In general the risk of you losing your deposit at online poker room is low.  I’m not going to sugarcoat and tell you there is 0% chance of the site going belly up, or that some political folly won’t put your funds at risk.

Let me share with you my own experience:

• I have successfully deposited over 10k in US dollars in various poker rooms.
• I have successfully withdrawn over six figures from online poker sites.
• In 2006 I had $200 on Netteller that I was unable to access for six months (I am a US citizen and funds in these accounts were frozen due to the actions of the US government).
• Though I am currently waiting to receive funds from Full Tilt Poker (I would certainly avoid Full Tilt Poker these days) I have never lost a single dollar from an online poker room.

So as history has shown, there is a possibility due to some political even that your funds may be inaccessible for a time.  But if you are smart about you never need to worry about losing a substantial amount.

So there is some risk involved in depositing at online poker rooms.  But risk is inherent to poker and life.  We just need to learn how to navigate the waters.  Here’s how:

Trust Pokerstars

1. Pokerstars has proven to be more trustworthy than many banks.
2. In the aftermath of Black Friday in April of 2011  (when the US government ceased the domains of Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker) pokerstars speedily came to an agreement with the US government and returned players funds.
3. Pokerstars keeps all player funds in segregated accounts.  Banks general keep only a small percentage of deposits in available cash.  Pokerstars on the other hand keeps all player monies deposit in a seperate account.  Meaning if all the players who are playing for real money on pokerstars wanted their money back, pokerstars would be able to do it.  (I wish Full Tilt had managed there business so sensibly).
4. I would and have entrusted $1000′s of dollars to Pokerstars, I would entrust them with my over 50% of my entire bankroll, and sleep easy at night.
5. So if you can access Pokerstars feel free to deposit as much of the full $600 to get $600 in signup bonus.

Give Lock Poker a Try

1. In the aftermath of BlackFriday lock poker changed its domain from LockPoker.com to LockPoker.eu.  This was a very intelligent business move in that it makes it much more difficult for the US government to seize the domain.  So risk from government takeover is much reduced.
2. VP of Lock Poker is Eric “Rizen” Lynch, a poker pro, who has the players interests at heart.  He is smart, dedicated and ferocious as a player and I would expect no less from him the board room.
3. Lock poker temporarily closed its doors to new US players following Black Friday.  The reason for this is that it become the go-to site for US players and it received a massive influx of new business.  In order to provide the best quality service to its customers it halted new signups in order to catch up.  Another smart business move.
4. Depositing and withdrawing as a US player is the easiest of any poker room.

The less establish/trustworthy the site the less you should invest in it.

Pro Players keep a bankroll, recreational players should set a budget for their poker player.  In either case I would entrust the following Badugi sites with these percentages of your bankroll or budget.

• Pokerstars                    50% of Bankroll or 100% of Budget
• Lock Poker                   20% of Bankroll or 50% of Budget
• Carbon Poker              10% of Bankroll or 20% of Budget
• Aced Poker                  10% of Bankroll or 20% of Budget

In this way you can play the game you love, destroy the Badugi tables, and still sleep fine at night.