There Is Always a Catch

Unless a player does their research before signing up for a poker site, they will not realize that there may technically be a catch behind the free money or the deposit bonus offered by online sites.  The catch is that the players in almost all cases have to earn the bonus by playing poker and earning a certain amount of points.

These points are awarded based on how much rake is generated by the player.  A player may need to generate 100 points in order to release $5 of their bonus.  If points are earned for every .10 of rake generated, it would take $10 in rake to earn $5 of the bonus.  If a site takes 5 percent of each pot for rake, that means that a player must wager $200 to generate $10 in rake.

Bonuses Expire Quickly

Most bonuses expire within a month or two from the time that a player signs up for an account.  For many casual players, they simply will not put in the time to earn these bonuses.  For many new players that start out at lower stakes it can take a while to build up a substantial amount of rake.  A player that logs on for less than an hour a day, or even just a couple of hours on the weekend will likely never come close to earning their bonuses in time.

Most Poker Players are Losers

The reality of poker is that very few players are true winners.  Some can win for a time, but over the long haul, very few actually can turn a substantial profit.  As such, many players that make a deposit on an online poker site will quickly lose that deposit.  That is why you will often see the same site offer “reload deposits.”  For every 10 bonuses that an online site has to release, 1000 will likely lose their deposit or it will expire.  Those numbers are an estimate, but you get the idea.

What Does This Mean For You?

If you are a poker player that is looking to take advantage of an online poker bonus then realize that it is not free money.  It is money that you will have to earn by playing at the web site.  If you are a low stakes player, you will need to put in the volume to release the bonus.  This essentially means that you will need to grind a while to earn your bonus.  It is not a impossibility.  If you are at least a break even poker player, you could essentially double you bankroll after a time with bonuses.  If you are a winning player, then poker bonuses over time can truly become free money.

Back to the blog

If you’re finished earning your sign-up bonus and want to start working on clearing another bonus you’ll need to find a poker room that offers different types of bonuses. We’re going to take a look at the types of poker bonuses players can earn along with where you can find the types of online poker bonuses listed below.

Sign-Up Bonus

The most common type of poker bonus is the sign-up bonus and it’s rewarded to every single player that signs up to a poker room for the 1st time and makes a real money deposit. Typically you’ll receive a match bonus of 100% for up to $500-$600, but there are bigger and better poker bonuses out there if you keep an eye out.

UB Poker has one of the best sign-up poker bonuses in 2011, as they’re currently offering a 111% bonus worth up to $1100 to all new players that register an account and make a deposit into their account with real money.

Every poker site usually offers a sign-up bonus although some poker rooms have small bonuses. For instance, Party Poker only offers new players a $100 sign-up bonus, which is one of the smallest poker bonuses in the industry right now.

All poker sign-up bonuses need to be cleared before the bonus money becomes real cash. You’ll need to play online poker in the poker room in order to clear your sign-up bonus, so as long as you breakeven while clearing your bonus you’ll end up in the black.

You may also be required to enter a ‘bonus code’ when signing up to a poker room in order to receive the bonus. There are a lot of sites that offer bonus codes such as PokerList.org which offers poker bonus codes, such as the cake poker bonus code,  for some of the top online poker rooms.

No Deposit Bonus

Online casinos are well-known for providing new players with a no deposit bonus or free credits to use in the casino, but poker rooms don’t usually offer no deposit bonuses. Right now 888 Poker is running an $8 no deposit bonus promotion, which is the best no deposit bonus that has absolutely no strings attached.

Simply sign-up for your 1st ever account with 888 Poker and they’ll credit your account with a free $8, which you can use to test out the poker games at 888. Hardly any poker sites offer no deposit poker bonuses anymore, but they used to be a lot more popular back in the poker’s heyday.

Reload Bonus

Most poker sites have reload bonuses available from time to time for their loyal players. Online casinos usually offer reload bonuses on every deposit, but in online poker you won’t receive bonuses on every deposit. Typically you’ll be able to take advantage of reload bonuses on holidays or special occasions at the poker site you chose to play with such as the poker room’s anniversary.

Reload bonuses are usually only available for a day or two before they’re gone, so you need to always keep up to date with the promotions being offered by your poker room or you may miss out on a reload bonus.

You can find the Carbon Poker Mac download by visiting the Carbon Poker website and clicking on the big download button. The website is set up to detect if you have a Mac and it will automatically give you the Mac download. Just save it to your computer, run it and install it. It only takes a few seconds to get started.

Click here to visit Carbon Poker

Carbon Poker Mac Download

This new poker software for Mac users is a full packaged designed specifically for Macs. This is not one of those lame instant play options that poker sites use to claim Mac compatibility – this is the real deal. The Carbon Poker Mac download is fully functioning and comes with all the features PC users have.

And just in case you’re wondering, the Mac software lets you sit at the same tables as the PC users. I’ve gotten a few questions in the past about that issue and it looks like people sometimes get the idea that Mac users are stuck playing against Mac users only. Nope, that is not the case. With the Carbon Poker Mac software, you’ll have access to the same tables and tournaments as everyone else.

Merge Network Mac Software

Carbon Poker is a member of the Merge Gaming Network.  This network is a collection of poker sites that work together to get players and expand their poker offerings. All the poker sites on the Merge Network share tables. This means that when you’re playing at any Merge poker site, you’re actually playing with players from several poker rooms. Anyways, the point is that the entire Merge Network now has Mac poker software. Here are a few of the largest Merge poker sites that now have Mac poker software:

• Carbon Poker
• PlayersOnly Poker
• Sportsbook Poker

This is great news for Carbon Poker, PlayersOnly Poker and Sportsbook Poker. These three poker sites have all worked hard to expand their player base and traffic has picked up significantly over the past couple years. With their new release of a Mac poker download, these poker sites are set to get even more players signed up. Mac users are still in the minority, but they are by no means a small target market.

This is one of my favorite times of the year. The sounds of family talking, smell of food cooking and anticipation of a big get together all make the entire day one that I look forward to every year. You know what else I like about Thanksgiving? Poker. There is a lot of good poker to be had on Thanksgiving Day. Almost everyone has the day off and almost everyone is feeling confident – so there are always bound to be soft tables and juicy tournaments on Thanksgiving.

UB Reload Bonus

This year I think you’ll find the best action at UB Poker. First of all, they are offering a 50% reload bonus today only. You can get up to $250 extra if you make a deposit before midnight tonight. If you want to max out this bonus, deposit $500 or more and you’ll get the full $250. The minimum deposit for the bonus is just $10 but I strongly recommend you take full advantage of this juicy reload bonus.

Ultimate Bet offers reload bonuses on a fairly frequent basis. You can expect to find a few every month as a member there. If you have an account at UB, you should be notified automatically. I didn’t get an e-mail today, though, so you might want to check the UB website occasionally.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR BONUS

UB First Deposit Bonus

If you don’t already have an account at UB, you are actually in even better shape. All new players at UB Poker get 111% added to their first deposit there for up to $1100 extra. This means that if you deposit $500, they’ll give you $555. This bonus works for any amount but the extra money tops out at $1100.

Use the referral code UBCASHNOW when you sign up to claim this bonus.

Thanksgiving and Football

Thanksgiving and NFL football go together like turkey and mashed potatoes. Today we have three Thanksgiving NFL games:

• New England Patriots vs. Detroit Lions
• New Orleans Saints vs. Dallas Cowboys
• Cincinnati Bengals vs. New York Jets

Not only is it a great American tradition to watch NFL games, but it’s also way fun to bet on NFL games. You’re feeling good, you have the family around, the football game is on and you’re ready to make some money, right? Well, if you place your bets right, you just might. I don’t promote a lot of sports betting here, but if you want to bet on NFL football games, I recommend Bodog Sportsbook.

Click here to visit Bodog Sportsbook

Carbon Poker MyVoucher Bonus

Deposit with MyVoucher at Carbon Poker and you’ll get an instant 20% bonus for up to $100 free.

Bonus Code: MY20

Click here to visit Carbon Poker

Carbon Poker eCheck Bonus

I guess Carbon Poker didn’t want to make the trusty eCheck feel left out. Use an eCheck to deposit at Carbon and you’ll get an instant 10% bonus worth up to $200.

Bonus Code: E10

The Fine Print

There’s always fine print, isn’t there? Here’s what you should know before you get this bonus:

• The bonus is credited instantly to your account but you have to earn 10 VIP points per dollar to withdraw the bonus money.
• If you are in the middle of clearing any other bonuses, this bonus will override those. So if you are clearing a bonus now, don’t get this bonus unless it’s bigger than any outstanding bonuses.
• Only works on your first deposit with each method.

So what’s up with eWalletXpress?

eWalletXpress released a statement a few days ago that they were temporarily restricting new accounts for US players due to technical reasons. Existing account holders are OK, but for now they are not accepting new accounts from the United States.

I’m not buying their story about it being a “technical issue.” Knowing the online poker industry, I have a feeling this is due to US banking regulations. eWalletXpress probably took some heat from the government and decided to stop accepting new US registrations until they can work something out.

Online poker is not a criminal act in itself in the US (as far as I know – but I’m not a lawyer). However, there are rules against processing payments for online poker. Even though eWalletXpress does not reside in US jurisdiction, the US government can still make it a pain for them to process poker payments.

We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, there are still plenty of poker deposit options for US players.

Click here to visit Carbon Poker

Moneymaker probably likes satellites too.

1. They make the WSOP bigger and better

Satellite tournaments are largely responsible for the huge player fields and huge prizes of the World Series of Poker. Satellite tournaments were introduced to the World Series of Poker in the 1980s and player fields immediately exploded, making the WSOP a noteworthy event.

2. They helped ignite the online poker boom

The Moneymaker Effect is credited with initiating the online poker boom. In 2003, Chris Moneymaker, a regular guy who worked as an accountant, won the WSOP Main Event. An average guy winning millions of dollars plus increased coverage on ESPN combined to bring online poker to the mainstream world in a major way.

How did Chris Moneymaker get to the WSOP? He qualified by playing in a $40 satellite tournament online. People saw that if a typical guy like Chris Moneymaker can do it, anybody can. Thus began the online poker boom.

3. They make large tournaments accessible to regular players

Satellite tournaments make even the biggest events in the world accessible to regular players. Instead of having to save extra money for two years to play in a single tournament, normal people can play in satellite tournaments and win their way in to bigger events for free.

4. They make large tournaments easier

Large buyin tournaments have become much easier since the introduction of satellite tournaments. Instead of having a bunch of pros willing to plop down $10,000, we see tons of new, inexperienced and lucky players contributing their chips to the pool. This is also true for high buyin online tournaments.

5. They keep the general public interested in poker

Satellite tournaments make big events like the WSOP seem more connected to reality. Back when you had to pony up $10,000 in cash to buy in, there was a major disconnect between regular people and hardcore professionals. Satellite tournaments bridge that gap by offering the opportunity to anyone who can spare a few hours to play online.

This keeps the general public more interested in poker. That’s a great thing because it means we will always have new players joining and old players returning for more action. Poker would be quite a drag if it was just a bunch of old pros sitting around grinding it out against one another.

Best Satellite Tournaments

Believe it or not, Carbon Poker has the best poker satellite tournaments. They host satellite for major live events all the time. This includes tournaments such as the WSOP, the WPT London Classic, the Aussie Millions, Five Diamond Classic and many more seasonal events.

A typical satellite tournament at Carbon Poker costs $460. This might seem a little steep for some players, but the advantage is that one seat is given away for every thirty entrants. That’s a pretty darn good ratio for such large events. Click here to visit Carbon Poker.

If you’re curious to know all the nitty-gritty details, you’ve come to the right place. I played online poker professionally for one year during college and I can tell you all about my own experience. I was also friends with quite a few other people who did the same exact thing as me.

This story may not be the same as everyone else’s, but that’s not the point. I’m just going to tell my story and hope someone out there finds it interesting. I only played poker on a professional level for a year, but I learned more and made more money than I would have ever imagined.

How It All Started

I first got started with online poker after stumbling across an online poker room some time in 2004. This was a big year for online poker because it was the first time the World Series of Poker received any considerable television coverage. With “hole cams” peaking at each player’s cards, the general public was able to see what it’s really like to play poker with the pros.

Anyways, I’m not sure if this really had anything to do with it or not, but I found myself playing online at Ultimate Bet back in 2004. I was in college at the time and deposited a little extra cash one night for fun. My friends and I played poker on the weekends so I figured I would hop online and make gobs of money (lol).

I lost my first $100 deposit faster than you can say “busto.” I started out playing $2/$4 fixed limit, which is way too high for a $100 bankroll. I can still remember thinking at the time how cool it was that I was actually playing against real people for real money online. I wasn’t playing for life-changing money or anything, but the excitement had my heart racing.

After losing that first $100, I decided to study up on poker strategy and give it a real shot. So I went to the local bookstore, picked up a couple poker strategy books, came back home, read those books, signed up for an account at a poker forum and started talking with other poker strategy enthusiasts.

Hitting My Groove

The poker forums that I joined ended up being the single most important thing I’ve ever done in my career (no joke). I got super involved in the community and had thousands of discussions with other poker players. We talked strategy day and night and never got sick of it.

During this time, I made another deposit at Party Poker. I opted for the no-limit cash game tables and applied what I had learned. This time around, I was an absolute monster at the tables. I started out at $0.10/$0.25 no limit and crushed the games there. It wasn’t that I was very skilled or anything, it was just that I was one of the only people at the time to use even basic poker strategy. All I did was wait for strong hands and bet them when I got them.

Over the next year, I hung around the small stakes games at Party Poker and worked on my game. I kept up with all my friends at the poker forums and continued learning as much as I could about poker strategy. It was around this time that I really hit my groove and got into some of the more deep strategy aspects of no-limit Holdem.

At some point, I decided it was time to start moving up in stakes and start making the big money. I stopped cashing out from my bankroll and dedicated myself even further to the game. I made the move up to $.50/$1.00 no limit and started making an extra couple thousand dollars a month there.

The money there was nice, but I knew there was more to be had, so I saved up, kept participating in my poker forums and made the move to $1.00/$2.00 no limit when my bankroll hit $4,000. My first couple cracks at $1/$2 no limit were failures, but I eventually made it stick.

The Big Games

At the $1/$2 level, I really started making good money. This level may not sound very high, but if you multi-table online and maintain a solid win rate, you can make a nice little extra bit every month. At this time, I was still going to school and working part time at a fast food shop.

One day while at work, I got into an argument with my boss. I was just thinking about how much money I was losing by showing up to work when he started giving me trouble over something that I thought was petty. I was earning about $50 an hour at home playing poker and here I was at a $7 an hour fast foot job getting yelled at by some guy.

I made a snap decision at that point to go pro. I told my boss that I was done, I took off my stupid shirt, clocked out and walked out the back door. It was now time for me to make it in poker or go broke trying.

The poker gods must have been smiling on me that month, because I went on the biggest heater of my life immediately after quitting. I came home that day, hit up the $1/$2 no limit tables and started making money left and right. I don’t know if it was luck, desperation, skill or some strange combination of all three, but I was making money hand over fist in those games.

I then made the move up to $2/$4 no limit and found those tables to be just as juicy. The move up to $2/$4 felt like the biggest move in my entire career. Up to that point, the poker games seemed like casual games that anyone might join for a little fun. But for some reason, playing with $400 in front of me at each table felt like it had crossed the line from casual poker to serious money. Four hundred dollars may not be a ton of money, but those games play fast and money can go faster than you would think.

Fortunately for me, I continued to run hot and killed the $2/$4 games. It’s been a while now, but I think that was my first $10,000 month. That was the same month that I had quit my fast food job. Not too bad at all for a 21 year old college student.

When my bankroll hit about $18,000 I started taking shots at $3/$6 no limit. It took me a couple tries, but I finally managed to start beating the $3/$6 games on a regular basis. My bankroll ballooned up to something like $40,000 and that was when I moved up to $5/$10 no limit.

The month I moved up to $5/$10 no-limit, I earned $40,000 and managed to get my bankroll up to around $80,000. At that point I had a sit-down with an accountant who informed me that I now owed the government $20,000. Ouch.

I withdrew $20,000 from my bankroll and immediately went on a huge downswing. I don’t know if I was tilting over the taxes, was just playing poorly or if all my good luck had finally caught up to me. I suspect it was a little bit of all three. I decided to cash out some more money and move down in stakes.

At around this time, I decided to start a poker website. I was writing so much poker strategy in the forums that I decided I might as well try and monetize my knowledge by putting it online and sticking up some ads for online poker rooms. And that’s pretty much how I got to where I am today. I still play poker for fun, but I now make a living by running websites like this one.

So what was it like playing professionally?

Playing poker as a professional was both good and bad. On the good side, poker provided me with freedom, lots of money and a cool feeling of having finally “figured it all out.” What that means is, I felt superior or special for having found a way to make so much money at a young age. That sounds snobby, I know, but that’s just the honest truth.

On the negative side, playing poker professionally was highly stressful. Downswings took on a new significance when the rent and bills had to be paid. It also completely ruined the fun of the game for me. Grinding it out at 8 tables at a time for hours upon hours every day got old very fast. Even today, I can only play online poker for an hour or two before I start to get sick of it all again.

Looking back on it all, I wouldn’t change anything. Playing poker professionally was an incredible experience and it taught me a lot about perseverance, money management, setting goals and critical thinking. It also gave me a taste of having big money that has really lit a fire under my ass to keep me working.

But the best thing about it all is that poker got me into internet marketing. If I wouldn’t have played poker, I wouldn’t have started my first website and I would probably today be sitting at a bank making $10 an hour instead of writing this article.

Anyways, it seems like every online poker site in the world thinks that players want the most complicated, befuddled, grainy graphics possible no matter what it costs in actual user experience. Let’s take PokerStars for example.

Now PokerStars used to be the most highly recommended poker site but they have taken the back burner in recent months. For some reason, though, they continue to have the slowest, clunkiest software in the industry. They have all these player icons, pictures of cards, graphics that look like they were designed by Sega in 1992 and the most mind-jarring animations in the world.

For example:

Now this might not look too bad at first, but if you actually sit down at one of the tables… well, be ready to claw your eyes out. First of all, the bland colors make it hard to keep up with the action. The little blinking icons do not help at all. Now you can change the theme to something much simpler, but even then there are problems.

First of all, the sounds at PokerStars have always been delayed compared to the animation. This may sound like nit picking, but if you actually sit down and play, you’ll see how incredibly frustrating it is. It’s like your eyes are always trying to catch up to your ears because something is just barely off.

Secondly, the animations are just pitiful. I don’t understand how a billion dollar company like PokerStars lacks the means to pay someone to fix this. Everything is so slow and choppy that it actually detracts from the play experience. You can play way more hands per hour at any normal poker site.

So what makes good poker software?

Simplicity.

We don’t need a bunch of 3D avatars and Xbox360 graphics to play poker. That’s not the point. What we need is software that is clean, simple and functional. A perfect example of this is Ultimate Bet Poker:

I’ve played at UB since 2004 and have always loved their software. Here’s what they do right with their software:

• Simplicity. Not a bunch of BS cluttering the table.
• Contrasting colors.
• Lightning fast animations.
• Sounds that are on time.
• Minimal time-wasting animations and no lengthy pauses between hands.

Poker sites give us excitement because it pits us against real opponents for real money. We do not play poker to see the latest graphics and see how much stuff can blow up and fly around on the screen at once. That’s what the Xbox and PS3 are for.

Just give us software that stays out of the way and we will be happy.

Sincerely,

An Angry 8-Tabler

Here’s how it works:

1. On the day of the tournament, play in satellite tournaments and win as many seats as you can to the Sunday $200K Guarantee or the Wednesday $80K Guarantee.
2. The first satellite tournament you win gets you a seat in the corresponding guarantee later that day.
3. Each additional seat you win to the same tournament is awarded to you in the form of tournament dollars. These tournament dollars are credits that you can use to buy in to any other tournament.
4. If you are one of the top five satellite tournament players that day, you’ll win an extra buy-in worth of tournament dollars.

You can find this promotion at Ultimate Bet under the name “Satellite Sprints.” There’s nothing special you have to do except play in satellite tournaments on the day of the tournament. Win a few seats and you’ll be rolling in extra tournament dollars.

This isn’t the biggest promotion in the world, but I thought it was worth a mention. Satellite tournament players tend to be forgotten about in the online poker world. It’s also nice that UB lets players win multiple satellite seats and redeem the extras for tournament dollars. Some poker sites do not let you exchange tournament seats.

The only fine print in the promotion that you should keep in mind is the fact that satellite SNGs do not count. This promotion is only open to multi-table tournament satellites. And also note that private and password protected tournaments are not included.

I did a little checking around and noticed that you won’t find it too difficult to compete for the top prizes in this promotion. The Ultimate Bet website has a leaderboard for each tournament and the top five players accumulated 10, 6, 6, 4 and 3 seats during the last go-round.

Visit www.UB.com Here

From Busto to Robusto gives you a peak into the lives of professional poker players “Captain Zeebo” and “Good2CU,” both of whom are very well known in the online poker world but not so much in live poker. These guys have made tons of money, though, and are easily two of the best high level poker players in the world.

This documentary isn’t as polished as the upcoming one looks, but it’s still super interesting. I found it fascinating to see the faces behind the screen names that have been terrorizing the online poker tables for years. Both players are surprisingly down to earth guys that happen to be both extremely talented and hard working.

It was also interesting being able to see the personalities and lifestyles of two completely different poker players. Captain Zeebo is the self-proclaimed nerdy type who played video games and remained relatively grounded even after achieving great success. Good2CU, on the other hand, went all out with the party lifestyle – moving to Vegas, partying it up with a constant stream of women and dating a Russian model.

Both poker players talk about finding true happiness and how having lots of money affects that. It seems like the theme in the documentary is that no matter how much money you make, happiness has to come from inside. Basically, From Busto to Robusto is an honest, in-depth look at the lives of two common kids who turned into online poker phenoms.

Give this one a look whenever you get a chance. Each episode is only about 30 minutes long, so it won’t take up too much of your time. And of course, it’s more than just a little bit motivating.