How I Made Over $30,000 Playing Online Poker

Alas, the gravy train is over. The past 2 1/2 years have been nice to me but for now it is all over.

The first blow was that I live in the state of Washington which made it a felony to play poker online. A felony with the same punishment as raping a child!Talk about ridiculous. Mind you it is quite alright to bet on the lottery or horse racing online or to go to one of the dozens of Indian casinos to gamble. That's just fine our politicians say. But play poker in your own home on the Internet and you are a very, very bad person.

The second blow affected everyone in the US as the politicians in Washington DC (who are much smarter than everyone else) passed the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act). This forced most online casinos to stop taking credit card payments and Neteller payments from people playing in the US. Although you could still find a couple of ways to get your money in, it was now much harder and most of the fish (bad players) left when their money ran out. What remained was the better players playing the better players and no new money being introduced into the game.

These two things happened within months of each other and I decided to give up the online game at least until the climate changes back to being more favorable.

So, how did I win over $30,000.00 playing part time in about 2 1/2 years? It really was quite easy once I figured out how to do it. First I must say that I was not a beginner when I began playing online. I have spent way too much time at a poker table in my life and I do know the ropes. But the online game was different than the live game and it took me a while to figure out the best strategy.

No limit was also new. I had never played no-limit until the poker boom hit for no other reason that there weren't any no-limit games. Suddenly though, everyone was playing no-limit and I thought I would give it a try as well. I did not win right away. It took me a while to figure out this very different game than limit Texas-Holdem.

In poker you need patience. Without it you will never win. I finally realized that in no-limit you need to try to make the nuts (the best possible hand) and hope the other player gives you most or all of his chips. I generally played only the best starting hands but I did try to limp in with a weaker hand if it was cheap. In no-limit, the bad player will eventually lose almost every time and all you had to have was tons of patience. However, that was not what made me the most money. It was playing for the bonuses. In that 2 1/2 years I did not play one hand of online poker that did not count toward a bonus. Never.

I had accounts at over 20 online poker rooms and went from clearing one bonus to the next bonus. I started playing one table and then when I got better went to 2, 3, 4, and sometimes 5. I made the most playing 3 games of 50 cent/$1.00 no limit and at one time I had it calculated that I was making between $25.00 and $30.00 per hour. In my pajamas! Pretty effortlessly. The bonuses were easy enough to clear (because I only played the better ones) and when you threw in the fact that I won most of the time as well, that made me a consistent winner.

Now that it is over I do miss it somewhat. It was kind of like a gold rush with everyone scrambling to get as much as they could. Many of the Internet poker sites I played on are gone or don't accept Americans now and I believe the bonuses for those who do play are not as big and easy to clear as they once were. It is kind of sad but I still do have hope. There are rumblings in Washington DC that the UIGEA may be reevaluated sometime in the near future. If it is made "legal" again in the US there may be another gold rush yet...at least a mini gold rush. And to those who are wondering, yes I did pay my taxes on the $30,000.00 (unlike many others).