High traffic poker sites cannot be beaten when it comes to options. You can play in anything from the lowest of low stakes games to the nosebleed high stakes games and find active tables day or night. Whether you’re a classic Texas Holdem player or like to mix it up with the most obscure forms of poker, high traffic sites have what you need.

With bigger tournaments, more money to win and more ring games to choose from, popular poker sites do an excellent job at providing something for everyone. Low traffic sites do have their charm, but it is my opinion that every serious poker player should keep an account open with at least one of the following poker sites.

As you can see here, PokerStars is the undisputed leader in terms of traffic. No other poker site even comes close at this point. If all you want is the absolute largest, most trafficked poker site in the world, PokerStars should be your first stop. If you’ve already tried PokerStars and didn’t find it to be your cup of tea, 888Poker is on the next tier down also boast very healthy traffic numbers.

This is a discussion on Betonline Traffic within the online poker forums, in the Poker Rooms section; I recently went back and tried the site again. The traffic was way down noticeably. High traffic poker sites cannot be beaten when it comes to options. You can play in anything from the lowest of low stakes games to the nosebleed high stakes games and find active tables day or night. Whether you’re a classic Texas Holdem player or like to mix it up with the most obscure forms of poker, high traffic sites have what you need. The Highest Poker Traffic for USA Players Players from the USA are still in a limbo when it comes to their online poker options. Their choices are limited between offshore poker sites and regulated sites, which are limited to the few states that actually have online poker regulation in place. The most popular offshore US-facing poker sites. 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. One unique thing about playing live poker in California is how you pay rake. The rake is the money the poker room collects as their fee for hosting the game. Most poker rooms charge you a percentage of the pot and cap how much they can rake. For example, a poker room might take 10% of every pot up to $10.

I have ranked the online poker rooms on this page in order according to their average traffic numbers and the “24 hour peak,” which is the largest number of ring game players that have been online at once over the past 24 hours. These numbers all come from the ever-useful PokerScout.com.

Why You Should Play on a High Traffic Poker Site

Large poker sites offer several distinct advantages over their smaller, lesser-trafficked competitors.

• Table Selection
• Bigger and Better Tournaments
• High Stakes Action
• Obscure Forms of Poker
• Stability

Table Selection

With more players online at any given time, you have the advantage of table selection. If you find yourself at a tight table full of skilled players, you’re just a few clicks away from a new, looser table. Being selective in which tables you play at is the single simplest thing you can do to increase your win rate.

It’s always faster to find the tables you want at the busiest poker sites. If you have a specific game in mind, there’s no wait for tables to fill and games to run. It can sometimes be a long wait to get a good game going at a smaller site. Sometimes, the game you want never even gets going at a really small site.

Multi-tabling is also more feasible at the most popular sites. Do you need to have 4+ tables running at a time just to stay interested in the game? Well, a high traffic site is what you need. You won’t have any problems finding multiple tables at any stakes when you play at a big-name provider.

Bigger and Better Tournaments

High traffic poker sites are home to the biggest tournaments where even a small buyin can return thousands of dollars in winnings. Large poker sites are home to six and seven-figure guaranteed tournaments that don’t cost an arm and a leg. If you want to play for the big money, you need to visit a big poker site.

Popular poker sites are also home to the best satellites that send you to major live events around the world. Big sites like PokerStars have the resources and traffic numbers to support cheap satellites that send you to major tournaments like the World Series of Poker, WPT events and EPT events. The biggest poker sites are home to the best satellites.

The same concept also applies to sit-n-go tournaments. Bigger sites have such a huge selection of SNGs that a new game is starting all the time. You’ll find low level SNGs, high stakes SNGs and even multi-table SNGs that start as soon as 18, 45, 90 or 180 players take a seat. Rarely is there a significant delay as you wait for a tournament to fill.

High Stakes Action

The biggest cash games happen at the biggest poker sites. Whether you just like to railbird the big games or want to give it a shot for yourself, high traffic poker rooms have the player base to support the biggest games on the internet. It’s nothing for a major site to spread no-limit tables with stakes as high as €50/€100 with a €10,000 buyin and even $500/$1,000 games with $100,000 buyins.

A few low traffic sites also host high stakes tables, but it’s rare to find active tables at those levels. Only the busiest poker rooms actually have active tables at all stakes. The biggest players congregate at the biggest poker sites.

Obscure Forms of Poker

By “obscure forms of poker,” I mean pretty much anything other than Texas Holdem. Games like Pot Limit Omaha, 7-Card Stud, Razz and HORSE are generally pretty dead at smaller sites. You need to visit a busy poker room to find action in the more obscure formats.

It’s a simple matter of numbers; any game other than Texas Holdem has way fewer players. Smaller poker sites have enough trouble keeping the regular Texas Holdem games running at all levels. Bigger sites have so many more players that even when just a small percentage of those people are into other games, there are enough people to keep these less-popular games running.

Stability

High traffic poker sites are the least likely to have cash flow issues and shut down overnight. At a site like PokerStars where there are almost always at least 20,000 people online at any given time rakes in the money day after day. The financial stability afforded by high traffic numbers keeps the biggest sites in business year after year.

It’s not as much a sure thing at smaller poker sites where you’re lucky to find 200 active ring game players at any given time. There’s not as much money coming in and things can get tight if that poker site has any unexpected cash flow issues. The biggest poker sites are almost always the safest sites.

The One Big Disadvantage

There is one major, undeniable disadvantage to playing at a high traffic poker site: competition. The best players in the world are drawn to the biggest poker sites because they need those high stakes games and ability to multi-table all day long. Thus, you’re more likely to run into skilled players at the largest sites.

The good news is that with so many people online, you can usually avoid the best players by practicing table selection. However, you need to keep your eyes open and be willing to change tables if you find yourself seated at a table with too many sharks. In general, smaller sites have a smaller percentage of skilled players.

In my opinion, this disadvantage is minor. As long as you’re paying attention and have the presence of mind to leave a table when it takes a turn for the worse, you won’t have too many problems with the sharks. You just need to stay aware and keep an eye on the competition.

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.

US Poker Rooms with the Most Traffic / Biggest Sites!

• 1
  100% to $500 Poker Bonus

  • Easy to Clear First Deposit Bonus
  • Accepts Bitcoin Deposits
• 2
  100% to $1000 Poker Bonus

  • Huge $1000 First Deposit Bonus
  • Seats to Live Poker Tournaments
• 3
  100% Poker Bonus

  • 100% Bonus up to $2500
  • Accepts All USA Players
• 4
  100% Poker Bonus to $2500

  • Accepts All USA Poker Players
  • One of the Fishest Poker Sites
• 5
  100% Deposit Bonus $1000

  • Excellent US Poker Room
  • Fast Payouts: 1-2 Days
• 6
  100% Deposit Bonus $1000

  • $3.5 Million Guarantees
  • $1 Million Sunday Tournament

Online Poker Room Traffic Signals

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?

Online Poker Room Traffic Fines

• 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.

Online Poker Room Traffic Violations

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.