Currently there seems to be 3 online poker rooms that will still allow USA players to play.

• Bodog
• Merge Poker Network
• Cake Poker Network

I could be wrong, please post correction if you know of other online poker rooms that will service USA customers.

Which will you play at and why?
If you choose either Merge or Cake, which of their rooms is best to deal with?

everleaf i'm pretty sure is open to americans also. Cake doesn't allow husds and from what I hear has really bad software. Merge seems like the best option to me but I wish a different site with better software and more traffic would pop up.

Also I hear bodog has too high rake wiht no huds or rakeback. that would be my last choice.

You left out an "I'm not going to bother any more" (a.k.a Bastard!).

Seriously, that would be a very good option to add.

Or maybe two:

Not playing any more
Just playing B&M and home games.

or relocating to another country.
Poll is fail

I don't agree wiht that. I would like to know where the Americans that keep playing will play at.

Merge is good for 6max, FR has no traffic and neither do sngs.

Maybe It'll get better with time. Only micro stakes have any kind of traffic. this really sucks.

You only missed Everleaf, Yatahay, Enet, WSEX, and Betraiser.

Admittedly the last two are extremely low traffic, and Enet I believe requires some hoop-jumping to join.

Uhhhhh you missed one, not sure you're a huge fan of this site tho.

Well, I'm assuming OP left Cereus out on purpose - many people are, since they're one of the sites who have had accounts seized and it's rather questionable whether money can be cashed out.

Well while your right and they still are allowing US residents they are not allowing NEW US players and they are not processing Cashouts or Deposits. Not that it would matter, I would much rather continue to play at RPM Poker.

I also play at True Poker. The have their issues, but overall I like playing at True Poker and their support has always went out of their way to fix any issues I've encountered.

FWIW, traffic has increased decently at both sites already.

Definitely need to update poll to include the sites that Bobo mentioned and possibly add an option to not play any site until more is clear. I've heard a lot of players say they are done until things settle.

I joined Everleaf and am looking to join Merge for sure and maybe Cake but TBH I don't see any options for deposit/withdrawal on either that work well for me when I just now checked them out.

Cake's was hard to understand, as far as what Americans can use, and Merge didn't list any of their payout methods, which is most important to me.

Also, Bodog, while it has some good deposit and payout methods, turned me off because to get to the good payout options you have to sign up with this mypaylinO or something and anyway they have good options but you can not withdraw more then you have deposited in the first 30 days. That was the killer for me as far as they go.

To be honest, the smallest room (on Everleaf) had the best payout option and was super easy to sign up for. At the moment I don't think it will be a cure all option so I'll need to add one of the higher volume rooms, but yea, if anyone has info on the best deposit/withdraw options for Merge and Cake please PM me.

Can anybody give me a good reason for wanting to play on bodog? I don't understand why anybody would want to play there. From what I hear too high rake, no rakeback, bad software, no huds, only 4 tables, and they have a bad rep for paying people and being shady in at least the sportsbetting world. Somebody please explain this to me. I've never played there but am I missing something?

i've used a hud with bodog. you hae to purchase handgrabber, which cost me 50$. it was worth it due to the low level of play on the site

Any problem getting paid so far?

Agreed, plus from the news I've heard they are not accepting new US residents and they are not accepting deposits or processing Cashouts. I wouldn't play at Cereus unless it was the last option, at that point I would consider any money I put on the site gone and anything I made off the site a bonus.

This is true for HEM and was true for PT3, however PT3 now has the handgrabber included.

For PT3 to work you simply have to check an extra setting.

FR traffic has already increased significantly and I expect that will continue. The overall traffic has increased also. There were 10+ tables at different stakes yesterday.

The SNG traffic has also already seen a boost from what I saw. Its obviously way behind what a lot are use to. I also think it will increase as I think it offers the best software, bonus/promos, support(especially some skins), etc.... of the US facing sites left.

Yatahay's software could not handle SNG grinders and the amount of tables they grind. With all of the Cake software issues and recent financial issues I doubt it is a viable option in that regard either. Bodog is probably not an option as they limit the amount of tables that one can play.

I'm a winning player that was a black card member on FTP and played there for 3+ years and have never used any third party software of any kind. I think you are putting WAY too much emphasis on it and you are failing to realize that others will also not using software and this affects the quality of games. It's just not the atmosphere of these smaller site. What a person might thinks it takes to "survive" in online poker, may be skewed from playing way too much at the large rooms where RB grinders ruled the day.

Actually, just being smaller rooms affects the quality, add in things like Bodog having a sports book and it further softens the games. I understand why you are in this grind or die mind set where you think you need to play 20 tables with table ninja, a HUD, and a fish finder but I think you'll be very surprised when you find out you can make more than rake back, and quite possibly more over all, by playing a room that doesn't allow HUDS, maxes out at 4 tables, and may not even give rakeback.

I know I just tried a room thats very small but gives 40% RB and I thought that would kill it (they offer it to EVERYONE) but the room is soft as **** and a PLO 10c-20c blind had $38 avg pots and played as big, or bigger than PLO100 rush on ftp.

Cliffs: Don't worry about traffic as much, you wont need to 20 table and likely will make more 4 tabling or less. Don't worry about software, you wont (and never really did) need it.

only time i cashed out i had no problem. i think they put money back on my credit card.

i did take a bit long, about 4-5 days, but no problem

HA HA HA! Agree. The smaller sites definitely have softer competition. I'm not sure if that will remain the case though.

A lot of the recreation players will probably just quit playing so the games on the smaller sites may get tougher. I guess like everything else, its speculation right now and we'll simply have to wait and see.

Poker is ever changing and about adapting guys. Pre boom it was all limit holdem. Before that, there was even some draw/lowball and it ruled the day.

When I had to transition to online right away, with no practice and years of live play under my belt that was not very helpful to online, I learned very early that I was behind the curve in NLHE cash games, so luckily, I was able to fall back on a game from the past (7 stud) and able to make it right out of the gate. Add the fact that sng's and mtt's were softer than cash games overall and the limit holdem live exp actually gave me enough foundation to quickly adapt at NLHE sng's/mtt's and start winning right away.

If you guys are going to make it as pro's you're gonna have to adapt. I would have used software and gone all that route if I wasn't beating the online games, but to think that mass tabling online poker in this environment was ever gonna last a life time I think was flawed. Now you can take some of what you learned from that (probably tightness and experience) and just add it to a little different form, and not worry about it not being exactly the same.

How were you ever going to make it in a live setting? Or, maybe some of you never planned to. I heard many of people say "lol live" or "lol one tabling" etc and I just thought it was silly to not at least gain some experience in it as now, if those same people are going to venture into it, there will be a bit of a disadvantage for them at first and they are gonna have to learn to adjust, rather than just flicking the switch and adjust from their experience. Despite what these people thought, there are live only players who make and were making more than the majority of internet players, even if they were only one tabling. Think about that, it says a lot about the quality of a game over the quantity.

I told Scout to remove the "US-friendly" checkmark. They're not natively US-friendly.

That's what I had thought, but I'd seen conflicting answers to that in the past.

Live poker.

Seriously if PS/FT/Cereus (along with their money-processing banks) could get shut down or indicted what makes you think your money is safe at the smaller sites? I doubt banks will be willing to process their transactions for long in the wake of what has happened?

I've given no opinion as to how safe anyone's money would be - just listing the sites OP missed.