Becoming an online pokerpro

Should you play poker online? The most important reason you should, let there be no doubt about it, is making some extra profit. Unlike other (online) casinogames, poker is an excellent opportunity to make money because you are not playing against the casino, but against other players. Moreover, of all casinogames, this is the game where you have the maximum influence on diminishing the luck-factor.

The advantage of online poker compared to live games is your reach: not only you can play a lot of games according to your personal taste, there are also a lot more opponents available than in live poker. This is exactly where online poker can make your life so beautiful: your play only has to be a little bit better than your opponent’s play. So, does that mean you need to improve your game a lot? No, because most of the other players don’t improve their game at all. All you need as a beginning player is a minimal insight into the basic strategies of the game (google is your friend on this one) and a maximal dose of discipline.

Then you choose an online pokerroom where your victory march begins. There are a lot of them out there nowadays and one thing they try to differentiate themselves from eachother with are the bonusses they offer: you’ll ‘receive’ an extra amount of money on top of your deposit. However, most of the times you have to unlock this money by playing at the tables and gathering so-called ‘loyalty points’ (which are called differently in each room). Other sites however offer a determined percentage of the deposit bonus directly, without points-restrictions.

Depositing money does certainly not mean you need a creditcard. You can also use ‘online wallets’ like moneybookers (which you can load safely with your bankaccount) to deposit in a room. Ofcourse there’s also the hard way: don’t deposit and build up a bankroll by playing so-called ‘freeroll’ tournaments. You don’t need money to buy yourself in to such tournaments and there’s always a (small) guaranteed prize pool for the top finishers. Altough you’ll also acquire some experience playing those games, don’t hang around too long out there: because there’s no money from the participants at stake, it robs poker from its character that defines the game.

Besides the different games that can be played in most online pokerrooms nowadays ((N)L texas hold’em poker, Omaha (H/L), 7 Card Stud (H/L), Razz,…), you can distinguish the games by their type: sit ‘n go or cashgame. Concerning sit ‘n go tournaments: you buy yourself in for a fixed amount of money which grants all participants the same stacksize. Blinds will go up every determined time period and the last men standing (top 3 when 9 or 10 handed, top 2 when 6 handed) receive a percentage of the prize pool. This is considered a good way to learn the game and build up a bankroll. In cashgames, every chip you own represents real money. The stacks vary between a minimum and a maximum and people can rebuy or leave whenever they want. This is considered the ‘real’ pokergame.

A last issue to mention about online poker concerns the $xxx guaranteed tournaments. Some pokerrooms are known for their big tournaments where a minimum of prize money is guaranteed by the room itself. Sometimes their are not enough subscribers to those tournaments, so the room pays the rest of the money, Pacific Poker is well known for this attractive phenomenon. Example: there’s a $1000 guaranteed tournament with a $10 buy-in. When only 60 players register, there will be $400 extra in the prize pool! Check for these tournaments at http://www.pacificpoker.com/poker-tournaments/ . I wish you good luck at the online tables!