site snobbery

Almost everyone here plays on Pokerstars and Full Tilt. Is there a reason other than the fact that everyone else plays there as well?

buttgirl

The fact that they are the two biggest (most popular) and customer service friendly sites.
I play on a few others, but live in the US so my choices are more limited.

Not really snobbery. Here are some reasons to play FT and PS:

1. Reputation. Both have a reputation for being solid and for having good to reasonable customer service/support, and neither has a history of substantial scandals or complaints.
2. Availability of NLHE games. Since so many players play there, you can always find tables at virtually any limit in the most popular form of online poker.
3. Availability of other games. Since so many players play there, you can almost always find tables for games other than NLHE (though not always at a limit you like ).
4. Reliability of the software.
5. US players in particular are somewhat constrained in what sites they choose to play on.

Some reasons to play other sites:

1. Good sign up bonuses. You can deposit some amount and by meeting the terms and conditions of the bonus, make a substantial amount of money just for playing (sometimes called bonus whoring by regs).
2. Rakeback. You can get better rakeback deals at smaller sites.
3. Softness of the games. PS and FT are both populated at small stakes and higher by tons of regs in the NLHE games, making the games harder to beat. This isn't the case at smaller sites - more recreational players equals easier games.

^This. Biggest = most players, most tournaments, most action at all levels.

Really it's only logical that the sites with the most players will also be the sites that the most forum members play at. There are a number of us that play at many different sites. I play at 6 different sites and CC holds games at probably 5 different sites and CC members have participated in OFC games at even more sites. So I see no snobbery here. Heck one site, Titan, isn't even open to USA players at all.

Buttgirl? Buttgirl? .................. Really?!.......... CCers aren't snobs but admin will only offer freerolls and other games on sites they trust, for our benefit.

Yup Highest Traffic volume, reputation, and the software is great.

Who wants to play anywhere else. You know these sites arnt scams like alot of others that turn into them. Like the smaller ones. So stick with the ones that wont run off with your money.

I just think that full tilt and pokerstars has the best quality of play to find and in the long run that's whats gotta turn you into a good poker player..

I mainly play on FT for two main reasons. First it is the easiest site for me to deposite cash into. Once I had my account set up, all I have to do is enter the amount I want to deposit and put in a 3 digit code on the back of my credit card and it is done imediately. And being a US player this can be a big plus. Second due to the popularity and largeness of the site there seems to be a lot more options available as to what to play and the amount of waiting time for a game to fill up to play. Plus I like the Poker Academy and the wealth of knowlege one can obtain there.

Full Tilt's software and bonuses, there's really no reason to play any where else.

ft and ps are the best what more can i say

i like full tilt cause of their promotions which occur frequently throughout the yr! failrly easy to clear a few dollars and also cause of their variety of games offered! very dependable with their payouts and overall my favorite site! gl to you!

Hang around here long enough and you get sick of seeing threads by usually newer members saying:

"I play at XYZ site and I'm trying to withdrawal and I haven't received a check and all customer service says is the check is on the way, but it's been two months..." "I played at ABC site and I tried to login and it wont let me, come to find out the site is out of business. What should I do? How do I get my money back?"

The answer is simple, play at Full Tilt and PokerStars and you wont have those problems.

I win more at FT. I have not determined if that has more to do with my being more comfortable with the software, softer fields or a combination of those or some other intangible. I used to play several sites but once I noticed the difference I focused my efforts on the site where I get the best results.

FT has really good and easy to use software. Also, it has a lot of players on all the time, so it is really easy to find a game. Usually, when I look it has at least 80,000 players, as long as I'm not playing at like one in the morning. Whereas I play on another site where the most I've seen on is 5,000.

+1

Also it means we don't have to mix with the riff raff

Basically when you rank the best poker sites, FT and PS are 1a and 1b. Then, there is quite a drop off after that. In fact, there may be a great debate on what is the third best poker site.

Thanks to all for your replies.

One thing I never understood is why Bodog gets recommended from time to time. It peaks at about 800 players, so it must be one of the smallest sites around. Plus they don't accept Mastercard deposits.

buttgirl

Very soft site, easy to build a roll with a little cash, as long as you play cash games or stt's. With the small traffic it is easy to know who spews cash, as the site has alot of regs.
It does suck though if you are a mtt player, the games take hours to fill.

i started off their but now play elsewhere. if you watch tsn or sportsnet here in Canada almost every commercial is for pokerstars and full tilt. bet right now their are more poker commercials than beer commercials. TSN has a freeroll going on at pokerstars at the moment and i've gotten pokerstar stuff at maple leaf games, couple years back. i'm not a fan of pokerstars or tilt anymore but they have more commercials going than molson canadian and coors light at least here in molson canadian country

What the hell does playing on 2 of the most populous poker sites in the world have to do with "snobbery"?

I'm hoping you chose the wrong word:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snob

Software figured out. FT and Pokerstars. If you like a lot of free rolls (like me), then FT is waaaaay ahead of the others. I am a member of Doyles Room, but rarely play there - software isn't all that good. Same with Cake Poker. I guess BoDog might be #3 for best software. UB still has some tweaks to work out.

One good reason is that they're responsive and don't make you go through a bunch of hoops when you want to cash out. I don't believe that you even have to make a deposit to cash out with FT or PS. PokerStars has a very low minimum withdrawal bar and FT's is in the $50-$100 range.

To help answer your question buttgrirl, a lot of people here do play at ps and ft since they are the most two popular sites, where like everyone else has stated that it is where you find the most games with the most people. But like stated before you also find a lot of sharks and other good players fillin up these tables. I however find that some of the smaller sites while may take a little longer to fill up a sng and may not have 5,000 people in every big guanrteed(ps) there are a lot more weaker players. From the info that i have collected the smaller sites such as sportsbook where i play get a lot of people who bet sports and come to poker rooms for a good time(with a big roll). Bodog is also another good site for that.

1 . good soft
2 . interesting promotions

A lot of sites don't accept US players, but I stick with the big 2 because I know something HUGE has to happen for them to fold.

I don't know what time you go to Bodog, but it definitely doesn't peak at 800

Quite a lot of the active posters here live in the USA. If you are unfortunate enough to be saddled with the restrictions which face our American friends, you will struggle to find a good game anywhere other than Stars and Tilt. Nearly all the other reasonably large sites are closed to Americans.