There are many numerous aspects to consider when choosing your first online poker site. One quick way to get started is to see what other people have to say. One of my personal favorite poker ratings guide is located within the top poker sites section of highstakespoker.org. The reviews found at this website are honest, informative, and reliable.

Poker Software

The most important aspect when choosing an online poker website and playing poker for real money is the software. When you first sign up for an account at an online poker site you will either be required to download the online poker company’s software or you will play via your internet browser. If you desire playing in tournaments, you will need software you can stare at for more than a few minutes at a time. Tournaments can last for hours, so the color scheme, ease of use, and information about your past poker hands is important. It will also be imperative for the software to run well with your computer, issues with the software can and will often cost you real money.

Statistics will become vital as you progress in your poker playing ability and will be useful to help you learn and not repeat the same mistakes. You will also want to consider the ability to play more than one table at a time through multiple windows, and a site that includes a chat feature within each game.

Player Traffic and Competition

Poker rooms are similar to restaurants; you want to frequent the place where people are not the place that is empty. Player traffic is another important aspect of choosing the best poker room, right after the poker software used. A highly trafficked poker site allows you more options of players to play against, reduces wait time for new games or tournaments, and allows a greater mix of professionals and amateurs for you to choose from.

The level of competition in popular online poker rooms is a wide range from the first time online poker player to the online poker playing professional. The amateur poker player will allow you to begin to establish your bankroll, whereas the professional online poker player will provide you the opportunity to learn from their strategy and play. Both of these types of online poker players are important to your overall success playing in online poker rooms. As you first begin playing online poker and even as you progress you will want to find more fish than poker sharks so as to ensure your abilities will lead you to a successful session of online poker.

Multiple Gaming Options

Once you have found a site with well designed software and a large online poker player base, you will want to ensure there are more options to the overall game selection than just Texas Hold’em. Many online poker sites will offer options such as Omaha Hi/Low and Seven Card Stud. Having options for various versions of online poker games, you will be able to expand your poker playing abilities and hone your skills. There is no set relation between the size of the online poker site and the number of online poker games offered at the site. Sites both large and small can offer both the most popular online poker games, and the lesser known poker games.

Poker Promotions, Bonuses and Loyalty Rewards

Bonuses and promotions can be an online poker player’s best friend or their worst enemy depending upon the terms and conditions listed. It cannot be stressed enough, make sure you know all of the terms and conditions associated with a bonus or promotion before you accept.

Factors you will want to weigh before you accept the bonus include the rollover amount (the number of times the bonus and/or deposit must be played through before you receive any payouts from the bonus money), whether the rollover includes the bonus and the deposit or just one or the other. Another factor is whether the bonus is handed to you immediately or if it is added to your online poker account as you progress through the rollover requirements.

Another important factor to consider is the loyalty program within the online poker site you choose. Many online poker sites will have a special program for their loyal customers. This is similar to a land based casinos player rewards card. The more you play at the same online poker site, the more loyalty points you will earn. These points can often be traded in for free cash to play in the poker rooms with, or instead of points you will receive the cash added to your account as you play in poker tournaments or ring games.

Customer Service and Deposit/Withdrawal Methods

Before you encounter an issue with your chosen online poker site, you will want to ensure the quality of the customer service agents and their knowledge of the online poker software is top notch. Poor customer service will only add to the frustration if an issue ever arises. Prompt, courteous, and knowledgeable customer service representatives will almost always assure a smooth resolution to any problems, questions, or concerns you may have throughout your online poker experience. A 24 /7 online chat support system will be very important for those issues that may arise at 2am or later.

Once you have narrowed down your search for the perfect online poker site, you will need to then consider the online banking options available to you for the remaining sites. Deposit and withdrawal methods as well as the security of your money are important features to consider. If the deposit methods are not feasible or the withdrawal methods for a particular poker site are not easily available in your country you may want to remove them from your list. You will want to ensure you can both send your money to the site and receive your poker winnings. Along with the availability of the banking options, you must also consider the stability and reliability of the company. No amount of winnings can or will be collected if the online poker site is not online when you want to withdrawal.

Table selection in poker is talked about all the time, but people seem to get lazy in this regard. Sometimes it’s just easier to load up a few tables and start playing. But when you think about it, table selection requires very little effort. You just have to keep your eyes open for soft tables and be willing to move to a new table when the game goes stale.

Choosing Your Tables

There are two things in particular that I look for in new tables: a high “players to the flop” percentage and a large average pot. The players-to-the-flop number tells you how loose the game is playing. A high percentage tells you that the players are playing more starting hands. This means your competition is easy or at least that people are willing to give each other action.

A large average pot size is also nice to see, but it doesn’t always tell the whole story. What I assume when the pot average is high is that money is flowing around the table. This is always a good thing. It also indicates that people are willing to get money in the middle with less-than-premium hands. However, this stat can be misleading because a couple of big pots can skew the stat upwards.

So choosing your tables right up front is easy. Just look through the tables at your stakes and look for the ones that have the best stats. (Note: all poker sites provide this information in the poker lobby.) Choose the tables with the best stats and get to work.

Where people tend to get lazy is in moving tables in the middle of a session. If you multi-table like I do, it is easy to get into a routine and fail to notice when a table has dried up. Keep an eye on every table that you play at and be ready to switch as soon as the table goes bad. Don’t stay at a bad table out of laziness, pride or a desire to “teach someone a lesson.” Pretend that you are an emotionless terminator in search of the easiest prey.

It doesn’t take much to practice table selection, so you might as well get into the habit. All of my best months in poker have occurred when I took the time to play against the easiest competition. Table selection sounds like a basic skill, but you cannot overestimate how much it helps. Playing against soft opponents for a month or two will show you just how much table selection can help.

One of the greatest advantages of online poker is that you have dozens of tables open at any given time. Live poker players do not get this advantage. If you’re going to play online, you really should take advantage of the ease of finding new tables. All it requires is a few clicks and you’ll be hunting in fishy waters.

One way to use this play effectively is late in tournaments when the blinds are big and worth taking down. This play in tournament poker will most likely come around the time the money bubble is fast approaching or any time after the money bubble has burst. It happens most often at this period of time because pots are bigger before the flop and it is worth it to win these pots.

A situation that often comes up is when the table folds around to the player seated in the cutoff position or the player on the button and that person decides to make a raise before the flop. Almost every time aggressive players will put in a raise with nearly any two cards to attempt to steal the pot before the flop. If you are seated in the small or big blind and have twenty big blinds or less, this is a great spot to shove in and force a fold. This play has a ton of power behind it and is often used in tournament poker.

Even if you are sitting with just an ace high or a hand like KJ or KQ, you will have the better of the hands facing a button raise a great majority of the time. Even if your opponent does happen to call (which is a rarity) you will have a decent enough hand where you could be in a race situation.

If you have been playing solid and tight throughout the tournament, when blinds get big you can use this play as a way to maintain a stack as well as slow down aggressive players from running you over. If you simply throw away hands like ace high against a button raise, you will slowly have very few chips and decrease your chance of making a deep run in the tournament.

Another spot where you can use the all-in shove is when a player makes a raise before the flop and a player behind them calls. In this spot you can be at any position of the table, but most likely you will be in the blinds or seated in late position on the button. You will be facing a late position raise and a late position call. You ideally want this to be against two aggressive players who have been butting heads throughout the tournament.

These players will instantly muck most of the time if you have been playing passive. This spot is good because you now have a player calling a raise with a marginal hand which equates to dead money in the pot. If you force the original raiser to lay down their hand you will win the pot a great deal of the time. It is a squeeze play, it puts the decision on your opponent as opposed to you. It has so much power in tournament poker and is a great way to use the all-in play.

Why?

Because online poker sites have affiliate programs in which they pay webmasters for sending players to those poker sites. I’ll admit it; I do make money with this website by following that exact formula. So when I write reviews, I have an incentive to make those reviews overwhelmingly positive for the sake of sending new players to those poker sites.

I do not take that route with BeatNoLimit.com because I’d rather gain the trust of my visitors. Not only do I know what it’s like to be a player in need of a poker site, but I also value repeat visitors. I would rather have people come back time and time again than to just send players off to some cheesy poker site. Most poker webmasters feel the same way, but not all do.

For a positive example, look at the website TopOnlinePokerSites.net. That website has about 15 poker rooms that it reviews and rates. These reviews are mostly positive, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The webmaster in this case simply doesn’t bother with poor poker reviews. That’s the same way I operate this website. There’s no point in spending the time to write negative reviews for websites that you don’t trust.

I occasionally run across other poker websites that review poker sites at random. These other poker websites appear to be promoting whoever pays the most money. That’s a serious accusation, so I’m not going to list anyone here, but you can see these sites for yourself. If you see a poker website give some unknown room a hugely positive review, do a little Google research for yourself.

Look at what other people say about that poker site. If it’s a shady poker site, you are going to find lots of forum posts from members who complain about slow withdrawals and missing payments. You can’t expect everybody to be happy with a poker room, but there are clear trends that become apparent with rogue poker sites. If enough people complain about a poker room, it becomes clear that something isn’t right.

I don’t write this post to blow my own horn or act like I’m riding on some high horse. Again, I want to state that most poker webmasters are ethical people who legitimately want to help poker players. And if they get paid while in the process, I have no problem with that. The only issue I have is when poker information sites present lopsided reviews of poor poker rooms.

If you are ever in doubt about a poker room review, consider doing a little research on your own. A quick Google search will tell you a lot about a poker site. If a poker site gets lots of bad press, the odds are good that something is wrong with that poker site. What I recommend you do is find a few poker websites that you trust and stick with their recommendations.

Case Dismissed

Judge James Nowlin of the United States District Court has just decided last week to dismiss all of the claims made by Deliverance against both Mizrachi and Titlware LLC, the company behind Full Tilt Poker. But before you cry ‘Conspiracy!’, read Judge Nowlin’s statements first.

There were two main points that were central to the case. First, had the contract between Mizrachi and Deliverance actually come into effect? Second, whether Judge Nowlin could actually lawfully hear the case.

The first issue was of utmost importance. Had the contract really come into place? Judge Nowlin does not think so. First and foremost, Deliverance Poker is a company that exists mostly in paper. The venture has not fully taken off yet, since Benavides still needed more money in order to actually get started on his company. To do that, he needed a representative, and that representative was Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi.

Thus, the contract was formed. However, by the time that Mizrachi reached the final table at the WSOP, he got a huge offer from Full Tilt (more than just a simple poker bonus). Mizrachi then informed Deliverance that he would become a Full Tilt Pro instead.

What saved Mizrachi from committing a breach of contract was the fact that the contract itself was not enforceable by law mainly because there was a clause in it saying that if proper capital to actually build Deliverance Poker had not yet been gained by August 2009, then the contract would be terminated.

The next issue mainly centered on the citizenship of Tilware and how it had not yet been fully determined. If Tiltware is not under legal jurisdiction in Texas, Deliverance cannot file a lawsuit against it.

Hope for Deliverance

Of course, Deliverance Poker is still welcome to file another case if they find new evidence, as Judge Nowlin dismissed the case without prejudice. It’s unlikely, however, that this will be the case, because Deliverance Poker itself is pretty much dead. Without a face to represent it and only a nasty lawsuit bringing it to the limelight, it’s highly unlikely that this site will still continue to operate.

About Station Casinos and Full Tilt

As you probably know, legislation concerning online poker in the United States is rapidly becoming a big possibility. However, the direction in which the new law would take is still generally unknown. It could be anyone’s guess, really, and the online casinos as well as the land-based ones are all preparing for any possibility, so that whichever way the law goes, they’ll come out on top. This alliance between Full Tilt and Station Casinos was actually forged way back last year, but it seems that the time is ripe to make it official. Sources say that a statement will be made on Thursday.

Stations Casino isn’t the biggest land-based casino chain out there, but it certainly has its own merits. PokerStars and 888 Holdings both partnered with huge casinos, namely Wynn and Caesar’s, but Full Tilt is certainly going a different direction. Stations isn’t one of those big names on the strip, but it does have 18 casinos around Vegas and is one of the fastest growing casinos today. In fact, Stations is backed by the Fertita Brothers, whose genius took the bankrupt and downtrodden UFC and turned it into the phenomenon that it is today.

The Possibilities

This partnership between Full Tilt and Stations is certainly bringing numerous possibilities to life. Take the Onyx Cup for example. There is little known about it, not even the location. Full Tilt has said that the location is ‘to be announced’. People believe that Stations would be proclaimed as the location the moment the partnership goes official. If this does happen, then Stations would be getting quite a lot of publicity. Full Tilt, in turn, would greatly benefit from the publicity that the UFC also gets. Stations would also really help in allowing Full Tilt to make a smooth transition into the live poker scene.

All in all, it’s not a very obvious partnership, but whoever thought it up certainly had some great ideas up his sleeve.  This is a partnership that will certainly benefit both ends.

What exactly is a HUD?

In short, it is a tool that attaches itself to your poker tables and displays valuable information about your opponents at the table. It includes useful figures such as their 3bet%, Pre-Flop Raising frequency (PFR %), Aggressiveness% and dozens of others.  The figures themselves are based on your opponent’s hand history since you last sat down at the table (you can also buy/import hand histories for better accuracy). You can customise which statistics your HUD displays, however I’ve outlined the most relevant ones below.

Advantages of a HUD

The advantage of using HUD software is that it increases your decision making ability in cash games. It allows you to judge the good players from the fish, identify the LAG players from the TAGs, and most importantly it helps you make more profitable decisions at different streets. For example, if an opponent has a high 3bet frequency (7%), it tells me he is 3betting with a wide range of hands which includes J10 and JK and I will be more likely to call or 4bet such opponents. In contrast, your typical TAG opponent will only 3bet their top 3-5% of hands (AJ+, 1010+).

Similarly, a RFI 30% (Raises First In) tells me that an opponent is open-raising pots with his top 30% of hands, when given the opportunity to do so. This means he is playing loose aggressive and probably stealing a lot of pots with weak hands. I’ll often 3bet such players when I’m playing from the blinds.

Standard Set-Up for Your HUD

Every player has his own preferences, but the most popular set-up I’ve found is as follows:

On the top line, I have VPIP % (Voluntarily Put Money In The Pot), PFR % (Pre-Flop Raise) and AF% (Aggression Factor). I will also have the number of hands played (to understand what sample size I’m looking at).

On the bottom line I will have c-bet%, Fold to c-bet%, 3-Bet%, Fold to 3Bet% and CR% (Check-Raise).

Together these figures can give me a complete insight into my opponent’s playing style. For instance, I can identify a TAG and LAG from their VPIP% figure alone. It shows what range of starting hands my opponent is opening or calling flops with. Anything below 20% indicates a tight player, and anything above 40% is a LAG.

Final Remarks on Using a HUD

Hopefully I’ll have identified the major advantages to using a HUD at the table and how it can help your game. In terms advocating its use I’d recommend anyone playing long term or NL50+ to use one. At NL100+ at least, I can guarantee you that the most successful players will be using a HUD.

If you would like to try one, HUD’s usually come with any decent poker tracking software. The two most popular ones are Poker Tracker and Holdem Manager.

Visa poker deposits are one of the easiest ways to make a deposit but most poker sites limit the amount you can deposit at one time. If you make one successful deposit, though, and wish to increase your limits, you can do so by sending an e-mail to your poker site. In most cases they’ll give you a significant increase in deposit limits.

How to Make a Visa Poker Deposit

The easiest way to make a Visa poker deposit is to visit an online poker site, download the software and create an account. Once you have an account at a poker site, you can then make a deposit by logging in and visiting the cashier. Most poker sites also have a no-download option if you don’t want to download the software.

In either case, you’ll need to log in and then visit the cashier. Inside the cashier, you can then choose to make a credit card deposit. The cashier will lead you through the entire way with simple and easy-to-follow instructions. Making a Visa deposit at an online poker room is as easy as making any other online purchase.

All poker sites have a player support system you can use if you get stuck at any point. Just call them or send an e-mail and describe the problem you’re having. Depending on the poker site, you’ll get an answer back sometime soon with instructions to help get you on your way.

USA Visa Poker Deposits

Poker players from the United States are welcome to use their Visa cards to deposit at US-friendly poker rooms. Some US players have problems depositing with Visa deposits being rejected. In most cases that’s due to US banking regulations. Unfortunately, some banks have controls in place that automatically block deposits to online poker sites.

The good news is that even if your Visa card is rejected, there are still other ways to make a deposit online. Some players just switch cards and are able to make a poker deposit using some other credit card. Other players switch to a different deposit method such as an e-check or cash transfer.

Visa Poker Sites

The following poker sites all accept Visa credit / debit cards for deposits. If it’s your first time depositing at any site, remember to use the bonus code below to get a deposit bonus. Online poker sites offer players large money bonuses for signing up and playing real money poker.

Poker Site	Bonus	Bonus Code	USA Friendly?	Visit
1. Full Tilt Poker	100% up to $600	HOOKMEUP	Yes	Play at Full Tilt
2. Party Poker	100% up to $500	EASYMONEY	No	Play at Party Poker
3. PokerStars	100% up to $600	Stars600	Yes	Play at PokerStars
4. Aced Poker	100% up to $1000	ACED100	Yes	Play at Aced Poker
5. Sun Poker	100% up to $600	FirstBonus	No	Play at Sun Poker
6. Carbon Poker	100% up to $600	BNL600	Yes	Play at Carbon Poker
7. Doyle's Room	110% up to $550	BeatNoLimit	Yes	Play at Doyle's Room
8. Bodog Poker	110% up to $550	No Code Necessary	Yes	Play at Bodog