The most popular online poker room is PokerStars by a long shot.  While PokerStars is the most popular poker site online, 2 other online poker rooms top the list of most popular online poker rooms in terms of player volume.  FullTilt Poker, along with Party Poker round out the list of the three most popular online poker rooms today.  Amongst the big three online poker rooms lies the bulk of the online poker player-base.

Being the three most popular online poker rooms - PokerStars, FullTilt Poker, and Party Poker account for roughly 80% of the online poker room traffic.  One may ask themselves why the player traffic is so highly concentrated amongst three poker rooms.  At first glance, one may suspect that these poker sites are open to a marketplace that other online poker rooms are not open to.  This, however, is not the case.  While FullTilt Poker and PokerStars do accept players residing in the USA, Party Poker has closed its doors to the US poker player.  Other poker rooms are also receptive to USA poker players.  Despite being open to US poker players, these poker sites fail to overtake Party Poker’s place on the big three most popular online poker sites.

Perhaps the presence of popular professional poker players as team members plays a role in the popularity of these three online poker rooms.  PokerStars, Party Poker, and especially FullTilt Poker all sponsor some well-known professional poker players, but then again other less popular online poker rooms do as well.  While poker pro sponsorships may play a role in increasing awareness to these gigantic online poker rooms, it surely does not play a statistically significant role in why these three poker sites are the most poker online poker rooms around.

The main thing that PokerStars, FullTilt Poker, and Party Poker have in common lies within their reputation.  Each of the three most popular online poker rooms are well known for following through with their promise to host and provide action, attractive and enticing promotions, and elite player support.  Additionally, these popular poker rooms make good on their cash out requests in a timely manner and do everything they can to bring in and retain their poker players.  These extremely popular online poker rooms worked hard to build a stellar reputation amongst the online poker community and they did not get comfortable once they completed their rise to the top.