Betonline

USA_flagBest poker, sportsbook + casino for US players, big bonus, deposit options for US customers.

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Bet365 Poker

Our Top Room Pick. Best tournaments + support, lots of fish. Best Sportsbetting odds!

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Carbon Poker

USA_flagEasy deposit options, great choice for US players. $600 bonus, very fishy room with lots of tournaments.

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Pokerstars

Top room with a Bonus of $600, still the largest poker room. Lots of fish, massive tournament calendar.

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Poker server blocked? How to play any online poker room, from anywhere - read this article!

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5 good reasons to switch to a new poker room - read more ...

Best online Satellites for Live Poker Events - find them here!

Poker rooms with the best high stakes action - read this to find them.

Best poker and sportsbook combination - read this review.

Newest Poker Promotions

$88 Free No-Deposit Bonus from 888 Poker - Sign up here!

How to play Zoom or Rush style turbo poker tournaments

Almost every poker room has those tournaments now - usually, you get around 500 chips and 3-minutes blind levels and you have to finish last out of three players. The amount to be won is picked randomly as a multiple of the buyin. So, obviously, those tournaments are decided in very short time - within 5 and 10 minutes mostly.

Before we get to the strategy part, a little advice: Each poker room has its own format here. For example, 888 Poker has an additional limitation: you only get to play a few hands and after 2 minutes of playing, all remaining players are always all-in at the start of the hand. This, in my opinion, has nothing to do with poker. It is pure gambling and no fun at all.

Pokerstars is another room which I do not recommend for this. While in theory, for a $7 tournament the random prize money generator CAN set the prize money to up to $70,000 you still end up playing for $14 almost all the time. Considering that the total for 3 players should be $ 21, that is a bad deal. I have played tons of those tourneys, and the highest payout I ever saw was $42. Given Pokerstars reputation, I would not put it past them to steal from their players here.

What I do recommend is Bet365 and their Twister tournaments. The "distribution" of the random prize money amounts seems to be fair, and I like the optics of the game layout here, as well as the fact that a $10 buy-in may net you up to $10,000.00.

Twister, Zoo, Rush - what about the strategy?

Obviously, playing your usual tight game will not get you very far here. You need to be aggressive, and the preflop value of your starting hands is much different. You are playing three-handed (and two-handed shortly later), so typical hands that will make draws (like small suited connectors) do not have so much value here. On the other hand, basically every ace (even A-2 off) is a good hand if you can open with it.

On the flop, middle or even low pair is good enough to bet most of the time. Bet sizes vs flop size can be left unchanged, although on draw-heavy boards I tend to protect my made hands with big bets, even with an all-in.

Pay very clos attention to the price you have to pay to see the flop. For example, if you are the big blind while the blinds are 10/20, one player raises to 40, the second player calls, you should call all the time. You are getting 6:1 odds and no hand is that bad! Same goes when you are the small blind and the first player limps. Put the 10 chips in and hope the BB checks behind. It's a 60 chips pot and you only have to pay 10 to see the flop.

Here's the most important tip

In this kind of game, the other players' perception of your playing style will be defined by the first 4-10 hands played. After that, they will simply assume that you always play as tight or as loose or as aggressive as you did at the start. That said, you have to be aware of the player image that you generated at the beginning. You can use that image to your advantage - by getting away with more bluffs (if your image is tight), or getting better payouts with your good holdings (if your image is loose-aggressive!

Deposit options for US poker fans

If you are based in the US, finding a poker room that accepts US players is only one of your problems. It is also difficult to make money transfers. But there are a number of options for deposits and withdrawals for US gamblers and we have described them here ... read more

All Freeroll Poker Tournaments starting now

All the big poker rooms are offering freeroll tournaments. There is no need to deposit, but you can still win real money. To find a permanently updated schedule of all freerolls starting in the next few minutes, across all rooms - click this link!

Play Poker and Blackjack at the same room

Blackjack is one of the most popular casino games, due to a low house edge and the fact that strategy can improve your results. But not all poker rooms have Blackjack too. Find our favorite rooms for Poker and Blackjack - read this!

European Poker Tour qualifiers

The European Poker Tour is becoming more and more popular. With moderate buy-ins, but very large prize pools, a lot of money can be made at these events. In consequence, several rooms are offering satellites to qualify for the offline EPT events. To find out which rooms offer the best chances for EPT qualification read this article.