New to online poker, a few questions here

Hello everyone - I'm new to these forums and online poker.

I would very much like to play online but with so many sites I don't know who is reputable or where to begin.

I would like something that is easy to transfer money to and from. As a US citizen i've seen this can be somewhat of a pain. allowing myself 20 or 30 dollars per month.

I have a paypal account linked to my local bank checking account.
Debit card, Mastercard - local bank checking account.

So any sites that would take either of these would be great. As well as withdrawing any winnings.

I'm not sure what the law is regarding online poker or if you have to file winnings on your taxes or if my local bank would even accept tranfers to and from.

I did play ultimate bet long ago - but that was when they took mastercard and before I read about all their cheating and before I got a letter from my bank. I don't remember what it said, either they were not going to allow transactions or were going to charge me a lot to transfer. but that was years ago.

Any help, suggestions, advice on where to play or begin is greatly appreciated.

Hi and welcome to the forums. I've been playing online for just over a year now -- all at Poker Stars. Very easy to sign-up for, permits US players (of course), largest site, very good reputation. No complaints at all with their service. Great support if you need it. Tons and tons of games available.

I haven't had to deposit other than my initial deposit a year ago -- at that time I deposited with Master Card without any problems. I've only cashed-out once and that went smoothly too.

Yes, you SHOULD declare your poker winnings for tax purposes. Up to you, I guess.

If for some reason you don't like Poker Stars, an obvious second choice would be Full Tilt. Never played there, but those are the 2 big choices for US players. There are others of course (Bodog, Carbon, probably more), but I'd expect player pool and game selection to be considerably smaller.

Go for Full Tilt mate. Sign up somewhere to get rakeback before you sign-up and you'll get $$$ at the end of every friday. It's well sweet.
Stars and Tilt are both Americas bussiest poker rooms but others are UB, Cake, Bodog.
I'd choose Tilt if I were you. The games are just a wide spread as Stars but less people (which is better, who wants to play a 3K MTT where 2500 of them are complete luck-fest donkeys).
Not sure about the US law and withdrawing but Tilt and Stars have all methods for deposit & withdrawl.
Havn't a clue about taxes since im from UK but i'd declare them if I were you just to keep everything sweet in life.

Yes go with either PokerStars or Full tilt I play mostly on full tilt it is very easy to make deposits I have been with them for at least 5 years I have had no problems, I have withdraw once which is smooth as well.

Michelle

Welcome to the forum,you can download sites from this forum.They are the trustworthy sites and it helps this forum get games.

If you're looking for a rakeback deal, then fulltilt is where to go as pokerstars doesn't do rakeback.
As for depositing and taxes, I would only claim if the amount was worth claiming, but you should check with a tax person on that issue.
And I'm Canadian so deposit methods are not a problem for me.

I would do this for Pokerstars as there is no rakeback, but if you use the CC promo code for tilt, then I am pretty sure rakeback is out of the question.