Where to play poker online

Anyone here ever heard of a rake rebate?….Anyone?….No? Oh good, I’ll sound like I actually know something.

But you know what a rake is right? Not the garden implement, the little, itty, bitty percentage of money they take off every person playing every game they play online. That is how the sites make money. But I’m preaching to the converted.

Now there are these nifty little things called rakeback rebates and there are nifty sites that broker those rebates for you. Cool Huh? Where, where, where! I hear you chant, and if you’ll stop crushing me I’ll tell you all about it.

The first public rakeback rebate deal came in 2004 from Poker-strategy.org who put the squeeze on Absolute Poker, and now this money can add up into a large portion. In fact it can support you bankroll very well, and for high-limit players it really adds to their income every month. So even if you just spend a small amount of money, surely the opportunity to get some back is worth it.

Rakeback rebates are very popular so don’t miss out on some of the great deals going. Read up a little on and decide where the best deal for you is.

There are other rakeback brokers around now but here is how Poker Strategy.org say they do it:

Over the course of a month, a poker player can lose hundreds and even thousands of dollars to the rake. This is where our rakeback programs come in. By signing up through our links and codes, you can get a portion of that rake returned, right back into your bankroll in the form of rakeback or rake rebate.

Even better, our rakeback deals generally allow you to earn rakeback and poker bonuses at the same time. With all of the bonuses and rakeback deals available here, there are few reasons to ever play without some sort of poker room comp giving your bankroll a boost.

Well thanks, that is mighty nice of you!

Here are some of the deals

Absolute Poker

Rakeback Rate: 30%

Signup Bonus: 100% up to $500 + frequent reload bonuses

Tournament Fees: Included

Ultimate Bet

Rakeback Rate: 30%

Signup Bonus: 100% up to $650

Tournament Fees: Not Include

Sun Poker

Rakeback Rate: 40 – 50%

Signup Bonus: Up to $1000 monthly!

Tournament Fees: Included

Full Tilt Poker

Rakeback Rate: 27%

Signup Bonus: 100% up to $600

Tournament Fees: Included

I’m not sure if all these are still valid as I never checked them all out.

Good luck and have fun.

Improving Your Online Poker Game – Part 1

With the online poker boom taking the world by storm there are millions of people playing online every sing day. Since the ratio of good poker players to poor one is very low you can all but guarantee that there are thousands of novice players out there whose money is there for the taking. These quick simple tips will help assure your success at the table as well as minimize your bad beats. They are broken down into 3 categories: strategy, recognizing tells, and finding experienced players to help mentor you.

Strategies

1) Play Tight- This is the best piece of advice I can give. Loose players will win big hands here and there but they also loose more money, to other players as well as to the online site in the form of a rake. By playing tight and committing only to tops hands you protect your money and give yourself more leverage to take bigger pots when you hit your big hand.

2) Understand Your Betting Position – Playing tight is effective but it doesn’t hurt to limp into a hand with A 8 or suited connecters. But, you need to be strategic about the hands you decide to jump into. If you’re the 4th person to act at a table of 10 and you call the big blind there is a good chance the pot might be raised before the action goes all the way around the table. That puts you in a position where you will either fold your hand and lose money or pay to see the flop with a weaker hand. You’re better off playing those hands when you are in the small blind or are 8th to act.

3) Switch Strategies – Since you are going to be playing tight 95-99% of the time, switching strategies for a few hands will completely throw your competition for a loop. If you decide to bluff a hand to steal a large pot, other players might think you have them beat and fold to your large raise. You can usually get away with this for a hand or two to pick up chips, but don’t get careless. Pick your spots and keep the loose play and bluffing to a minimum to reduce your odds of getting burned by a better hand.

4) Play Regularly – Reading the tips I’ve provided is pointless unless you plan on implementing them on a regular basis. Practice makes perfect, or practice makes money. There are a TON of poker websites that offer play money games, real money games, as well as free roll tournaments. Putting $50 into an account can last months if you are playing 5/10 cent blinds, and hopefully you will make money so that $50 will be you first and last deposit! If you’re not comfortable parting with your money I recommend playing in free roll tournaments. They cost nothing to enter and pay out money to the top 5-10% of the players. If you go the free roll route I recommend signing up for 3-4 different sites since they all have different free roll schedules. You can learn more about freeroll schedules and sites at PunchBook.

Recognizing Tells

5) Playing with Pokey McGee – Many online players are involved in multiple games and are only playing top 5 hands. If you are heads up with one of these players it’s a good idea to raise small. These plays will usually fold. To go along with that, if that person raises (especially pre flop or at the turn) it’s a good idea to get out of the hand and watch.

6) Pounce on Emotion – We’ve all gotten burned by big hands and been ecstatic about winning a monster had too, but good players keep their cool in both situations. The nice thing about online poker is that people tend to voice their frustrations via the chat function more than usual. If a person takes a bad beat and is swearing or attacking other person chances are they will over bet to try and regain some of their losses. If you have a halfway decent hand do hesitate to call those big raises, these are the players that fund your account!

7) Masking Bluffs – Picking up on tells online isn’t especially new and some players will take 10-15 seconds longer to give the impression that they have a strong hand. Realistically, when you land on pocket aces you’re either going to raise or if you’re the slow playing type you’re going to fly under the radar and not do anything to get noticed. The guy who is taking time to think, especially at low stakes tables, is trying to mask his bluff.

Online Poker Communities and Forums

Finding a Poker Mentor – People who love poker and strive to get better hang out at poker chat rooms and post on poker blogs and forums. Just like people who are into running marathons or fly fishing they are looking for ways to get better. You can learn from these people as they are always sharing ideas and tricks. If you are sharing information and building rapport with strong players they will help you get better. There are millions of people online; they do not view you as competition but as a means to get better for themselves.

Like I mentioned earlier, this is all useless if you’re not practicing these tips and trips regularly. To master the game of Texas Hold Em takes a willingness to seek out information and apply your learning’s. You’ve already taken the first step by reading this article! Choosing a poker room that is right for you can be a challenge since there are so many. I’ve sorted through all of the rooms and have reviews for 5 rooms I think are great (and one popular room that is a liability) on my website: www.punchbook.com. Please stop by sometime and let me know what you think of it!

Good Luck!

Online Poker Tips And Strategy: Learn How To Win At The Internet Table

Online poker playing has become a favorite past time for many people around the world. The game of online poker is rapidly gaining popularity, and there are thousands of players on most of the major websites at any given time during the day and night. Becoming successful at online poker can also be financially rewarding for many players. To do this, you have to have a good strategy for the game. Several players run into games with no real plan in their head, and not really focused, and many will end up losing their shirts. There are several known errors that online poker players make that could easily be avoided by a good strategy before the game is begun.

One common mistake many online poker players make is that they are afraid to switch tables when needed. If you constantly play at the same table with the same opponents, they are going to learn to read your hands, your bluffs, and will be much harder for you to defeat. Experienced poker players will observe their opponents and pick up on their habits and quirks, giving them a winning advantage. They will also learn your betting habits and be better able to counter you. Staying at one table does give you the advantage of knowing your opponents better, but it is important to keep in mind that while you are learning other players, they are doing the same to you.

One of the most important things to keep in mind in any poker game is that you need to manage your money. Before you ever play, you should have a budgeted amount of disposable income that you can afford to wager, and not allow yourself to go beyond that amount during the game. Disposable income is any money that is left over once all of your other obligations have been met, food, mortgage, utilities, etc. You should also consider your poker playing ability as well when you are setting your betting limit. If you are a fairly new player, you should probably set lower limits, because you are more likely to lose your money than more experienced players. You also have to consider how much risk you want to take, playing in low limit games is pretty safe, but the higher limit games are very risky as these are usually more experienced players and play more aggressively because they place large bets. The best players are always aware of their bankroll and their limits.

Many online poker players are leery of poker tournaments. Players who regularly participate in tournaments however, will tell you that they can be the most fun and a lot of times, the most profitable for the winners. As with any poker game, luck does factor into your success, but luck does not account for skill. If you are considering playing in online poker tournaments, you need to be aware of the buy-in amount, and keep in mind that is money that you may well lose. New players to online poker tournaments will often lose their money quickly, so keep this in mind when you are playing the game and placing your bets. There are also numerous resources that can give you tips and tricks for being successful in online poker tournaments, a little research often will go a long way.

If you are going to be a serious online poker player, it is important that you know when to quit. It is hard for many players to understand this concept. Many players will play and play until they run so far into the red, they create financial problems for themselves and their families. They start to lose, and think they will play one more game to get the money back they lost, and they just continue to lose. By this point, their game is affected, because they are losing their focus, and usually will end up going on tilt, which will make the losing cycle that much harder to break. It is important to recognize that even the best players are human and have good days and bad days at the tables. Great players understand this, and when they see themselves begin a losing streak, or having a bad day, they know it is time to call it quits and come back to play another day. Learning to walk away at the right times, can save you quite a bit of financial hardship. You will find that you are better able to enjoy the game once you learn this valuable skill.

Playing online poker can be a very enjoyable experience, and also can be very profitable. The most important thing that players need to remember is just to play smart. Stay focused on the game, know what your limits are and stay within those. Learn how to manage your money wisely, and know when it is time to walk away. Keeping these things in mind, should help you become a better player.

Online Poker Versus Offline Poker

With the convenience of being able to play poker online and never leave your home, this brings many changes and new challenges to the table or the screen. There’s a great amount of differences between sitting in front of your computer playing poker and in-person conventional poker.

The main and most obvious different is players aren’t face to face contact and sitting directly across from one another. This makes it impossible to observe body language and other player’s reactions which can be used in conventional poker to gain a prospective or an idea of the opposing player’s current hand.

Players instead have to adapt when the game is played online and instead of observing reactions face to face, they instead have to focus on players reaction times, the speed they’re playing and betting patterns. Poker is a game at which you have to adapt to even online. Another main difference is the speed of the game and the rate of play.

Online players have the option to play multiple tables at once while in a physical casino you are limited to sitting at one table as it would be impossible to be two places at once. Therefore, while being able to play more tables, your chances of earning are increased and how much you can earn are increased.

A good number of online poker rooms now offer poker schools online that offer players the chance to learn the basics and speed up the rate at which they learn the game for beginners. In an online poker room, you can click a button and more money is added to your budget and you can even go into practice rooms with pretend or fake money before you go onto actual playing tables. Rooms like these are great for novices so they can learn the basics of the game and become better before risking actual money.

Also, the limits that are associated with a lot of online poker rooms are a great deal less than table limits at conventional poker casinos. On an online poker room, players find limits sometimes as low as 1 cent while at most conventional poker rooms the limits could be set to 1 dollar.

So when you compare online poker to conventional poker, it all adds up depending on certain aspects such as, do you have enough money to travel to or spend on a conventional casino and are you experienced enough to play at a real casino. A lot of people who go to conventional casinos are not novices and they’ve been doing this for a very long time, so unless you have a very keen sight on poker, I would recommend learning more about the game and sitting out of face to face poker unless you have a lot of money to spend as a novice.

On the other hand, you can risk less money and get the Vegas feel right there in your living room and still win money but without ever leaving your home. This makes this convenient for people who don’t have enough money to go anywhere or people who have a busy schedule allowing them to play as well.

Online Poker Tournaments – What to Expect

Online poker has recently been gathering a lot of interest lately. When you come and visit the online world you will be able to notice that there are more and more sites offering online poker tournaments that anyone can join into anytime. If you want to get better at playing this card game, practicing online may give you just the edge in honing your poker skills.

There are many types of poker games that online poker tournaments can offer you. There are poker games that allow you to compete with the computer or with other people online. There are different types of poker games that you can join into. Playing poker games with machines are only good for practice and getting better at playing the game. But if you want to do some betting and play for the winnings, then there are other online venues available that will help you compete with other people on the poker table.

When it comes to online poker tournaments, seasoned poker players and even poker greenhorns have a chance to go head to head with one another in one of the online poker tournaments available on the Net. They have different types of tournaments to choose from. There are tournaments available that require an entry fee from the players. This will be added up to become part of the prize money being offered.There are also other poker tournaments online that has no need for entry fees in order to join in. The players compete for player points, entry to other tournaments and even prize money.

Most of the most played online poker tournaments are of the multi-table type where players start with a fixed number of chips and players try to eliminate one another at the table by winning the most hands. As tables get vacant seats and get “broken”, players are reassigned to keep the remaining tables full. This will go on until the last few surviving players end up at the final table. There is also a specialized form of a multi-table tournament called the shootout where players remain playing at their tables until only one player is left standing. The winner is then to compete with other winners on the other tables.

There are a lot of things for you to expect when playing poker tournaments online. First of all, if you are playing to win, you should be always at the top of your game. Many of your opponents online would be professional online poker players. They are there to earn a living. You should be careful on what types of poker tournaments you are joining into. For beginners, there are several beginner tournaments available that one can join in order to sharpen one’s poker skills. An aspiring online poker player like you should take the tournaments from the ground up. You should first try to join in the smaller tournaments and slowly go up the ranks by joining into the next level of poker tournaments available. Pretty soon, with your experience and winning ways, you will be able to make it playing with the big shot poker players at the big-time tournaments.

Playing online poker tournaments, you should also expect to get addicted into the game as you go along. Playing online is such an engaging game that you would sometimes find yourself playing for hours on end. Also expect being able to meet new friends and “poker buddies” from all over the world who also enjoy playing the game. You should also expect of becoming a part of an emerging online pastime that has been getting more and more fans day after day. Online poker games still have a long way to go. But by the way the game has been gaining more and more popularity, it has nowhere else to go but up.