GETTING STARTED

ADVANTAGES - Online poker has many advantages over B&M poker.


• LOWER RAKE - Most B&M casinos charge a 10% rake but most online card rooms charge a 5% rake. The lower cost of playing definitely adds up in the long run - especially at low-limit games.
  
  
• MORE HANDS PER HOUR - Most B&M casinos will deal about 30 hands per hour but online card rooms will be about 60 hands per hour (or up to 100 hands per hour in shorthanded games).
  
  
• BETTER SELECTION OF GAMES - There is usually a game of any type and any level going at any time - from Omaha to Hold and from $.01/.02 to $20/40.
  
  
• LESS TRAVEL TIME - You don't have to spend an hour driving to and from the casino. This gives you more time to play the game. It also allows you to have short sessions - sometimes you feel like sitting and playing for 20 minutes or so but wouldn't drive to a casino just to play for 20 minutes.
  
  
• NO TOKING - You dont have to tip the dealer. This adds up to a lot of money in the long-run.
  
  
• NO-LIMIT CASH GAMES - B&M casinos typically don't set up no-limit cash games because in no-limit games luck becomes less of a factor and skill tends to dominate. Therefore, these games tend to break up pretty quickly because t he fish bust out too fast and the good games dry up.
  
  
• MORE TOURNAMENTS - B&M card rooms only have tournaments at specified times on specified days - usually only a couple a week. But online they havbe many more multi-table tounraments as well as "Sit-N-Goes" which are tournaments that are ongoing.
  
  
• PLAY MULTIPLE TABLES AT ONCE - Many of low-limit players like to play more than 1 table at once - sometimes up to 3-5 at once. Not only does this increase you win rate but it also smooths out your profits as you are playing anywhere from 150-250 hands per hour.
  
  
• CALCULATING POT ODDS - Almsot all sites tell you exactly how much money is in the pot at any given time. This allows you to precisely calculate the pot odds and implied odds at all times. You do not have to keep track of how many bets went into the pot like you do at a B&M cardroom. This will result in more correct post-flop decisions.
  
  
• BONUSES - Because of the lower cost, online poker rooms give away a ton if money in bonuses for you to play at their site. Most bonuses tend to be about 20% of your initial deposit. Some card rooms also offer reload bonuses - which are bonuses offered to players who already have accounts open. In most cases you have to play X number of hands before cashing out the bonus and/or wait 30 days before cashing it out. Always read the terms and conditions of the bonus offers.
  
  
• ABILITY TO KEEP BETTER PROFIT RECORDS - Because you have instant access to a computer you will be able to more acurately record the time you played and the starting and ending chip amounts.
  
  
• THERE ARE NO DEALER MISTAKES - Dealer mistakes can distort the real results in brick & mortar and these mistakes don't happen online.
  
  
• HAND HISTORIES - You can a review the play of a hand by having a hand history e-mailed to you.
  
  
• OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS - You can analyze your play better by having hand histories imported into software that gives you the stats about your playing style.
  
  
• EASY TO SPOT JUICY GAMES - Almost all sites tell you the number of players seeing the flop, the avg. pot, and who the players are at the table. This information can be used to find the most proofitable tables.
  
  
• LOWER WAITING TIME FOR TABLES - Most of the time there are no waits for a online room (ocasionally you may have to wait 5 minutes) but when you play brick and mortar you could be waiting 30 minutes to a couple of hours.
  
  
• WOMEN WON'T GET HARASSED - Some women don't like playing poker with guys because they tend to be rude and disrespectful to women sometimes. When you are online you can pick a screenname which doesn't give away your sex.
  
  
• YOU WON'T FEEL INTIMIDATED - Beginning players fel intimidatesd that they will look bad if they play live and make mistakes or think too long about what to do. Online people won't be able to tell.
  
  
• BAD PLAYERS ONLINE - Bad players are intimidated to play brick & mortar in fear of making mistakes or looking bad to people. The anonymity of playing online allows them more comfort and allows you to make more money.
  
  
• SMOKE-FREE - You don't have to worry about people smoking around you.
  
  


MYTHS - There are many myths about online poker. Unfortunately these are spread by people who haven't played online poker or are losing players. But if you have any issues with any online site then you can always just leave a site and never come back.


• THE HANDS ARE FIXED - Many players believe there are "action flops" where the sites are designed to flop cards which are more likely to hit the players cards in order to stimulate a lot of betting. Most of the cards dealt online are based on random-number generators which are verified by independent accounting firms like Price Waterhouse Coopers. There has never been any proof of any crooked dealing at any card room.
  
  
• YOU PLAY AGAINST COMPUTERS - 99% of online poker rooms do not use bots. To the best of my knowledge there is only 1 site that I know of that uses bots.
  
  
• COLLUSION - Many players fear playing online because they believe that there are players who sit at tables together tell each other their cards. The problem with the colluding theory is that in order for you to be a successful colluder, first you must be a successful poker player. Most successful poker players spend so much time improving their game that they simply don't have the time or the interest to cheat the games. If someone has an interest in cheating it is usually a player who has either been unsuccessful or a novice player looking for a shortcut to make money in poker. In either one of these scenarios the colluder will lose money because they still don't know how to play poker successfully. It could be argued that having colluders who don't know how to play poker sitting in your game might be a good thing because it will give them a false confidence that will make them lose money.
  
  
• YOU GET MORE BAD BEATS - It is true that the absolute number of bad beats you suffer will be higher online. This is because you are bettign dealt more hands per hour as well as maybe playing more than 1 table at a time. Most importantly, this is because the skill of the players only is lower and they will be chasing to the river more often. So yes, you will suffer more bad beats but this is because bad players are chasing more often. This will make you more money inthe long-run.
  
  
• THE POKER SITE WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY - Most of the sites are either big sites or sites that are growing and they make too much money running a legitimate business to steal money. There have only been a couple of instances of online card rooms shutting down and leaving their customers without their funds.
  
  

The first decision you will have to make is how to deposit money. The are many options but I believe the easiest way to do this is through Neteller. Neteller is similar to PayPal but PayPal no longer does online gambling transactions so Neteller has become the first choice among online gamblers.


NETELLER



• SIGN-UP & ACCOUNT VERIFICATION - After signing up with Neteller they will make a deposit to your checking account which you have to verify to get the acccount approved. This one-time process usually takes a few days. Certifying your bank account raises your deposit limits, and speeds up the processing of deposits and withdrawals.
  
  
• FUNDING - After your account is verified then you can transfer money to your Neteller account. The best way to do this is to do an EFT from your checking account. This is free and will only take a few days to process. They also offer you an "InstaCash EFT" which is an immediate transfer but costs 8.9%.
  
  
• TRANSFERS TO/FROM POKER SITES - Depositing money to a poker site from Neteller is a very simple process. The poker site simply asks you for your account number, secure ID, and the amount and then the money always appears in your account within 1 minute. Neteller only transfers money in round dollars so if you have $85.31 in your account when you cash out from a web site then you are only able to cash out to Neteller for $85.00 and the other $0.31 will stay in your account. Some novice online poker players think the poker site is trying to steal your money but this isn't true.
  
  
• TRANSFERS TO/FROM OTHER NETELLER ACCOUNTS - You are able to transfer money to other people who have Neteller accounts but they charge a 2.9% on the receiving end of the transaction - there is no charge for the sender.
  
  
• WITHDRAWING - Withdrawing funds is the same as depositing. You can do a free EFT transfer back to your checking account and wait a few days to get the money or you can do an InstaCash EFT and pay an 8.9% fee to receive the money immediately. Neteller also has a debit card available for you to withdraw money out from an ATM. The fees are in line with most foreign ATM cards ($1-2 oer transaction).
  
  
  


FIREPAY



• SUMMARY - Firepay is a service similar to Neteller. You can deposit funds into your Firepay account to transfer in and out of online gambling sites. There is a $1.50 service fee for each deposit you make in Firepay and when you withdraw funds from your FirePay account to your bank account, there is a EFT service fee of $10. Because of the higher fees, Firepay simply does not offer the benefits that Neteller does. Nor do they have the reputation for good customer service that Neteller does. If you were planning on opening a Firepay accont, I would recommend you open a Neteller account instead.


CREDIT CARDS
 


• Even though Visa and Mastercard are commonly accepted at most online casinos, if you try to deposit with a credit card you wil probably find that your credit card purchase will be rejected. This isn't because the gambling site doesn't want your money, it is because the credit card company knows you are depositing to a gambling site and denies the transaction. If this happens to you then you can open an account at Neteller or FirePay and tie your credit card to these accounts and the purchase will be classified as a normal cash transaction instead of a gambling transaction.
  
  Because of the trouble associated with depositing via credit cards, the huge cash advances fees, the high interest rates associated with cash advances, and the personal risk of running up gambling debt, depositing by credit card would not be the first choice of depositing options I would make.
  
  

PRE PAID



• PrePaidATM is the only ATM Card that is not tied to a bank account. You can use your card wherever debit cards are accepted and you can also receive funds at thousands of ATM machines worldwide. They don't require your vital info, such as Social Security#, Credit Card#, or anything else so you have a lot of privacy. In order to use their system you will have to open an account and transfer money to it. There are some small fees incurring when you fund your account.
  
  PrePaid ATM Cardholders enjoy a variety of funding methods. To fund it with PayPal, log into your PayPal account and designate a payment to pal@PrePaidATM.com. Funds will be available within 1-hour during normal business hours Limits are $5,000 within any 24-hour period. You can also use Visa or MasterCard to transfer funds to your Prepaid ATM even if your Credit Card Issuing bank does not accept gambling transactions. Most banks will treat payments to Prepaid ATM as purchases, but some banks may still post them as cash advances, so it is recommended to ask your bank.
  
  Most of the sites that accept it also pay the transfer fee and transfers between Prepaid ATM account holders are easily processed. The downside is that there aren't many poker sites that use it at present it is only available to U.S. citizens.


900 PAY



• 900 Pay is an excellent online casino payment solution that doesn't require you to submit your credit card or banking account details to online casinos. All your payments will be charged to your telephone bill, without any additional costs. The 900 Pay payment solution is one of the simplest and most secure methods for online gambling. 900 Pay is only available for US citizens that don't have a 900-service block on their telephone number. You can call 1-900-993-4141 to check if you are able to connect to 900 numbers. If you can't you'll have to contact your phone company and ask them to remove the block on 900 calls.


DIRECT TRANSFER FROM ANOTHER PLAYER


• At Party Poker and PokerStars, you have ability to transfer money to another player directly without a fee. This is a very convenient option for new players to receive money without doing too much work setting up accounts but it is still a smart move to set up a Neteller account in case you want to open an account a different poker site. It would then only take a few days in order for you to cash out to Neteller and then deposit to a different poker site. Also, if you want to cash out your money and spend it, then it is easier to set up a Neteller account and do a free cashout to your checking account which will take 4 days or so instead of requesting a snail mail check (which could take weeks) or a wire transfer which will cost money.
  
  
OTHER - ACH, WIRE TRANSFER
 


• Some casinos will even allow you to deposit money by other methods such as ACH (which is basically an electronic check), or by wire transfer.

There are a number of different factors you should look at when looking for a poker site to deposit to.


• BONUS - The sign-up bonus available at a site is a big reason to play there. If you are depositing $500 or so, then an extra $100 can go a long way.
  
  
• THE NUMBER OF PLAYERS - The more players a poker site has, the more games you will be able to find to fit your needs. You know you there will always be a gamew offered at any stake level. Also, the more players there are on a site then the more confident you can feel about the financial stability of the site.
  
  
• TOURNAMENTS - Some players only play tournaments. In this case you would want a a site that has many single and multi-table tournaments available.
  
  
• THE LOOSENESS OF A SITE - Many successful players will tell you that 80% of your poker profits will be a result of game selection. The looser the games are, the more money you will make in the long run. Party, Empire, and Intertops are famous for having very loose games due to the fact that many of the players are new to the game and got introduced to poker through the World Poker Tour and signed up because of the Party Pokre commercials.
  
  
• THE SOFTWARE - If you are going to be playing at a site for a for a while, you will want to pick one that has an interface that you are comfortable with. This means software that is smooth and doesn't stall much (like Paradise) and a site that is relatively fast (like Party, Empire, Intertops, Absolute, BigBet). Some players also take into consideration the look of the site - some players prefer a more graphics-intensive site (like TruePoker) while some like more visually-simple looking site (like Pacific).
  
  
• DEPOSIT METHODS - If you are depositing money through Neteller then you don't have to worry about which sites will accepot your transaction because they all will. But if you are depositing via one of the less-popular methods (like 900-Pay) then you will have to find a site that accepts your method of deposit. Using Neteller is a convenient solution to this problem.
  
  
DOWNLOAD MANY SITES: Check as many sites as you can to see what software you are most comfortable with.

STAYING WITH A POKER SITE: Don't make up your mind until you have played at least 20-30 hours. Many players start playing at a site and start out with a couple of bad sessions and then cash out thinking the site is bad. This will happen at high-variance sites like Pacific but it is normal. It takes some time to see how goo the games are.