What are Online Poker Bonuses?

Posted on Apr 15 2010 | No Comments

Because there are so many online poker rooms found in the World Wide Web right now, there is a very stiff competition among them to entice players into singing up at their site. One of the ways to attract players is by offering online poker bonuses, and just like the bonuses found in land based casinos, online poker bonuses can be just as lucrative and more. So, what are these online poker bonuses that you should be aware of?

The Signup Bonus

The signup bonus is the most common form of online poker bonus, and this is given to first-time members of the online poker site. There are online poker sites that offer 50% to as much as 200% of your initial deposit, and this free money will be credited to your player’s account. Other online poker sites also offer free cash bonus when you register, and you do not even have to deposit any money just to avail of their signup bonus.

This type of bonus may be a good one though and could really increase your bankroll, but there is one thing that you should be aware of though if you avail of such, and this is the wagering requirement. You can only claim your signup bonus when you have placed a wager equivalent to the deposit and the bonus that you have initially made.

The Reload Bonus

You get a reload bonus each and every time you make a deposit after your initial one. Of course, the value of the reload bonus is smaller than that of the signup bonus, but if you want to increase your reload bonus, then you have to climb up their loyalty ladder, which is another type of online poker room bonus.

The Loyalty Ladder and the Comp Points

One of the perks of playing at online poker rooms is that you also get the chance to become a member of their loyalty club or VIP program. Here, you get to enjoy more bonuses as your reload bonuses increase the higher up the level you climb. Furthermore, you also get to take advantage of the comp points that you gather each and every time you make a bet. These comp points can be exchanged into cash or other freebies like electronic gadgets.

Of course, not all online poker rooms offer the same bonuses, so it would be very much advisable that you take a look at their bonuses first before signing up with them. Also, it will do you a lot of good if you research about the online poker site first and check them for legitimacy and trustworthiness before you risk your money and, most especially, your personal information.

Categories: Poker

Can Poker Players Learn Anything From Other Casino Games?

Posted on Feb 01 2010 | No Comments

Venture into any casino, whether it’s located in the centre of Las Vegas or an exclusive part of London, chances are each will incorporate a very similar layout. Towards the entrance, you’ll find rows upon rows of illuminated slot machines, complete with several players anxiously spinning the wheels and wondering if lady luck is shining down on them.

Move a little further and you’ll find the elegant games, such as blackjack, baccarat, roulette and of course, craps. Keep going and chances are you’ll reach a doorway leading into a very different section of the casino; the poker rooms. Here, you won’t find any of the camaraderie you’d expect to experience at the craps table, nor will you hear the excited yelps of a player who has hit the jackpot. Poker is cool, calm, calculated and (as many players would have you believe) shares very little in common with other casino games.

However, while there are of course differences between luck and skill games, poker does share similarities with its casino counterparts. The most obvious example would of course be video poker, which is essentially an amalgamation of slots and traditional poker games. Believe it or not though, players can also learn about how to control their poker face by watching the tightly drawn features of blackjack players. As any card counter will tell you, in order to ensure you aren’t caught you have to play the game deceptively. Not only do these pro’s count cards, they also purposely lose hands in an effort to cover their tracks. Given the atmosphere of a poker table when it’s just two players after the pot, a card counter’s deceptive skill would no doubt prove an incredible aid to a poker player having to face off with their competitor.

Surprisingly, poker players can also learn a thing or two from slot machine enthusiasts. As any gambling expert will tell you, slots are often considered the least profitable games available in a casino, yet you could lose even more money playing a casino game you don’t understand. Professional slots players also know that in order to preserve their bankroll, they have to leave when a slot is “tight”, or not paying out. Before rushing into a high risk win/lose situation, poker players should bear that all important slots mantra in mind: “Know when to walk away”, or in poker’s case, fold.

With any casino game, whether its slots, blackjack or even sic bo, there’s aspects of the strategies used in these games which can be applied to poker. It could even be suggested that the best poker players are those who are willing to go outside of their comfort zone and learn from other casino goers.

Categories: Casino, Poker

What to Do When an Opponent Goes All In a Poker Tournament

Posted on Nov 05 2009 | No Comments

royal-flush-spades-chips-poker-tournamentYou are sitting at the poker table and one of the people sitting there with goes all in. What exactly should you do you wonder. Wonder no more, in this article I will explain exactly what you should in a when someone seated at your poker tables moves all in. This strategy only applies to forms of poker tournaments. However, whether it is an online poker tournament, a casino poker tournament, or even a poker tournament in your buddy’s basement this strategy should be followed as a rule of thumb. Far more than simple strategy, many professionals feel following this guideline is actually part of poker etiquette and that it should be followed to a tee.

Whenever you are playing in a poker tournament your ultimate goal is to outlast the other players. Of course in able to do this you will want to make sure you are playing your best possible game, but one very important part of playing your best possible game is sadly often over looked. For one reason or another; be it they are nervous, caught off guard, or simply do not know the preferred procedure, people more often than not fail miserably when an opponent goes all in, and inevitably often cause only themselves harm. At a regular poker table players success is based largely on reading their fellow players correctly. At an online casino poker table it is impossible to read another player’s face but patterns in the way they play may still give a clue to the hand they hold.

The proper way to handle a player going all in during a poker tournament is to use team work in order to get him or her out. I know this may sound odd as poker is generally considered an everyman for himself type of game, but this is the one area of poker where people get to show they are a team player. The reason you want to work as a team when a player moves all in simply boils down to odds. You do not know what the person who has moved all in is holding in their hand, you may possibly have them beat, but there is also a chance you may not have them beat. Even if you have pocket aces there is still a chance that he will catch two pair, three of a kind, a straight, or even a flush effectively     beating you and doubling themselves up.

The best way to prevent this from happening is of course to have as many people as possible involved in the hand. If the person’s chips that has moved all in are equal to only a small portion of your chips, regardless of what you have you should call them, likewise everyone else at the table should too. If you are seated at a six person poker table this will force the player who is all in to have to beat not only one hand to double up, but instead five hands. Do you see where we are going with this?

Okay, so now we have six players involved in the hand, the person who is all in, yourself, and at the moment your four teammates. The reason I refer to them as teammates is because you need to help each other out so that you can all stay in the hand until the very end. How do you accomplish this? By not making any bets at all for the remainder of the hand. Even if you have a strong hand, say a pair of aces and make a big bet, other players may fold their hands. This may not sound bad, but considering the person who is all in could very likely make a straight beating your hand and doubling themselves up, you may very well have forced someone who would have made a flush and eliminated the person who is all in to fold their hand.

The only time you should ever even consider making a bet when an opponent is all in is if you have nuts after the river has been turned over (poker jargon for the best possible hand). But I must warn you, even in this situation it is considered by many to be very unsportsmanlike and foolish, so expect to catch some dirty looks if you are in a casino, or some off color comments if you are playing online.

How to Get Started at Online Poker

Posted on Oct 13 2009 | No Comments

online-poker-sucksThere have been millions of people who have deposited money into online poker rooms, most of who likely had dreams of winning all kinds of money and becoming a professional poker player. Sadly, 99% of these people end up using all of their money up within a few days or weeks and chalk it up to either bad luck or fixed poker games. I can speak from experience and tell you that neither of these reasons are the real cause of going broke at  poker online, but that it is actually bad judgement on behalf of the players themselves.

I can remember back to the first time I made a deposit to an online poker room to learn poker. The minimum deposit amount was $50 and that is the amount I put into my account. I figured even if I didn’t strike it rich with this that I would at least be able to play for a few months and get lots of practice for when I really took a run at the big money. I ended up running out of money within a few hours. I then dedicated the next few weeks to researching these online poker rooms to try and prove that they were indeed rigged so that I could get my money back. Of course the evidence I needed was never found, and to be honest, it is because it does not exist. Online poker games, just like in casino poker games are totally legitimate.

The real reason I lost all of my money so quickly is the same reason most players who make online deposits lose their money so quickly; we played games that were way too expensive for our budgets. With my $50 deposit I played two $10 sit n’ go tournaments and lost, then tried my hand at the $1-$2 blinds games which quickly ate up the rest. Even though at the time I was a horrible poker player, that is not the main reason I lost my money so quickly, instead it was because I had no place playing such costly games with such a small bankroll.

When you make a deposit to an online poker room you should never risk more than 5% of your bankroll at any given time. This of course means if you deposit $50 (the minimum at most online poker rooms), then you should never play a tournament that costs more than $2.50, nor go to a cash table with anymore than $2.50 at a time. Yes this means likely you will be playing at the penny tables to being, but in all honesty with a $50 bankroll this is where you should playing to ensure that even if you take a few bad beats that you will not quickly go broke. Instead it will take quite awhile to go broke, or if you are a skilled player, you will slowly and properly build your bankroll up enabling you to play at the larger action tables.

The key to remember is that Rome was not built in one day, and nor will a massive bankroll be built in one day. These things take time. Yes it is true that you could take your whole $50 deposit to a $1-$2 blind cash table and build that $50 up to $150 or more rather quickly, but when you have your whole bankroll sitting with you at the table all it takes is one hand to lose it all.

Maturing into a Winning Poker Player

Posted on Aug 19 2009 | No Comments

For many people Poker is game of enjoyment yet it is also a war against the other players and the odds of being able to have those winning hands that make it all worth while. Tragically, in many cases most people have a tendency to loose more hands of Poker than they are winning. In many cases the overall strategy that they are using is preventing them from making strategic calculations that will increase the overall amount of winning hands that they have. To become a winning poker player requires that use those strategies that the most successful Poker players have used time and again. And as a new player you can always go online and try your hands on some free poker sites to pick some confidence. Let us learn more about tips to help you become a winning Poker player.

Have patience: Poker is an emotional yet exciting game; in many situations most people try to always play as many hands as possible. When this happens these people usually loose more than they are winning and when they do have the big jackpot, it is rare. The reason why these people are not as successful is because they are playing those hands that have low odds of winning. Where, in most cases they figure they can bluff or will have a run of card that will change their luck. The reality is that the best Poker players play those hands where they have the greatest chances of winning. This means folding those hands where the cards you received are not in your favor and being patient waiting for the right hand to come your way. When you apply this approach to poker on a consistent basis you are improving the overall amount of pots that you are winning, helping to make you a winning Poker player.

Watch the other players: On way that you can be able to decide if you have a good hand is to watch the reaction of other players when they are receiving their cards. In most situations when you are playing Poker many people will often act favorably when they receive the cards that they are looking for and will show disappointment or indifference when they are not. These different emotional reactions mean that you can be able to have a general idea whose hand is good and those who are simply bluffing. This will aid you in determining if a particular hand is right for you or if it would be advisable to fold. A very good way to learn poker from other players !

Becoming a winning Poker player can be very challenging, however, by consistently having patience and watching the other players will help you determine if a particular hand is in your favor. It’s a through understanding and applying these tips when you play poker on a regular basis that will help make you a better player, causing the overall amount of money that you make to increase.

Categories: Poker

James Bond’s game of choice – baccarat

Posted on Jun 13 2009 | No Comments

James Bond is often seen sipping on a dry martini with a femme fatale on his hand playing cards. His game of choice is baccarat and he’s usually very successful at the table. But compared to poker tournaments for instance, baccarat is a game of pure chance that requires no skill what so ever. It’s a nice looking game that is often played for high stakes. The thing that appeals about baccarat is that the game itself is quite simple and the House edge is quite low.

There is a basic strategy for baccarat. However, since the House automatically makes the correct plays for you, there is no need to concern yourself with what it is. Let’s have a closer look.

Payout Odds in Baccarat

In baccarat, payout odds are fairly simple. Winning player bets pay off at even money. Winning banker bets pay off at .95-to-1, even money minus a five percent commission. Tie bets pay off at 8-to-1. There are no other bets one can make in baccarat.

House Edge in Baccarat

The one bet to stay away from in baccarat is the tie bet. Even though it offers tempting 8-to-1 odds, the true odds of a tie are over 9-to-1, resulting in a 14.36 percent House edge on this bet.

The banker has a slight edge over the player, since the banker’s actions are based on the player’s completed hand. Therefore, player bets carry a House edge of 1.24 percent. With the five percent commission, the banker bet has a House edge, but it is still an appealing one, at 1.06 percent.

Notes on Baccarat Odds

Given the respective House edges, one should always bet on the banker if possible. These edges are based on an eight deck shoe. Fewer decks can adjust the odds.

In general, fewer decks widen the gap between banker and player, so it becomes even more advantageous to take the banker. In addition, fewer decks make the odds of a tie longer, so this bet will have an even worse House edge.

Baccarat is a game that offers one of the more favorable casino edges. Whether you bet on player or banker, you can expect to lose less than a dollar and a quarter on averages out of every $100 you play over the long term. This is probably why high stake players are okay with wagering the huge sums of money at the baccarat table. But not all players are as lucky as Bond.

Categories: Other Card Games, Poker

How To Turn A Small Online Casino Deposit Into A Bankroll

Posted on May 10 2009 | 1 Comment

chipsIf you’ve been wanting to join the world of online poker but don’t have a bankroll, why not create one. It’s easier than you think to take a small deposit and turn it into a fairly decent bankroll. It might take a little time, but if you want to play, it will be well worth the effort.

With the number of online casinos increasing almost weekly (for example see all these English Poker Sites), the competition to attract members is enormous. One way that casinos compete for your business is by offering sign-up bonuses. Some casinos will require that you deposit as much as $500 in order to receive the full bonus amount, but you will usually have the option of receiving a lower bonus amount with a smaller deposit.

Check the online casino your interested in joining to see how often they offer freeroll tournaments. Some casinos will offer them on a daily basis, enter them as often as you can. Freeroll tournaments will give you the chance to increase your bankroll, but they will also give you more experience. Some even offer a free entrance into one of their big money tournaments as the prize.

While freeroll tournaments are absolutely free, most casinos will require that you participate in a specific number of raked hands to be eligible to play in the tournament. While the raked hands might seem like a waste of time, they can actually be an advantage since whether you’re playing for money or not, you gaining valuable experience.

Freeroll tournaments are a great way to work your way up to a larger sign-up bonus. Start out with an online casino that has a deposit amount that you can afford. Then once you’ve built up a bankroll playing the freeroll’s, cash out and join a site that offers a big sign-up bonus for a large deposit.

On top of the sign-up bonuses that most online casinos offer, many will also give you a bonus with each deposit you make. One good way is to search for special bonus codes, like Party Poker Bonus Codes. By taking advantage of these casino promotions and entering the freeroll tournaments every chance you get you can quickly increase a small initial deposit and create a very good bankroll.

Power Of Aggression In Poker

Posted on May 09 2009 | No Comments

aggresiveYou can not underestimate the power of an aggressive play in finals. Here is the situation in a recent tournament I played. We went to three players that are already in silver. Of course, the second is much more than the first and the third is much more than a second. We still have work sheets relating to the curtains. This means that you always poker after the flop.

With three players on the left side, I am with the chip leader in the vicinity of $ 35,000 in chips. A player is about $25,000, and Player B is about $15,000. The blinds are $500 – 1000, $100. A player is in the heat and betting on the majority of each pot. I collected the pots, and he is not the player B slowly bleeding away. I’m still a good opportunity for a player, but the cards are not together. Since Player B seems to be the intention of blindness in the hope that a player is hit, and I’m in a large pan and let the player B to move to second place money. Therefore, unless a player that I am, I would not be in a big pot with him.

At the end of this tour, a player has violated the chip away from me, and the player B was at about $5000 chips. The leap into the unknown $1000 – 2000, $200, if you KJ before the big blind. A surprise player on the button folds. Player B, in the small blind and cans back to B-players in general. He called for reluctant offsuit A-6. A king on the flop and the player B key rail.

Now we have the situation that I had expected. I am ready, the attack on a player, but after a couple of hands back, is capable of is the battery for me. It is about $45,000 in chips and $30,000 of the hand, as I expected at last. I AK on the button and a mini-raise to $ 4000th A player and insists that a failure. The flop comes KQ-2 and a fire of $8000 to a bet. I’m trying to raise, but only the hope that a good player with another fire ball in the back.

The change brings a lawsuit Player 8 and not bite. Instead of the controls. I have immediate access to all and hope that I am in a robbery or a hand, as K-10 and appeals to bear the grief. He calls me with little doubt that a cause for concern. If you back on my side, but her face says it all. I do not need to see the maps to see if I beat him. It is the Q-6 for the second pair. I’m already with the money if you have a 6 on the hand in the flow. Oh, well, that’s poker.

A player is aware that it is a bad call, and apologized for their fate. I would say no. He has played well and deserved the title. The truth is that he is not playing well, the control over the table and call the chip lead. Although I was in my plan, my mistake. I have a picture, but also to a stroke. What would have happened if the hand that was not taken? I think that I do with the fight against aggression, if we made it to the top. The mistake I have done, but had to abandon chip lead in the first place. Once I did that I could not afford to make mistakes or bad luck every time. A player who has the luxury of time he took the chip lead.

I hope that the player can be connected to the tip (and I think I did), but must never be forgotten network of a superior chip.