US Poker Sites with the Most Player Traffic

For the average player, the guy who plays 1 to 2 tables at a time or just on the weekends, the most important factors when choosing a poker site usually boils down to things like deposit bonuses, fancy graphics or run it twice type of features.

Important? Sure.

Fun? You bet.

Should these things be #1 on your priority list? Hardly.

Why Traffic Trumps All Other Factors. Especially for US Players.

Traffic has always been important to a US poker site. From a poker site's standpoint, the more traffic to their site the more money in rake that is being generated. This (usually) means that they'll be able to stay open for one thing, as well as provide players with more bonuses, promotions and bigger guaranteed tournaments.

This page lists the biggest poker sites for US players. The four sites you see below always have tables running and consistantly provide regular guarantees and other tournaments 24 hours a day.

From a poker player's standpoint, more traffic to a poker site means more games running, more fish to take advantage of and higher hourly rates. If a site has enough traffic to it then a full time grinder or professional doesn't need any other room to play at.

Traffic has become even more important post Black Friday. The largest poker sites either left the US, or were shut down completely. This forced a lot of players to move. If they couldn't move they had to find a new US poker site to play at, or a new job altogether. There just wasn't enough games running to make playing worthwhile. I speak from experience.

So what we have now is several poker sites that accepts US players, but none that have the traffic levels that the largest sites do (used to), and fewer that have enough traffic to keep part time grinders happy, let alone to keep games running around the clock.

So what's a player in the US to do?

How Players in the USA Can Cope with Smaller Trafficked Sites

It's going to sound cliché, but the best thing that US poker players can do is adjust. What exactly do I mean?

• Find multiple sites that accept US players to signup to and play at. Our list of the best (and most trafficked) poker sites for players in the USA is a good place to start.
• Signup to poker sites that have no less than 10,000 players at peak hours.
• If your preferred game doesn't run (enough), you might consider learning a new game.
• Change the hours that you play, if possible. If you usually play at 5pm, but more games run at noon, change up your schedule.
• Move up in limits. If you can't play the number of tables you'd like to at one time, or in one session, you might consider taking a shot at higher limits. This should offset at least some of the decrease in your hourly rate.

Until online poker becomes accepted (regulated like New Jersey, and Delaware) in the USA, this is all that poker players can do to deal with the lower traffic numbers, shy of some life altering decision such as moving. Once it happens though US players will have plenty of poker sites to choose from, with more traffic then they know what to do with.