About Us

US Poker was built for one reason: real money poker players need a straight answer about where to play, without wading through marketing pages designed to sell them a sign-up. We compare licensed and offshore-facing poker apps and sites available to US players on the things that actually decide whether a room is worth your bankroll — traffic, game variety, rake, payout speed, and how a welcome offer really pays out once you read the fine print.

Who this site is for

Our readers fall into a few different camps, and we write with all of them in mind. Some are casual players who want a trustworthy app, an easy deposit, and soft games without getting buried in jargon. Others are semi-serious grinders who care about rakeback percentages, fish-to-reg ratios, and whether a site's traffic can actually support their stakes in cash games or multi-table tournaments. A third group is looking for something specific — a new site to clear a bonus on, a crypto-friendly option, or an alternative after a previous room stopped serving their state. This page explains how we work for all three.

How we put the rankings together

Every poker app or site on richardwhitmire.com is assessed against the same set of criteria, applied consistently across the board. Commission never buys a higher position — a brand's place in our tables reflects how it scores, not what it pays us.

• Traffic and liquidity — how active the cash game and tournament pools are, and whether that supports the stakes and formats a player wants, from No Limit Hold'em to Pot Limit Omaha and fast-fold variants
• Game variety — the spread across cash games, MTTs, Sit & Gos, and Spin & Go-style lottery formats
• Rake and rewards — the rake structure at different stakes, and whether a rakeback or loyalty scheme gives grinders a real way to offset it
• Welcome offers and promotions — we look past the headline number to the deposit match percentage, the playthrough or clearing requirement, and any time limit attached, because a bonus is only as good as the terms that come with it
• Payments — the deposit and withdrawal methods on offer, cash-out speed, and any fees or verification steps that slow a payout down
• Software and mobile experience — how the iOS and Android apps handle multi-tabling, HUD compatibility where it's permitted, and general stability
• Licensing and player protection — the regulatory or licensing status a site operates under, and what that means for fund segregation and dispute resolution

We research each site's public terms, software, banking pages, and available player feedback to build our editorial ratings. These ratings are our own assessment, not customer review scores, and they're updated as offers, terms, or a site's standing change.

Where our information comes from

Because US online poker is regulated on a state-by-state basis, with no single federal framework, availability and licensing status vary depending on where a player is located. We work from each operator's own published terms, licensing pages, and banking information, and we're transparent when a detail — a specific processing time or promo cap, for example — isn't published or verified, rather than guessing at a figure.

How we make money

US Poker earns revenue through affiliate partnerships. If you follow a link from this site and sign up with an operator, we may receive a commission. This arrangement doesn't change what we publish: ratings, write-ups, and rankings are based on our own assessment criteria, and an operator's advertising spend with us has no bearing on its score or position. If a site has a real drawback — thin traffic at certain stakes, a slow verification process, a restrictive playthrough requirement — we say so.

Playing within your means

Poker involves real risk, and no amount of skill removes the possibility of losing money. Nothing on richardwhitmire.com should be read as a suggestion that poker is a reliable way to make income or solve financial problems. Every regulated state we cover requires players to be at least 21 (a small number set the minimum at 18), and none of our content is intended for anyone under that threshold. If gambling stops being enjoyable or starts to feel out of control, free and confidential support is available through 1-800-GAMBLER, and our Responsible Gambling page has further resources and state-specific self-exclusion information.

Questions or corrections

If you spot outdated information, want to flag a change in an operator's terms, or just have a question about how we work, our Contact Us page is the quickest way to reach us. Our full terms of use, including how we handle affiliate disclosures, are set out on our Terms and Conditions page.