Hey former mtt and mtsng grinder from full tilt. Been playing live for the last two years and I'm ready to give it another try playing online. I have a couple questions. Of carbon and bovada which seem to have the most reliable cash out options which is better? What kind of volume can I get in? I used to sixteen table... When are best hours? How many games can I get going at once? Anything like 90 mans or 180s I can grind? Just looking to add about 2k to my monthly nut from online. Let me know what you guys think.

Just noticed that the Omaha player pool on carbon is about 1/5 of what I remember, seems a lot of players from other skins are segregated from carbon, so keep that in mind

Betonline isn't to bad. There is alot of bad players only negative thing is not many tourneys. I have cashed out several times on there. They payout through WesterUnion. It is fast and reliable. You get 1 free one a month then they charge a fee for additional.

Can you deposit using visa if you live in the USA on carbon?

yes, either visa or mc, i can't remember which

The other negative thing would be the numerous threads we've had by people who have experienced problems cashing out. And the Chico network has some other skins with terrible reputations - PayNoRake probably being the worst.

I am looking for a US poker site to play on for real money and I came across this one.

Any US players using this site and can share their experience with Bovada?

Thank you.

WU cashout in 3 days, good number of games, and you can talk to a real person by calling them up. They're the nuts for US players, in this very ****ty post bf landscape.

Also, if you're in Vegas then you can try out Ultimate Poker. They're still ironing out kinks in the software, but at least it's regulated and operating.

Bovada appears to be the one and only option for americans to get mid to high SNG games.Merge and lock have completely died in this regards, which I assume it is because they do not pay players. So, where has all the SNG players from the USA gone as Bovada has a decent amount of games, but probably less than Merge had itself a year ago? I made a post under Blackchip thread asking for ideas how to get Winnning Poker Network to get SNG games going? They appear to be the only other USA facing site with traffic that actually pay their players quickly, so why are USA players not playing SNG their? I find the software decent, it is not as slick as Merge but it does play good. But the fact is they accually pay their players so why can we not get $50 and higher SNG going regularly their like they do on Bovada? I play 8 to 10 hours a day on Bovada and would do the same on Winnning if they could get the players in the mid to high stake SNG's. SNG players lets figure out how to get these games running on Winning so we have a second home that pays as good as Bovada for games. And btw anyone still playing on Lock or Merge you are crazy and playing on a sinking ship. Sites that cannot pay timely and use excuses to defend themselves are lying, they are cash poor sites and cannot cover the player purses (Merge 6+ weeks for payouts, Lock 6+ months for payouts). I personally get payouts from Bovada WU or MG in less than a couple days, I have got checks in a week, and wires within a week (all these within recent months). So for these other sites to blame the processors for payout outrageous delays are complete lies. I have never cashout on Winning Poker but they have a reputation of fast payouts on the same level of Bovada, so I feel that goes a long way and is why I want to play there, but I only play SNG games so need them to get players. USA players we have only 2 proven networks to choose from, Bovada and WinningPokerNetwork, if you choose to play on these two sites there will be more games for us all, and the best part is (unlike Merge or Revolution / Lock) you will get paid promptly. Lets play on the sites that payout and avoid the deadbeat sites like Revolution / Lock and Merge.

Yes but why in the world deposit on a site that doesn't payout for months, thats just crazy. You have much better options in Bovada and any of the WinnningPokerNetwork sites like Blackchippoker or Bookmaker who all take credit cards.

Depositing on Merge or Lock / Revolution are like just giving away money, they are sinking ships.

You can get cashouts on Bovada within days compared to months from the others, and they have more SNG games than both, and also offer large tourneys and lots of cash games.

I will never again play on a site like merge, my last cashout took 8 weeks to get, just another peice of proof they are dying.

bovada = BEST us site

nothing is close in terms or cashouts, games, customer service, sports betting, etc....

I am thinking of putting funds on there and have not been online much the last few months...last I heard the network was on shaky groun...im in usa

Some of you are giving the impression that pokerstars is illegal in america?


Im new to online poker and just recently went to bovada...is bovada legal? what good sites are legal in The United States?

Currently the only "legal" site is Ultimate Poker, but you have to be within Nevada borders to play. By years end there should be several Nevada sites and quite possibly some sites in New Jersey and Delaware.

Bovada is not licensed and you have little chance of recouping your roll if the DOJ were to close them down.

Pokerstars still has good play money traffic, for US players. That is where I choose to play atm.

Unless you are in Washington state, all sites are legal - but the ones in the OP of this thread are the main ones you'll be able to play at. Stars hasn't accepted US players for a couple of years now.

Merge (Carbon Poker) are more than just shaky ground, they are paying players in 6-8 weeks. Don't let them fool you by saying it is because of the USA poker situation making it tough to get players paid. This is a flat out lie. Sites such as Bovada and the Winning Poker Network pay out players within days, and they serve the same customers as Merge. This network is a sinking ship that does not have the funds to cover its player purse, this is the only realistic reason why it takes so long to get players paid on their sites, they wait for deposits to come in and then pay their players off those deposits. Bovada and The Winning Poker Network prove this is true. Why in the world put funds on a network that takes 6-8 weeks to pay if you win, that is just flat out crazy? Also, forget about Revolution/Lock Poker as they are taking even longer to pay players. Americans have two good options Bovada or The Winning Poker Network, both sites you can get Western Union payouts within a couple days and checks or wires within a week. To me this is what makes them the safest option available to USA players.

Merge just wired 100k via skrill to the last bad beat JP winner. He was an American withdrawing via checks and obv this would have taken awhile. So said player went to Canada and received the 100k within like 9 days - yes, things have been a little slow lately but I don't think merge is a sinking ship like rich is saying. Unamerican players are being paid very promptly.

With that said, once I get my pending merge checks, I may certainly be checking out lolvoda and taking it to those unknown opponents, for realz

With so many post of shady sites and dumb players I figured I'll share my thoughts on how I would play poker as a living in the US.

The biggest problem seems to be slow cashouts and outright theft from the poker sites. To hedge this, not building a big bank roll most likely a fix of almost all problems one can have with a US site.

By doing this, high stakes will not be able to build a sufficient roll and you will need to keep 2 rolls. One online on the site and one in cash where you will deposit when needed. You can also do trades also from multiple sites.

I haven't done it because I dont play USA poker but I would do extensive research and list the US poker sites from best to worst. With this list deposit and play poker starting from the top. Depositing bear minimum to start playing your game. Once you get to 5 times your deposit, initiate a withdraw [not all] than jump to the next site. Do the same.

When you receive a deposit from a site and not before, play on the site again and rinse and repeat.

This lets one play poker with a large bank roll but just spread over multiple, maybe massive sites. Doing this will lessen the chances of you getting ripped off because you do not have a large roll that will be tempting for the site to take and because the cash outs are small enough for the site to not really care.

If for some reason you exhausted all sites, play live poker untill a site pays up so you can continue playing. Alternatively, you can set up an online account in Neveda and play both online/live periodically, just have to make the trip out while giving time for your pokersites to reset.


-eventually [maybe never] the sites will get aware of whats happening and you are just siphoning money from them at a slow rate and ban you but its okay.
-Its a lot of work but its the sign of the times if you want to play poker.
-Must also continuously email all sites occasionally on updates of cashouts.
-I have no idea how many decent USA poker sites there are.
-You will not worry about the vip level, just worry about rackback.
-Keep good records as to not make it a cluster ****. I would make all withdrawals in strange amounts as to distinguish which site made the withdraw. As in 601.78

This can be tweaked depending on your circumstance/situation but the I do believe the plan would work. No site is safe other than the big 2 imo so no matter how soft the games are, no matter how much you get on rakeback, if you are not able to get your money off, it all doesnt matter.

God speed to all

No offense, but you seem very uneducated on this subject.

lock is pretty good at catching ppl that try to withdraw.

I don't get most of this, but here is pretty much the "top 5" places to play for US players (and this is all covered in elsewhere threads....). Actual order I guess is subjective, but at any rate...

1. Intertops Poker (Revolution - but invite only for US players)
2. Winning Poker Network (True Poker, America's Cardroom, BlackChip Poker, etc.)
3. Bovada
4. Merge Network (Carbon Poker, etc.)
5 (since you want "top to bottom"). Lock Poker (on Revolution as well, but unless you have a death wish, I'd avoid playing here in its current state of disarray).

Dear thread: thanks for wasting 9 minutes of my life

And he says as much, which is what makes the creation of the thread all the more odd. But I guess it's nice that he tried to help.