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Choosing an online poker room now a days is a much more difficult task then it was a just a few years ago. Online poker has grown by leaps and bounds just in the past few years and the number of rooms has grown and is growing at a rapid pace! When choosing an online poker room you should take into account at the very minimum the following: safety, quality, customer service and comfort.

Safety

By safety I mean how safe is it to move money in and out of the poker room you choose. You must take this into account first and foremost whenever you try out an online poker room. Since the industry is not heavily regulated by governing bodies and is mostly self regulated you need to know you can trust the poker room you choose to handle your money.

For this reason I usually stick with poker rooms that have established themselves in the industry and have built a solid player base. Poker rooms such as Paradise Poker, Absolute Poker, PokerRoom.com and Party Poker have proven to be stable online poker rooms that are going to be around for the long haul. All of these poker rooms not only have proven to be reliable, but have also not rested on their past accomplishments. Each of these poker rooms also has a 3rd party check their poker algorithm to make sure it is working properly and deals fair hands time and time again. This quality check makes sure these poker rooms remain at the industry forefront.

Quality

Quality can mean different things to different people when discussing online poker rooms. In my case I am referring to a couple different things. Here I am referring to software quality. You must choose an online poker room which satisfies you visually, in game play, and in reliability. Most online poker rooms now offer versions of their software you can download and try out playing with play money before you commit to playing for real money.

In my opinion you have to choose a room which satisfies you visually in order to maximize your online poker playing experience. Some rooms take extra steps to make the table seem more life like. For example poker rooms such as Pokerroom.com have added people as avatars to their tables. Other rooms such as Paradise Poker do not have people at their tables, but have added options where a player can order a drink or snack from a menu. This is something that personally keeps me entertained, however so slightly, while I’m waiting in between hands.

Another option to balance into the equation is the quality of the game play. Make sure that the room you choose offers all of the features you need to make game play fun and easy. Decide if it is easy to follow the action going on at the table. Some rooms such as Pokerroom.com highlight the player whose turn it is to act. This seems obvious, but some rooms don’t offer this option. The player must keep track of the action in the chat dialogue box. To me this is not something I like to do, but to someone else this might not have as big an impact on their game play. If however, you are playing multiple tables, then you may want to be able to quickly click back and forth between tables and find out where the action is visually without having to scroll through a chat box to find out.

Finally, you must take into account software and server reliability. This is listed third here, but may be the most important factor in choosing your online poker room. It is definitely no fun to have to be constantly disconnected from the room during play, especially when a crucial decision must be made. If you find you must battle this problem often with your online poker room it will add unneeded additional stress to your online poker experience. Believe me, there is nothing worse then being disconnected from the poker room when you hold the nuts in a hand and all you need to do is click the ‘Call Button’ to double up your chip stack.

Customer Service

Solid customer service is a key element in choosing an online poker room as well. Customer service is often something people don’t ever think about until they need it. Most online poker rooms today claim to have stellar customer service. Some poker rooms even offer 24/7 support. However, even though they claim around the clock service some do not follow through with this promise.

To test the customer service of the poker room you are thinking about joining simply download their software, the free version if you like and see how easy it is to contact customer service. Most poker rooms have buttons in their software to email customer service so just click them and send them a quick email and see how long it takes to receive a response from them.

Good customer service should have an answer to your question within 12 hours in my opinion. More complicated questions regarding money transfers, etc. may take longer to resolve, but you should receive a response within 12 hours.

Comfort

Most importantly you need to feel comfortable with the poker room you have chosen. This means you must take every element from above into consideration and decide if the online poker room you have chosen is right for you. If you don’t feel comfortable with the poker room in any of the above categories then I would suggest finding a new place to play online poker. Whether you are logging on to play for poker for fun or to try to make a career out of playing online poker, you need to have confidence in the poker room to deliver your money, deliver answers to your questions quickly and accurately, and deliver an enjoyable playing experience.

Smack Dog Recommended Online Poker Rooms

Here are some online poker rooms that I have personally tried that I would recommend to players of all skill levels. If you have tried online poker before or if this is your first online poker experience these rooms I am confident will deliver a positive and fun playing atmosphere! You can click any of the poker rooms below to read the Smack Dog Review for that poker room!

1. Pokerroom.com
2. Paradise Poker
3. Titan Poker
4. Celeb Poker
5. Poker.com