Although online poker is a little different to playing for real in a casino, there are still ways to help your game by reading poker players. It involves watching their hand history, their betting styles and unless they are completely random in their play, you can use this to your advantage. Have a pen and paper or some poker rooms have a “sticky notes” button you can write a note to yourself so that every time you play against that person you have some background information on them.

This is for serious players who make a living from playing online poker. If you can watch their pre-flop and post-flop betting status, then you have a good idea whether they actually have a good hand or not by testing them with a bet. If they usually fold pre-flop, then they are playing cautiously and you can capitalize on this by collecting blinds from them. It shows that they are either a) too safe and reserved in their betting or b) aren’t confident in their ability. Confidence is key in poker, if you don’t have it you will lose great chunks of your bankroll.

Playing at multiple tables is a good idea to increase your bankroll but for reading players and the game it’s almost impossible to do accurately as you always focus on your cards rather than what is happening in the game. If you choose a higher-stake game and only play there, then you have more to win and you should concentrate on others’ style of play. Also, if you realize a way to win, don’t forget to randomize it with a few deliberate losses (of big blind amounts only) as this shows to your opponents that you might not be as keyed-in to the game as your bankroll suggests. Remember, confidence is key. You’ll come out on top if you read the game and bluff your way to the top.

After a rough year, the North American gaming community is looking to 2012 with a sense of cautious optimism. It’s important to recognize, however, that despite recent discussions of large-scale online casino legalization in the United States and Canada, policymakers in both federal governments have failed to address the reality that their moves to “protect” gamblers may have done the industry more harm than good.

The United States Department of Justice’s pursuit of online gambling providers has been suspiciously profitable for the government in more ways than one. Black Friday fallout – including a $3 billion dollar penalty – has been especially harsh on virtually all of North America’s online gambling establishments, but few have been hit as hard as poker providers such as Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.

The government’s decision to slap providers with such an astronomical fee speaks volumes about its apparent attitudes towards the gaming community as a whole, particularly in light of comparatively minor penalties placed on financial institutions facing similar charges. Wachovia Bank, for example, was fined a mere $160 million for its alleged involvement in a drug smuggling ring for money laundering purposes.

Federal reasoning behind the poker site shutdown measures cites the 2006 passage of the country’s UIGEA law as precedent for the seizures on the grounds that the defendants knowingly engaged in unlawful Internet business practices, but government agencies have remained shockingly indifferent to the large sums of money belonging to innocent players that was confiscated as part of recent crackdowns.

Charges against the poker providers in question clearly implicate a number of financial institutions as aware and thus complicit of their involvement in illegal Internet business practices, but their failure to address basic consumer rights is glaring. Millions of jilted players have been left rightfully distrustful of their governments’ intentions to protect its citizens and unsure of whether or not they’ll ever be repaid.

The debate over online gambling legality itself in North America is expected to heat up over the next few months as state and federal deficits reach new lows, but it has already proven to be yet another costly issue for gaming industry leaders and private players alike. In the meantime, casinos and gambling groups have been forced to spend millions of dollars on lobbyists to represent their interests in Washington.

Predictably, rather than steering gaming talks toward the creation and enforcement of a system of comprehensive Internet gambling regulations that would protect both consumers and service providers, policymakers have been using the discussions as an opportunity to flex their political muscles.

One thing is clear: Canada and the United States currently operate under clumsy federal legislation that may effectively disallows online gambling, which means that North American players and providers are forced to remain in a perpetual state of vulnerability for the time being.

The content was contributed by WWW.POKER.CA.

There are some industries with a dominant leader and some without. Or sometimes the leader may change over time, for instance Google could replace Microsoft as the 800 pounds gorilla of personal computing. In online poker Party Poker was number one for a long time, but in recent years Pokerstars is the uncontested number one of online poker. And this should not change in the near future, at least until online poker gets regulated in the United States.

From almost any angle you can look at it, pokerstars is first. The easiest metric to get started with is traffic, and not only there are first for traffic, but there are first by a huge margin as they have more than twice as much traffic as the number two site. From traffic all the rest can follow as this means they have a larger budget for marketing or for software development. So how did they reach such leadership position? As there is no pokerstars rakeback to attract and retain players, all their marketing effort have been focused on developing a unique brand that stands apart from the crowd of online poker rooms.

You cannot play roulette online at Pokerstars but anything related to online and live poker you can do. You will find more choice at pokerstars than anywhere else, be it poker variations, active stake levels in ring games, tournament frequency, buy-in level, format or poker variant, and an unequalled activity in sit and goes. They are even deeply involved in live poker. Not only do you see a lot of their sponsored pros wear their gear at major live tournaments, but they also founded some of the major tournament series, such as the EPT, LAPT, UKIPT and APPT.

Another way pokerstars stands apart is the way they make promotions, events and break records. They have a special promo each time they reach a new milestone of ten billion more hands such as their 70^th billion hand recently. In addition they just celebrated their tenth anniversary with a multitude of special events.

They had a list of events to reward their players in this occasion and they broke a few Guiness Book records in the process. They had the largest online poker tournament ever on Dec 13^th with a field of 200,000 players. 200,000 players was the cap so it would have been even higher without that constraint. The winner got over $40k as first prize, which is not bad given that the entry fee was only $1.

Last Sunday they broke another record with the biggest online poker tournament ever, where big means the size of the prize pool versus large meaning the size of the field. So this time they got a total pool of money equal to $12,423,000, just for this tournament (it had a $10 million guarantee by the way). And the winner received more than $1.1 million, not bad either.

When the bid expired nobody won it

eBay is home to some extremely strange stuff up for sale. At the same time, it’s a flea bargain fan’s paradise, as you can find anything from small computer components to cars, and even small helicopters, and here is a funny poker news story. To put it short, if somebody wants something sold, chances are they’re going to put it up on eBay. And that’s exactly what former World Series of Poker winner, Brad Daugherty, did, as he tried to sell his poker bracelet on the famous site.

Brad Daugherty is a professional poker player. Born in 1951 in the United States, he became passionate about the sport in 1969, when he heard that there are huge amounts of money to be won from poker. After moving to Reno, in 1978, he didn’t strike it big until 9 years later, when he won his very first poker tournament. However, the odds would be for him from then on – just four years later, he won the World Series of Poker Main Event. This was the first year when the prize got up to $1 million, along with his bracelet – and remember, this was a time when only main event winners would get the bracelets. He followed up with another final table finish at the 1993 WSOP, and this was the last time he finished in the top of the leader boards. But, he did manage 21 money finishes at the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour throughout his career.

Now retired in the Philippines, Daugherty has apparently hit some rough times, as he was spotted auctioning off his WSOP bracelet in an eBay bid. He’s not the first pro poker player to do that, as others have done it before. TJ Cloutier tried to sell his last year, also on eBay, and eventually succeeded in doing so. Paul Clark sold his in 1999, and Peter Eastgate (2008 main event winner) brought him close to $150k in 2008.

According to some sources, it seems like Daugherty did this in order to help impoverished children from the Philippines area. Whatever the case may be,  this is the second time that the bracelet made an appearance on eBay, and the second time that it was left without a buyer. Who wants to bet that we’re going to see it a third time?

There are lots of new poker sites appearing on the internet every single day, and there’s one way this benefits you as an online poker player. It’s obvious that where there’s a harsh competition going on, the only ones who have to benefit from it are the players themselves. With these many sites popping up, the number of offers and promotions that they are bringing out is staggering, and other online poker rooms have been quick to keep up with the latest developments and offer some of the largest bonuses and promotions in online poker history. Needless to say, if you’re to sign up for a new account with an online poker site now, the situation would be much better for you than it would have been just a few short years ago.

The obvious downside to having a large number of new, unknown online poker rooms is the fact that you, as a beginner in the online poker industry, have no idea what online poker room to go for when you’re about to sign up for a new account. It’s the same as with every other industry out there – the more the offers, the less chance you have of making a decision in a short time, let alone make a good decision.

If you’re in this situation, here are a few things you should consider when choosing a new online poker site to play at. First, check out how old it is – depending on what type of guy you are, this might make or break the deal for you. If the online poker site is extremely new, and you are the kind of “early adopter” who wants stuff as soon as they come out, this is a great match. If you would rather go for the stability and security that a few years of experience have to offer, then go for the older online poker sites. You should also keep an eye out for online poker sites that offer some kind of promotions to their new users. First deposit bonuses are a great way to attract new players, and this is definitely something you should be looking for in an online poker site.

All in all, the online poker world is a dynamic, ever-changing industry that’s filled with all sorts of types of sites. If you are new to this gaming industry, make sure you make the right decision right off the bat and choose a great site to play at.

Players signing up at Full Tilt Poker will be welcomed with 100% bonus up to $600. The bonus is released to the player’s account in increments of 10% on initial deposit, or $20 whichever is less, and it must be cleared within 90 days. The first real money deposit also entitles the players a free entry to their $100K First Deposit Freeroll. Daily freeroll tournaments are held wherein players can earn cash without paying any entry fees or making a deposit.

The Iron Man Challenge contest at Full Tilt Poker runs over a calendar month and seeks to reward players with exclusive gear and other prizes. Players also get a chance to play three of Full Tilt’s pros heads up for $100,000. Daily Shootouts, direct qualifiers and 150 seat main even guarantee tournaments give you a chance to win a seat at the 2011 WSOP.

The Full Tilt Poker site also hosts the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) which gives away cash prizes and special promotions. Each event at FTOPS is hosted by a Full Tilt Pro.

Full Tilt is doing its bit for the society. Aid for Japan program enables players to donate money by playing in special ‘Aid for Japan’ tournaments where the site matches your donations for the cause.

Apart from the above, Full Tilt has a number of guaranteed tournaments with fabulous rewards almost every day of the week. These include the Big Money Sundays, the $750K Guarantee, the $1 Million Guarantee, the $1K Monday, The Sunday Brawl and Weekly Guarantees. Also, you make three times the Full Tilt points by playing during happy hours.

Referring a friend to Full Tilt Poker will earn you $100 upon sign up. There are plenty of other promotions at Full Tilt which give away attractive prizes. So, check out fulltiltpoker.com for the latest poker offers.

The perfect deal for any online poker beginner is the Cake Poker Bonus, a truly great offer that’s available to every new player. If you haven’t heard of it already (and that’s tough to imagine), Cake Poker is one of the leading online poker sites open today, and it’s incredibly easy to get started with them. All you need to do is ensure that you have the right sign up bonus code (and EZBONUS isn’t hard to remember, and it’s even easier to copy and paste it into the right field).

In order to get your hands on the Cake Poker offer, you first need to download and install the Cake Poker software – a small piece of poker software that essentially allows you to play poker on the site. When you first fire up the program, it will ask you to create a new account – click on that option, and when you reach the “referral code” field, simply paste the referral code from above. That’s all you need to do, and the payoff is outstanding!

The bonus will then start to be shipped to your bankroll, as soon as you clear the required conditions. For instance, every time you add 1 Frequent Player Point (the special bonus points that are given to loyal members) you will be given $.06 from your bonus. You automatically rack up more FPPs every time you play for real money on Cake Poker, so the whole situation is the exact opposite of a vicious circle: every time you play, you gain more FPPs, getting more of your bonus along the way. And every time you get more of your bonus, you can play more so you can start everything all over again.

All in all, if you’re looking for a great place to start playing online poker, then Cake Poker should be at the top of your list. Check out the Cake Poker Bonus for a great chance at one of the largest offers in the online poker industry. Check them out, create an account and have a great time playing!

From potato chips to poker chips, it seems both have a huge part to play in Roberto Romanello’s success.  For, this fish and chips restaurant owner from Wales is firmly on his way to win the Triple Crown. In December 2010, he won the Poker Stars EPT Prague Main Event and in just few months down the line, he is the champion of the World Poker Tour, Bratislava. Roberto has now set his sights on the WSOP title which begins on May 31, 2011.

The final event of the World Poker Tour, Bratislava held in the beginning of April 2011, netted him € 1,40,685 in tournament winnings. Roberto Romanello’s live tournament winnings amount to a total of $ 1,471,726. For someone who began playing poker online at gambling websites in 2006 “just to pass the time” when he was laid up at home with a fractured leg, this is a huge achievement. Roberto Romanello became a full-time professional poker player only a couple of years back and travels a lot for the events. When he is at home, he still helps out with the family’s Roma Fish Bar in Gorseinon and has no problem in manning the fryer at the restaurant.

Roberto Romanello has made many friends in his poker career. But to him, winning at the poker table comes first. And when he wins, he doesn’t hesitate to share his success with friends and family alike. When he won the WPT Bratislava, there was a party at the Hotel Kampinski Bratislava lobby at 4 in the morning. Everyone was there, from dealers to floor persons to half the casino staff, celebrating with beer, vodka and brandy. Roberto took out 5000 Euros out of the prize money he won for this celebration. He says, “It’s about the people around me that make me happy in life. I don’t want to be a winner who’s not well liked.”

When it comes to poker though, Roberto has the killer attitude – he plays to win. Great players induce others against them to make mistakes and Roberto Romanello fits the bill. He has the talent to play great poker and the ability to see through his opponent’s poker faces that make him a consistent winner. When he’s asked what makes him the excellent player that he is, he says it has all to do with being able to read the competitors’ body language. “If they flinch, or say something — or the way they say something — might make me think they’ve got nothing, or that they’re strong.”

It will be history in the making when Roberto Romanello goes to the World Series of Poker at Las Vegas next month. There are only two Triple Crown winners and no one has achieved the feat in a single year. Roberto has the opportunity to achieve this seemingly impossible task and everyone including friends and family will be there to support him.

To illustrate just how important onlinepoker.net is, here’s one subject that has been covered by the entire world: Black Friday. The team of editors from onlinepoker.net proved to be a reliable news source in the poker crisis, constantly feeding updated information to the fans, and being a veritable center of information.

As you might have already heard, the pokerstars shut down last Friday took the entire world by surprise, as did the falls of other major sites, such as Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker or UB Poker. Early in the morning, reports started coming in that the homepages for these poker sites weren’t loading as they should. Instead of the usual webpages, a single picture posted by the FBI could be seen on the whole page.

After a quick glance, the truth became immediately apparent: the United States Government had seized the domain names for each of the poker sites. After the initial confusion, and the cascade of unverified information (some people actually believed that it was all a massive, belated April Fool’s joke organized by all of the sites), news started coming that this was, indeed, a raid by the U.S. Department of Justice, and the whole thing was the culmination of an investigation that ran for a couple of years.

That day, 11 people were indicted, including key members of Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker or PokerStars. Each faced up to 30 years in prison, and a million dollars in fines – not to mention the money seized from the online poker sites themselves.

Since then, more and more pieces of information started to surface, and, according to onlinepoker.net, the online poker kingpins are charged with fraud, as they failed to declare the true nature of their business to the banks.

While the sites themselves have been shut down in the aftermath of the authorities’ assault, the online poker games have suffered little damage, as they cotninued to work. However, any online poker player that accessed the site from within the United States was greeted with an ominous message stating that the U.S. government now restricts real money play.

All in all, this is just one of the subjects that has been so profesionally handled by the team of editors from onlinepoker.net. For many other helpful articles, check them out now.

As a result of Poker Black Friday Pokerstars has closed for all players from the USA

Online gambling has a very delicate legal situation throughout the world. While there are countries that encourage online gambling sites, by offering the best conditions for them – from permissive laws to great taxes, there are countries that don’t permit online gambling sites to exist altogether. Since 2006, the United States have joined the group of countries that made online gambling illegal. Once the law was passed, online gambling became illegal in the United States, and most of the online gambling sites have preferred to shut down business in the American country altogether, rather than lose tons of money worth of profit.

The few online poker sites and online gambling sites that “survived” in the United States were, in fact, the largest ones on the market. Sites like PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker, who managed to unite all online poker players and online gamblers that were active in the States. All that came to a sudden stop, though, on Friday, the 15^th of April, a day which will go down in history as Black Friday. This is when the American authorities launched a coordinated attack against the fraudulent online poker sites that were involved in illegal activities, such as money laundering.

No less than eleven key people from the online poker industries were charged with breaking the federal gambling laws, and the heads of the largest online poker sites in the world were indicted. Among them, Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate, key figures in the world’s largest online poker site: PokerStars. The FBI, along with the Department of Justice, have seized the domain names that the poker rooms were using, and as of yet the homepage still redirects to a static image the FBI put up on the poker sites, informing the public that the domain name has been seized. Although the online poker software is still up and running, reports say that the player count has been literally decimated, with far less people being online – and one thing is for certain, although the site is expected to make a full recovery, PokerStars is closed to American players, and it’s very likely that it will remain that way as long as the online gambling laws remain in effect.

This is a disastrous situation for all the online poker industry, and it’s a shocking turnover for every online poker player. We will keep you updated with news as the events will unfold, so check back.