I not one to just jump out and give a perfect 10 to anyone except bo derrick. Pokerstars is the best online card room period. Regardless of what the yahoos above say negative about pokerstars being crooks. It is not true. Even though it is based in san jose, costa rica, the site is american owned and run. There is too much at stake. Too much money to be made to risk illegal alterations with the shuffeling algorythem software. It is very apparent to me that the above players speaking of crooked dealing have not played cards online very long. At 100 hands per hour online, compared to at best, 30 hands per hour in a brick and mortor room, it can seem to be very extreem highs and lows. Especially at fixed limit high-speed games. This magnifys the bad beats where i can relate to the thinking of the players saying these things. But believe me the other end of this spectrum is also magnifyed. A rush of good cards against your playing foes is a feeling like no other felt in poker. In fact it is impossible to experience this type of rush in a brick and mortor card room. Theres just to much time in between hands for it to be felt like an online card rush. Take it from me, an online professional cardplayer that has played real-money online poker over 100 hours per month since 1997, the site is 100% on the up and up, no crooks, no shady dealing; only the best tourneys and overall best cash game cardplayers anywere on the net today. I do have one thing that might help the sceptic newcomer to the recent online poker explosion. Read the book, "killer poker online”, crushing the internet game". By; john vorhaus. Also purchase and download a good realtime player tracking & analyalsis software program which runs along side your table window, constantly updating you with new information about your opponents play. The more you play against them the more precise and useful it becomes. It is always learning, but most important, unlike us it does not forget. Things like there loose/tight, aggressive/passive aspecks, there betting patterns and tendentcies, which games they normally play in and how much money they have won or lost, against you and overall. This is very very important, because it is impossible for your human brain to remember as well as a 250 gigabite computer hardrive. If you are serious about playing holdem online you will notice the information provided by these types of programs to be so good you will wonder how you ever won a single dime playing online before. It’s a fact that one or more of your current table opponents are using this valueable knowledge against you. You must level the playing field in order to win in the long run. We all know that poker is all about the long run. Yes, anyone can win for a session or two. But winning in the end is not luck! The informed skilled player with his fair share of luck will always come out on top. I don't want to provide the names of these software programs here as i am not an affiliate with any of them. But as of may 2005 there are three that i can recommend to you, depending on which site(s) you play. Just shoot me an email. I am not going to make a penny from them; i am just a promoeter for the good of the online game. I am not saying that there are not dishonest sites out there, because there are. But take it from this 40 year old texan, who has made well over 1 million dollars playing online poker over the last 5 years. Pokerstars is as honest as they come and in my opinion has no equal for there tourneys. Lots of different types, sizes and structures, and best of all, there high payout freerolls. Note: if you’re just starting out or new to the online game. I do not recommend that you play at pokerstars mid to higher limit games or you will regret it! The players are just that good. There are many sites with much softer, easyer to beat games out there. Remember this one little fact, even if you forget everything else that i have stated above. Knowledge of opponents play, table selection, and good mind & money management. You will get out of online poker only what hardwork you put into it. Good luck! Email: [email]jnies15@aol.com[/email]