Bovada and BetOnline are the two online poker rooms on this list, and neither one is licensed by a U.S. state. Everygame closed its poker room on Nov. 30, 2025, and WPT Global does not accept players in the United States, so neither is a pick. This guide compares the two rooms using their own current pages, then adds math you will not find in most poker roundups: what rake costs per pot and what a welcome bonus really asks you to play.
By Maya Torres. Last updated: October 15, 2026.
The Quick Version
- Two rooms made the list: Bovada (anonymous tables, Zone Poker) and BetOnline (tournaments, bounty events). Everygame shut its poker room on Nov. 30, 2025. WPT Global does not accept U.S. players.
- Both welcome bonuses pay back 50 cents per $1 of rake. Bovada releases $5 per $10 of rake, up to $500 in 30 days. BetOnline releases $10 per $20 of rake, up to $1,000 in 60 days. Either way, you need about $33 of rake a day to collect it all.
- Rake is not flat. At BetOnline’s 5-6 player $0.05/$0.10 tables, the rake is 5% of the pot up to $1.50. A $10 pot costs $0.50. A $100 pot costs the same $1.50 as a $30 pot.
- What we could not verify: either room’s license, Bovada’s rake schedule and BetOnline’s list of excluded states. We say so in the table instead of guessing.
- Our take: pick Bovada if you are new and want to hide your results from other players. Pick BetOnline if you want tournaments. Ignore the size of the bonus and ask how much you will really play.
What Are the Best Online Poker Sites for Real Money?
Right now, the best online poker sites for real money that we can support for U.S. readers are Bovada and BetOnline. Bovada says on its poker page that it takes U.S. players outside four states. BetOnline’s pages do not say, so check at signup. We left out two rooms that older versions of this guide covered or that readers ask about, and the reasons are below the table.
| Bovada | BetOnline | |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome bonus (room’s own pages) | 100% match up to $500, code BPWB500 | 100% match up to $1,000, code POKER1000, plus 8 days of free tournament tickets |
| Best known for | Anonymous tables and Zone Poker fast-fold | Sunday Majors and bounty tournaments |
| Games the room lists | Cash games, Zone Poker (Hold’em, Omaha Hi, Omaha Hi/Lo), tournaments | Hold’em and Omaha, fast-fold cash tables, tournaments, bounty events, anonymous tournament format |
| How you play | Desktop software on Windows and Mac, or mobile web on iPhone and Android with no download | Desktop or browser play, plus an app listed for iOS, PC and Android |
| U.S. availability | Its poker page says players in Delaware, Maryland, Nevada and New Jersey cannot play | We found no U.S. or state statement on the pages we checked. Confirm at signup |
| Rake | Not verified. We could not find a published schedule | Published. 5% up to $1.50 at 5-6 player $0.05/$0.10 No-Limit (see below) |
| License | Not verified on its own pages | Not verified. Its rules say transactions are treated as coming from Panama City, Panama, under Panamanian law |
Everygame is gone from this list. Everygame told its players that poker would be discontinued on Nov. 30, 2025, and that casino and sportsbook accounts stay open. Professional Rakeback published the email, and Poker Industry PRO reported the closure of the Horizon Poker Network on Nov. 25, 2025. Everygame’s own poker page now returns a “page not found” error. An older version of this guide ranked Everygame third. That ranking is retired.
WPT Global is not an option for U.S. players. Its own FAQ says: “WPT Global is not available in the United States of America due to regulatory restrictions.” Its terms name a Tobique Gaming Commission license, number 0000005. We mention it because the data in our poker series covers it, not as a place for U.S. readers to sign up.
Why Is Bovada a Good Poker Site for Beginners?
Bovada hides your name at the table, and that is the main reason it suits new players. Its anonymous tables page says opponents “don’t know who you are, what your poker style is, or what you’re capable of doing.” In plain English, nobody can look you up, tag you as a weak player, or study your past hands.
The second feature is Zone Poker, a fast-fold format. When you fold, you are moved to a new table with new cards right away. Bovada says players get 15 seconds to act, “half the time of a normal cash game.” The mobile page says you can choose Hold’em, Omaha Hi or Omaha Hi/Lo in Zone Poker. Fast-fold means more hands per hour, which also means more rake per hour. Our rake math below shows why that matters.
Bovada calls itself the biggest U.S.-facing poker room and says it runs on the PaiWangLuo Network. That is the room’s own claim, and we did not check traffic numbers. Bovada’s mobile poker runs in your browser. Its bonus page says you need the poker software to unlock the welcome bonus.
Is BetOnline Good for Poker Tournaments?
Yes, if tournaments are the point. BetOnline’s lobby page lists a Sunday Majors schedule, and the version we fetched on Oct. 15 showed a $100,000 guaranteed Main Event with a $55 buy-in and a $50,000 guaranteed Sunday Showdown with a $109 buy-in. Schedules change, so treat those as examples and check the live lobby.
It also runs bounty tournaments. In a bounty event, you earn a cash prize for every player you knock out. BetOnline says it offers two formats, Progressive Knockouts and Bounty Builders. The room’s new-player offer also includes 8 days of free tournament tickets. Its terms say you earn each day’s ticket by meeting that day’s rake requirement, and unused tickets expire after 24 hours.
BetOnline also lists an anonymous tournament format, where players’ identities are hidden during the event. We did not find anonymous cash tables on the pages we read. If hiding your results at cash tables matters to you, Bovada is the room that says it does that.
How Much Does Poker Rake Cost?
Rake is the fee a poker room takes from the pot. It is how the room makes money, and it is the biggest cost of cash-game poker. BetOnline publishes its schedule. At 5-6 player No-Limit cash tables with $0.05/$0.10 blinds, the rule is $0.01 of rake for every $0.20 in the pot, capped at $1.50. The room’s rules also say no rake is taken before the flop and none on uncalled pots, so a hand that ends with a single raise and all folds costs nothing.
Here is the arithmetic. $0.01 divided by $0.20 is 5%. A $10 pot has 50 twenty-cent chunks, so the rake is 50 x $0.01 = $0.50. The cap kicks in at a $30 pot, because 150 chunks x $0.01 = $1.50. Past that point, bigger pots pay no extra rake.
| Pot size | Rake (BetOnline, 5-6 players, $0.05/$0.10) | Rake as % of pot |
|---|---|---|
| $2 | $0.10 | 5.0% |
| $5 | $0.25 | 5.0% |
| $10 | $0.50 | 5.0% |
| $20 | $1.00 | 5.0% |
| $30 | $1.50 (cap reached) | 5.0% |
| $60 | $1.50 (capped) | 2.5% |
| $100 | $1.50 (capped) | 1.5% |
This is our own calculation from BetOnline’s BetOnline poker rules. The cap means small and medium pots pay the full 5%, and only big pots get a discount. Different stakes and table sizes have different rates and caps, so check the rake section for your game. Bovada did not publish a schedule that we could find, so we cannot compare the two rooms on rake.
Our take: because the cap is the same for a $30 pot and a $100 pot, rake hurts most at small-stakes tables where pots stay small. A player who sees many small flops pays the full 5% on almost every hand. That is a good reason to fold more before the flop, where there is no rake.
How Do Poker Welcome Bonuses Really Work?
Poker bonuses are not paid up front. Both rooms release the bonus in small pieces as you play, and the pieces are tied to rake. Here is each room’s rule, taken from the BetOnline poker welcome bonus page and the Bovada poker welcome bonus page.
| Bovada | BetOnline | |
|---|---|---|
| Offer | 100% of your first deposit, up to $500 | 100% of your first deposit, up to $1,000 (minimum $10 deposit) |
| Release rule | $5 for every 150 Rewards Points | $10 for every $20 of rake |
| Points or rake? | 15 Rewards Points per $1 of rake in ring games, per the Bovada points page | Rake |
| Rake needed per release | 150 points / 15 = $10 of rake | $20 of rake |
| Rake needed for the full bonus | 100 releases x $10 = $1,000 | 100 releases x $20 = $2,000 |
| Time limit | 30 days from first deposit | 60 days to release the funds, or the rest is forfeited |
| Rake needed per day to finish | $1,000 / 30 = $33.33 | $2,000 / 60 = $33.33 |
| Rollover on released funds | None, per the bonus page | Not stated on the page we read |
The original insight: in both rooms the bonus gives back 50 cents for every $1 of rake you generate ($5 for $10 at Bovada, $10 for $20 at BetOnline). The two bonuses have the same value per rake dollar, and both need about $33.33 of rake a day to hit the ceiling. The bigger BetOnline bonus is not a better rate. It is a higher ceiling that you only reach by playing twice as long or twice as much.
So the useful question is not “which bonus is bigger?” It is “how much rake will I really pay?” If you would pay $300 of rake in the time window, you collect $150 at either room. A bonus ceiling you never reach is just a number on the page. Bovada also notes that your poker play does not count toward another active bonus’s rollover, so keep to one bonus at a time.
Can You Play Online Poker From the U.S.?
It depends on your state, and we cannot give legal advice. Both Bovada and BetOnline are offshore sites. They are not licensed or regulated by any U.S. state, so you do not get the player protections that come with a state license. A few states run their own licensed online poker markets. Check your state gaming regulator to see what is allowed where you live.
Federal law does not settle the question for you either. The Federal Reserve’s compliance guide says the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) bars gambling businesses from knowingly accepting payments tied to unlawful internet gambling, and it directs banks and payment companies to block those payments. It is aimed at businesses and payment systems. It does not tell you whether a given game is lawful in your state. Older versions of this page said the legal risk to players was “effectively zero.” We removed that claim because we cannot support it.
Bovada’s poker page says players in Delaware, Maryland, Nevada and New Jersey are excluded. We did not find a U.S. or state statement on the BetOnline pages we read. Read each room’s terms and complete the signup checks. Do not try to get around a restriction.
Poker Strategy and the WPT Series
If you want to understand how winning poker actually looks in the data, our WPT series is where to start. It is built on AceGuardian’s Industry Ecology Report, which measures five online poker rooms the same way across 2.6 billion hands, as covered in the articles below. Remember that WPT Global does not accept players located in the United States. Read these as data about how poker works, not as a signup list for U.S. readers.
- Who are the biggest online poker winners right now? ranks the top cash-game winners across the five rooms and shows how spread out the winnings are.
- Is online poker actually beatable? covers the share of players who finished in profit after rake, which ranged from 21.5% to 33.7% across the rooms in the report.
- Where did high-stakes poker go? tracks the big games as they moved between GGPoker, CoinPoker and ACR.
- What is a straddle in poker? explains the optional extra blind and how WPT Global builds it into its cash games.
Rake is the common thread in those numbers. A player who loses a little to rake in every pot needs a real edge just to break even, which is why the rake table above matters before you pick a room. For the math behind every casino-style game, our casino games guide on RTP, house edge and volatility shows how to price any game by what it costs per hour. Use casino bankroll management to set a loss limit before you sit down.
Playing Poker Responsibly
Poker is a skill game over the long run, but short-term results are driven by luck, and even strong players have long losing stretches. Set a budget before your first deposit, do not chase losses by moving up in stakes, and never play with money you need for bills. Both rooms are offshore, so use only what you can afford to lose. If gambling stops being fun, free confidential help is available 24/7 from the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738). The National Council on Problem Gambling says the older number, 1-800-522-4700, also remains active.
References
- Bovada. “Poker.” Checked October 15, 2026. https://www.bovada.lv/poker
- Bovada. “100% Poker Welcome Bonus.” Checked October 15, 2026. https://www.bovada.lv/promotions/poker-welcome-bonus
- Bovada. “How To Earn Points” (poker Rewards Points). Checked October 15, 2026. https://www.bovada.lv/poker/get-started/poker-points
- Bovada. “Anonymous Tables,” “Zone Poker” and “Mobile Poker.” Checked October 15, 2026. https://www.bovada.lv/poker/anonymous-tables
- BetOnline. “Poker Rules,” Rake section. Checked October 15, 2026. https://help.betonline.ag/en/articles/185234-poker-rules
- BetOnline. “100% Poker Welcome Bonus.” Checked October 15, 2026. https://www.betonline.ag/promotions/poker-welcome-bonus
- BetOnline. “Poker” lobby and tournament schedule. Checked October 15, 2026. https://www.betonline.ag/poker
- WPT Global. FAQ and Terms and Conditions (not available in the United States; Tobique license 0000005). Checked October 15, 2026. https://wptglobal.com/
- Professional Rakeback. “Everygame and Juicy Stakes to Close Poker Rooms Nov. 30” (Nov. 2025). Checked October 15, 2026. https://professionalrakeback.com/everygame-juicy-stakes-closing-poker-rooms
- Poker Industry PRO. “Horizon Poker Network to Cease Operations” (Nov. 25, 2025). Checked October 15, 2026. https://pokerindustrypro.com/news/article/222768-horizon-poker-network-cease-operations
- Federal Reserve Board. “Regulation GG: Prohibition on Funding of Unlawful Internet Gambling, Small Entity Compliance Guide.” Checked October 15, 2026. https://www.federalreserve.gov/supervisionreg/regggcg.htm
- National Council on Problem Gambling. “NCPG Adopts 1-800-MY-RESET as New National Problem Gambling Helpline Number.” Jan. 29, 2026. Checked October 15, 2026. https://www.ncpgambling.org/news/1-800-my-reset-announcement/
