Is Poker Worth the Effort?

• Author: Thomas Kearns
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Jan 20,2011

Anyone can learn poker rules quickly enough, online access and interface are easy, and there really is no reason not to try. Online poker is vastly successful. There isn’t a gambling site online which does not offer poker games. A dedicated player becomes part of a community, acquires friends, and perhaps even his livelihood.

Nearly all poker games are available for free download. Safe practice for the novice is offered. You may adjust difficulty as you try your hand against p.c. opponents so as to easily experience successive winning. The pleasure of addiction can be felt coursing through your veins.

You are seated cozily in front of your computer to play all online games. There’s no reason to worry about your body language or trying to read the faces and gestures of your opponents, each with his or her make-up, ticks, and poker-face tricks. Despite this fact, although extremely fun, perfecting your strategy against software is not comparable to live action, it’s rather like doing your best at tennis against a wall or shooting up cardboard targets. Technically, there is not much comparison between a poker game and a gun fight, and unless you are in a Robert Rodriguez movie you can depend on a professional not having a sawed off shotgun pointed at you from across the table. But since both gun fights and poker for real money (as opposed to virtual) involve a constant sense of danger the parallel is warranted.

For this reason the games against human opponents are not merely fun, but eerily fun. It is this kind of fun that makes addiction of the most powerful kind. Someone may wonder whether poker is anything more than a game of patience, these people may have never handled anything more dangerous than a game of Spider Solitaire. Besides skill, chance or luck it is important that this is the essence of the game. Pervaded by danger is a live poker session without the possibility to reset only to Fold.

Many people are turned off by precisely this. While betting on the value of their hands make some people feel irresistibly “alive”. The money, time, and energy to spend are musts but these are controllable factors. You must be willing to make the effort to learn strategy. A player who doesn’t will lose and grow tired of trying if he only approaches the game simply in the crude hope for a few quick wins. Sour is the taste of danger and one wishes to rinse it out as fast as possible.

Danger is delicious to the real player. That is why he is at the table or computer. His stuff and bluff is known by the player. What is practical within his power he knows and does not indulge in vain fantasies. Just as the rock climber is there for the sheer height, he or she is there for the chance. In the game the music of chance must be heard and learned. Even then it will be worth the effort of an unlucky session.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Rakeback at Victory Poker and Rakeback at Power Poker.

A Look at Online Poker Room True Poker

• Author: David Patron
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Jan 4,2011

You probably haven’t heard of True Poker yet, but you will. The site is just getting off the ground, but it offers some nice perks to keep the players that have found it coming back for more. True Poker is owned by a Costa Rican based team whose members put together their love of technology with gaming to bring to the tables a nice and easy poker experience. The concentration is on creating a realistic experience with a basic, simple layout.

The registration and installation of the software is straightforward and fast. An interesting aspect of the application is a separation whereby the virtual casino resides at the top of the screen with the game tabs at the bottom. The chat section is easy to locate and all-in-all, you will find the ride around the application to be swift and smooth. Because the site is basically in its infancy, you won’t find a lot of cash games and tournaments yet, but stick around and enjoy what’s here and there is sure to be more to come.

Upon visiting the site you will encounter around 25 tables with 500 pampered players enjoying themselves. Since Hold Em and Omaha are the only cash games, don’t waste your time searching for something like HORSE or Euchre. There are a multitude of tournaments and sit-n-gos ,however, and even a unique multi-level heads up tournament tab not found on other, much larger sites. True Poker pays heed to customer complaints and suggestions for improvement and is incorporating them into the application for use in future versions that are sure to attract more and more traffic to the site.

As a new online site, True Poker has put most of its resources into its VIP program where players play 2,000 raked hands to be entitled to generous bonuses, and from there the only way to go is up. There are a plethora of valuable bonuses for both cash games and tournaments. Don’t overlook the many freerolls that are offered along with that worthy VIP program. Traffic is sure to flow heartily at True Poker in the future. In the meantime, you may find it difficult to find enough games to play to make it to that VIP status. But keep trying, your time will come.

The player base is small which means the support is large, personal and always available. There are nine ways a player can deposit and cash out and both can be done any time, giving player’s unusual control over their funds. You will surely like the host in the lobby and visit him often to pose your questions and receive immediate answers.

True Poker is small and dedicated to the well being and safety of its players. There is support by email and phone 24-hours a day, but watch yourself on the phone, there is sometimes a fee charged for long distance calls. True Poker partners up with TrueCashier, Ltd., making it evident that the company is solidly behind fair and ethical gaming.

If it’s a new, friendly and different online gaming experience you are looking for, you really won’t do any better than True Poker. Come in and enjoy some basic poker and more pampering than you ever hoped for online.

For more poker room reviews like this one please check out reviews like our WinnerPoker Review, Victory Poker Review, or any of the other poker room reviews at Rakeback Solution.

A Detailed Review of Ultimate Bet

• Author: David Patron
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Jan 3,2011

When you enter the Ultimate Bet Poker site, you will encounter its motto “Raise, Stack, Own,” which fits to a tee one of their favorite players, Mr. Brashman, Phil Helmuth, AKA The Poker Brat. The company has teamed with Absolute Poker to form the Cereus Poker Network and has set its cap to become the ultimate in the world of online poker action. Add to all this, some illustrious women players in Annie Duke, the celebrity apprentice finalist, and Live Boeree plus none other than Anthrax’s lead guitarist, Scott Ian, and you have yourself the epitome of both online poker and entertainment. These are just a few members that make up the cast of characters at Ultimate Bet and you can be sure that the software is up to the challenge of managing all the excitement, traffic and fun.

The application downloads rapidly and easily and is tab-based, easily navigable, user friendly and the layout is straightforward and simple. There is an always on bad beat jackpot meter, an online casino and blackjack pit to give the player everything he could desire in a online gaming site. At the lower edge of the screen is a simple key to use for maneuvering about the cash games and tournaments when the mood strikes you.

The advertising campaign at Ultimate Bet must be really top notch as it draws volumes of players to the site to make it one of the most populous sites in the industry. You will find any time you visit the site upwards of 3,000 tables enlivened by 20,000 enthusiastic players so count on an active cash game and tournament experience. Betting begins at $01/.02 and goes to $200/400 in a broad variety of games. The site even includes such hard-to-find goodies as mixed poker games and tournament blackjack.

One of the more major tournaments hosted by Ultimate Bet are the Sunday events that guarantee a prize pool of no less than $200,000. There is also one of the major online poker series here in the Ultimate Bet Online Poker Championship. There are some unusual poker variants offered as cash games as well as the usual holdem, Omaha and stud, all are very well produced for the pleasure of the gamers.

The signature reward system at Ultimate Bet is the Raise Loyalty Club with its cash rewards and several layers of attainment and reward benefits, the players are amply taken care of. A truly unique promotion is the seven-deuce table. If players can play the cards seven-deuce and win, they also win extra money. This is just one of the exciting examples that Ultimate Bet uses to promote action among the several diverse bonuses available to the players. There is even more, like the chance to grab super bowl tickets and the chance to appear on the online television show called Poker Tonight, this site is a gold mine of rewards and activity.

Ultimate Bet has invested so much in its website that you can bet it intends to take tender loving care of its greatest asset, its players. There is a strong help and support service here by email, continuously staffed by the support team who is able and willing to answer all queries and issues promptly and poignantly. There is much intensive effort aimed at player’s security in banking and all other aspects with a tight deposit and withdrawal procedure to make it well known to its player community that they and their money are safe always.

With a handsome layout, robust software, and thousands of enthusiastic gamers, Ultimate Bet is just that, the Ultimate Bet for all your online gaming activities.

For more poker room reviews like this one please check out reviews like our Tower Poker Review, Red Star Poker Review, or any of the other poker room reviews at Rakeback Solution.