Best Poker Sites for Beginners – Poker Rooms for Noobs

Poker offers many different formats and variations along with a variety of online casinos to choose from. If you’re just starting out and are trying to decide where to play, it may be a little overwhelming. Finding the most appropriate site based on your skill level, interests and needs can be difficult. There are specific sites out there that cater to the newbie and assist in the transition from thinking about playing online poker to actually doing it.

Full Tilt Poker, Party Poker and Carbon Poker are three of the best sites available to the beginning player. The objective is to find a site where you can learn without having to use complicated software and where you can play without having to spend all your money.  This also includes a wide variety of play money games you can practice your skills at before taking the next step to real money cash games and tournaments.

If you’re looking for the top sites for a beginner’s bankroll, PokerStars is also a big choice for players just starting out and honing their game online.  PokerStars is all about helping new players out, and they offer great tutorials on their site when you sign up and you also have thousands upon thousands of small stakes games running 24/7.

Full Tilt Poker for Beginners

Full Tilt Poker has been around for some time and is one of the easiest sites to use. Full Tilt Poker does accept players from the US. So, if you’re new to poker and are worried about the legalities of online poker as a US player, you can rest assured it is completely legal to play at Full Tilt Poker.

Beginner players can find a software version for either platform – Windows or Mac. Full Tilt has been the leader in Mac poker sites for a long time running.

Full Tilt Poker offers beginning players a bunch of helpful options such as play money games, daily freerolls and low stakes tournaments. The user traffic at Full Tilt is really high and therefore a lot of new players exist that provide a nice competitive field in the low stake games.

Beginning players will also find that they have quite a few deposit options at Full Tilt that make their banking transactions very simple. Players can deposit at Full Tilt by using:

• Visa
• MasterCard
• Entropay
• NETELLER
• Click2Pay
• ClickandBuy
• WebMoney
• Cash Transfer

Party Poker for Beginners

Party Poker has been around for a long time. It used to be the largest poker site in the world prior to the US 2006 online gambling legislation. Due to regulatory pressure, Party Poker unfortunately does not accept US players.

However, beginning players in the European and Asian markets will find that Party Poker offers a ton of loose games that attract new players. The software is extremely user-friendly and beginning players can enjoy freeroll tournaments quite regularly. Party Poker also offers a Windows and a Mac version of their software.

Beginning players will find the low stakes level of ring games available at Party Poker to be helpful in the learning process. At the low stakes, beginners will not have to spend a ton of money. Party Poker offers games with stakes of all ranges as well as play money. Playing for play money is a good way for beginning players to get used to a game’s rules and strategies without risking anything. This is also a good way to become familiar with the software.

Beginner players will find an abundance of deposit options at Party Poker. These include:

• PaySafeCard
• EPS
• WebMoney
• MisterCash
• iDEAL
• LASER
• ClickandBuy
• Click2Pay
• Giro Pay
• Ukash
• Przelewy24
• directpay24
• POLi
• MoneyBookers
• NETELLER
• PayPal
• Bank Transfer
• Bank Wire

Carbon Beginner Poker

Carbon Poker is a great site for beginners. The software is easy to use and the user traffic isn’t as high as sites such as Full Tilt and Party Poker, which makes the competition a little softer. More experienced players tend to play where there is a lot of traffic and the action is a little more intense.

Carbon Poker offers beginning players the option to play for free with play money; however, they can also take advantage of a great Carbon Poker bonus if they decide to deposit and play for real. This gives beginners the opportunity to learn the games and become comfortable with the software. Playing with play money can bring a lot of loose play. Therefore, the strategy may be a little different. However, it is still a great opportunity for beginners to hone their poker skills.

Carbon Poker offers freeroll tournaments regularly. They also allow US players. Beginning players will find a wide variety of games ranging from Texas Holdem to Blackjack. Others games include Omaha, Razz and HORSE.

Carbon Poker does not offer a Mac version of their software. There is only a Windows version currently. However, Mac users have the option of using a Windows emulation method to play Carbon Poker if they so choose.

Beginning players can deposit at Carbon Poker by using:

• Visa
• MasterCard
• Click2Pay
• ECO
• NETELLER
• MoneyBookers
• eWalletXpress
• Entropay
• ClickandBuy
• PaySafeCard
• InstaDebit
• Giro Pay
• Netcents
• eCheck

Bankroll for Beginners

Building your bankroll is something that is vital to all new poker players. Having the appropriate amount of funds to support the variance in poker is absolutely essential. It is recommended that you have at least 40 times the buy-in for tournaments in your bankroll. So, if you are playing $5 tournaments, you should have at least $200 in the bankroll. If you are playing sit n gos, you should also have at least 40 buy-ins stashed away.

For cash games, you should have at least 300 times the big blind. In other words, if you are playing $1/$2, you should have $600 in the bankroll. If you’re a beginner, you probably should not be playing $1/$2. It is strongly suggested that you start somewhere in the ballpark of $.05/$.10. This would require $30 in your bankroll.

The three sites mentioned above are great sites for beginning players. Each site offers user-friendly software, the option to play for free and an abundance of freeroll opportunities. Exercise good bankroll management to avoid burning through all your cash in the learning stages. Even beyond that, professionals use bankroll management religiously. Learn the rules and basic strategies of the game you wish to play and practice, practice, practice. Poker takes a lot of practice and patience to master.