In this day and age, we will find well over 500 online poker rooms spanning the world wide web. Of these, about half maintain a solid reputation for quality. But if you eliminate those without a strong reputation, as well as those who are not facing the US market, you end up with a much smaller number of around 40-50.

That may seem like a good number of US poker rooms to choose from, but there are more factors to consider. How about the size of the US poker room? If there is little or no traffic to speak of, you can sit at the tables all day, but you’re not going get much action. This splits the number in half yet again.

Finally, we look into game variety. If you just want to play Texas Holdem and maybe some Omaha poker games, you can stop there and join one of these 20-25 decent US poker rooms.  But if you’d like a little more variety in your poker gaming, such as Stud games, Draw games, maybe even a few mixed games like HORSE, HOSE and HA, you can do even better yet.

When factoring in all of the most crucial aspects that bring quality to a US poker room, we can actually narrow the list down to 4 online poker rooms. These are what we consider to be the top US poker rooms in the world. They offer everything you could ever want from an online poker room, without any of the less desirable features in the mix.

US Poker Rooms - #1 PokerStars

PokerStars easily leads the pack in the rank of US poker rooms. PokerStars has the largest player base in the world – about 175,000 at peak hours - without a shared network to draw extra numbers from. PokerStars has an immense game variety, combined with the largest, most lucrative tournament schedule in the industry. These tournaments include a multitude of live event satellites and the largest weekly guarantee of $1.5 million every Sunday. PokerStars is also a Mac poker room, offering its download client for PC and Mac systems.

US Poker Rooms - #2 Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker comes in a close second, being the second largest online poker room in the world. From superior software and in-game features to a forthright selection of poker games that includes the widest variety of mixed variants, Full Tilt Poker easily has a leg up on the competition. The online poker room promotes the highest welcome bonus of 100% up to $600, with the easiest clearing requirements involved. Full Tilt also has the largest, most impressive team of poker pros playing exclusively at the online poker room. Like PokerStars, the software is PC and Mac compatible.

US Poker Rooms - #3 UltimateBet

UltimateBet is another fantastic online poker room with a lot to offer. Part of the Cereus Poker Network, along with equally impressive Absolute Poker, UltimateBet maintains a massive player base. The game variety is, again, well above average. UltimateBet has one of the best poker clients in the business, not because of its speed or crisp graphics, but the extensive extras involved. Players can use lots of true-to-life features, such as the rabbit cam, deal it twice and deal making at the final table.

US Poker Rooms - #4 Cake Poker

Last but certainly not least is Cake Poker, the flagship of the Cake Poker Network. Cake Poker is the 4th largest US-facing poker room, with enough quality aspects to back up those numbers. Cake has great software, good game variety, all of the basic requirements to be a top US poker room. What makes the online poker room exceptional are two key factors – promotions and competition. Cake Poker has a wide range of promotions to keep player’s bankrolls well padded, like a 110% up to $600 welcome bonus, regular Freerolls, gold chips and gold cards rewards. Many of the players are extremely loose, especially at the lower stakes, but even in the mid-level stakes up to $5/$10 often reveal juicy action on the virtual felt.