The service a site provides it’s customers is very important.
This includes many different areas of the online poker experience.
A site with good service will have many different attributes

HOSTS

A host is something like a pit boss at a normal casino. A good site will have a button you can click on where you will be patched into a live chat with someone who works for the online poker room. They should be able to answer any questions you may have regarding anything from game play to cashing out.

INTEGRITY AND SECURITY

All online poker rooms should excel in this area because it is essential that a player feels safe using their site. They must make sure all the information a player gives about himself or his finances be kept confidential and out of the prying eyes of other internet users. Encryption technology is state of the art at all online poker rooms to make sure no one is ripping you off. They also have incredible technology to assure players that the cards being dealt are being done so randomly and without tampering.

TABLE STATS AND HAND HISTORY

Some online poker rooms offer you a chance to examine where you have made or lost your money. This is called your hand history. It is also a nice feature to see how much action is being made at a given table. This is called the table stats and is essential in finding a game where you can make money.

YEARS IN OPERATION

This is fairly self explanetory but it is important for an online poker room to have some years under their belt so you know their for real.

Promotions are things that an online poker room may offer you to get you to play at their site over other sites. This could be anything that would attract you or give you incentive to play your poker there.

HIGH HAND AND BAD BEAT JASCKPOTS

Some sights offer you cash prizes for getting high hands like straight and royal flushes. Some sites award these daily and others on different time frames. They usually range from $250 to $500 dollars. Bad beat jackpots are the real attraction. A bad beat jackpot can range from $2000 to $30000. A bad beat is when you get a really good hand and lose to an even better one. Usually a full house being beat by four of a kind or higher will win you the bad beat. The payout structure is different for every site but everyone at the table wins if a bad beat is dealt, trust me.

DEPOSIT BONUSES

It is always nice to get a little extra when you deposit money into an online poker room account. Some sites offer better bonuses than others but you can luck into any percentage bonus if you look hard enough. If a site is offering a 25% bonus on your deposit, that means if you deposit $200 you will get $250 dollars in your account instead. Most sites force you to play a certain number of hands before your bonus takes effect but an online poker room that offers you a deposit bonus is basically giving you free money!

CASH OUT AND DEPOSIT SERVICE CHARGES

A good online poker room will usually wave the service charges or take them upon themselves. Some sites however charge a service charge on deposits with credit cards or other money transfers. This is like taking money out of your pocket so watch out for that. When you cash out there are some options you can choose on how you’d like to receive your money. Most sitea will send you a check for however much you want to cash out via regular mail for free. Most sites will send your check to you via UPS or Federal Express for a surcharge if the check is under a certain amount. If you are cashing out a large amount, they will usually pay the express mail fees for you.

Game play involves many aspects of the online poker gaming experience. Game play includes everything from the quality of the graphics to the usability of the software.

CONNECTIONS

There is nothing more annoying than being in the middle of a hand and losing connection to the online poker rooms server. A good site won’t ever let this happen but it still does at some sites.

GRAPHICS AND REALISM

This is fairly straight forward. The better and more realistic the site makes the gaming experience the better. The graphics at an online poker room are meant to make you feel like your at a real casino. The better the graphics, the more enjoyable the site is to the player.

BUTTONS

Buttons come up when it’s your turn to act at the table. The main buttons you’ll see are: call, raise, fold, and check. The buttons at a table are like your arms and your speech. You need to be able to see them clearly and they should be easy to use.

CHIP STACKS AND POT SIZES

It is important to see how much money your opponents have left and how much money is already in the pot to help you decide your play. A good site will have both of these in easy view for the players.

PLAYER CHAT

This isn’t a real important part of online poker but all the online poker rooms have them so I should mention it. It is nice to be able to communicate with the other players at the table, and it’s nice to see what other people are saying to each other. A good site will have the player chat out in clear view and allow you to block all the chat if you prefer to just concentrate on your poker.

There are many different types of poker. Each online poker room offers it’s own list of poker games you can play. Most sites will allow you to play for fun or for real cash. Some sites also offer tournaments for those who like tournament play.

VARIETY OF GAMES

Some sights offer you cash prizes for getting high hands like straight and royal flushes. Some sites award these daily and others on different time frames. They usually range from $250 to $500 dollars. Bad beat jackpots are the real attraction. A bad beat jackpot can range from $2000 to $30000. A bad beat is when you get a really good hand and lose to an even better one. Usually a full house being beat by four of a kind or higher will win you the bad beat. The payout structure is different for every site but everyone at the table wins if a bad beat is dealt, trust me.

TOURNAMENTS

It is always nice to get a little extra when you deposit money into an online poker room account. Some sites offer better bonuses than others but you can luck into any percentage bonus if you look hard enough. If a site is offering a 25% bonus on your deposit, that means if you deposit $200 you will get $250 dollars in your account instead. Most sites force you to play a certain number of hands before your bonus takes effect but an online poker room that offers you a deposit bonus is basically giving you free money!

“FREE” AND “REALl” MONEY GAMES

Some people aren’t comfortable stepping right into the world of online poker so most sites will offer free tables to help you get used to the game. The free games are identical to the “real money” games but you won’t win or lose any cash. They’re good practice and help you get used to the online poker experience.

A lot of your success at making money at an online poker room depends on the other players your playing against. You have to know who’s good and who’s not. It is also important to find a site with lots of players so you have a better chance of finding that game that is perfect for you.

QUALITY OF PLAYERS

It is essential to recognize the skills of the other poker players at your table. A good way to recognize this is to look at the table pot sizes and the percentage of players in on each flop. You might think the higher the stakes, the better the players, but this is not always true. I made most of my money playing high limit ($10-$20) against players I found to be very poor. It is up to you to decide whether a person is a good poker or not.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS

The more people playing at an online poker room the better chance you have of finding the right game for you. Some sites have as many as 2000 people logged on at one time. Thanks to table stats, you can examine which tables are full of loose players and which ones will be hard to make big money at.