Started New Promo: PokerRoom

PSO is having a special promotion for PokerRoom (PR) this Christmas season - 12,000 PSO points ($120 value) instead of the usual 9000. I decided to do this as my next promo. However, I'm a bit concerned for two reasons.

After searching the PSO forums for feedback on PR, the general consensus seems to be that many people are losing money on this site because too many bad players are calling with mediocre hands, and somehow catch their miracle cards by the river. Also, the play requirements to finish this promo are a lot tougher than PartyPoker. I need to get 400 points, where 0.07 points are given out per $0.10 in rake. This means I need to play enough hands to make $572 in rake. If the average rake in a $0.50/$1 limit game is about $0.40, then I will need to play about 1430 raked hands to complete the promo, which is a lot more than the 250 raked hands that was needed for PartyPoker. Playing higher stakes limit games, or no-limit games, will make this promo easier to clear, but I'm sure I'm not good enough for that, yet. So I will stick with $0.50/$1 limit games (which are the minimum stakes for this promo) and see how it goes.

Played More At PartyPoker

Although I finished my promo the first night, I continued to play at PP to get some practice and hopefully build up my bankroll. I played mostly $0.50/$1 limit, but tried $1/$2 limit and lost $33 there, so I quickly went back to $0.50/$1 limit. Today, I tried $1/$2 limit again, and won back about $18. Overall, I have won $105 playing the tables at PP. I also managed to net $125 by selling my Nevada Jacks chip set on Ebay. In addition, I transferred my original $500 back to my bank account, so from now on, I will only be playing with my winnings (unless, of course, I bust out).

Earnings-to-date: $330

PokerSourceOnline Promos

Today I signed up for my first online poker account at PartyPoker (PP). PSO offers two ways to start a PP promo: Free Money (Instant Bankroll) or Free Poker Gifts .

Instant Bankroll is perfect for those who want to start playing for real money online, but don't want to risk any of their own money (or want to risk very little of it). PSO will give you $100 free to play with at PP. You get $75 up front, deposited into your PP account, to play poker with. After you play 1000 raked hands, you get the remaining $25 (rake is the house's cut of the pot - typically around 5% of the pot). You cannot withdraw any money until you reach 1000 raked hands. PSO also has promos with PP where you can deposit $50 to get $125 free (need 500 raked hands), or $100 to get $150 free (need 1000 raked hands).

I decided to go with the Free Gift promo instead, for two reasons: value, and play requirements. I chose the 300 pc Nevada Jacks ceramic chip set as my free gift (retails at $200, sells on Ebay for about $130), and combined with the PP 20% deposit bonus of $100 if you deposit $500, the value of the promo is about $230 (compared to $100-$150 with the Instant Bankroll promo). In terms of play requirements, this promo only needs 250 raked hands to clear before you get both your PSO gift and your PP bonus money. The only disadvantage of this promo (compared to Instant Bankroll) is that you need to deposit and risk $500 of your own money (although you can withdraw, for example, $400 right away and just play with $100 if you want).

After signing up and depositing $500 right away via Neteller, I went straight to the $0.50/$1 limit hold'em tables (minimum table limits for the PSO promo is $0.50/$1 limit or $25 no-limit). At these tables, the small blind/big blind is $0.25/$0.50, and the maximum bet is $0.50 for the first two rounds (pre-flop and flop), and $1 for the last two rounds (turn and river), with the number of bets capped at four per round. I chose to start playing limit hold'em instead of no-limit because the game is better suited for beginners - making a mistake will not cost you your whole stack. I finished the 250 raked hands requirement after playing for about five hours. I ended the night down about $30 at the tables - a bit of a disappointing start :( With the $100 bonus, though, I net $70, plus I've got the Nevada Jacks chip set as well, which I plan to sell.

Earnings-to-date: $70 + poker chips

Poker Software Aids

While I was waiting for my seed money to reach my Neteller account, I surfed the net and read up on the various software available to help you while playing poker online. One advantage of playing poker on your computer is that you can run other programs at the same time that can help you with your game. This is allowed by the poker sites, as long as the programs don't actually play for you or somehow tamper with the game servers. After some research, I decided to get PokerTracker, GameTime+, and Poker Indicator before I sign up at PartyPoker and start playing.

Poker Tracker (PT) costs $55 (or 5000 PSO points) and is a program that reads the hands that you and your opponents play. This is helpful for keeping track of your profit/loss at the tables. However, its real power lies in the database that it keeps of all those hands. After a session of poker, you can use PT to review the hands where you lost the most money and see where you might have made any mistakes in playing the hand. You can also examine hands where you made money to see if you could have played it better to extract more value. Or, you could sort the data by starting hands or groups of starting hands (e.g. pairs, suited connectors, suited aces, etc). and see which ones you make or lose the most money with. PT also calculates some very useful statistics of your play. The percentage you voluntarily put money into the pot (VP$IP%) will let you know if you are playing loose (playing a lot of hands) or tight (playing few hands). A common mistake among beginners is to play far too many starting hands. Playing too loose will tend to get you into trouble by having to play hands where you have much more difficult decisions to make. Unless you are more advanced and can play well after the flop, it is much better to play tight. Your preflop raise percentage (PFR%) and aggression factor (AF) will tell you if you are playing aggressively (raising a lot) or passively (calling a lot). Learning to play a more aggressive style is very important in playing profitably. Other features will help you keep track of your play by position and by session. I would highly recommend this program to anyone who plays a lot of ring games (cash games, as opposed to tournaments) online. It can be useful if you play tournaments or sit-n-go's (SNG's - unscheduled single- or multi-table tournaments that start once enough people join in), but there are fewer sites that work automatically with PT for these types of games.

GameTime+ (GT+) is a free add-on for PokerTracker, and is used to overlay PokerTracker statistics right on top of the poker table where you are playing. A great feature of PT is that it keeps track of your opponents play as well as your own. With GT+, you can keep a real-time set of important statistics right next to each player at the table. Knowing how each of your opponents at the table play will help greatly in making decisions. For example, if an opponent has been playing very tightly (VP$IP about 15%), and is suddenly making a large re-raise pre-flop, you can be pretty sure he has a monster hand like AA. I highly recommend this program if you play ring games.

Poker Indicator (PI) costs $55 (or 3500 PSO points) and is a poker odds calculator. I got it for free by signing up at Play65 (a backgammon site), but that offer is no longer available. It automatically reads your hole cards (starting cards) and the board cards (community cards - flop, turn, and river), and calculates your outs (number of cards that will improve your hand), % chance of making a better hand, and the pot odds (ratio of amount in pot to amount to call). It will also calculate the % chance an opponent will hold a particular hand, and then calculate an overall percentage chance you will win or tie. It ranks your hole cards and position by Expected Value (EV) - a positive EV means that in the long run, these two hole cards should show a profit if played properly, and a negative EV would mean a loss. Finally, for some poker sites, PI will show you mucked cards at showdown (cards that your opponents throw away without showing after they call a bet on the river - some poker sites reveal this information in the hand histories they give you). Overall, I would recommend PI for beginners. Intermediate to advanced players will not find it very useful, although it can be helpful for quicker decision-making when multi-tabling (playing several poker tables at the same time).

Getting Started In Online Poker

Without a doubt, the best way to get started in online poker for real money is to sign up for a poker room through Poker Source Online (PSO). I first heard about PSO from the forums at RedFlagDeals, a hot deals website for Canadians that I visit frequently. After reading nothing but positive comments about PSO, I decided to check them out before signing up for any poker rooms.

PSO is a poker portal website which gets paid by the various poker rooms to sign up new players. When you sign up through them, PSO shares with you some of the money they get paid by giving you a free gift (such as poker chips, poker tabletops, poker books, etc), or PSO points which you can use to purchase a gift, after you fulfill some minimum play requirements. I strongly recommend, for various reasons, that anyone who wants to start playing poker for real money online, should first sign up for an account at PSO.

First, you will get the most value for your online play this way. There are basically three ways to make money while playing poker online.

1) Win at the tables.
2) Earn a bonus from the poker room. A bonus is money that a poker room pays you for making a real money deposit, and then fulfilling some play requirements.
3) Earn a free gift promo (or rakeback - I'll explain this one at a later date) by signing up for the poker room through PSO. If you choose PSO points, you can redeem them for PartyPoker or AbsolutePoker gift certificates, which are essentially real money in your account. Depending on the specific poker room, gifts from PSO will range in value from $60 to about $150.

So as you can see, if you don't sign up through PSO, you will be missing a good source of revenue. This is particularly important for beginners, who are still learning the game and may not necessarily show a profit at the tables. The bonus money and the PSO promos, then, will serve to buffer any losses you incur at the poker tables as you struggle to improve your game.

Second, PSO has some of the best customer service I've ever encountered. Their support is second-to-none, and they have an excellent website which provides fantastic resources for the novice poker player. Some of these resources include articles on playing poker, reviews of many poker rooms, poker news, and bios on some of the poker pros. They also have a great forum where you can obtain support, learn about the PSO promos and the various poker rooms, read about other people's experiences, get advice on playing poker, vent about your bad beats, and in general interact with a nice community of fellow poker players. In addition, they have regular freeroll tournaments where you can hone your tournament skills and have a chance to win great cash and prizes, all without having to pay anything to buy into the tournament.

Finally, PSO is a great way to meet and interact with other poker players. Poker is a lot of fun, but being a social game, it can be much more enjoyable when playing with people you know. As well, your fellow players can also be a great resource when it comes to learning how to improve your game. I have learned a lot just by watching their game, reading their posts on the PSO forums, and following their blogs on poker.

Today, I signed up for an account at PSO. They have an excellent referral program as well, so I used my friend Eagle2727 as the person who referred me, so that he can make some referral money every time I complete a PSO promo. I also opened a Neteller account, which is the best way to transfer money in and out of the various poker rooms. Neteller is basically an ewallet similar to Paypal, and is used by virtually all the online poker rooms for cash transactions. Transactions are quick, easy, and free of charge (as long as you don't use InstaCash).

To get started, I am transferring $500 from my bank account to my Neteller account, and will be using that money to start a PSO promo at PartyPoker. It will take a few days for this transaction to clear.