played there for over a year and a half, and its my best/softest sight. i carry a much higher winrate there than anywhere else i have played.

dont like absolute (rocks), pokerroom (no action), ultimate bet (that may be variance, i think the players are bad, i just cant beat them for some reason...they showdown crap). have not tried bodog, but hear its good for crappy players. fulltilt is my 2nd best site; have consistently posted a winning rate there, though not more than a couple BB/100.

once party disappeared, stars and fulltilt got the majority of their traffic...thats where the fish went, you may have to play at lower levels, though. why would i play at 100, if my winrate is 8-10 at the 25 NL tables, and only 1.5-2 at the 100's? less risk, same or a little better profit.

go play on pokerchamps, then youll know what fishy is.

i wouldn´t recommend Mansion, the playerbase is just way too small w/ 3 20nl tables open. Everest might be a good choice, as well as any iPoker skin like CD or Titan. Def avoid FTP or Stars if you can.

Originally Posted by Chopper

i know this is not popular, but i disagree that stars is tough.

i have played there for over a year and a half, and its my best/softest sight. i carry a much higher winrate there than anywhere else i have played.

dont like absolute (rocks), pokerroom (no action), ultimate bet (that may be variance, i think the players are bad, i just cant beat them for some reason...they showdown crap). have not tried bodog, but hear its good for crappy players. fulltilt is my 2nd best site; have consistently posted a winning rate there, though not more than a couple BB/100.

once party disappeared, stars and fulltilt got the majority of their traffic...thats where the fish went, you may have to play at lower levels, though. why would i play at 100, if my winrate is 8-10 at the 25 NL tables, and only 1.5-2 at the 100's? less risk, same or a little better profit.

What is your BR chopper?? 1 1/2 years? you should be lighting up $100NL. and have at least $2500 or more.

OOP?? stay off stars or Full tilt. Seriously, why waste a first deposit bonus to play $10NL tables, go play pokerroom, prima skins or Cryptologic skins. Get rakeback, don't sign up anywhere or download any new sites without knowing where to get it, and play $10NL. Find sites tha have bonuses that clear at $10NL and start grinding out a bankroll. P.S. to anybody that doesn't know, Bodog is out for Canadians.

Thanks for your help. Just a little feedback I joined pokerstars and love it. I have played quite a few ring games nl hold 'em at the .15 .25 level. I have found the play hmmmm very inexperienced. I have found a lot of the players very loose/tight where they'll call pre flop then fold to almost any bet on the flop. That being said some have chased me down with very little in there hand. I don't want to jinx myself and maybe I'm just getting great cards however I've only lost one showdown.

The bad, tourny play, very very good tournament play even at the micro $3 + .40 level. At other sites I consistantly did well at pokerstars I've only played two micro level sit n' goes but have felt somewhat out of place. Although the best hand I had during both tournys was AK.

Anyway thanks to everyone on the site it's great I reccomend it to all my friends who are playing. And after playing three or four other sites, I really feel like I've found a home at pokerstars!

May you all get AA after reading this!
Cheers,
David

Nobody ever mentions absolute. What is the reason for that? I play absolute and I like it there. Everyone's a donk at the limits the OP wants.

I played on stars and have played on AP the last month and ive found AP to be alot softer than stars even though it has quite a bit small player base.

15k isnt small these days...

Originally Posted by Miffed22001

15k isnt small these days...

I meant compared to stars' 90,000 or so

Originally Posted by Trainer_jyms

Originally Posted by Chopper

i know this is not popular, but i disagree that stars is tough.

i have played there for over a year and a half, and its my best/softest sight. i carry a much higher winrate there than anywhere else i have played.

dont like absolute (rocks), pokerroom (no action), ultimate bet (that may be variance, i think the players are bad, i just cant beat them for some reason...they showdown crap). have not tried bodog, but hear its good for crappy players. fulltilt is my 2nd best site; have consistently posted a winning rate there, though not more than a couple BB/100.

once party disappeared, stars and fulltilt got the majority of their traffic...thats where the fish went, you may have to play at lower levels, though. why would i play at 100, if my winrate is 8-10 at the 25 NL tables, and only 1.5-2 at the 100's? less risk, same or a little better profit.

What is your BR chopper?? 1 1/2 years? you should be lighting up $100NL. and have at least $2500 or more.

OOP?? stay off stars or Full tilt. Seriously, why waste a first deposit bonus to play $10NL tables, go play pokerroom, prima skins or Cryptologic skins. Get rakeback, don't sign up anywhere or download any new sites without knowing where to get it, and play $10NL. Find sites tha have bonuses that clear at $10NL and start grinding out a bankroll. P.S. to anybody that doesn't know, Bodog is out for Canadians.

sorry took so long, jym.

i did play regularily at 100 NL after grinding through 10, 25, and 50 for over 20k hands each to monitor win rates. i have a roll of over 3k (built it from a "borrowed" $25 from my brother, and had the $3k in just over 14 mos. i grinded until the br was high enough to max out sign-up bonuses and went and got them before the US ban), mostly from bonus-chasing, and about 2-4 BB/100 play over 140k-ish hands, maybe as high as 5/100 cant remember exactly, as i bought a new laptop and never transferred the stats.

i play low nowadays because the bonus chasing no longer exists for me in the US, and i loathe the "rock hunting" at 50 NL and am not a fan of the "blind aggression" at 100, although i still beat those games modestly, but not great. 200, i dont have the roll for, and no longer care. i would rather beat the hell out of the 10's and 25's, play a looser and more aggro game, and not worry in the least about my bankroll anymore.

i'm not burned out, i just cannot stand all the rock tights leftover from the US reg situation. i cant tell you how BORING poker is w/o fish around. i can grind it out with anyone, but not for 1-2 BB's/100 when i can take 10-12 off the 10's. its simply more fun. i was never in poker to become a pro, or even get great, just in for the bonus chase, and entertainment value...it just happens i learned a bit about playing by reading FTR, others, and being a natural nit...lol.

i know that doesnt make sense to most of you guys here on FTR because you guys absolutely LOVE poker. i do too, but i enjoy playing goofy, maybe jumping from NL to limit to SH, and still winning (although i dont at SH...yet ), and it's a lot harder (for me), and stressful, above 50 NL.

fwiw, i LOVE kicking A**, and you (by that i mean, I) just cant do that above 50 anymore (i guess i never pwned the games up there anyway).

however, and i know you didnt say this, jsut because i play lower doesnt mean i have no credibility in my thought processes. they just come from a no fold em, hold em standpoint.

I think if you move from stars youll find theres still quite a bit of fish around. I think stars has a higher % of better players than other sites i have played even though its the largest poker room. Having such tough deposit restricitons makes it hard for the fish to redeposit, where sites like AP, FT, are much easier.

anyone who thinks stars is fishy has not met a real euro-fish.

Originally Posted by Miffed22001

anyone who thinks stars is fishy has not met a real euro-fish.

last night i sat at four stars tables and found multple lpp's and slpp's at the same table, on each table i had open. a couple of tag's and rocks, but no lags. i would say an average of 2 lpp's, 1 slpp, and 2 tpa's or taa's, and one rock...for those of you with PT. that's, with four tables open, about 6-8 textbook fish with maybe 4 rocks. with the right seat, great opportunity to make money.

also went back to fulltilt and saw, with 3 tables open, 6-7 rocks, and a grand total of 1 fish.

you tell me where you'd like to be? no fish at stars...HAH!

and for those of us in the US, what other choices do we have right now? for the ease of deposit, for the name recognition, and for the traffic, why would you bother to look anywhere but stars?

there may be fishier sites, but how many games are available at any given time? how long does it take to fill a SNG? how can you get good at table selection if you only have 5 tables to choose from?

log into stars, and w/in 4 minutes (i dont care if it's 4am), you should find 3-4 tables that are decent w/o even trying hard. tourneys are still soft at the $10 and below. and the selection of games is second-to-none...still.

i swear, i should be on stars' staff for this kind of pub, but i dont see why any american plays anywhere else right now, especially at the lower limits, which most of us casuals are.

i am still always trying to find easy ways to chase at other sites, w/ or w/o rb, but i dont see anything worth my time. UB sucks (rock tight, wont pay). and FTP, even at $10 NL, wont play for stacks w/o obvious monster hands. i havent been to AP since the regs, but didnt like the premium only playing people who never 3bet AKs in position pf. and didnt like either pokerroom or hollywood, which no longer take US players, for the same reasons. the only sites i liked were party (duh), stars, and the cryptos (during the US afternoons only).

i have not been to thousands of sites, on different networks, but i have hit most of the huge networks, and i liked stars the best. maybe it just sooooots my game for some reason.

I used to play at stars exclusively and is still my favorite poker site due to the software, tourney selection and numourous other factors. However it is definately not easy to deposit to stars right now for us players. They only except epassporte and WU and some other deposit method that all has steep fees and are a hassel to do. Where ap all you need is a credit card and youg et your money on there instantly with no fees.

I just finished a session on pokerstars. I raised from the BB 5xBB with AQ, got two callers the flop comes
*** FLOP *** [8d Qh 8c]
SB checks
Hero: bets $2
MP : calls $2
SB: folds
*** TURN *** [8d Qh 8c] [Qs]
Hero: bets $5
MP: calls $2.75 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [8d Qh 8c Qs] [8s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hero: shows [Ac Qd] (a full house, Queens full of Eights)
MP: shows [3h Ah] (a full house, Eights full of Queens)
larouce collected $13.60 from pot

What in the world was this guy thinking?? A calling the pre-flop raise and B calling my bets on the flop and turn? NOt all the play is this bad, but it is fishy.

Well since your so good at taking advice, I look forward to the responses you get to your next question.

Trainer I read your advice, and all of the other posts. In the end I went with Choppers advice. It's worked out well for me ....so far.

Trainer I read your advice, and all of the other posts. In the end I went with Choppers advice. It's worked out well for me ....so far.

Originally Posted by davekp2003

I just finished a session on pokerstars. I raised from the BB 5xBB with AQ, got two callers the flop comes
*** FLOP *** [8d Qh 8c]
SB checks
Hero: bets $2
MP : calls $2
SB: folds
*** TURN *** [8d Qh 8c] [Qs]
Hero: bets $5
MP: calls $2.75 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [8d Qh 8c Qs] [8s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hero: shows [Ac Qd] (a full house, Queens full of Eights)
MP: shows [3h Ah] (a full house, Eights full of Queens)
larouce collected $13.60 from pot

What in the world was this guy thinking?? A calling the pre-flop raise and B calling my bets on the flop and turn? NOt all the play is this bad, but it is fishy.

QF friggin' T!!!

An entire site summed up in one hand...

Stars is a lot fishier on Thursday through to Saturday/Sundays. But you very rarley see a true maniac and there are always a few regs. at each table.

I have played 25NL and 50NL there for quite a while, but I played my last hand for a while tonight. I have never chased bonus or looked into rakeback. So as I only have accounts at pacific and paradise besides stars I think I may as well see what I can get (I was hanging around stars to get the FPP'S for the SLR camera which is worth £500 but dont really want any other stuff)

Also I am with Chopper on stars anyway 25NL is much more fun than 50NL and as I play for fun thats where I enjoyed playing most.

I am thinking of trying Ladbrokes first anyone played there?

I used to play at Laddies, the interface is OK, kinda like Prima Poker, and the players are mosty UK sportsbetting gambollers. I dont think they do much in the way of bonuses, but the play was pretty bad at low stakes when i was there.

Originally Posted by Jimmy Mac

Ithe players are mosty UK sportsbetting gambollers.

My thoughts exactly, I am going to try William Hill, Betfair etc on the same principle.

Cheers

Originally Posted by Miffed22001

anyone who thinks stars is fishy has not met a real euro-fish.

Specifically the french fish... No offence to the french, but I think 3/4 of my iPoker buddylist must be french.

Originally Posted by Seasider

Originally Posted by Jimmy Mac

Ithe players are mosty UK sportsbetting gambollers.

My thoughts exactly, I am going to try William Hill, Betfair etc on the same principle.

Cheers

none of you euros take this the wrong way, but...

i played Sun for the bonus structure, and i loved the cryptos for NL. very soft. too many chase their draws which made me wonder about the toughness of limit across the pond. and, i was right. euros are better at limit.

if youre european and good at limit, come to the american sites UB, FTP, and stars, and play SH limit. you should clean us out at low stakes. those of us that play are not very good.

the focus over here is almost totally on NL, so that's, imo, where the better US players are.

lol
I agree with french being poor players.
I mean ... everybody is individual, but back in old days playing at Everest it was plain obvious that french are weak loose passive and easiest to beat group of players (dutch were the toughest).

Originally Posted by Sheetah

lol
I agree with french being poor players.
I mean ... everybody is individual, but back in old days playing at Everest it was plain obvious that french are weak loose passive and easiest to beat group of players (dutch were the toughest).

It's still the same now at iPoker. It's funny, they seem to limp or minraise Aces preflop 70% of the time, which = moneyz.

Fishiest site I have found so far is Titan. Mostly European players, a few Canucks like myself. 10 player SnG's which I prefer, as opposed to 9 or 8.

Many of the Euro players come from their casino so they are gamblers! They will bet on draws. Nuff said.

I'm going to weigh in with the few who enjoy Absolute. It's a relaxed game, you really don't have to go out of your "ABC" way to do well drumming on the micro-limit fish. Not too many "regulars" per se at that limit, and I mostly sit there and compliment the ones who know me so they'll call me down and cough up all kinds of $$ (it's actually cents, but there's no sign for that). If you really want to take $100 and have fun playing cards, its at least a decent option for ya.

Well, since this discussion is bumped and running let me share something I learned in the mean time: PokerChamps is the ultimate fish pond - props to Miffed22001. I was amazed of how bad someone can play, just like Party in old days (and even better). Really, such a bad play you won't find anywhere else. And if you find yourself continuously asking the same question 'where have all the fish gone?' - here's your answer: they wen't to PokerChamps. All of them.

Its a bit mean to say to the US players, but there are still 100nl and to be honest 200nl games out there that play like the old 25nl on party, where you can felt tp all the time and $$$$$$

fwiw, party is really bad now IMO.

Originally Posted by Miffed22001

Its a bit mean to say to the US players, but there are still 100nl and to be honest 200nl games out there that play like the old 25nl on party, where you can felt tp all the time and $$$$$$

where?

RB and PT compatible sites like this would also help.