Playing Pool

Playing Pool Online for Money: the next Poker Boom in the US?

Will playing online pool for cash be the next poker boom for US consumers? There are plenty of signs pointing to yes. Competitive
online pool has enjoyed some minor popularity over the past few years but the rolls at many of the online pool rooms are already increasing because of
online poker's demise in the US.

If you're not familiar with the recent developments of April 2011, huge poker sites like pokerstars.com and fulltilt.com have been raided by the US
government. Not only have all accounts been frozen but physical raids were conducted at many poker company offices in Costa Rica. Suffice to say there
is now a lot of gambling dollars out there that will be going somewhere else.

The pool games available will be familiar to even the most casual player: 8-ball, 9-ball, straight pool, and snooker are there. Depending upon the site
you can play pool in 2-D and 3-D formats. The more sophisticated sites like PoolSharks and Play89 do require a download (don't worry about viruses,
we've experimented with both) but they allow you to play pool for free as long as you like and you'll also be able to be able to join freerolls to play
for real cash.

Playing online pool is a simple matter of aiming your cue, clicking, pulling back on the stick and releasing and trying to get the right angle and
power to get the balls you make contact with to go where you want them to go. Thanks to the processing power of today's networks the physics and speed
of the gameplay is right on. Of course fine tuning your game and lots of practice in the fun games is essential to winning cash playing online pool.

So let's take a look at the pool networks that are out there. Many of the competitive online pool sites have based their formats and promotions on what
built the online poker industry into a juggernaut. Freerolls, deposit bonuses, multi-player pool tournaments and more are all available. It's also
worth mentioning that you will never play computer generated opponents. All players are live human beings.

Poolsharks

Since Pool Sharks had launched in September 2007, it has been rapidly attracting thousands of Pool and Snooker players from all
around the world. Pool Sharks offers 8-Ball, 9-Ball and other online Pool game variations, along with 3 types of online Snooker games. You can play all
online Snooker games and online Pool games for real money or just for fun.

Poolsharks is the frontrunner as the biggest site for pool players averaging 3000 players online at peak hours. That's plenty of players so you should
be able to find a game at any given time.

New players will also be able to participate in a freeroll for cash as a welcome promotion.

For those who want to go straight to cash games you can take advantage of an instant deposit bonus varying from 10 to 100 percent based on your initial
deposit.

The 3-D gameplay and graphics speak for themselves and the easy lobby format makes finding a game or tournament quite easy. Check out their promotional
video here to so see what we're talking about.


This is actually pretty interesting as well and gives a good example of trick shots and the realistic physics at PoolSharks:

Play89

Play89 boasts thousands of member solution for all billiards fans. The 17 languages game platform of play89 allows everyone from everywhere to
enjoy a broad range of billiard games, including 8 ball, 9 ball and snooker, to meet new people from all over the world and of course practice pool for
free and sharpen their gaming skill.

Utilizing a lobby format that will be familiar to many poker players you will be able to find all manner of freerolls, tournaments, and heads up games.
Find play for fun or cash pool games is quite simple.

Play89 is especially well known for their Sit & Go Tournaments. A Sit & Go Tournament is a pool tournament, in which the
number of players who can register is predefined. The tournament begins as soon as the quota of players is reached. Play89's Sit & Go tournaments include between 4 and 64 players and the registration is available at all time. Entry fees start from a few
cents to the big bucks.

GameDuell

One largest skill gaming sites in the world for all types of skillgames, GameDuell does not exclusively specialize in pool but they do have
excellent 8-ball and 9-ball pool games available. This a better option for the more casual player just looking to spice up their game playing for
low-stakes.

It also gives players the option to try out many different genres of games to try out. No download is required at GameDuell but free play is limited
unless you upgrade for cash play. Nonetheless, GameDuell is an excellent option for a more social gaming experience.

The beauty of online pool for cash is that it is one hundred percent legal under US law as it is a skill game by any definition and is therefore not
classified as gambling. Players will never have to worry about getting their accounts seized in the middle of the night.

All of the sites are free to join. You'll quickly find that playing pool can become pretty addictive but it's a blast to see how far you can develop
your skills with the right amount of practice.