Earlier this year, Americas Cardroom – a flagship site for the popular Winning Poker Network – added browser-based functionality for Android users. Mobile and tablet players can now hit the felt by heading directly to the Americas Cardroom website.

Limited Game Choice
However, the bad news is that this browser-based poker client is extremely limited in its offerings. In fact, players can only choose from one game type: ACR’s Jackpot Poker. Compared to other US competitors like BetOnline and Bovada – who recently rolled out complete mobile support for their users, featuring all cash-games, sit & go’s and tournaments – it’s not a great provision from Americas Cardroom. ​

​Last month, Bovada announced that it was reopening its poker room. Now that it’s here, it will be interesting to see what effect it has on the US online poker market.
 
Bovada initially closed its poker room after selling its poker software to IgnitionPoker just over a year ago. It seemed at the time that Ignition was just a rebranding of Bovada Poker. The sudden return of Bovada Poker last month, however, has left many people confused about the distinction between Bovada and Ignition. To clear this up, @BovadaPoker tweeted on August 23 that Ignition and Bovada, despite sharing the same software and both using the Pai Wang Luo Poker Network, the two companies are “separate entities”.

Choosing the right mobile online poker app to suit your needs is no easy task, especially when you’re dealing with a platform like the Android O.S., which allows you to access countless extremely different poker clients. As a result, making the right choice is often a matter of getting your priorities straight. In this short guide, I’m going to provide you with some insight as to what really makes Android poker apps different from one another and what features you should keep an eye out for.

As some of the more experienced players undoubtedly already know, table selection is an important part of playing online poker with earning money in mind. What even fewer people realize is that finding a fishy poker room is potentially even more lucrative than looking for a particularly weak table – after all, the game will end at one point or another and you’ll have to waste time looking for more easy prey. This statement is even more true if you’re looking to play online poker on your Android mobile device, as only a select few apps allow you to observe numerous tables without taking part in the action yourself.

Android Market used to be a paradise when it comes to gambling apps, as Google had no qualms about accepting all kinds of real money software, whether it was related to poker, casino games, sports betting or bingo. Unfortunately, as the United States government cracked down on online gambling with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and other countries followed suit, the company decided to block all gambling and adult material oriented apps, which in the end happened in January 2012. Fortunately, unlike Apple’s iOS, Android is an open platform – so the removal of those apps from the Android Market didn’t result in an immediate apocalypse in the world of Android based mobile poker. 

Choosing the right Android poker client might be a daunting task – trust me, I’ve been there. The number of apps is simply staggering and while most of them perform extremely well, each of them has a few advantages that most of the competition lacks. This doesn’t mean it isn’t possible to compare those apps when you know what you’re looking for and thus, I have created this list to help you in making the right pick when you know what your area of focus is. I will compare the most competitive sites in each category and provide you with some tips on which to choose.