Top Online Poker Sites for Pennsylvania

Great news! There’s no shortage of real money online poker action for Pennsylvania players. You can play your favorite poker games, formats, variants, and stakes right now.

All you need to get started is an account with one of the best Pennsylvania poker sites online and some money in your account.

How We Rate

Safety & Security

You should be able to gamble online without fear. So we only recommend licensed sites that use the latest security and encryption techniques.

Bonuses

Maximize your bankroll with fantastic bonuses. Our recommended sites offer valuable bonuses with fair terms and conditions, including manageable wagering requirements.

Games & Betting

The best sites have the best wagering options. That’s why you will find extensive games and betting opportunities on our recommended sites.

Banking

Getting your money to and from your account shouldn’t be a hassle. We only recommend sites with a variety of convenient banking methods, including cryptocurrency and e-wallets.

If you haven’t played poker online for real money before and have no idea where to begin, then you’ll want to read this guide from start to finish.

Here’s what we’re going to cover.

By the time you’re done reading this page, you’ll have all the information you need to go from having never played poker online before to playing your very first poker hand or tournament.

We’re going to guide you every step of the way. Let’s get started.

The sites we recommend are THE best Pennsylvania poker sites. We can confidently say this for two reasons.

Here are some of the main factors we look at when ranking the best online poker sites for PA.

Every online poker room must have a license issued by a reputable gambling authority.

The most common gambling authorities that issue licenses for US poker sites are Kahnawake, Curacao, and Costa Rica.

We scour forums and watchdog sites to determine whether the poker site treats their customers well and if they’ve had any past issues that you need to know about before you join.

We also call upon our own experiences, and utilize our industry contacts.

It’s important that the poker sites we recommend accepts several US-friendly banking options.

Bitcoin (or other crypto) is our favorite banking method, but credit and debit cards are okay, too.

Every poker room offers promotions like deposit bonuses, guaranteed tournaments, leaderboards, etc.

We only recommend sites with good promotions and reasonable terms and conditions.

You need poker games, otherwise, what’s the point?

We check every PA poker site to ensure they have a variety of games, variants, and stakes. We give extra credit to sites with unique games not offered elsewhere.

Nothing on this list matters one iota if a poker site doesn’t have traffic.

You need other players for games to run. We also check to see which games get the most traffic, since it varies from site to site.

We test the software to ensure it’s easy to install and use. It must also be free of bugs or glitches.

We also look for features such as four-color decks, note taking, chat box, multi-tabling, and more.

We prefer online poker sites that offer a mobile poker app or browser poker room for Pennsylvania poker players. We also test the games and features available to mobile players.

We take all the information we find and include them in our poker room reviews. We also use this information to determine which sites to recommend and in what order to rank them.

Our sites are ranked in order starting with the best Pennsylvania poker sites we suggest you join first. But you can’t go wrong joining any one of them.

Once you know which of our recommended poker sites for PA you want to join, it’s time to move on to the next section where we’ll explain how to create your account, make a deposit, and more.

There are several steps you need to take to go from having never played a poker hand online before to playing your first hand or MTT for real money.

But it’s not hard, we swear! It only looks overwhelming. And we’re going to prove it. What we’re going to do now is walk you through each step so that you know exactly what to do once you’ve chosen one of the top Pennsylvania poker sites to join.

Your first step is to download the poker room’s software. We recommend you download it (even if they offer a browser version) because that’s the only way to ensure that you have access to all their games and features.

If you create your account first, many online poker sites will send you a download link in your welcome email. Otherwise, you’ll find it on their homepage, poker page, or dedicated software page.

All you need to do is download the software to your computer and double-click the file to run it. Then, follow the directions for installation.

This process will take only a few minutes to complete.

The next step is to create your account. Open the poker software and find the “create your account” or “join” link. Then, give them the information they ask for.

This information is used a couple of different ways.

This takes only a minute or two to finish. Once you submit the information, the poker room will send you a confirmation email. Open this email and click the link inside it to verify your account.

Congratulations, you now have your first online poker account.

You want to decide if you want to claim a bonus before you make your deposit because these offers are usually for first-time depositors.

You might not want the bonus if you want the ability to cash out soon. If you claim an offer but don’t fulfill the bonus terms, the room might prevent you from cashing out or it might cause delays.

This won’t apply to most people, though, in which case you should claim the bonus. It’s free money. The more real money games you play and points you earn, the more of your bonus you’ll unlock.

Sometimes, poker rooms automatically give you the bonus. Other times, you’ll need to check a box saying you want it or request it. Just make sure you know what to do and then do it; otherwise, you risk making your deposit and missing out on the chance to collect the bonus.

The fourth step is to make your deposit. Once you log in, find and click on the deposit or cashier button.

The poker room will list all the options you can use. Here are the options most commonly available at the top Pennsylvania poker websites.

The cashier will also tell you the deposit limits for each method and if whether poker site charges any fees.

All you need to do is choose the banking method you want to use (we recommend Bitcoin) and follow the directions. Bitcoin and credit card deposits will hit your account within minutes. Bank wires and money transfers can take a couple of days.

Your last step is to choose a game or tournament to play. This might be overwhelming because there’s so much to take in between all the sections and dozens of games, variants, and tables to choose from.

Most of recommended online poker rooms for PA make this process easier with a “quick seat” option. Just input the games, stakes, and variants you want to play, and the poker site will find an available table or MTT for you to join.

Your other option is to browse the lobby. Most poker rooms will separate the lobby into a cash game and MTT section.

From here, it’s a matter of finding the game you want to play. The lobby will tell you the stakes or buy-in, how many players are seated/registered, when the game will start (for MTTs), and the number of hands played per hour and the average pot size (for cash games).

All you have to do is sit down and tell the room how much you want in front of you (for cash games). Or register for a tournament and wait for it to start. The room will handle everything else.

That’s all there is to it. You’re now ready to play your first real money poker hand or game online in Pennsylvania.

You’ll want to take a couple of minutes to familiarize yourself with the software. Unfortunately, that’s outside the scope for this guide. But a lot of it is self-explanatory. You can always play a couple of free money games first to get a feel for the software, too.

One of the benefits to playing poker online is that most poker rooms allow you to play their games for free with “play money”.

Now, in almost every case you can’t play with fake money and win real money. We’ll show you the one exception here in a minute.

There are a few reasons why you should consider playing for free, though, especially if you’re new to (online) poker.

All this comes down to learning the ropes before you risk your bankroll. Only once you feel ready should you move on to playing with real money.

We said that free money games don’t pay out real money except in one case, and that’s poker freerolls. These are tournaments that cost nothing to enter but often have a small prize pool.

It’s entirely possible to start playing poker online with zero dollars and jumpstart and build your bankroll with freerolls. Many people have done it before you.

But while this might sound like a fantastic idea, there are a few downsides to playing freerolls that you’ll want to keep in mind.

Ultimately, freerolls take a lot of time to play without offering much in return. So, we recommend you only play these to learn the game or as a supplement to real money tournaments.

Free money games and freerolls sound great. Why bother to play poker for real money if you don’t have to? Well, here are a few reasons why.

Ultimately, there’s no reward without any risk.

Now, some people are afraid of risking money. But you don’t need to be, and here’s why.

You don’t have to play for high stakes. You can deposit $5 to $20 and have a full bankroll for $0.01/$0.02 ring games (where a full stack is $2) or $1 or $2 MTTs.

It might take you a little while to build your bankroll up playing the $0.01/$0.02 games, but not as long as you probably think considering all the fishes’ stacks you’ll win.

And all you need to do is win a couple of those $2 MTTs and you’ll have enough to move up to the $3 to $5 and $5 to $10 MTTs.

So, you’re not taking a huge risk. You also control how much risk you take on. And if you learn basic poker strategy, your risk shrinks even more.

The bottom line is that free money poker games have their place. Play and learn from them. Then, move on to real money games where your time is better spent and you have a chance to win real money for your efforts.

We covered a lot of ground in this guide.

You now have everything you need to find a top PA online poker room, create your account and make a deposit, and play the best poker games online.

The only thing that remains is for you to pull the trigger. Choose a site from our list and create your account!