Ya i looked into carbon but i don't think they accept players from new york
I don't think that is the case. I have never seen New York residents excluded from any USA friendly sites. Just give it a go, if they don't take your money you have the answer. Your deposit method will be important as a lot of "credit cards" will not work. I use a pre-paid debit (Ace Elite) card (again not all will work) with no problems.
There are quite a few very serious and very good players here, who are not playing for the hell of it, plenty of free crap to play on facebook.
Yes, if u win at cake or merge you will get your money. They have cashout restrictions, read the fine print(min cashout at cake for a US player is $500-brutal).
good luck, and see u in the games!
i am going to try and deposit using western union