The Online Poker Guy

Read on to find out how to play in Poker Stars’ weekly $500,000 guaranteed no-limit hold’em Sunday Warm-Up event for as little as $3!

Poker Stars is another very busy online poker site. Their ads say they have a poker tournament starting every second. They also boast three recent WSOP main event champions. 2003 winner, Chris Moneymaker, 2004 winner, Greg Raymer, and 2005 winner, Joe Hachem as well as the 2004 World Series of Poker “Player of the Year”, Daniel Negreanu. And that’s only part of the list of great players who make Poker Stars their home.

The Sunday Warm-Up
This is a $500,000 guaranteed weekly no-limit hold’em tournament. Normally you have to put up $215 to play, but if you check through their tournament listings, you can satellite your way in for as little as $3.

If that doesn’t do it for you, check out the Sunday Million, PokerStars weekly $1 million guaranteed tournament. PokerStars was the first card room to offer a $1 Million Guaranteed no-limit hold’em tournament every week. First prize in this event is always more than $100,000. They also offer satellites for this event too, so it’s possible to get into the big tournament for just a few bucks.

In the free poker category, Poker Stars also has a freeroll with $2,000 in prize money, but you must qualify first by placing in the top 99 in a preliminary freeroll.

Sign-up bonus
From now until the end of 2008, if you make your first-ever real money deposit, PokerStars will give you a 100% bonus up to $50.

Party Poker Quick Review:

• Full screen: Yes
• Changeable avatars: Yes
• Hand history in graphic form or text: None
• Easy to read stats: Yes
• Can change the color of the deck: Yes
• Can change the layout: No
• Can move to sit anywhere at table: Yes
• Freeroll for real money: Yes
• Pro Players: Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, Barry Greenstein, Isabelle Mercier, Tom McEvoy, Victor Ramdin, Humberto Brenes, William Chen, and many others
• Rabbit cam: No
• At this moment: 87,909 players
• Toll free number for contact support. No, email only

Tags: free online poker, free poker, freerolls, play poker online, online poker, online poker games, poker tournaments, Poker Stars

Read on to find out how! Enter one of the PartyPoker.com Million VI qualifiers now for as little as $1 and you could win a $12,000 package for the cruise.

Each $12,000 package includes:

• $8,200 buy-in for the No-limit Texas Hold’em main event
• $2,700 for accommodations and the cruise
• $1,100 spending money

All of this, and of course, whatever you win from the poker tournament itself, which boasts a million dollar prize pool!

As the first PartyPoker.com Million to visit the Mediterranean, this eight-day cruise sets sail from Venice, Italy, from May 3 through 10, 2008.

Party Poker is one of the busiest online poker sites going and they’re listed on the London Stock Exchange.

If you’re new to the game and want to learn how to play poker online, they have a poker school complete with an interactive tutorial. Their poker school covers different types of online poker games, basic rules, buy-ins and table stakes, betting rules, etiquette, poker tips and much more!

They also have a poker trainer, so you can practice playing against a computer before you try playing against real players, or as some people call them, humans. The poker trainer will tell you if you should fold, call or raise. It will also tell you the pot odds as you play the hand as well as your stats for the session.

Referral Program
For every person you refer, you get $50 and they get $25 added to their account when they sign up.

Party Poker Quick Review:

• Full screen: No
• Changeable avatars: No
• Hand history in graphic form or text: None
• Easy to read stats: Yes, but not comprehensive
• Can change the color of the deck: Yes
• Can change the layout: No
• Can move to sit anywhere at table: No
• Freeroll for real money: Yes
• Pro Players: None mentioned
• Rabbit cam: No
• Toll free number for contact support. Yes, but not for U.S. players.

Tags: free online poker, free poker, freerolls, play poker online, online poker games, poker tournaments, poker school, poker trainer, Party Poker

Check out the Chris “Jesus” Ferguson challenge where he attempts to turn zero into $10,000 with nothing but a Full Tilt Poker account! He started by playing freerolls until he had enough to begin entering real money buy-in poker tournaments and cash games.

From there, Chris built up his bankroll by adhering to this strict set of guidelines: He never buys into a cash game or a Sit & Go with more than 5 percent of his total bankroll (there is an exception for the lowest limits: he is allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less). He doesn’t buy into a multi-table tournament for more than 2 percent of his total bankroll, but he’s allowed to buy into any multi-table tournament that costs $1.

If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represents more than 10 percent of his total bankroll, he must leave the game when the blinds reach him.

Chris says, “This experiment isn’t about the money. It’s about showing how, with proper bankroll management, you can start from nothing and move up to the point where you’re playing in some pretty big games.”  He goes on to add, “I think a lot of players would do well to apply these rules. One great benefit from this approach to bankroll management is that it ensures you’ll be playing in games you can afford.”

Click here to see how he is doing. Chris Ferguson challenge 

Chris has pledged to donate his winnings to the Save the Children Foundation.

Tags: free online poker, free poker, freerolls, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, poker tournaments, online poker games, Full Tilt Poker

Ultimate Bet has been dealing cards on the Internet since 1999 and is another terrific online poker site. One of the things, however, that makes them unique is the different twist they have on bounty tournaments. Everyone is a target!

Monday through Saturday they offer a nightly bounty tournament where everyone is a bounty and you can win money without finishing “in the money.” They charge an extra $20 to all entrants and for each one you knock out, you collect their $20. So even if you don’t finish in the money, you could still wind up with a nice sum on the bounties alone. UB has a nice poker glossary as well as a complete section on poker strategy with articles by Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth.

They also offer many types of resizable tables so you can chose the size you want, including a mini-view for players that like to have many tables open at once.

If you’re looking for free poker, Ultimate Bet has freeroll tournaments everyday that award $50 to the top 20 places. These poker tournaments also award an entry to the top 30 places for their $1000 Ultimate FreeRoll Weekly event.

Referral and sign up programs
Ulitmate Bet offers a 111% initial sign up bonus up to $1,100 in bonus dollars. If you refer a friend they can get up to a $50 bonus added to their initial deposit, while you can earn up to $100 depending on the amount they deposited when they signed up.

Ultimate Bet quick review:

• Full screen: Yes
• Changeable avatars: No
• Hand history in graphic form or text: Text
• Easy to read stats: Yes
• Can change the color of the deck: No
• Can change the layout: Yes
• Can move to sit anywhere at table: No
• Freeroll for real money: Yes
• Pro Players: Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke and others
• Rabbit cam: No
• At this moment: 17,110 players
• Toll free number for contact support. Yes

Tags: free online poker, free poker, freerolls, poker glossary, poker tournaments, online poker games, Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Ultimate Bet

Absolute Poker is another great free online poker site and they offer one of the biggest rewarding freerolls around. It’s the Absolute Poker Dream Package and winning it includes:

• $50K CASH
• A main event WSOP buy-in with all the VIP trimmings
• One-on-one Poker Tuition with WSOP Pro Mark Seif
• A exclusive Serinda Swan photoshoot
• A season free pass for the Absolute Poker $150K Guaranteed
• Two’s Company – share everything with a friend (except the $50K cash prize)

This online poker site is fun to play on and also includes a complete poker dictionary and set of tutorials. Additionally, they have a great news and articles section. You will also find video poker lessons by poker pro Mark Seif covering everything from the different types of poker games, online poker play, pot odds, betting strategies, picking up tells, poker tournament play and much more!

Referral and sign up programs
Absolute poker has a really nice referral program. If you refer a friend, (or even someone you don’t care for) and they open a real money account, they get a $50 bonus and you get $75 added to your account. They also offer an initial sign up bonus of 100% up to $500.

Absolute Poker quick review:

• Full screen: Yes
• Changeable avatars: Yes
• Hand history in graphic form or text: Graphic
• Easy to read stats: Yes
• Can change the color of the deck: No
• Can change the layout: Yes
• Can move to sit anywhere at table: Yes
• Freeroll for real money: Yes
• Pro Players: Mark Seif
• Rabbit cam: Yes
• At this moment: 17,155 players
• Toll free number for contact support. No, email only

Tags: free online poker, play poker online, poker tournaments, online poker games, poker lessons, freerolls, poker dictionary, Absolute Poker

Be sure to read below to find out how you can win up to $25,000 playing in Doyle’s bounty tournament with no risk!

Doyle’s Room is another great place to play free online poker. And a big plus is, you can many times see Doyle Brunson playing poker there himself.

If you’re trying to improve your poker game by going the free poker route, Doyle’s Room tries to make the non-tournament play money tables a little more realistic by limiting players to 2,000 chips per day. This keeps some of the crazy players that like to go all in all the time, just so they can reload and do it again, at bay.

Bounty Poker Tournament
Doyle’s Room also has a weekly bounty tournament where you can play against Doyle and some of his friends and do it for free! You sign up and pay the entry fee of $27.50 and at the end of your first bounty tournament they will instantly refund your money! Not bad, considering you have a shot at winning up to $25,000!

Another thing I like is their comprehensive audio and video library of poker lessons that are available online. There is a tremdous amount of great information here from, tells, ploys, bluffing and much more!

Referral and sign up programs Real money players can take advantage of a 110% sign up bonus on initial deposits up to $500. Doyle’s Room also offers a $25 bonus to your account when you refer a friend who signs up with a real money account.

Doyle’s Room quick review:

Full screen: No
Changeable avatars: No
Hand history in graphic form or text: YES (in My Account)
Easy to read stats: Yes, but not comprehensive
Can change the color of the deck: No
Can change the layout: No
Can move to sit anywhere at table: Yes
Freeroll for real money: Yes, with one raked hand in last 24 hours
Pro Players: Doyle Brunson, Mike Caro
Rabbit cam: Yes
At this moment: 5,929 players
Toll free number for contact support. Yes and live chat

Tags: free poker, online poker, play poker online, free online poker, poker tournaments, online poker games, poker lessons, Doyles Room

Read below to check out Poker Host’s incredible sign up bonus!

Poker Host is one of my favorite online poker sites because they have episodes of High Stakes Poker on their site that you can view. Watching how the pros play is a great way to improve your own poker game.

And, if you are looking for a free online poker site with a nice payout, Poker Host offers a $500 freeroll every Friday night that costs absolutely nothing to enter. So you can learn to play poker online at no risk while still having the opportunity to win real money.

Referral and sign up programs
Speaking of real money, Poker Host also offers one of the largest poker sign up bonuses on the Web. They will match 100% of any intial deposit from $20 to $2,000! They will also add $25 to your account for each buddy you refer who signs up for a real money account.

Once you sign up, you can take advantage of a guaranteed monthly poker tournamment prize pool in excess of $4.5 million dollars.

Poker Host quick review:

• Full screen: No
• Changeable avatars: No
• Hand history in graphic form or text: None
• Easy to read stats: Yes, but not comprehensive
• Can change the color of the deck: No
• Can change the layout: No
• Can move to sit anywhere at table: Yes
• Freeroll for real money: Yes
• Pro Players: None mentioned
• Rabbit cam: Yes
• At this moment: 14,674 players
• Toll free number for contact support. Yes and live chat

Tags: free poker, online poker, play poker online, poker tournaments, online poker games, freerolls, High Stakes Poker, Poker Host

World Poker Exchange offers 75% rake back on cash tables and poker tournament buy ins!

Welcome to my poker blog!

For anyone who is new to poker and wants to learn the game without risking any of their money, there are play chip tables at almost every online poker site. With each post I’ll offer my view of some of my favorite places to play and why I like them. I’ll also be including a screen shot of one of their tables.

Generally, most sites have a .com extension for their real money sites and a .net extension for their free poker site. Most online poker sites offer many of the same things. There are however, some sites that just seem to be more fun to play on, due to graphics, ease of getting into a game or tournament or options that some other sites just don’t have.

The first poker site I reviewed for this blog is the smallest from the standpoint of the number of players, but that’s also what makes it fun. It’s the World Poker Exchange.

Since there are a small number of players compared to the “big” sites, everyone kind of gets to know every one else because you will see many of the same players at the tournament tables whenever you play.

Freeroll poker tournaments
The site has a very comfortable interface to play on and they offer a $50 freeroll numerous times every day where the top three finishers split $50 without having to put up any entry fee.

75% rake back!
Another really cool and unique thing about the World Poker Exchange is that they offer 75% rake back at their money tables. The rake is collected as usual but 75% of it is returned to your account every Monday! This is true for their poker tournaments as well as their cash games.

The rake in any poker game affects your chances of becoming a profitable poker player, so a site that gives back 75% of it can’t be bad.

World Poker Exchange quick overview:

• Full screen: No
• Changeable avatars: No
• Hand history in graphic form or text: None
• Easy to read stats: Yes, but not comprehensive
• Can change the color of the deck: Yes
• Can change the layout: Yes
• Can move to sit anywhere at table: No
• Freeroll for real money: Yes
• Pro Players: None mentioned
• Rabbit cam: No
• At this moment: 528 players
• Toll free number for contact support. Yes

Tags: free poker, online poker, play poker online, poker tournaments, online poker games, World Poker Exchange, World PX