Playing Texas Hold'em Online, The Professional Guide - Chapter 12

How To Pick An Online Casino And A Brief History Of Online Poker

Online gambling is increasing at a staggering rate worldwide. Total revenues for online gambling worldwide in 2003 were an estimated $5 Billion – over 4.3% of all worldwide ecommerce.

The world's first virtual online casino, Internet Casinos, Inc. commenced operation on August 18, 1995 with 18 different casino games and is now publicly traded on NASDAQ. Most of these online gambling companies are located outside of the U.S. to avoid government prosecution. ICI operates out of the Turks and Cayucos Islands and Wager Net is based in Belize. Site users can either send cash through one of the companies offering secure payment systems for the Internet or open an offshore account, a requirement for Americans to use ICI's site. A number of foreign governments have entered the business of online casinos holding their sites out to people worldwide. For instance, the government of Liechtenstein is operating an online international lottery in six different languages, including Chinese.

According to Rolling Good Times Online gambling magazine, there are over 1300 gambling-related sites on the net and more are up and running every day.

The economics of the industry are amazing. While it may cost up to $300 million to build a new bricks and mortar resort casino, most virtual casinos can be developed for between $1-2 million and will employ only 10-20 people as opposed to thousands for a traditional casino. The industry averages about a twenty-five (25%) profit margin, versus the typical U.S. casino, which ranges between eight percent (8%) to sixteen (16%) of each dollar wagered. Interactive Gaming & Communications International handled $48 million dollars in its first year of operations and has made a staggering profit ever since.

In sum, an estimated twenty million people are currently online with a projected 160 million online by the year 2020. The major online casinos register over 7,000,000 visits per month. According to surveys conducted by the US government, the majority of gamblers, 83%, play online, however, only a third of that group plays for real money. In other words, the major attraction for online players are casinos that offer free games. In all, 28% of those who gamble do so online for real money. According to a recent study 73% percent of those who play for real money both online and offline lost money in the past month, while 80% of land-based-only players lost money. Online gamblers, however, lose more money per game. Those who gamble for real money both online and offline lost in the past month more than double what those who gamble exclusively offline lost. Further, there are more than four-times more high rollers (percentage wise) among the online players than there are among land-based-only players.

If you're wondering how safe your money is at an online casino, there are a number of things to consider. Over the past few years there have been a number of cases of winners at online poker casinos being denied payment. Remember, as online gambling is not allowed in the U.S., you have no legal recourse to recover funds. Our advice is to stay with well-established online casinos with an extensive track record and a reputation for paying out winners. We list ten of the largest, best known in this section. All have excellent track records, use well-established software to deliver the gaming experience and offer a wide range of tables to select from.

You will be tempted sometimes by very generous offers of large player bonuses from online casinos you've never heard of. Think about it – if you started a new casino in a very crowded market, how would you get the attention of potential new players?

Our suggestion is to avoid these casinos. What good would it do to win $10,000 and then find you can never claim the money? There are numerous 'systems' being promoted that suggest you can use these bonuses to multiply your winnings – even play for free. That's nonsense. Bonuses, if they are based on the number of hands, will be returned to the house through the rake. Pick your casino based on play quality and the volume of table options. That's the real key to winning.

I often get questions about how fair certain casinos are. One author has written a book claiming that there are dealing errors in one large casino that give players in the know a decided advantage. This writer does not understand the technology behind the card dealing process at reputable online casinos. Electronic games of all types use random number generator (RNG) software algorithm to determine card outcome, the RNG algorithm is called into play hundreds of times per second. The RNG has approximately 16,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible outcomes and, depending of course on the type of game, there will be billions and billions of outcomes that map into any set of cards. This ensures that all game outcomes are completely random. There are no 'hiccups' in the process you can use to beat the virtual dealer. The science of random number generation is well established and impossible to beat.

Here are a number of factors you can use to choose the best online poker room.

Security and Privacy

You want as much reassurance that your credit info is safe, your identity and contact info won't be sold and that game conditions are as safe and as fair as possible (e.g. that the software isn't vulnerable to manipulation; players aren't colluding because a system of checks is in place; etc.). Secure servers are a necessity. Sites should elaborate on the encryption system that they use. All good sites should address the above issues to your satisfaction.

Do they discuss issues like their card-shuffling algorithm? Also, what kind of RNG (random number generator) do they use? The best ones increase the level of predictability in the cards being played. What other safeguards do they have in place to prevent game-rigging, collusion, hacker intrusions, etc.? You should always read a site's privacy policy, including the small print.

Action

How many players log on to the games? Can you get action in the poker game of your choice anytime, day or night? Do they have diverse offerings with enough players to keep tables full? The larger the pool, the more action you'll see in both game play and cash winnings. We visit the sites at different times to see what the overall action is like as well as the variety of players in all games offered.

Gameplay

If your money and personal info are secure but the ease of game play and visuals suck, then chances are you're not going to come back. We look at the variety of poker games offered and keep a close eye on how well a site creates a good poker environment. How easy is it to play? Converse with other players (or mute them, if you wish)? Are the graphics and sounds fun? Interesting? Can I play even if my system doesn't support the absolutely latest graphics, etc.? Is all the information needed to play easy-to-access and clearly stated? Some sites definitely have more appealing gameplay than others.

Connectivity

How often does the game crash due to server issues at the online poker room's end? How bad are the delays in transfer of info? What about disconnections? Are they repeated?

Anything that disrupts game play on a regular basis is going to be an annoyance and a major problem (at the worst if the stakes are high, you're on a streak). We realize problems can occur at the player's end (with their computer and their particular ISP) but there's no denying some sites are more reliable and offer less downtime and other such irritations than others.

Cashouts

How much money have players won at their poker games? How easy is it to cash out your winnings? Do they credit your credit card? What charges are applied? How long does it take to receive winnings? You shouldn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out how to cash out what you've won and whether extra charges, delays, etc. are worth it. Or have the patience of a saint. And we like features such as e-mail confirmations of the withdrawal transactions verifying request, dates, and amounts.

Free Play

Testing out poker game play, environment, percentage, etc. helps to familiarize yourself with what to do in the event of server crashes, how well you've understood the written rules of play at the particular online poker room, and the mixed quality of other players you may encounter.

This is an important feature of any good poker site – playing first for free - although we recognize that people play very differently when they've got real money on the line. Some sites make it easier than others to identify how to get in on the free play action without submitting heaps of personal information in advance.

Other Features

Some sites will let you choose a character image which becomes identified with you. Others will track your game play statistics for you. Some provide no charges for certain kinds of cash outs. Some track the top players. Some allow you to beta-test new games or poker tournaments in development. Others offer good poker resources in terms of celebrity columns, advice, links, etc. We like both access to quality information that's useful to us in playing poker as well as convenience.

Online casinos offer players bonus incentives to come play at their casinos. These are known as casino bonuses, casino promotion, free chip offers, and although there are several other terms used to describe the free money given to players by the casinos the bottom line is that it's free money. Outlined below are a few descriptions of the different types of bonuses offered by online casinos.

No Deposit Casino Bonuses

This type of bonus is offered to players just for trying and downloading and trying the casinos software out. In general, this type of casino bonus is in the range of $10 and $22.

Online Casino Match Bonuses

With a casino match bonus, the casino gives players additional cash to play at the casino upon making a first deposit. If a player deposits $50 in a 100% match bonus situation the player would get an additional $50 to play with at the casino.

Alternative Banking Bonuses

Since online gambling transactions made by players may encounter some rejections by credit card companies many casinos have resorted to alternative payment solutions. These include NETeller, Fire Pay, Prepaid ATM and others. Some casinos offer players additional bonuses on top of their existing no deposit bonuses and match bonuses for deposits made through these alternative-banking methods.

Poirot Poker

There are no money games at this site, only free Texas Hold'em Poker. There's no download, just sign in and play. You'll play Hold'em poker with artificially intelligent programs - robots that learn. The robots are tough players. Your icon will be a fish. You owe it to yourself to spend some time playing these bots. It's a very interesting game of Texas Hold'em Poker. You can learn a lot from a bot.

The websites listed here invite players to try their poker games absolutely free. If you want to play poker online for money, you should be sure it is legal to do so from your location.

Take advantage of the free poker at these sites and practice, practice, practice!

The Betting Rules for Pot-Limit Texas Hold'em

Minimum eligible raise: The raise amount must be at least as much as the previous bet or raise in the same round. As an example, if the first player to act bets $100 then the second player must raise a minimum of $100 (total bet of $200).

Maximum eligible raise: The size of the pot: The size of the pot is defined as the total of the active Pot (which can be either the main pot or the side pot depending on whether anyone has gone "all-in") plus all bets on the table plus the amount the active player must first call before raising.

As an example, if the active pot is $200 and the first player to act in the round bets $150 and the next player calls $150, the third player has a maximum eligible total bet of $800. The $800 total is made up of the $150 call and $650 raise.

The $650 max raise portion is equal to the pot of $200 + first player's $150 + second player's $150 + his own call of $150.

Pot-Limit and No-Limit Games will be raked according to the chart below:

WHICH CASINO DO YOU TRUST?

You can't go wrong if you select a poker site that has been in business for several years, uses established and accredited gaming software interfaces and has a record of paying big winners in a timely manner. We are not affiliated with any casino or group of casinos but being objective can be difficult. There are thousands of casinos with new ones opening every day. Great player interfaces are a real attraction for players but in the end, if the casino doesn't offer a multitude of tables and traffic and doesn't pay off bets quickly, what's the point?

Here is a list of casinos that have been in business for several years and are recognized widely as being fair and professional.

Party Poker

Party Poker is now the world's largest online poker room. We have seen over 40,000 players online playing recently and the number is growing every day. The daily average of real money players is around 10,000. Party is presented by the same people that brought you Card Player Cruises, including Mike Sexton. They have a big multi-table tournament every year called the Party Poker Million. The rake at this site is stock standard 5 per cent capped at $3 for medium limit games. For lower limit games, a max of $1 for $1/$2 games and 50 cents for $0.5/$1 game is taken out of the pot. On high limit games Party Poker offers good value with significantly less than 5 per cent taken out of each pot. One feature missing that we would like to see is the % pre-flop. The site does present the average pot for the last 20 hands. The Customer Service at this site is first class and very professional. Click here for www.partypoker.com

Paradise Poker

Billed accurately as the World's Premier Online Card room, Paradise offers the standard variety of games, including several tournaments. The site features lots of action every day of the week. Paradise has an excellent game interface with little extras that make things interesting. If you are concerned about security and credibility, Paradise posts card-shuffling reviews by Price-waterhouse Coopers (the world's largest professional services firm) on their site. Click here for www.paradisepoker.com

Ultimate Bet

Ultimate Bet features up to 7500 players playing during peak times, about 4000 structured games. Percentage pre-flops can be found above 45% on regular occasions, which leads to good average pots. The games at Ultimate Bet can be quite profitable to the skilled player, particularly in games with $2/$5 and $1/$3 limits. Ultimate Bet has the backing of a number of big players including: Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, and Russ Hamilton.

Planet Poker

Planet Poker is one of the oldest online poker establishments (1998) and is endorsed by Mike Caro, a leading poker authority. Planet Poker is a medium to large poker site in terms of traffic (the site can have up to 500 people online at peak times). There is never trouble getting a game in your limit in Hold'em. The rake is 5% capped at $3, but the actual rake taken for various limits and pots sizes varies due to rounding but is quite fair. Recent software upgrades have made Planet Poker software much faster, more reliable and more pleasant to the eye than it used to be.

Jackpot Palace Casino

Jackpot Palace Casino uses software designed by Boss Media, the leading Internet casino software developer and provider. Boss Media started in spring 1997, since then the company has grown considerably, and by the end of 2003, the Group had just over 120 employees. The company's head office is in Växjö, in southern Sweden.

Inter Casino Poker

Inter Casino has been operating since 1996 and has been voted Best Online Casino 2001 and 2002 by Top20 Casinos and Best Casino 2003 by Gambling Online Magazine. Inter Casino has some of the highest limits on the net. Players can play real money games for $100/$200 in any of the currencies. For the smaller limit players $1/$2 games are the smallest that customers can play.

Rake percentages are tough to discern about 25 cents on every $5 until the pot reaches $60, which is not particularly attractive. The site generally has from between 100 to 500 players playing and this number is likely to grow as the site becomes better known. Game play is excellent and the graphics are top-notch. This site is one of the few sites that has voice options. Note: probably the fastest games on the net. Click here for www.intercasinopoker.com

Omni Casino

One of the best casinos on the net. Licensed since November, 1997 in Curacao and audited by Pricewaterhouse. Gambling Online magazine voted Omni Casino as Top Casino 2003 Honorable Mention and Best Rewards" and "Quickest Payouts three years in a row from 2001-2003. They also won Casino Player Magazine's Best Payout E-Cash Program by readers themselves. One of the best features of Omni Casino is their COMP Program -undeniably the best COMP Program in the business. It was voted Best Rewards Program for 2003 by the readers of Gambling Online Magazine.

Poker Room

Poker Room.com is one of the few sites that doesn't require you to download their software. They use JAVA technology so you can get playing right away. The software runs very smoothly although JAVA style software does not have the gloss of its downloadable counterpart. Extra features that Poker Room offer include expected value statistics, whereby you can type in a starting hand and the software calculates the historical expected value of that hand over 6 million real time playing hands. The top 50 all-time winners are given at the web site so you can avoid getting in a game with these players. Percentage pre-flop games of above 40% are easy to find. The site can have upwards 100 to 800 real money players online. Tends to have many loose games. Click here for www.pokerroom.com

Empire Poker

Another feature that is missing from this site is the % pre-flop. However, the site does present the average pot for the last 20 hands, which is useful. Typically, the games are first class here, with juicy average pots for all limits. For example, it is common to see average pots for $3/$6 games over $40 and for $5/10 games over $70. The Customer Service at this site is first class and very good.