Forget everything you’ve taught yourself or learned in playing full ring poker, six max tables need you to be on the ball from the off. The strategy to play online poker at six seater tables is all about aggression from the off, especially on the button and in the cut off. As the blinds ramp up quickly, you need to keep your stack high enough to absorb any blinds – haven’t you noticed you almost always get dealt a poor hand on the big blind? – so you can stay in the game. If you get a sniff of a good hand and others are checking, then it’s time to lay down some large raises.

It’s important to have a competitive stack and be feared by the others as you’ll soon realize that the table is down to the final three people before you know it. In fact, six seater poker tables regularly lose a few players in the first few hands, so you need to be the one that picks up the pot. Play with pressure but don’t crack under pressure – if you realize that someone on the button is thinking the same, let them do so, and make sure you win the next few hands. There is no time to “get warmed up”, if you need to do that play on another table so you can start quickly and aggressively from the off.

Don’t forget to read your opponents and don’t concentrate on your own cards too much. With aggressive play, you need to be confident in making the cards work for you and put doubt in your opponents’ heads about their own cards. Once you have claimed a few pots, then you can switch to a head to head style of play, and don’t limp in on the short blinds.

PokerStars has built up a reputation over the years as being the #1 poker site in the world and in the United States, but that’s recently changed. On April 15th 2011, PokerStars and several other big poker sites in the USA were seized and the owners of the sites have been indicted on charges stemming from money laundering and bank fraud.

Can Poker Players in the USA Play at PokerStars?

PokerStars announced after the FBI seizure that they’ve completely stopped accepting any real money action from poker players in the USA. If you reside in the USA you can no longer play online poker at PokerStars, but thankfully there are some excellent alternatives. Online poker is legal to play in the USA, but PokerStars was charged with illegally accepting payments from US poker players.

PokerStars Alternatives

Thousands of poker players are looking for an alternative to PokerStars right now and we’ve research the best possible solutions based on a range of factors. There aren’t too many poker sites still in the US market, but thankfully there are a few poker sites that have stayed in the market.

Lock Poker has only been in the industry since 2007, but since they’re on the Merge Gaming Network they have a lot of player traffic. Lock Poker is rather unknown, but they have a huge roster of pros that are always playing online in the poker room and thousands of real money players from the USA and abroad. Lock Poker is comparative to PokerStars in game selection, as both poker rooms offer more poker games than your average poker room. When you sign-up for a Lock Poker account you’ll receive a 200% bonus for up to $1200 plus access to nine freeroll tournaments everyday that have $50 prize pools.

Sportsbook.com is apart of the Cake Poker Network and is definitely the best skin on the network right now. Traffic isn’t that big yet, but with plenty of new US players joining the poker room daily it should become a lot busier soon. New players can receive an instant cash bonus of $200 at Sportsbook.com Poker or a 100% match bonus for up to $300. Players can earn up to $1000 in cash and $1000 in bonuses every month from the Sportsbook Poker VIP program, which is another one of the perks of joining Sportsbook.com right now.

The poker industry is going to go through plenty of changes in the next few months, but for now the best PokerStars alternatives are Lock Poker and Sportsbook Poker. Both sites have a great reputation for offering quick deposits for US players and paying out players quickly, which is important in the current state of the online poker industry.

Lock Poker and Sportsbook Poker predominately have a lot of cash game action at various stakes, but both poker rooms have tried adding more MTT’s recently. There aren’t many alternatives to PokerStars right now, as the four biggest US poker sits were shutdown, but if you’re looking to play online poker right now your best options are the two poker sites listed above.

Full Tilt Poker Alternatives

Full Tilt Poker has been the 2nd biggest poker room in the industry for years now, but that’s most likely going to change in the future. Basically everyone in the online poker world has heard by now that the USA DOJ and FBI have seized four of the biggest poker sites. Full Tilt Poker was seized, but they’ve since been given back their domain and everything is running like clockwork for most players.

What Players Were Affected by the Full Tilt Poker Seizure?

Currently the only players that seem to be affected at Full Tilt Poker are those residing in the USA. In a press release, Full Tilt announced that USA poker players won’t be allowed to play for real money in the poker room anymore. Players from other countries are still able to play real money poker like usual, but there have been some issues with deposits/withdrawals due to several Full Tilt banks being seized.

Full Tilt Poker Alternatives

Whether you live in the USA and can no longer play at Full Tilt Poker anymore or you just want to leave Full Tilt for the time being and play elsewhere, we’ve got you covered. Full Tilt Poker had tons of traffic and could offer some very big MTT’s that can’t be matched by any alternatives right now. Thankfully there are a couple poker rooms that are still accepting US players and have great cash game action.

If you’re leaving Full Tilt Poker and need an alternative as a cash game player you can try out Sportsbook Poker on the Cake Poker Network. Sportsbook.com runs a sportsbook and casino on the same portal, so a lot of the poker players are casual and very loose/aggressive. You can make a lot of money playing on the cash game tables at Sportsbook.com Poker. The poker room is lacking in tournaments, but every Sunday they offer a $50K Guaranteed. Make sure you take advantage of the 100% / $300 Sportsbook.com poker bonus on your 1st deposit.

The Merge Gaming Network has seen a steady increase in the amount of real money poker players competing on the network in the past six months. With the recent news that Full Tilt Poker and other big poker sites can no longer accept US players, the Merge Network is primed for a huge spike in real money players. One of the best skins on the network is Lock Poker and right now they’re one of the safest Full Tilt alternatives. Lock Poker boasts lots of small tournaments and plenty of micro stake – low stake cash games. Right now you can earn one of the biggest poker sign-up bonuses in 2011 as well at Lock Poker, as they’re offering a 200% match bonus for up to a maximum value of $1200.

Times are tough right now with most US bankrolls in limbo for the time being. If you’re looking to earn some money right now and don’t know where to play we recommend the two US poker sites above.

Today at 1pm EST, we’re holding a private $415 prize pool freeroll at Poker4ever. There’s no cost for entry (read: it is 100% free). The poker tournament has $415 in the prize pool and the password is beer. The field is expected to be quite small, so the path to the free prizes is much easier. Feel free to spread the word, invite a friend, an enemy, invite whoever!

To play in the free $415 poker tournament at Poker4ever, you must download the Poker4ever software through the special link here: https://www.poker4ever.com/en.get-started.sign-up?bonus=whereplay. Register a player account if you do not already have one. Log in and click on the “private” tab. Click the register button and enter the password of beer.