Online Poker1

How to Read an Online Poker Review: Part 2 of 2

In part 1 of this 2 part series, we began to lay out for you exactly what online poker reviewers look for when evaluating an online poker room, using the poker review template from our own poker portal at Poker-Ranking.com.

In part 1, we explained in depth the following sections: Software and Graphics, Game Variation and Limits, and Traffic. In this concluding article, we will delve into what information is contained in the rest of the sections of a typical online poker review.

Competition
Here in an online poker review, youll find a gauge of the level of skill predominant at the various games (Texas Holdem, etc.), types (Ring Games, etc.), betting structures (Limit, etc.), and stakes (100200, etc.).

The term fish refers to players that arent very good. The call a lot of bad bets and can be intimidated easily. A good player can beat fish consistently with little difficulty.

The term shark refers to expert players that devour the fish. (For another appropriate animal reference, consider a fox in the henhouse.)

Bonuses
This part of an online poker review will tell you the signup bonus youll get (usually a percentage match against your first deposit), as well as any other bonuses available at the online poker room.

Some common bonuses are as follows:

Bad Beat Bonus: If you lose a hand holding higher than a certain amount (usually 4 Queens), you win the largest portion of a bonus that is shared amongst all the players that posted blinds in that round

Magic Hand Bonus: Every round (or hand) in an online poker room is given a number (which is how you can later refer back to earlier games); in a Magic Hand Bonus, the online poker room chooses a number (say, every one millionth hand) and gives every player who posted blinds in that hand a share of the bonus, the largest portion going to the winner of the hand

High Hand Bonus: Given to any player that gets the highest hand (above a minimum high hand, eg. 4 Kings) in a set period of time, without folding

Progressive bonuses (or Progressive Jackpots): These start at a certain amount (eg. 500) and each day that goes by without a winner claiming the bonus, a certain amount (eg. 50) is added, until someone wins the accumulated amount and the jackpot is then reset to its starting level.

Rake
Here is where the online poker review will tell you what the commission is that the online poker room takes for each hand. The average rake is 5% of the pot, up to but not exceeding 3. Many online poker rooms take smaller cuts from smaller pots or lower stakes games.

Some have a wonderful No FlopNo Drop policy, stating that if nobody stays in to see the flop, no rake is taken.

Customer Service
This section of the online poker review tells you the ways to reach customer support (toll-free phone, email, live chat), the hours (preferably 247), and most importantly, the quality, courteousness, and responsiveness.

Promotions
Similar to bonuses, but meriting their own section of the online poker review, promotions are special, time-sensitive events, generally with extraordinary prizes that include hefty jackpots, vacations, automobiles, and free seats in World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker events.

Deposits and Cashouts
Youll find two things in this section of an online poker review: first, the payment methods accepted for deposits (purchases) and cashouts (withdrawals), such as PayPal, credit cards, NETeller, etc., and second, the promptness, reliability, and security with which they process these transactions.

Ease of Use
This section of an online poker review usually discusses the usability and intuitiveness (or lack thereof) of the interface. In addition, youll learn here about the layout of the lobby and the information given, including lobby stats like the following:

Hands per hour: Tells you how quickly the game moves and could be a gauge of the experience level of the players;

Average pot: Tells you how aggressive the players are and how much you can expect to win or lose each hand; and

Flop percentages: How many players at the table on average are staying in to see the flop; tells you how loose theyre playing.

With this handy, two-part guide to online poker reviews at your side, you should be sitting in at the perfect online poker table for you, any moment now!

Helpful Hints for Finding the Right Online Poker Room for You

Playing poker online is becoming increasingly popular as can be seen by the growing number of card rooms popping up all over the Internet. Not all online poker rooms are the same. They differ in the types of players, bonuses, and software that is used. In order to be a successful online poker player it is essential to find an online card room that is right for you.

As you gain more experience playing poker selecting the right room will become increasingly important. The first step will be determining what type of player you are. One of the most accurate ways to figure out which category of player you fit into is to analyze your hand histories using your poker tracker. You will be able to label your playing style and pick a room that will work for you.

Poker Tracker has classified players into some basic categories. A tight- aggressive player should pick a room that will allow them to improve their playing skills to shed that unflattering label. Try to pick a room where the players are mostly beginners, allowing you a chance to work on your strategy.

Generally individuals that usually play tight or weak should lean towards rooms that are a bit looser. A few rooms that fit this description are Party Poker, Pacific Poker, and Poker.com. These sites have tables full of loose passive calling stations.

If your existing playing style can be categorized as loose then you should pick a room that is a bit tighter. A tight room will provide more respect for your raises. Try to find tables full of tight-weak players. Some popular sites that you should consider are Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Poker.

There are other important points to consider when selecting an online poker room. First, you should avoid rooms that you do not understand. Try to select a site where you understand the layout and can navigate through the site easily. Try looking for a site that allows new members a free trial period to get familiar with fundamentals of the card room, including what buttons to click and how fast the action moves.

Also, check to make sure that the site you select has adequate customer service in case you run into any problems. Because you will be divulging personal and sensitive account information, make sure that the room you join offers reliable security protection for its members.

Also, avoid any rooms that are not licensed by a trusted gaming commission. If a room does not have a gaming license it may not be financially reliable or committed to fair ethics. Look for rooms that have been around for a long time and have established a positive reputation. A good indication of strong customer relations is the amount of traffic it attracts. Most poker sites will post their traffic information on their home page.

Seek out rooms where new members receive bonuses. Some sites will offer their members initial sign up bonuses, while others will give existing players a bonus when they reload their account. A typical bonus is ten to thirty percent of your deposit; however most sites have a cap to their bonuses.

You should also seek out an online poker site that has a range of game. If you have a limited selection you may get bored easily. Te site should also offer rooms for various skill levels. This way as you improve as a player you can choose the appropriate difficulty level.

Wherever you choose to play poker on the Internet you should concentrate on strengthening your weak spots. It is also important that you pick a room that you feel comfortable with and meets you personal needs.

For those who have come across several little sites that provide some of the great poker games online, you probably are not satisfied with the number of players online. Why? It is for the fact that most of the poker players favored those online poker rooms that have enough players to offer you a game where you have different other poker players to play against. Thus the size of the poker network really counts.

With such fact, the Empire Poker is designed as one of the best online poker rooms across the internet offering thousands of online Empire poker players. In the Empire Poker, as many of the researches noted, there will always be plenty of poker tables with different Empire Poker players to choose from, day and night. Aside from that fact, in the Empire Poker, you will definitely find some of the great poker games like the Texas Holdem in which you can select a game with a particular betting limit applied. Besides, in the Empire Poker under the offered Texas Holdem game, you can find games where you can bet what is in the pot and games where a poker player can gamble all his chips at any time.

Furthermore, the Empire Poker also offered poker games like the Omaha High and the Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, and 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo. In such poker room, the player can also play for free tables that are available in the Empire Poker. And accordingly, the Empire Poker also offered some information about the tournaments and they grants the poker players to play their free poker a t their play money tables. Thus, in this online poker room you can either play with real money or play money.

At Empire Poker they provide some facts about the rules of the offered several games as a guide for those who are new Empire Poker players. With that, you can greatly browse at their menus for much important information about playing poker games at the Empire Poker. And being one of the widely visited online poker rooms, the Empire Poker make every effort to make sure that the poker players are playing at a fair and safe environment. Aside from that, the players dont to worry for their personal information since the Empire Poker will keep every players banking and personal information absolutely private.

To further enhance the interest of the readers, it is interesting to know that the Empire Poker customer care, as it is mentioned earlier, is there for you, poker lovers, day and night, 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week. The Empire Poker also ensures that there Customer care Department is always accessible by live online chat or e-mail, whichever the poker players prefer. In addition, a live floor person is often on hand at the poker tables in the activity of any feedback or concerns while playing the poker game.

Finally, the Empire Poker holds that their top most priority is the poker players satisfaction so they bring all of their companys strength for a safe, fun, and fair poker play. So if you want to play a poker game at this site, the Empire Poker is there for you around the clock, 7 days a week!

Choosing an online poker room now a days is a much more difficult task then it was a just a few years ago. Online poker has grown by leaps and bounds just in the past few years and the number of rooms has grown and is growing at a rapid pace. When choosing an online poker room you should take into account at the very minimum the following: safety, quality and comfort. These are the 3 things that Gambling Guru, http:www.gambling-guru.com, takes into account before beginning any of our online poker leagues.

Safety

By safety it is meant as to how safe is it to move money in and out of the poker room. Take this into account first and foremost whenever trying out an online poker room. Since the industry is not heavily regulated by governing bodies and is mostly self-regulated you need to know you can trust the poker room you choose to handle your money.

For this reason it is best to stick with poker rooms that have established themselves in the industry and have built a solid player base. Poker rooms such as Paradise Poker, Absolute Poker, PokerRoom.com and Party Poker have proven to be stable online poker rooms that are going to be around for the long haul. All of these poker rooms not only have proven to be reliable, but have also not rested on their past accomplishments. Each of these poker rooms also has a 3rd party check their poker algorithm to make sure it is working properly and deals fair hands time and time again. This quality check makes sure these poker rooms remain at the industry forefront.

Quality

Quality can mean different things to different people when discussing online poker rooms. In this case it refers to a couple different things. Here it is referring to software quality. Choosing an online poker room which is satisfying visually, in game play, and in reliability is important. Most online poker rooms now offer versions of their software to download and try out playing with play money before commiting to playing for real money.

Gambling Guru recommends choosing a room which is satisfying visually in order to maximize the online poker playing experience. Some rooms take extra steps to make the table seem more life like. For example poker rooms such as Pokerroom.com have added people as avatars to their tables. Other rooms such as Paradise Poker do not have people at their tables, but have added options where a player can order a drink or snack from a menu. This is something that personally keeps players entertained, however so slightly, while waiting in between hands.

Another option to balance into the equation is the quality of the game play. Make sure that the room choosen offers all of the features you need to make game play fun and easy. Decide if it is easy to follow the action going on at the table. Some rooms such as Pokerroom.com highlight the player whose turn it is to act. This seems obvious, but some rooms dont offer this option. The player must keep track of the action in the chat dialogue box. If however, you are playing multiple tables, then you may want to be able to quickly click back and forth between tables and find out where the action is visually without having to scroll through a chat box to find out.

Finally, take into account software and server reliability. This is listed third here, but may be the most important factor in choosing an online poker room. It is definitely no fun to have to be constantly disconnected from the room during play, especially when a crucial decision must be made. If you find you must battle this problem often with your online poker room it will add additional stress to the online poker experience.

Comfort

Most importantly you need to feel comfortable with the poker room you have chosen. This means you must take every element from above into consideration and decide if the online poker room you have chosen is right for you. If you dont feel comfortable with the poker room in any of the above categories then I would suggest finding a new place to play online poker. Whether you are logging on to play for poker for fun or to try to make a career out of playing online poker, you need to have confidence in the poker room to deliver your money, deliver answers to your questions quickly and accurately, and deliver an enjoyable playing experience.

If you would like more information regarding online poker rooms that Gambling Guru supports, you can read our Poker Reviews at http:www.gambling-guru.compoker_reviews.php.

Choice of the poker room for the poker game is very significant. It is prudent to pay attention to the following factors: convenience of depositing and withdrawal options, availability of the required games and consequently – total amount of players, level of opponents, software, support, bonuses, etc…

If you intend to use only credit for depositing and withdrawal funds and bank transfer, then it will immediately limit the list of the available poker rooms. If you can use several methods of depositing and withdrawal funds, for example, you have an account with e-wallets such as moneybookers or neteller then this issue will not restrict your choice.

The next question is: what poker game and at what limits are going to play? Texas hold’em limit and no limit, also single and multi-table hold’em tournaments are popular at any online room, but those who prefer Omaha poker, and stud poker have to choose the most attended rooms (Party, Stars, Full Tilt) to find the opponents. The same refers to those who love high stakes, not all online poker rooms even in holdem have players who stake 50100 or higher.

Most poker players want to win money, so they look for weaker poker opponents. Lately the trend of leveling the poker opponents in different poker rooms is becoming more and more obvious, nonetheless Party and casino poker rooms are considered to have less professional poker players (Prima networks, Boss Media, Playtech, Pacific Poker).

Poker player may have specific requirements to the poker room software, for example, non-downloaded software is offered by poker rooms of Ongame, 2, Prima and Party Poker. Many poker rooms allow to reduce the size of tables, and the computer screen without overlay holds four table with the resolution 1024768. For somebody the facility of Poker Tracker can be a criteria. One can buy Tracker and use it, other poker players prefer poker rooms that are not allowed the Poker Tracker.

In general, it is not about WHERE you play but HOW you play. So, choose the poker room with sufficient number of opponents at your selected limit, convenient depositing and withdrawal funds options, maybe good bonus and go ahead!

The game.
After registration, log-in and enter the lobby of the online poker room. Here, as a rule, a poker player will find out the number of players, latest news, choose options, enter the cash desk to make deposit. But the main thing is the choice of the poker games. A poker player may choose the necessary game (holdem, Omaha, stud, etc.), its type (limit, unlimited, pot-limit), cash or tournaments (sit&go or multi table), limits. The number of poker players and anticipants is shown for each poker table and also average jackpot, number of poker players at the flop and number of hands per hour. The poker player can view information about all the players of the selected poker table in anew window. The player may join the vacant table, or wait list (the player can wait for the first vacated table at the particular limit or particular table).

To make the first deposit, enter the cash desk and deposit the required sum, choosing the payment method.

When the table opens, the poker player may take any vacant seat. Appearance of the players and the table differ from one poker room to another, but the principle is the same everywhere – oval table with seats around it. Chat option is usually at the bottom of the poker room site, as well as options and buttons for decision-making. While it is no your turn to lead, you may use the buttons of preliminary choice of action. Tick one of the proposed flags and when it is your turn, it will be done automatically. If you have not performed preliminary choice, then you have to select one of three buttons: Fold, Call, Raise. You can use mouse to operate, but some poker rooms allow to play with keyboard using “hot buttons”. You pocket cards are displayed next to your name, general cards are put in the centre of the table. The poker player usually can view the statistics of his game, communicate with other players in the chat, make notes about other poker players which will be available at every poker game with this opponent.

Enjoy experience with online poker.

Let’s start with differences of online poker from off line poker game and the pros and cons of the online poker version. The main principal difference is obvious – poker players, the opponents cannot see each other. Hence, on one hand online poker player does not have to maintain his “poker image” and on the other hand the poker player cannot “read” the opponent hand by focusing on the Body Language. So, in online poker room the psychological moment of the game is rather weak, for somebody it is good and for someone it is not so good. In other respects online poker presents only advantages and it will take a long time to name all of them. Here are the main ones.

Any online poker room the same as any online casinos work 24 hours a day 365 days a year and any poker player may play all around the clock hole year.

Online poker room player does not have to tog up and go somewhere. Playing poker online at the computer is more comfortable that at the casino table.

Online poker room player can choose from a wide variety of games including the rarest ones. Online poker room player may play during a fifteen minute break; or leave the table any time. Poker player may participate in a number of tournaments and cash-games. Online poker room player can play short handed tables or face-to-face. Online poker room player may play at several online poker room tables at a time, play many games in an hour with simultaneous shuffling and dealing. Time limit for decision taking makes the game more dynamic. Online poker room player does not have to control and count the jackpot and his own chips.

Playing poker in online poker room is a good practice for the beginners playing micro limits which cannot be found in off line casino.

Before playing the game.
If you are ready to play poker in an online poker room, you should install online poker room client programs. Basically the poker software comprises two parts – server part – here the cards are generated and information about all the players is collected. Client’s part – here the player sees the cards, opponents and makes poker decisions. Both parts of the software are connected via the Internet and constantly exchange information.

Client programs.
Online poker room client programs can be of two types: downloaded (executable programs ) and non-downloaded ( flash or java, played in the browser ). Non-downloaded programs are less convenient though their number is increasing. To play non-downloaded poker room version a poker player should, as a rule, press some button like “Instant Play”, then a small browser window will be opened and the poker room software will be downloaded there. If this is java poker room program, the player should have java scripts enabled in his browser, flash plug-in should be installed to view flash. The poker players are likely to have Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher with 128-byte encryption.

If you prefer downloaded version ( and it is more convenient and functional), please find the section “Download” at the poker room site and download the program (usually 4-8 Mb, though sometimes occur small ones less than 1MB; they download the software after the launch and then will install the client). When the download is complete, start the program and it will install the poker client. As a rule the client will automatically add the icon of poker room at your desktop or to folder “Programs”.

Rules for the registration at online poker rooms, money depositing and withdrawal of the winning money are the same as in online casinos. When registering, fill out the application, indicate your full name, address, phone number, email, select login and password, and also your screen name that will be used during the poker room playing sessions. Almost all online poker rooms accept cards. There are a few e-wallets such as Moneybookes, Neteller, Firepay and so on to ease online poker room players funding options.

Cashing In On The Online Poker Room Boom As A Poker Affiliate

Website owners all around the world have been uncovering the potential goldmine that is the poker affiliate program. It may sound like a speculative venture, but with a multi-billion pound industry such as that of online poker as a partner affiliates have a head start on most. The online poker industry is a thriving, even booming online industry, with hundreds of thousands of people having already signed up, it seems to have generated a ceaseless momentum. It is through the potential increase in revenues and clientele that the online poker industry is such a thriving market for the associated affiliate program. As with all affiliate programs, the affiliate members earn money as a result of the success of the industry that they represent. Therefore the poker affiliate program is becoming one of the largest and most popular schemes online, which in turn is aiding the progression of the poker rooms and increasing competition in both industries.

Unlike many of the commercial programs, poker sites and affiliate programs offer their affiliates a percentage of a players money generated, rather than a simple small one off payment. From the affiliates point of view this is potentially a hugely lucrative revenue, spread over the entire life span of a player. The average life of a player on an individual poker site is estimated to be as short as 3 or 6 months. Many people will join for a short period to take advantage of the enormous offers, whilst others who enjoy the site are more liable to remain for many months even years. These longer serving players can provide the affiliates with a good regular income for a n extended period, which makes them liable to be far more profitable customers. With percentages ranging from 15 to 35%, these customers can soon add up to a significant revenue even for the smallest of online affiliates.

So through lucrative rewards and an industry of almost unparalleled growth potential and popularity, the poker affiliate marketing program is a competitive and desirable online business opportunity. Whether it is for inexperienced Internet users looking to earn a little bit of cash or for large established sites looking to earn increased revenue to subsidise the site, the affiliate program is open to everybody and remains equally successful throughout. The major success of the poker affiliate scheme can be found through its sheer breadth of representatives and the diverse lucrative nature of the bonuses they offer. With sites encouraged to advertise the poker industry in order to earn an income, the poker industry is profiting from huge capital gains. But as the poker industry grows so does that of it’s affiliate marketing branch of advertising. Both industries feed each other with new custom and clientele, leading to increased revenue and popularity making it one of the most successful dual industries.