The Truth About Online Poker Rooms

You already know that Online Poker is one of the hottest things on the Internet right now. I was a professional 'brick and mortar' (casino) poker player for 3 years and still am a recent Mandalay Bay Resort And Casino Texas Hold'em Champion. Therefore, the idea of playing Internet Poker was very appealing to me. It is likely very appealing to you as well, which is why you are reading this article. I have over two years of experience behind me in an online poker room. This article is a summary of my experience playing in that venue.

Legal Status

First let me say that playing on-line poker for money in the United States is illegal. There are millions of online, money player's in this Country but it is all illegal. It is even illegal if you live in Nevada where poker is legal in the casinos. That is because all of the poker rooms are located outside of the United States usually offshore in the Bahamas, Central America and even in some European countries. The Federal Government is the reason why this is illegal. The law of the land prohibits gambling over the Internet. Most Casinos would love to have an online site. It is pure profit, no buildings to build, no dealers to pay, no neon lights to buy, no loss leader buffets to run to bring in the gamblers. Believe me they are lobbying hard but so far they are getting nowhere.

So why are so many people gambling online? The answer is because they can. There is up to this time, no enforcement by the Federal Government due to the simple fact that they can't arrest, prosecute and pay for the jailing of so many people for what is basically a victimless crime. They have recently made it harder for people to use the online facilities by making the banks responsible if they perform a transaction related to online gambling. They are fined and most banks just hate that. Still if you want you can get around this by using illegal means of transferring money, you can.

Many online poker rooms advertise on cable TV. How can they do that if they are illegal? Simple, they never advertise themselves as gambling sites. They advertise that they are gaming schools and venues for no money (i.e. play money) games. In fact PokerStars.net does have free hold'em tables and even free tournaments. However, There is also PokerStars.com, a real money gaming site, which they integrate almost seamlessly into the free gaming areas, so if you have a credit card or direct deposit account, they are always very happy to explain how to use them to play real money poker.

So if being illegal doesn't phase you, you can still sit down at a cyber table at Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, Party Poker, Doyle's Room, or any one of the hundreds of other Internet gaming facilities and win or loose hundreds or even thousands of dollars a day.

Where Do You Find An Online Poker Room?

Use the search engine of your choice and enter 'Poker Rooms'. Up will pop hundreds of places just waiting to make money off your play. First you will probably want to play on the free tables so registration is relatively simple. There are many sites that even rate the poker rooms and get paid by the poker rooms to do it. They make it easy for you to find any one of a number of venues for any type of gaming you want. Click on one, promise that you are over 18, register and you're in.

The Hooks

If you are hesitant to give out your credit card or bank account and direct deposit number, you can play for free for a long time. If you are good, you will make a lot of play money quickly like I did. I turned $1,000 in play money to $10,000,000 in less than a month. Wow! I must be good. So why not just sign up for real money poker and continue your winning ways? That is one of the hooks. That is how they get you to slap some real money down on the tables. Think before you act though. Anyone who plays for real money, plays much more carefully than those who play for 'fun money' do. Even some famous professional poker players, Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow for example, has lost large sums in online gambling.

The second hook is that is you sign up, put in $500, and you will receive a 'free' $100 bonus. This is most often 20% but I have seen 25% bonuses at times. No you don't just get this! You have to earn it by playing for frequent player points or some equally complex way designed to make sure you keep on playing for money. Since the site doesn't play against you, they make their money by taking a cut of each pot. This is called 'the rake'. They make a lot of money on the rake. They make millions. All in all most players who play decent poker loose their money to the rake rather than to other players. If you are exceptional and lucky you might beat the rake. Most players don't. If you are just an average player between the rake, the better players, and the lucky players, you will be out of money so fast your head will spin.

A third hook is irresistible to many young players. Enter a small tournament for say $20 and the winner's get a chance for a free World Series Of Poker seat worth $10,000. The lure of fame, of getting on TV and winning up to $7,000,000 in the main event just is an aphrodisiac that just is near impossible to resist. This offer has a couple of problems they don't emphasize. First the $20 tournament has 10,000 other people in it. The poker room will make $200,000 on this tournament but only pay out $10,000. Not a bad deal for the poker room, but you have 9,999 other players to beat. 'Are You feeling lucky, Punk?'

The fourth hook, I mentioned before. Win Frequent Player Points, which can be redeemed for caps, t-shirts, jackets, etc. Have you ever worn a $1,000 t-shirt? You have a good chance of that dream coming true when you accumulate these points while loosing money.

The last hook I will mention, but certainly not the last in the poker room's bag of tricks is meet friends and play with famous poker players. Theoretically you can play on a table with Doyle Brunson himself in Doyle's Room. The question you should ask yourself is do you really want to play with Doyle Brunson. I played on a final table of a tournament in a brick and mortar Casino. He can kick my butt anytime and twice on Sunday. No, you want to play with a bad poker player you can find.

In Short

If you join a poker room for fun, there are a lot of temptations to switch to real money. You probably will. You will probably loose money. The online poker rooms will continue to make millions. It's your choice.