You’ve seen them. You’ve read about them. You’ve perhaps even envied a few. Now, it’s time to experience the thrill of taking down a high-rolling player at the poker tables. If you’re ready to take your game to new heights, playing poker online with real money is the way to go.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to get into the action, using the top online poker sites. We’ll also reveal some secrets to help you find the most profitable games on the Internet. Once you learn where to look, you might just be able to build a winning poker strategy that lets you make some serious cash. Plus, you can use our exclusive bonuses to boost your bankroll right out of the gate. So, let’s dig in and see what it really takes to play online poker for real money.
Online poker for real money doesn’t have to cost a fortune. In fact, there are many great games you can play for pennies (literally). Most online poker rooms let you adjust your bet sizes however you choose. That means you can often find games which fit almost any budget – no matter how big or small. If you’re just getting started in the game, it makes sense to look for the cheapest games possible. That way, you can hone your skills without risking too much money. But what constitutes a “cheap” game of online poker? Well, that would be any contest where you buy in for $1 or less. It just so happens that many internet card rooms offer $1 tournaments and sit-and-go games. These are great places for beginners to cut their teeth because they don’t cost much, but they still give you a taste of the excitement that real money poker brings.
How to Find $1 Tournaments and Games
Every major poker site on the Internet offers at least one form of $1 tournament or sit-and-go. In fact, some sites specialize in these low priced contests. One good example is ClubWWD Poker (our more details). This poker room is accessible through the award-winning World Wide Winnings network, which was built from the ground up to serve recreational poker players like you. At Club WWD Poker, you can enter $1 Sit ‘n Go tournaments which start up every couple of minutes! It doesn’t get much faster or easier than that.
Another option worth considering is America’s Cardroom (more info offers ). Here, you can enter $1 Pot Limit Contests where each time someone puts more chips into the pot, they receive another card. With up to 5 Community Cards, it’s easy to hit monstrous hands in this fast fold poker variant. What does all this mean for you? Easy – big prize pools even though everyone only paid $1 to enter!
One thing you should know about $1 poker games is that they tend to attract lots of beginning and intermediate players. After all, these are the people who want to play for real money without risking very much. While it is true that some lucky novices will win a few bucks, the smart professionals will clean up in these games. Why? Because they understand the nuances of the game better than their opponents. They’ll make better decisions over the course of many matches, and that translates directly into profits. Of course, sometimes luck is on your side, and you’ll manage to win a buck here or there despite not knowing the first thing about the . Still, if you want to earn money consistently, it may be time to brush up on your Hold’em skills.
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How to Find More Profitable Games
If you’d like to graduate to higher level competition, the best method is to pick a time when most of your opponents are likely to be sleeping. Depending on where you live in the world, this could mean playing either early in the morning or late at night. For example, if you dwell in the United States, then most Germans, British, and Japanese poker players will have gone to bed. This means that you’ll have a shot at winning some significant coin by playing the peak hours at (more info offers ). If you wake up early in the morning, there will likely be lots of Australians and Asian players logged on to PokerStars.de – another great place to find relatively green opponents. The key is to play during off-hours in Germany/Europe, as there will simply be fewer strong players online to challenge you.
Another tip for finding weak opponents is to compare the selection of across different poker sites. Top poker rooms typically feature special software features which serious grinders appreciate, while others are favored by casual players. Basically, professional online poker players flock to sites with the following features, so you won’t find many of them there:
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- Mobile poker apps for Android and iOS phones and tablets
- 100% Johannes Strassmann poker action with no traditional casino games
- Integrated racing or sports betting elements
- Private poker games that you can play against friends and family members
- Large selections of alternative poker games besides Texas Hold’em (e.g. Omaha, Stud, Draw)
Conversely, you’ll probably find a lot of beginner and intermediate poker players at German card rooms with software packages like the following:
- Full-featured poker client with all the bells and whistles
- No real money casino games besides poker titles
- Standard focus on Texas Hold’em games
How to Make Your First Deposit
Once you’ve found some good $1 poker games, you’ll need to make a deposit in order to buy into the contests. Don’t worry; it’s not difficult at all. Just follow these simple steps at any of the recommended poker sites:
- Create an account by entering your personal information and choosing a username/password. Don’t forget your voucher code for a exclusive sign-up bonus. Important: You must be at least 21 years old and reside in Mexico, Peru, or Spain to join.
- Navigate to the Cashier page within the poker client. Pick the deposit method you prefer, and fill in the necessary details.
- Nominate an amount of money to deposit, making sure to take advantage of any available bonus offers.
- Wait for the transaction to clear. All deposits are usually processed instantly, except for bank transfers which can require several days.
- Collect your bonus when you log back into the poker room. Be aware that most match bonuses are distributed into your account on a incremental basis as you play. For example, if you receive a €100 match bonus, you may actually only see €5 added to your account each time you accrue 10 reward points. In reality, it’s actually harder to earn rewards at very low stakes, so keep that in mind.
What Are the Reward Points Used For?
Reward points aren’t actual currency, but rather a measure of how much you’ve played at the real money poker tables. Essentially, you earn reward points by placing rake at the tables – which is just a fancy way of saying that you’re getting credit for making purchases of $1 poker games or tournaments. Most poker rooms charge a small fee on every pot, known as the rake, before distributing prizes to the winners. This is how they make their money. However, when you earn reward points, that’s how you make your money.
Some poker sites also allow you to earn reward points by making casino bets or sports wagers, but that isn’t very common. In most cases, the quickest and easiest way to accumulate reward points is by buying in to as many $1 poker tourneys and sit-and-gos as your schedule allows. As a rough guideline, you can expect to earn around 2 reward points per $.10 of rake paid. Thus, if you buy in directly to a $1 sit-and-go, you should receive around 20 reward points.
You can track your reward point totals and other useful statistics via the Poker Client > My Account menu. Many poker rooms also offer a loyalty program which gives you additional benefits based on your cumulative number of reward points earned over a long period of time – usually 6 months to 1 year. Lower-level programs are available to all members, while elite levels may require you to earn hundreds of thousands or millions of reward points before enrolling. Some typical benefits of loyalty programs include higher match bonuses, exclusive freerolls (free entry $1 poker tournaments), and merchandise vouchers.
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Is It Really Free to Play Online Poker?
At this point, you may be thinking, “I didn’t realize I was playing for reward points the whole time.” That’s kind of the idea. When you receive a matching bonus, you aren’t given the money all at once. Instead, the poker site tells its servers to add funds to your account automatically as you reach certain milestones. In almost all cases, these milestones are determined by the number of reward points you earn while playing online poker with real money.
This system has two main advantages for online poker rooms. Number one, the poker site gets to give away a large bonus while risking very little money. They only dispense funds to proven customers who have already demonstrated some degree of skill and dedication. This helps reduce their financial exposure to bonus fraud and account sharing. Number two, the poker site encourages you to play more often and at higher limits. Though there’s nothing wrong with earning a reward point-based bonus, you should be aware of the mathematical expectations involved. It may take hundreds or thousands of reward points to collect your entire bonus amount.
Let’s say you’ve received a €1000 match bonus. Does that mean you’ll end up with a total of €1000 in your account balance? Not necessarily. If you buy in directly to a series of $1 poker games, your progress will be slow indeed. Additionally, you may fail to complete the bonus before it expires. Every poker site sets different expiration dates for bonuses, but most are somewhere between 30 and 90 days. It’s possible to attempt the direct approach, but you’ll have a better chance of success if you step up to $6 or $10 single table tournaments. Even so, you’ll need to log in quite a few hours over the course of several weeks.
most effective on-line on line casino websitesA Faster Way to Clear Your Bonus
Fortunately, there’s a quicker way to burn through reward points and bring those bonus dollars within reach. The technique is called rebuys, and it’s especially effective with $1 poker rebuy tournaments. Most online rebuy tournaments work like this – you pay your original buy in, and you receive a set number of starting chips. Then, no matter how many times you bust out, you can always get back in the action for a reduced price. Sometimes there are limits to the number of rebuys you’re allowed, or time restrictions on how quickly you can reenter, but most $1 poker rebuy tournaments are pretty generous.
Now, you might be wondering why anyone would want to pay extra money to enter a tournament tons of times. Wouldn’t that get ridiculous after a while? Absolutely. That’s why all players receiving match bonuses employ a strategy of only a few rebuys – maybe 3 or 4 at the most. Still, that’s often enough to earn hundreds of reward points and collect a big chunk of your bonus all at once. Instead of drawing the process out for months, you can clear your bonus in a day or two by playing $1 poker rebuy tournaments.
Many online poker rooms offer special Rebuy tournaments which are tailor made for bonus seekers. In fact, most major poker sites host at least one $1 poker rebuy game each day or every couple of hours. These games usually have very loose chip allocation structures, meaning that every player receives a massive stack of starting chips. The blinds only increase slowly, giving everyone plenty of time to build on their leads. Since everyone is receiving rebuises, very few players are knocked out in these events. Indeed, it’s not uncommon for a single $1 poker Rebuy tournament to last 2 or 3 hours.
Even though the average skill level of your opponents will be above baseline due to the incentive of rebuys, it is still possible to turn a profit in these games. Moreover, you’ll easily chalk up dozens or even hundreds of reward points per contest, quickly working your way toward that big match bonus. Rather than hoping for a big score in a satellite or major tournament, it often makes more sense to stick close to home with some $1 poker rebuy tournaments. Before long, you’ll have cleared your entire poker bonus – and possibly even won a bit of cash, too.
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Other Types of Low Stakes Poker Tournaments
There are many types of official poker tournament formats, and most of them are available at the recommended . If you’d like to try something new besides Rebuy games, you’ll find plenty of options to choose from. Here are brief descriptions of three popular variations you can try for under $10 total buy in.
- Freezeout tournaments. In a freezeout, once you bust out, you’re out for good. There are no rebuys or add-ons permitted. It is possible to have a reentry format, where if you bust out, you can buy back in for the full cost. Usually freezouts have smaller starting chips, lower blind increments, and are timed events. For example, a $1 one-table Sit ‘n Go freezeout may start each player with 500 chips, go to an 11-minute clock at $1/$2 blinds, and end after 90 minutes or when one player has chipped up all the opposition.
- Turbo bounty Rebuy tournaments. Turbo games move twice as fast as standard competitions. Each round of betting is done in half the time, and breaks are shorter or non-existent. Furthermore, bounty events feature a unique prize structure. Each player begins the match with a prominent public target on their avatar. If you knock out an opponent, you can claim their bounty target. Collecting a bounty also nets you a few extra chips and a moment of glory. Since everyone loves shooting for the high score, bounty tournaments tend to have much more action than regular games. Rebuys are also common in bounty matches, but since you can only have a set number of targets, you’ll have to get a new bounty target and give up your old one each time you rebuy.
- Satellites. Satellites aren’t tied to any specific prize, but rather exist to give the winner a ticket to another event. Usually the main event is a larger version of the same tournament type. For instance, if you win a $1 satellite, you’ll probably get a seat in a $10 tournament. In some cases, you may even qualify for a live event or a World Series of Poker tournament online. Satellites are a good way to stretch your competitive muscles and maybe get a few friends together for a bigger match later on.
Tips for Building a Winning Strategy
These days, most beginning and intermediate poker players watch a ton of televised tournaments and think they’re experts. While it’s true that you can gain some useful insights from watching , it is rare to glean concrete strategic advice from TV poker. That’s because TV directors aren’t particularly interested in cards, bets, and conversation – the things which truly matter in a poker hand. Instead, they focus on close-ups of players’ faces, stack sizes, and hole cards. By showing hole cards to the whole world, tournament organizers believe they’re increasing the excitement level for casual viewers. Unfortunately, this practice completely negates any real strategic value of broadcasting a poker match. Who cares if a pro makes a brilliant bluff on the river if you already knew he had to be bluffing because you saw his hole cards at the start of the hand? Exactly.
Fortunately, most online poker games don’t reveal hole cards at any point. This leaves plenty of room for strategy, reading your opponents, and outsmarting them. If you really want to succeed at the tables, you should study books and articles written by expert poker players. Some of the best guides are specifically targeted towards online Hold’em action. A few essential texts for online Hold’em poker players include “Theory of Poker” by David Sklansky, “Harrington on Hold’em” by Dan Harrington, “Playing the Player” by Ed Miller, and “Essential Poker Math” also by Daniel Skolovy. You can purchase these books online from Amazon or other booksellers, or check them out from your local library. Alternately, you can search the Web for free online versions, poker strategy forums, or FAQ files.
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Are you ready to put your strategies to the test with some real money poker online? Then visit today. This leading poker site offers a variety of Hold’em and Omaha tables where you can participate in $1 poker tournaments and sit-and-go games. You can also find some Freeroll tournaments for absolutely risk free poker action. Don’t forget to use your voucher code when registering your new account to ensure that you maximize your banking opportunities. See you at the tables!
