Playing Poker On The Net

Recently I have heard reports of poker sites being unable to pay depositing members and came up with the conclusion, “I told you so”… Although I’m highly disappointed and not proud to rub it in it’s just a fact of business and the offshore poker industry.

The reasons I don’t feel so obligated or upset about writing this article is the fact I warned poker members prior to it happening. A few years ago I posted an article on how I dis trusted the safety of Full Tilt Poker and felt something was right.

Well, something wasn’t right and when the federal government seized the banks of Full tilt poker they also came to realize they didn’t have the poker players funds as they always promised they did.

During this time I continued to tell myself and my poker friends to play with confirmed safe poker sites only! This is one of the reasons why I only continue to promote Carbon Poker as the poker room continues to show me and others they are safe.

How does on know how safe they are?

This is almost like an open ended question but simply reading quality blogs like this one and searching Google. Most scam poker sites are unable to flourish as they have a bad reputation in the poker market. You will not find many complaints if any about Carbon Poker.

Does Carbon Poker offer bonuses?

Yes, Carbon actually has some of the finest bonuses available on the internet for playing poker. Currently they are promoting a 100% signup bonus on up to $600 for being a new member with them. They also from time to time offer some really nice re up bonuses for us veterans as well.

I know it might seem a bit dry to speak about poker sites like this in today’s market but let’s face it. It’s not worth to hold ‘em If the poker room is probably going to be fold en. I recommend if you have yet to download carbon poker to do so. Your funds will be in a much safer place along with the best poker software and customer service in the business.

Mobile Poker App

I found something pretty cool recently. There is an English company call Switch Poker that created a mobile poker app for the iPhone. This is one of those things that would blow up if poker was ever legalized in the United States. Needless to say, the iPhone poker apps are only going to be available for poker players outside of the USA.

Imagine being able to play a quick raked game while you are away from your computer. That is what Switch Poker is currently offering. You can currently play at a 6-player mobile table. The stakes vary from 0.05/0.10c up to 1.0/2.0 Euros. The rake that Switch Poker charges is 5% of the pot.

Since this poker app is in its infancy, there isn’t much in the way of options. The only poker game they offer is Texas Holdem in the 6-player ring games. However, they always has to be a first and the kinks and bugs need to be worked out.

Switch Poker does have plans to expand and offer a range of games like Omaha poker, pot-limit holdem, sit n gos and multi-table tournaments as well as larger tables for ring games.

Mobile Poker

The idea of mobile poker is what gets me excited. I can’t tell you how many times I have been somewhere and have wanted to play a quick game of poker while I’m killing time. Currently, I just have to go to one of the thousands of non-gambling apps and games from my iPhone.

If you had the option between playing the same brain-numbing games on your mobile or playing a game of skill like poker, which would you choose. It’s only going to be a matter of time before poker becomes more popular on devices such as the iPad and the other knockoff tablets.

But what happens if I go out of range for my cell phone? Probably the same thing when you computer freezes or you get disconnected from the internet. You will be folded out/sit out until you get back online. If you are in a ring game, you probably will have a set number of hands before you are logged out of the table.

I have seen a couple of other mobile poker sites come and go in the past year or two. The biggest problem is that the mobile poker game just isn’t popular enough yet. It has to be a casual poker player or a pro poker player away from their computer. Most players who take poker seriously will want to play at multiple tables at the same time and want every poker option available.

The big kick-start to mobile poker will be the legalization of online poker in the United States. The majority of the iPhone, Android and other smartphone users are from the United States. Since they can’t play games for money over the phone, there is not a whole lot of money left to make major developments in mobile poker for providing that convenience for the pro poker players in Europe.

Razz Poker

Poker is big family of card games. Many of these card games have been popular at different points of time. Razz Poker is one such poker game that has achieved popularity very recently.

It is basically a stud poker game that is also called low ball poker, meaning, the lowest hand wins. The aim of the game is to make the lowest possible hand of five cards, out of the seven cards that are dealt to a player.

History

As is the case with most of the poker games, the history of Razz is not very clear. Where and when the game started is yet to be ascertained, but it is believed that the game started soon after 7 card stud became popular in the early 1900s.

Razz was included in the first World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 1971, and has been included in every WSOP since then except the one in 1974.

The game was never very popular, and Seven Card Stud and 5 Card Draw took the limelight for the rest of the 20th century. However after 2004 WSOP, when the event was televised, Razz started getting popular.

Razz Poker Rules

The game is played with a standard 52 card deck amongst a maximum of 8 players.

• The game starts with the players making their ante bet, which is the opening bet. After this, every player is dealt two cards face down. These are called the hole cards. Also they are dealt one card face-up; this is called the door card.
• Now, the player who has the highest door places the first bet called the ‘bring-in’. In case two players have the same ranked card then the decision is made based upon the suit. The rank of suits in descending order is spades, heart, diamonds, and clubs.
• The bring-in is usually half or one third the amount of a regular bet. Bring-in can also be equal to the regular bet. If it is a fraction of the regular bet then the next player can either complete the bet, or he can call the same amount as the first player.
• After that the betting takes place in increments of the regular bet. After the first round of betting, each player is dealt another card face-up. Betting begins from the lowest possible hand. The process goes on till the fifth card is dealt.
• After the fifth card the betting amount doubles. The seventh card is dealt face-down and then the call-out begins with the player who started the betting after the sixth card was dealt.

If 8 players are playing, and all of them play till the end, then 56 cards will be required. Since Razz is played with a standard 56 card deck, this is not possible. In such cases, the dealer deals the seventh card on the table face up. All the players are able to use his card to make their hand. This is the only time when a community card is used in Razz.

Razz Strategy

You won’t find many high stakes poker games that include Razz. This is because most players don’t play this game with a really serious attitude. Therefore, Razz is usually relegated to small ring games or the occasional poker tournament.

Many players have commented on the fact that Razz provides a good player a better chance of winning. This is because there are a lot more chances for a player reading the hands based upon the cards present on the table. Here is a look at the strategies for various hands while playing Razz.

Starting hand: In Razz you are trying to make the worst poker hand possible. That is why if you get first three cards between an ace and a five then you are in luck. If your hand has three cards between an ace and a six, even then you should complete the bet. You can think about raising it as well.

Also, remember that other players’ door cards are also visible to you. So you should take them into account as well. For instance, if you have an ace three and a five, and your opponent’s hole card is 6, then irrespective of what his other two cards are, you will definitely have the better hand.

Keep track of the cards: It is very important that you know which cards are on the table. For instance, if you have a two, a three and seven, the hand would be considered nothing better than mediocre. However, if you see that there are three 7′s on the table, then the chance of you getting a pair reduces drastically, making your hand better.

3rd and 4th street: As discussed above anything from an ace to 5 is a good starting hand. However, 7 high and 8 high are not good hands and should be folded if the other door cards are low. But if they are higher than your 8 high then you can bet. The fourth street is where the game starts to get more interesting. Now if you get a card which ends up improving your hand then you have to become more aggressive.

In other poker games you would play to entice your opponent into betting more. However, in Razz you use a technique called ram and jam. This technique simply means that as soon as you get a good hand you should raise the bet. This is because if you do not, your opponent will fold irrespective of what you bet.

The other situation on 4th street is that you receive a card that gives you a pair, but to others it looks as though you have improved your hand. In such cases you should bet if your opponent has a bad card.

Razz is a very different game in comparison to Texas Hold’em or other popular poker variants. Also, it is one of those games that you should play when you are at your peak. You need to be aggressive in this game and have to isolate the field if you want to improve your chances of winning.

It is also very important that you do not get carried away if someone is re-raising. The best option is to call and see what the next card holds. Razz is a game that can turn around suddenly simply because the chances of improving the subsequent hands are less.

Legal US Poker Sites?

If you are a poker players and you live in the United States, you know what’s happened over the past 6 months in the world of online poker. Even though you are only playing against other players and not against the house, say as in the game of blackjack, the government still views poker as online gambling.

That should mean that there shouldn’t be any legal poker sites in the United States. Because, in the end, if you put up any money to play poker online, it still should be gambling. Right?

Apparently not. In addition to the few sportsbooks that still allow online poker as you remember it, which aren’t considered “legal”, there has been a new rash of poker sites with “subscription fees”. These new “legal poker sites” are allowed to hold cash tournaments because the poker players can pay $30 a month or so in subscription fees.

Way to skirt the issue. You can’t accept deposits for online poker, because that is illegal gambling. But you can pay a monthly service to play in cash poker games. How convenient! Then, these companies are right back to advertising to us. I’ve seen and heard ads on the radio as well as popular websites like ESPN.com.

There have been several that have come out recently. They are all trying to get the poker players that stopped playing online back in April. These ads all have the following phrase: “This is not a gambling website”. Then why are you advertising it? Are you just giving away free prizes and paying for the advertisements in this economy out of good will?

Of course not, this is a load of bull. So what you are saying is that playing poker online wasn’t the issue on legality. As long as you don’t pay for the chips, it isn’t illegal. Your not making a deposit, your just paying a subscription fee for the right to have a chance to win prizes. That’s splitting hairs and this issue is really starting to get me pissed off.

So for sites like ClubWPT.com, your not helping the situation by creating “legal online poker”. That implies that most online poker is illegal, and no federal law in the US states this specifically. They only use the Wire Act and UIGEA as surrogate laws to punish companies who broke the rules that were put in place by Big Business money. These websites are just taking advantage of a loophole and cashing in on thousands of players who love poker and don’t have anywhere else to turn.

That leads me to believe what all of the kooks have been saying for years. The system is systemically corrupted. As long as you have enough money, you can evade a law or even have one created in your favor.

As for me, I am currently playing a couple times a week at Bovada. I have sampled a couple of others that you will see in the sidebar, but Bovada has the best tables and tournaments right now.

More encouraging news

I listened in on a session of congress recently where they discussed the topic of future legalization of online gambling. It seemed like there were actually some smart people participating, both in congress and representing online gambling.

I understand the arguments that advocates of keeping it illegal are using. Yes, gambling addiction is bad. But having a prohibition on anything makes people want to do it in spite of your laws. By the way, thank you for the creation of organized crime with the alcohol prohibition and the creation of cartels with the drug prohibition.

People in Louisiana passed a law against gambling because they believed that people were going to commit more crime to get the money to gamble. While that might be partially true, there has never been a study that shows that allowing gambling increases crime in an area. When you make it illegal, the type of people who will participate already won’t have the strongest moral compass. At least 95% of people know when its time to stop and you have lost what you were gambling with.

There is also the issue that children can get their parents credit cards and rack up a large bill online. Two things about this: 1) If you have a legal way of accepting players, you can require information to prove that the person is an adult. 2) Say two words with me: Responsible Parenting. That is half of the problem with the US nowadays. The creation of a multitude of laws to protect ourselves from ourselves. Two more words: Natural Selection. “The kid that eats too many marbles doesn’t grow up to have kids of their own” – George Carlin

The last two issues that the people in congress had were legitimate ones. They both have to do with the companies that are offering the games. More specifically, it has to do with fairness and corruption with the software and the company. We can’t have another Absolute Poker scandal where the players can see the cards or another Full Tilt Poker scandal where a company doesn’t protect the player’s accounts.

That is fairly easy. You make it legal and all of the big players in Las Vegas will jump in. The companies that operate with questionable business practices will be found out fast and won’t be able to survive. It might be a 2 year free for all, but that is the case anytime new laws come on the books.

Lastly, if you are worried about the amount of money coming into the government, realize this: All of the money that Americans currently spend on online gambling are going overseas. The big players in Las Vegas can’t get any of this money, nor can that money be taxed by the government, legally. Last I looked, Las Vegas has been one of the hardest hit in this last recession. I know it won’t fix everything that is wrong, but creating an illegal demand because of your laws won’t stop people from doing what they want to do.