This really is a deplorable state of affairs and hopefully this will be sorted out properly and fairly in the near future.

In the meantime, players from countries like the United States will still have to choose from among those few rooms that will allow them to play.

It is not just US players that are limited in this way, as some European countries are limiting where their citizens can play online now too.

Given that situation, the criteria for finding the right room for you should still be applied to those rooms that will accept players from your country, assuming that there are more than one such rooms.

So, what is the ideal online poker room?

Regardless of your playing style, whatever room you choose should have a wide variety of payment methods available. Note that while you can deposit using a lot of different methods, you won’t be able to withdraw your winning to some of them. So for example, if you deposit using your Visa card, you most likely will not be able to withdraw any winnings to it. Be sure that you have another payment method available and that it supports withdrawals.

The next thing to look for is licensing information. While the existance of an online gambling license is not any kind of gaurantee of the security of the site, the lack of any such license is a big warning sign.

One time the size of the poker room would have been used as an indicator of the reliability of that particular room, but that is no longer the case, as was demonstrated when the top four sites were taken down by the US government, and players at three of those still have not seen any of their money.

Even so, the very small rooms might be best avoided at least for now. While we await some sort of legislation regarding online poker, many rooms are having difficulty processing payments so smaller rooms will have more problems than ones with larger player numbers.

Even though you may not be an ‘advantage player’ looking for a deposit bonus, the bonus offer should still be evaluated as it can be indicative of a good poker room. Sites offering really large deposit bonuses probably should be avoided.

There is a wide range of bonus amounts on offer, but in general the minimum amount is about $400 to $500 with the max amount being between $1000 and $2000. Most good sites fit into the mid range and so unless there is a special promotion, look again at any really outrageous deposit bonus amount.

Experienced poker players will know to look for the type of poker software being used by the site, but newer players may have experience of only one type, if even that. There is no really great poker software, as most rooms offer the same functions as all the others. The software will really come down to a matter of personal preference.

7 Card stud only has players for a few hours each evening as this lonely looking player will discover

Once you have made a short list of two or three poker rooms that seem to fit with what you are looking for, you should do some searches online for information about them. Note though that a lot of rooms will have posts somewhere on the internet from players saying that they have been scammed by that particular room, or that the software is rigged.

Unfortunately you cannot put much value in those type of complaints. Instead you should look to the bigger poker forums for player reviews of your chosen rooms.

Online searches for information on online poker rooms will always bring up affiliate sites which will tell you that the room is great – most online poker rooms are rated as great somewhere online. Again, you can’t really put too much reliability on those types of reviews, as the affiliate is paid to send players to those particular rooms.

Of course, any negative reviews on affiliate sites should be taken note of.

You can always ask your poker playing friends about your chosen rooms, and it should be easier to judge the reliability of their advice.

If you want to go the extra mile in poker room selection, you could always email the support desk of the rooms on your short list with some question. No response or a slow response should be a warning about what you will have to face if you do eventually have a problem that needs support asistance.

Finally, look at the deposit and withdrawal limits that are offered by the poker rooms. Low limits are good indicators that the room is beginner friendly, whereas higher limits can mean that the rooms are focussed more on the high roller player.

How poker players play is based on whether they are passive or aggressive. What they play is categorized on whether they are tight or loose.

So you can have a poker player that plays with strong starting hands and is therefore ‘tight‘ coupled with an aggressive playing style, which makes that player a tight-aggressive player, or TAG in poker shorthand.

Other types then would be Loose-Aggressive, Loose-Passive, and Tight-Passive. Tight-Passive is the usual style for a player who is trying to clear a poker bonus offer and doesn’t want too much of a swing.

Loose-Aggressive players are called LAG players, but the other types are not givven shorthand notations, so there is no TIP or LIP types. I don’t kow why that is.

The most difficult type to play against is undoubtedly the Tight-Aggressive player. They will come out shooting and will be holding the best cards more often than not.

Bad poker players play with bad starting hands

Before trying to figure out and categorize your opponents you should figure out, firstly, what type of player you are, and secondly, whether you really want to be that type of player.

Tight-Passive players are easy to play against as you can simply fold almost any cards to their bets, except for the top premium hands. And after two or three showdowns where you have the better hand, you can easily bluff them off of medium sized pots.

Loose-Passive players are the worst possible players, in my opinion, as they play too many hands and fold them too easily, thus costing themselves a lot of money with little chance of taking down a pot, except against other loose passive players.

Loose-Aggressive players can be very hard to play against. Even though you know that they are losing players overall they can still put a big dent in your bankroll if you go up against them even with premium hands as they will go to the river with almost anything.

But in the long term Tight-Aggressive players are the hardest to play against, and are going to be the most profitable. Ideally you should try to develop this style of play.

Having chosen your ideal style you now have to learn to switch it up and change styles mid game. Otherwise you will be too easy to read and good players will eat you up.

You won’t get to see a whole lot of play before you have to pay your blind, but you might get a chance to see some things that can help you decide whether to stay at the table or to get up before it comes to your turn to ante up.

If you have chosen a table with a reasonably high view flop percentage, you should see at least some activity while waiting for your turn. Look out for players that flat call or check without ever raising. Make a note of these calling stations and try to see what they show down.

Also note players making low minimum raises. A standard raise is three times the big blind, so note any 1x or 2x big blind raisers. That can be a good indication of inexperience, or lack of confidence in themselves as a player. It can also indicate a weak player who is not sure of the value of their hands.

Of course, it can also indicate a tricky player who is trying to keep more people in the pot. Note any players that are doing this minimum raising and you can determine later on which type of player they are.

You should always note the cards that are shown down too, paying special attention to players that show less than premium cards.

Carbon Poker Table with big chip stacks

One last thing to note is the current chip stacks in relation to the maximum buy in for the table. If there are a lot of stacks that are considerably more than the max. then you may be up against solid players.

A lot of stacks around the minimum amount could indicate that getting paid off on your winning hands will be difficult. This will make clearing a poker bonus offer a bit more difficult.

Analyzing chip stacks will take some experience though, so the sooner you start to notice these things the sooner you will be in a position to know how to interpret the tables.

Making a habit of doing all these things before playing will help you to become a more diciplined player, and ultimately a more profitable one.

Strangely, a lot of players seem to be picking a poker table based on whether there is a seat available at a table in their stake level or not.

If there is no seat readily available, they will either sit at an empty table or take a spot on the least populated waiting list.

These are not good approaches to selecting a poker table to play at.

There is a lot of information available in the poker lobby of most online poker rooms. You just have to look for it. But it is there and it is there for a reason. So that you can choose the table that best suits your style of play.

In most poker lobbies, the list of active tables has some numbers displayed after each table. Such as ‘viewed flop percentage’. This is a very useful guide to the type of game that is going on at that particular table.

As a general guide, a high percentage here means that the play is very loose, and a low percentage, say about 20% or even less, means that most of the players are super tight.

These numbers are reflective of a full or nearly full 9 or 10 player table.

At some poker sites, notably those attached to an online casino, the viewed flop percentage can be insanely high, sometimes 60% to 70%, or even more!

Tables with very high percentages can be like lotteries. That’s great if that is what you want, but if you prefer to play proper poker, then you shoud be choosing a table that is at the 35% to 50% level.

View Flop Percentages

Once you have selected a table and are sitting down, you really should not post the blind until it comes around to you. The extra time you will have to watch the table can be very informative.

You may even see something that makes you get up and leave that particular table and look for a better one.

While you are waiting to post your blind you should be trying to identify the worst player at the table. You may have heard the old poker saying “If you don’t know who the donkey at the table is, it’s you“.

So look for the donkey, or the two worst players. If you haven’t identified them by the time you have to post your blind, then reconsider your table choice.

You can learn a lot of other useful stuff while waiting for your turn. If there is a maniac at the table you might get to see them in action before you have to post. If there is a maniac and it turns out that they are sitting directly to your left, you should again reconsider your choice.

These two things alone can greatly reduce your losses in online poker.

Straight Flush in Diamonds

If everyone is playing tight, that is, only playing with the best cards, then should you choose to play the same way you can expect to have a long and painful game.

Conversely, at a table where most players are really loose, if you play loose too then it becomes a lottery, where the main winning factors will be luck, and to a lesser extent, the depth of your bankroll.

At a table full of maniacs, the best approach is to play tight. Playing solid cards against loose players should have a positive expectation, although the variance and the bad beats may be too much for some players to take.

Against a table full of tight players the best approach would be to play aggressively with second rate starting hands.

Make no mistake about it, neither of those approaches are guaranteed to make you money. But in general on tables of extreme playing styles your best bet is to go against the flow.

In a more balanced table, where there may be one or two loose players, and a similar number of really tight players, with most of the table being somewhere between the two extremes, a tight aggressive style of play, if it suits you, should give you the best chance of making a profit.

An element of confidence comes into play here; you need to have confidence in yourself and your abilites, and you also need to play your cards with confidence.

Too many players play suited ace king with the expectation that it will be beat. The table chat often reflects these players lamenting that they alwasy loose with AK suited, or whatever hand they had.

There is really no point in playing hands that you think will be beat. If that is your outlook then you should really reconsider your poker playing life completely.

Choose your starting hands based on your ability and the table you are playing against, and then play them with confidence. That is really the best style all round.

These are not poker variants, but game formats.

As to which is the most profitable, that will depend on the players own style.

Some players will prefer to outlay small buy ins for large tournaments with big prize pools in the hope of hitting big some time, but willing to take the slow depletion of their bankroll until they do hit the jackpot.

Omaha poker table layout

Not every one is willing to risk their entire buy in at a no limit table which could all be lost on one hand.

So your own situation, temperament and bankroll will dictate which format best suits you. And all of them can be profitable if you play smart. Of course, ifyou are playing for a poker bonus offer it will also impact on which game you play.

Without a doubt, the most consistent game for making reasonable profits from poker has to be no limit holdem. While the massive payouts available for the bigger multi table tournaments could make you rich, you could also go broke long before you hit one of those.

The steady bankroll management inherent in sit and go tourneys is mirrored with a steady and predictable return too. And a profit cap is set depending on your stakes.

With no limit, you can double your buy in again and again in one session. And don’t forget that you can limit your losses by not rebuying if a table is not working out for you.

On the other side, if you buy in to any tournament format, and you do not make the money, then you lose your entire buy in. If you sit in to a no limit table and do not do so well, you can always cut your losses and retire for the evening, or change to a more suitable table.

If you don’t know which one is best for you, then the only real way to find out is to try them all.

The truth is that the basics still work really well, if you know how to play them properly.

The top ten starting hands – those two cards that every player is dealt before a hand begins – are still the same as they have always been.  Here they are in order of strength with the best at the top;

A pair of Aces

Odds of being dealt pocket kings: 220 to 1

A pair of Queens

Ace King suited (of the same suit, such as both are diamonds)

A pair of Jacks

A pair of Tens

A pair of Nines

A pair of Eights

Ace Queen suited

A pair of Sevens

Don’t think that these hands will win all the time. They won’t. They won’t even win most of the time. But if you play them properly and against the right opponents they will win enough to make your game profitable.

Ideally you should play these cards very aggressively and you should play at the lower limit stakes in no-limit hold’em.

It will be more difficult to play these properly in the ‘limit’ variations of Hold’em, but if you are prepared for the bad beats, then by all means play that variation too.

At the lower limits of all online poker games, many players are going to far, and committing too much money, on the longer odds hands. Playing hands just because you feel lucky, or they are your favorite hands, or you have paid the blinds, ends up costing you money in the long run. And while you may hit your nut flush on the river, you won’t do it often enough to be still in the hand holding a flush draw at the river card.

Typically, when you are dealt one of those starting hands, depending on position, you should raise aggressively. Generally, a good rule is to raise three times the big blind, plus one blind for every player still in the hand.

Raising like that should mean that you have few opponents still paying to see the flop, and so your chances of winning are increased against less opponents.

One more thing to consider is that if you only play these ten hands you will be not playing quite a lot of the time. Also, playing like this is quite easy for the other players to spot, and before long you will only be going up against opponents who are holding similar cards.

Thankfully, at the very low limits most players are still willing to play with any two cards even against a solid tight aggressive player, so there is still money to be made, and even more so if you are playing for a good poker bonus.

Pile of poker cash and chips

Occasionally, some players would like to generate just a small bit of extra cash from playing the game that they enjoy, without having to change their career and their lifestyle.

And even though it seems difficult to get the information, it is actually surprisingly easy to generate a bit of extra money from playing poker. Even losing players can take advantage of the best bonus offers from online poker rooms to generate a profit from their play.

I’m not talking about rakeback here – losing players will benefit from that just lose a bit less if they go the rakeback route.  In order to benefit financially from rakeback, you need to not only be a winnng player, but you need to play a whole lot too.

For the casual player the best, and easiest, way to turn a quick profit from poker is by using the various sign up bonuses that are offered by every online poker room, and playiing basic poker strategy with good starting hand selection.

Even opening just one new poker account – at a different room than the one you are currently playing at – can give you a deposit bonus of $500 or more that you can play for, and even if your normal game loses a few dollars for you, when you factor in the deposit bonus, you can end up with a nice profit.

Poker players that have an existing account online should find it fairly easy to calculate how much they can expect to gain from any particular bonus deal.

Simply look at the terms and conditions attached to the deal – there are always terms and conditions – and check those against your normal play.

Start with the time you have to clear the bonus. This can be as little as 30 days, or as much as a year. An average would appear to be about three months.

So check how many hands you have played in the last three months on your existing account.  Try to calculate how much rake you have paid on that play. That may not be too easy depending on the site you play at, but you should be able to get a rough idea.

Now work out how much of the deposit bonus that amount of play would have cleared for you.  Subtract from that amount the amount of your losses, if any.

That is the amount you can reasonably expect to generate form signing up with the new room and playing the required number of hands to clear the bonus.

It is a simple mathematical equation. If the resulting number is a significant amount then you really should go ahead and start to get that bonus.

Once you have reached the required amount of hands you can stop playing and take out your money, but it would be a good idea to play a bit more than the minimum. That way you won’t get flagged as an ‘advantage player’ and you will probably get offered a redeposit bonus after you have not played at that room for a while.

So you don’t have to turn professional – just take a more professional approach to your game play and you can get a nice boost to your bankroll every once in a while.