There are certainly differences between face to face poker and online play. And if your poker game relies on the advantages that can only be found in a casino or home game setting, online play might not be for you. But, if you can hold your own at an internet card room, you’ll find that now is a very good time to be playing poker online.

With the number of poker rooms growing almost daily, there is a lot of competition for players. And the number one weapon in that competition is money. Players can find the online poker rooms giving away free money in a variety of ways.

The first, and most obvious is in the No Deposit Bonus. This is free money that an online poker rooms give new players to use at their tables. The players do not need to make any deposits into an account to receive the bonus. It is a great way for players who want to test out the waters of internet poker to get their feet wet. You can spend time at the real money tables, on the house.

The second way to receive extra money from the poker rooms online is through a deposit bonus. These are commonly offered to both new players in the form of a welcome bonus, and to players that have played at the room before via reload bonuses. A percentage of a player’s deposit is matched by the poker room with bonus money. As a player spends time at the poker tables, that bonus money is converted into cash that can be withdrawn.

The amount of bonus money you can collect, and how fast it turns into cash vary greatly from room to room. But, there is enough bonus money out there that you can spend every hand you play in a ring game working off a bonus.

With experienced players playing two, three or more tables at a time online, they can really clear bonuses quickly. This can add a nice amount of money to a player’s bankroll, compliments of the online poker rooms.

While taking full advantage of poker room bonuses tends to require time spent at the ring game tables, there are other ways to take advantage of poker room kindness. Players can find tournaments that require no entry fees, but award real money prizes. These are known as freerolls.

Freerolls are tremendously popular now, and there are plenty of them online. Smaller freerolls may have prize pools of $50, while larger ones have $1,000,000 in prize money at stake. All without an entry fee.

Even with all of these chances to build or pad a poker bankroll by playing online, there’s still more. Poker rooms often offer guaranteed prize pools for their tournaments. This means when the buy-ins from the players who register for the tournament do not add up to at least the guaranteed prize pool amount, the poker rooms will contribute the difference. Extra money that can be won, that comes courtesy of the house.

Anybody who hasn’t heard of the poker game? Anybody who hasn’t played a round of poker game?i think not. Even celebrities nowadays participate in celebrity poker games. But who knows how poker came about? In truth, there is a dilemma as to who can lay claim for the birth of this card game. The French have it ‘poque’ which descended from the Germans’ ‘pochen’ which means “to knock”. However, it can be contested that it could have originated from the Persian game of ‘as nas’ that could have been taught to the French settlers by Persian sailors in New Orleans. However poker came about, everybody is playing it and loving the challenge. Poker rules therefore are extremely important since you might be betting your car keys already, for all you know. The poker rules guides the green horn on how to lose graciously the first few deals. Thus learning to play a good game of poker is expensive.

We need to know the basics on how to play poker, the poker rules according to the poker variant, poker etiquette and poker hands to be able to passably play. Winning is everything in poker since this is a mind game more than anything else.

First off, we need to clarify the different poker game variants to know which poker rules need to be in play. There are many variants to the poker game but the more universal poker game variants are: draw poker, stud poker, widow poker game, and miscellaneous poker games (which include Stud Horse poker, Oxford stud, Billabong (and Shanghai), Guts, and Blind Man’s Bluff). However, the most commonly played poker games for the first three variants are the five-card draw, seven-card stud, and the Texas hold ‘em.

Since this is the most played poker game variant, poker rules for the five-card draw are generally easy to remember. It is assumed that you basically know the general poker game play, the hand values and the betting system. Poker rules differ from the home-style games to the more formal games as played in the casinos. For formal games blinds are commonly used while for home games, it is more typical use an ante. Ante is where the first betting round starts from the player to the dealer’s left, then the second round betting begins with the player who opened or made the first non-zero betting in the preceding round.

A common house rule in playing five card draw in home or social games is that a player can not replace more than three cards, unless he holds an ace or a wile card so that the deck stub will not be easily depleted. Another common house rule is that the last card in the deck stub is not dealt anymore to ensure that anybody who might have seen it will not use that information.

In the seven card stud, poker rules are a bit more complex than the five card draw since two to eight players can play. The only poker rule to remember, (better make it your mantra) is two down, four up, one down. This is the lay of the cards and not meant to mean something else.

The third most commonly played poker game is the Texas hold ‘em. The poker rules here are the same with the first two but what makes this different is the introduction of lipstick cameras where spectators were able to view each player’s cards.

Definitely, we’ve seen that poker rules changes a bit depending on the game of poker being played. Now that we’ve learned the different poker rules, playing it like the pros would be as easy as pie.

By: Nicholas Tan

When you select an online poker room for playing poker, the most important thing that you have to consider is the type of online poker software used by that site. Online poker is a very popular game today among the gambling players from around the world.

While you are playing an online poker game with players whose body language is invisible to you, it becomes very difficult to place the right bids. If you use the right kind of online poker software tool, you will be at an advantageous position to detect the highest bids play together with the reaction time.

The design of the online poker software is essentially important for a novice player. It helps in following the game properly. Not only that, it also helps in analyzing various kinds of movements on the online poker playing table. You have to make sure that the graphics used are alright having special features and also the sound effects are fine.

An online poker software tool is basically made by professional people as it includes a set of programs. The programs have to be designed in such a way so that the players can effectively play the game online by sitting right at their home. To have a better gaming experience, choosing the right software becomes very important.

Some of the best online poker software includes names like Texas Hold’Em Assistant, Frugal Gambler Video Poker Teacher, Dave O’Brien’s Smoke’em Poker, All Video Poker for Palm OS, iPoker, IRC Poker, and Wilson Software Turbo Poker. There are a number of free online poker software tools in the market today.

One thing that you need to see while choosing particular online poker software is whether the games can be played smoothly or not. You must consider its playability. You should be able to play the poker game without any kind of interruption. Another important thing that you need to make sure of is whether the poker room can host big poker tournaments or not.

Other than the above, check the statistics as well as the serviceability of the interface in online poker software. The online poker software tools are available on the basis of specific requirements of the online poker players. There are also cases where the online poker rooms have their own proprietary software.

Poker chart software program are also available that provides graphs and keeps a track of the performance history of a player’s poker career.

By: Paul K