Category: Articles

Are they reliable?

This should always be your first question when seeking out a high roller online casino. There are a lot of online casinos out there and unfortunately there are some rogue ones who offer the moon yet deliver nothing. One of the best ways to find a good reliable casino is to check out their customer support, if you get a good and prompt response then you can feel pretty safe with them. It is also a good idea to check out which organisations they are affiliated with like for example gamble aware and also see what kind of payment options they have.

 

Just how good is their High Roller bonus?

Many bonuses look almost too good to be true and sadly in a lot of cases this is true. This is not to say that the bonuses are worthless just that they might not be quite as great as the banner would suggest. Before signing up to any high roller bonus it is crucial that you thoroughly read through and understand the terms and conditions as they do vary from online casino to online casino.

 

How does the high roller casino look and feel?

Although all online casinos have a similar look and feel with the lobby and various game areas etc there is still a lot of variation and some online casinos might feel a lot better than others, I certainly know that I have my favourite high roller casinos as I’m sure you do or will. Almost every casino or poker room we review offers the facility to play for fun before deposting any money and this is something which we recommend as there is nothing worse than depositing your money into the high roller account and then discovering that you hate the graphics or sound or something else with the online casino.

 

Do they have my casino games?

This is a crucial requirement and also fits in with reading the terms and conditions for the high roller bonuses. If a casino doesn’t offer your favourite games then there is little point registering with them as there are sure to be other casinos which offer the exact mix you want, for example some casinos focus very heavily on slots whilst others lean more towards video poker etc. Also please make sure that the high roller bonus you sign up too allows you to play your favourite games as many for example don’t allow Blackjack!

 

What do others think?

Reading our reviews and other players comments is always a good idea, and if everyone gives a high roller casino or poker room the thumbs up then you can feel pretty safe depositing your money with them. At High-Roller Casinos we only review quality online caisnos and poker rooms so you can feel totally safe with the ones we have listed on our pages. If you need further pointers there are many gambling forums on the internet which can be very useful.  

Just as there are many online players who make a very good return on their efforts in cash games, so there are others who prefer to focus on tournaments. Many events contain a proportion of players who lack the bankroll and/or skills to be successful in cash play and prefer to take a shot at a decent prize for a small investment. Occasionally a multiple-table tournament will be won by a relatively weak player scoring a one-off triumph, but in general the better players naturally can expect a clear positive expectation. Over the course of a whole event, the combined skills of the better players should overwhelm those of a weaker player. The latter may have a good run and win some sizable pots, but even if they eliminate some of the good players there will usually still be enough decent players left with sufficient chips to ensure that they will most likely come unstuck in the end. Furthermore, part of the success of the top players in large buy-in ($100 or more) events is that they have developed very good reads on the other regular players in these events, which enables them to make the kind of profitable opponent-specific plays that would be impossible for a less experienced rival.

It is often argued that good tournament players should be able to make at least a 40-50% return on their investment in the long run (i.e. $4-$5 profit for every $10 spent on buy-ins), and there are undoubtedly some online tournament specialists who are able to make 100%, particularly for low buy-in events. However, it is important to remember that the variance attached to tournament play is high – in the short run one big tournament victory could make all the difference in determining whether a player is ahead of the game or not. Furthermore, the short-term luck factor involved in tournament play can be quite high, especially for sit and go tournaments in which the blinds escalate rapidly, thereby possibly nullifying some of the edge of the better players.

The long run in tournament play might therefore be defined as at least 100 events – until you have played this many tournaments, your results will not be a particularly reliable indicator of whether or not you can beat the game in the long run. Indeed, if you specialise in multi-table events, and your results are such that you nearly always finish outside the money, punctuated by the occasional big pay-off, even 100 tournaments is too few to be regarded as a reliable sample size. For this reason, an absolute bare minimum bankroll of 20 buy-ins is probably necessary for a serious tournament player, and it is perhaps advisable to keep as many as 50 buy-ins in your bankroll if you play exclusively in multi-table events.

Nowadays many players like to specialise in the widely available sit and go events. With the normal 50%/30%/20% prize structure in these tournaments, each player starts with a theoretical 30% chance of making the prize list (assuming the standard ten-player tables). However, since the cardroom usually charges 10% of each buy-in in registration fees, you would actually need to reach the final three 33% of the time to break even (assuming you achieve an equal ratio of first places to seconds to thirds). Undoubtedly, specialists at the lower buy-in levels (e.g. $10 and $20) have the long-term potential to cash out considerably more than 33% of the time, possibly as much as 50% for a very good player and 60% for a really top-flight player at this level. Furthermore, it is highly likely that their tournament skills would enable them to achieve a higher number of first place finishes relative to seconds and thirds, thereby increasing their overall level of profitability.

In a newsgroup post a few years back, WSOP bracelet-winner Daniel Negreanu claimed that he had played 85 $100 single-table tournaments at Paradise Poker the year before, winning 16, and placing second 11 times and third seven times for a 40% cash-out ratio and an average profit of just over $40 per event. However, the blinds in the Paradise Poker tournaments rise so quickly (every ten hands) that tournaments typically last only 70-90 hands, which almost certainly would have negated some of his ability and allowed the weaker players more of a chance. It is quite conceivable that in multi-table events (or sit and go events with a different blind structure) his return would be considerably greater than this.

Whichever type of tournament you choose to play, you should always ensure that:
•    Your connection is in good order before you start. There is nothing more frustrating than being disconnected during a tournament and anted-away while you are trying to return to the game.
•    You will not be disturbed while you are playing. Any distractions will cause you to lose focus, and if you are called away from the table you will again be anted-away.
•    You have organised some refreshments in advance, particularly for a multi-table event, which could easily last several hours.
•    Everyone else is present at the table when you start play. If any players are absent then you can steal their blinds without mercy. Also, watch out for anyone who joins your table midway through a tournament – if they happen to be sitting out and the other players don’t notice immediately, then you can steal their blinds too!

In the past twenty years, tournament poker has become hugely popular around the world, not least because it is an ideal way for newcomers to familiarise themselves with the game. First of all, your maximum financial risk is known in advance. For example, if you enter a $10 no-limit hold’em tournament at PokerStars your liability is limited to $11 ($10 buy-in for the prize pool plus a $1 registration fee for the house). Second, the potential reward is always much greater than the entry fee, so everyone has an incentive to try their best. Third, online tournaments typically deal at over twice the rate of their brick and mortar counterparts, so there is a lot more play to them. Finally, tournaments are tremendous fun – over the course of an event your stack of chips can go through wild fluctuations; you can inflict and receive bizarre bad beats on all-in bets etc. Many players love the cut and thrust and adrenaline rush of tournaments, and find cash games something of a grind in comparison.

Online tournaments come in two distinct forms: single-table (often called ‘sit and go’) events, in which typically nine or ten players (eight for seven-card stud) compete against each other, and multiple-table events, which may contain dozens or hundreds of entrants. Nowadays most sites offer both single- and multi-table events, but some specialise in one or the other. And likewise some players prefer single-table events, others multi-table and many play both types.

 

Sit and Go Tournaments
For a sit and go event there is no pre-determined start time – you simply pay your entry fee, take your seat and wait for the table to fill up with other players before you can start (which may sometimes take quite a while, depending on the time of day and overall site traffic!). Typically, a single-table sit and go tourney will last a maximum of an hour or so and payout on the first three places (50% for the winner, 30% for second and 20% for third), but you should ensure that you check the prize structure before you start play. In addition to the standard single-table events, PokerStars also offers two-table sit and go events with 18 players (16 for stud) and four prizes.

At some sites the sit and go blind structure is such that the blinds rise very rapidly (every ten hands), and players are forced to take risks almost from the outset. Some purists find these games unattractive, reasoning that this turns the tournament into something of a crapshoot. However, there is no doubt that at sites with a relatively more sedate blind structure (such as PokerStars, where there are only nine players, the blinds go up every ten minutes rather than every ten hands, and everyone starts with a fairly large stack of chips) sit and go events can be a lucrative, fast-moving and enjoyable avenue for many players. Indeed, Mike Caro argues that for good players short tournaments may prove more profitable than larger tournaments in the long run, because:
– They provide an excellent opportunity to exploit skill differentials .
– You can play two or more shorter tournaments in the time it would take to reach the final of a single long event, thus reducing the ‘luck’ component .
– You risk proportionately less of your bankroll on each individual event.

To these factors, I would add a fourth:
– Single-table tournaments are great practice for the final tables of multi-table events!

Multiple-Table Tournaments
Unlike sit and go tournaments, which start whenever there is a full table, multiple-table events are always scheduled in advance. Usually registration will begin an hour or more before the start of the event and will close either when the first person is eliminated, when all the tables are full or at a designated time after the start. As more and more players are eliminated, the tables are merged until ultimately there is only one table left, at which point the event takes on the characteristics of a single-table event. Typically a multi-table event will last for several hours and offer a much longer prize list than its single-table counterpart; it is very common for every player who reaches the final table to receive a prize if there are around 45 or more entries.

Nowadays most of the major cardrooms offer re-buy tournaments, in addition to the traditional freezeout events. Re-buy tournaments are attractive because in general, the cardroom does not take a cut when you re-buy or add-on (Paradise Poker being a notable exception to this). Furthermore, with more chips in play than a normal event, there is more play to it (although this does mean that it will go on longer!).

Inspired by the example of Chris Moneymaker, who turned a $39 PokerStars satellite into $2.5 million at the World Series of Poker, most sites now offer satellites for the major brick and mortar events. Not just for the WSOP, but also for the World Poker Tour and many other events. These satellites are hugely popular. After all, who can resist the thought that for as little as $1, they could be rubbing shoulders with Doyle Brunson and Gus Hansen, playing for a huge prize at the final table of a nationally televised event!

One advantage of multiple-table online tournaments over their brick and mortar equivalents is that you are usually provided with completely up-to-date information on where you stand in the tournament, how many players are left, and the relative chip positions of all the remaining players. This valuable information can and should be used to help you formulate your strategy for reaching the final table and beyond! At PokerStars you can go to the tournament lobby for the full picture on where you stand at that particular point in time (although information on your current position and the largest and smallest stack can be obtained by clicking the ‘Info’ tab).

Nowadays some sites allow players to do prize-money deals for the top places. These are usually negotiated through the chat boxes and then relayed to the site’s support team. Needless to say, you should check beforehand that the site at which you are playing permits deals, involve the tournament director if at all possible, immediately notify support of the deal that has been struck so that they can transfer the funds, and ensure that you are able to provide back-up evidence (in case someone should renege on the deal) by keeping a copy of the chat. During the first World Championship of Online Poker in July 2002, PokerStars actually provided the facility to pause the tournament (if all the remaining players agreed) so that deals could be discussed.

There have been numerous incidents in multi-table tournaments in which one player has deliberately employed ‘stalling’ tactics (using the maximum allotted time allowed for each decision) with, say, two tables left in order to improve their chances of a higher placing. There are three possible ways in which stalling might benefit a player: first, the players on another table might simply knock each other out, enabling the stalling player to reach the final table; second, a rise in the blinds may occur that will cause someone else to be forced to go all-in before the player who is doing the stalling; and finally, a middle stack might stall to prevent a big stack from running over the table whilst everyone is in a defensive mode, hoping to make the final table. It is conventional for tournaments to go to ‘hand for hand’ just prior to the formation of the final table. This combats the first and third stalling methods but not the second. Although legal, such angle-shooting tactics are not to be recommended and may very well incur the wrath of fellow players if taken to extremes.

Another possible angle that sometimes arises in tournaments is ‘chip-dumping’, whereby one player deliberately loses all their chips to another in order to enhance the latter’s tournament prospects. Tournament action is so fast and furious that chip-dumping is far from easy to detect while you are playing. However, if you suspect that another player is being assisted in this way, then you should protect yourself and the other players in the tournament by notifying support of your suspicions.

Billed as ‘Hand analysis for serious poker players’, the launch of the Scoop Monster program at the beginning of October 2002 caused something of a furore in the online poker world. The program, which worked exclusively with the True Poker playing client, was designed to tell players the precise odds of winning the current hand, and advise them how to proceed. Not only that, but Scoop Monster could also be set to automatically play the hand for you! Naturally the arrival of a ‘bot-like’ program such as this provoked a great deal of interest and debate, not least at True Poker itself, who were as surprised as anyone by its appearance, since they had no affiliation with Scoop Monster whatsoever.

Players who experimented with Scoop Monster on True Poker generally reported one slight flaw in the ‘autoplay’ features – it just didn’t play very well! Although it was able to hold its own in play money games, it is doubtful whether anyone could hope to make a worthwhile long-term profit with the original version of the program in real money games. Despite this fact, True Poker understandably saw the new program as a threat to their business, which hinges on the concept of real players competing against one another for real money, and rapidly implemented countermeasures against the product. Not only did they announce software changes to prevent players from using Scoop Monster, but they also announced a clear policy that anyone found to be using this or similar programs would have their accounts terminated. By the end of October, Scoop Monster had been taken off the market; all that remained was a message on the Scoop Monster web site stating that the product was no longer available and that all existing customers were being reimbursed.

At some sites when a player does not act in the allotted time during a hand the player is put all-in for the money that has already been placed in the pot, and the other players carry on contesting a side pot for the rest of ‘ the hand. It is almost always the case that these automatic all-in situations arise because the player has been unintentionally disconnected from the game, due either to Internet routing problems or a computer crash. However, from time to time the automatic all-in privilege is abused by unscrupulous players choosing to deliberately disconnect themselves rather than having to make a difficult call in a big pot. (Of course, this is an even greater problem in pot-limit and no-limit games, where the last bet could amount to a considerable amount of money.) At PokerStars and Paradise Poker, for example, if you time out and are still connected to the game server, then your hand is automatically folded, but it still is a matter for the individual cardroom to decide whether that disconnect was intentional or accidental. Clearly if you suspect that anyone has abused the all-in rule, the onus is on you to report the incident to the cardroom for investigation (ideally with a note of the hand number so that they can track it down easily). All-in abuse is cheating, and there have been several instances in which players have been barred from a cardroom for this practice.

Over the past few years one of the most controversial areas of debate in Internet poker has been the issue of online shuffling. Clearly the purpose of any fair shuffle is to create a random deck such that every possible sequence of cards is possible, while at the same time making it impossible for anyone to predict the position of any card in the deck. In principle, unless they are crooked or contain bugs, online shuffles should be closer to random than can possibly be achieved in a live-action game, where the cards are often just collected, riffled a couple of times and dealt, with the result that clumps of cards can sometimes stay together. As an example, the Paradise Poker website states that: ‘No deck of cards in any brick and mortar cardroom is ever shuffled as well and as thoroughly as we shuffle our cards. Each game, the deck is shuffled 10 times with each shuffle moving each card between one and 51 times throughout the deck. There is no bias to any card, any card patterns or seats at the table.’

However, the key rider here is unless they are crooked or contain bugs. In the early days of online poker, the shuffling algorithm for the ASF Software Inc. Hold’em games, used in at least three online cardrooms (including Planet Poker), was far from flawless. In September 1999 the Software Security Group at Reliable Software Technologies uncovered a means of calculating the precise deck being used for each hand, knowledge of which would have enabled unscrupulous cheats to know in advance the exact hands of every player, together with the future cards that would be dealt in that hand. Unfortunately, the ‘seed’ (or particular starting point) used for the ASF Software random number generator at that time was the number of milliseconds since midnight according to the system clock, which thus made it easily predictable once the RST program was synchronised with the system clock; and RST also identified other flaws in the shuffling algorithm. Of course, these problems were quickly addressed by the online cardrooms affected, but the fact that a shuffling algorithm had been cracked was very damaging for the credibility of the online poker industry as a whole at that time.

Nowadays every online cardroom is acutely aware of the need to reassure their clients that their shuffle is fair, random and unpredictable. A visit to the website of any of these companies will reveal the different ways in which they generate their shuffles. Clearly, the understanding and implementation of these complicated processes has moved on considerably since 1999, in particular with regard to the criteria used in selecting the seed used in random number generation, and shuffling has become more secure. However, that does not necessarily mean that it is absolutely foolproof at every single site.

Many newcomers to online poker, on experiencing an initial run of bad results, rush to blame their losses on unfair shuffling (or on collusion by other players) rather than questioning their own play. Undoubtedly it is possible to write software that gives the cardroom an edge in some way, perhaps by juicing the deck to produce more ‘action’ hands and thereby maximising the rake. The key question is whether it would be worth any major online site becoming involved in such a practice – their existing rake income is generally quite sufficient to keep their businesses running smoothly, so why would they risk such a practice in case they were found out (perhaps through being outed by a disaffected ex-employee) and lost their entire business?
Although it is true that online cardrooms survive by extracting money from their clients, it is in their long-term interests to do so honestly via the rake rather than dishonestly by cheating. Whether you are a long-term winner or a long-term loser, you will contribute more or less the same hourly rake over time, and companies with a satisfied strong regular player base (many of whom will then recommend the site to their friends) can expect large revenue returns for many years to come. Of course, it is not impossible that decks are being ‘juiced’, but there is no hard evidence to suggest that such practices are in operation.

One common complaint on poker forums and newsgroups is that players are drawn out on more online, with the online shuffle somehow generating more river cards that defeat made hands. Regardless of whether this complaint is actually justified (it may just seem like you are being drawn out on more because so many more hands are dealt per hour online than in a live-action cardroom, and so many hands are dealt with a full ten players seated at the table), being drawn out on is the natural occupational hazard of the winning player. One of the key advantages of most winning players over their fellow competitors is that they consistently enter the pot with better average starting holdings, so they will need to be drawn out on more often if they are to lose. In the meantime, they are being paid off handsomely on numerous other occasions by weaker players who are staying in the pot with poor odds, hoping to hit longshot draws.

Another common newsgroup and forum online poker myth is the so called ‘cash-out curse’. Many players seem to believe that when they cash-out from a site this will somehow lead to them being flagged by the cardroom and dealt a higher than average number of losing hands. This myth can be debunked in many ways, including the following:
•    At any point in time you are on either a good run or a bad run, with wins following losses and losses following wins. Inevitably, when you are on a good run you are more likely to cash-out and will subsequently appear to experience the ‘cash-out’ curse when the law of averages comes into play and your inevitable bad run arrives. When these players perceive that they are being afflicted with the cash-out curse, they are merely experiencing a natural regression towards the mean. Furthermore, those who are fortunate enough to maintain their good run after a cash-out will never have cause to report it; it is only those who lose after a cash-out who ever publish their experiences, and in so doing, perpetuate the myth .
•    When you experience a good run and cash-out, you may start to play in over-confident fashion, overplaying your hands and generally failing to pay as much attention to the game as you did before. Inevitably, this then manifests itself in a losing run.
•    Often when players cash-out they leave themselves with an inadequate bankroll, which is then vulnerable to the natural short-term swings of the limit at which they are playing.
•    There is no real financial reason why a site should dislike players who cash-out, but nevertheless continue to play at the site regularly. Whether individual players are winners or losers is basically irrelevant to the cardroom, so long as they keep coming back and thereby maintain their contribution to the rake.

To date no evidence has ever been produced to suggest that the shuffle at any online poker site is any way rigged. At Paradise Poker the shuffle is reviewed on a quarterly basis by Price Waterhouse Coopers. Using the log files provided, PWC have performed a series of statistical tests and affirmed that in their opinion every card has an equal chance of being selected. Furthermore, many news group posters have also independently analysed the hand histories from Paradise Poker and other sites, using samples of 60,000 hands or more, and drawn the same conclusions.

A proposition player (or prop) is a player who is paid by the house to start up new games and keep existing games going, while encouraging a friendly atmosphere among the players. Unlike a shill, a prop player plays with and risks his own (and not the house’s) money. Prop players have been a feature of many brick and mortar cardrooms for years, and several major online cardrooms do employ (or have employed) props. In particular, it is quite common for new sites to employ props to help generate regular traffic during their launch period. However, not every site uses props – PokerStars and True Poker, for example, have both gone so far as to post unequivocally on public forums that they are not employing props.

An online prop can typically expect to earn something in the region of $12-$15 an hour (and perhaps more if they are prepared to play two tables at once) with their precise income determined by the number of hands they play. In general, props are required to play at the lower range of limits (typically, say, from $2/$4 to $5/10).

For some players, online prop play may be an attractive option, for the following reasons:
•    Prop players receive payment for doing what they may have been doing anyway (playing online poker).
•    Prop players can usually choose their own working hours.
•    Prop players can normally play online as a second ‘part-time’ job.

However, prop play also has some disadvantages as well:
•    Prop players risk their own money – if they lose then they not only have no income (apart from their prop pay), but may also find themselves out of a job if their bankroll runs out.
•    Prop players are obliged to play a certain number of hours at the one site, and therefore do not have the same freedom to employ site selection strategies (at least not during their prop payment hours) as other players.
•    Prop players have to play at the table to which they are directed by the cardroom, and are therefore unable to employ game selection strategies.
•    Prop players usually have to move tables at the cardroom’s discretion (for example, sometimes having to vacate a table at which they were winning once that table is full, and finding themselves being placed instead at a short-handed table with several known tricky opponents).
•    Since prop players are typically paid ‘per hand’, if there is no one to play against they can’t earn any income.
•    Prop players usually have to play a great deal of short-handed play, since one of their main functions is to start new games. However, many potential candidates for prop play do not enjoy playing short-handed, and the variance for such games is greater than for full ring games, so a larger bankroll is necessary to handle the fluctuations. Furthermore, those props who lack proficiency at short-handed or heads-up play are an open target for specialist short-handed experts to attack in ‘hit and run’ raids. To offset this, at least in part, props usually earn more when they play short-handed, since they will play many more hands per hour in these games than they would in a full ring game.

It takes a particular kind of player to be successful as a prop – someone who is skilled at (and able to survive the fluctuations of) short-handed play, and also capable of returning a profit despite very limited opportunities for game selection. Although some players do enjoy working as props, most top online professionals prefer to retain their independence (particularly since many professionals would typically be playing higher than $5/$10 in any case).

For some reason, many online players are afraid of props, assuming that they must naturally be very good players, but in fact there is no real reason to fear playing against a prop player any more than you would be wary of any other experienced online player. In fact, it would be counter-productive for cardrooms to employ props who play outstandingly well, since such players might win too much money from the other players and actually reduce the number of active players on the site.

It is sometimes argued that cardrooms should reveal the identities of their props, whose play they are in effect subsidising. However, so long as they are playing at their own risk and have no advantages over the other players (other than the fact that they are being paid for the number of hands in which they participate; at most sites props are not even told who the other props are), it is doubtful what real purpose would be served by removing their anonymity.

One very popular method that cardrooms use to generate traffic without using props is to offer deposit bonuses. Typically these bonuses amount to 15%-25% of the deposit amount, but the bonus is only paid when the player has qualified by playing a predetermined number of raked hands. In addition, the cash prizes for some freeroll tournaments are also only released when the player has fulfilled a similar quota of raked hands. Effectively these players are acting as informal props, keeping games occupied in return for their bonuses or prizes, although of course the site does not have the right to tell them at which table they must play.

From time to time even the most dispassionate player may lose his calm, disciplined approach to the game and instead start making decisions that are heavily guided by his emotions, in other words, go on tilt like a pinball machine. Some players with an extensive knowledge of poker fail to make the most of their talent, largely because they are unable to play their best game consistently – too often they allow their emotions to take over. Probably the most common scenario for tilt to manifest itself occurs when a player has just endured a bad beat (or series of bad beats) and succumbs to the natural urge to try and get even as quickly as possible, but it could just be that the player is enduring a poor session overall and suffering a deterioration in his play as a result.
With the enhanced speed of online play, relative to live play, everything is compounded and it is even easier to go on tilt – hand after hand is dealt in quick succession, and there is no time to calm down, take stock, properly rationalise the situation and regroup. In the online game your chips are only a number on the screen, and the fact that these ‘cyberchips’ have no physical presence makes it easier to lose sight of the fact that they represent real money and should not be treated lightly. Furthermore, in a live-action game, social convention dictates that you should not blow off steam in public, whereas online there are no constraints to prevent you from openly losing your temper and steaming your way through your bankroll. The risk of going on tilt is further magnified if you are playing two or more tables at once, where money can be won (or in this case lost) twice as fast.

One problem which players often face when they are enduring a losing session, is that the other players in the game see them struggling and try to take advantage of this, perhaps by playing draws more aggressively against them or running more bluffs. Not only does the player now have to face the emotional setback of a losing session, but also the reality that other players are now queuing up to take shots at him, forcing him to deal with a series of difficult decisions. Apart from the obvious course of action – to leave the table – one alternative way of avoiding this nightmare scenario is to discretely buy more chips, thereby disguising the fact that you are actually losing. As long as you retain broadly the same amount of chips throughout a game, most players won’t notice whether you are winning or losing, and therefore won’t play any differently against you. Of course, the very worst thing you can do when you are losing is to start criticising the other players for their play through chat messages – this will merely alert them to the fact that you may be on tilt and encourage them to play even better against you! Likewise, if you see someone else berating the other players through the chat box, then this may present a good opportunity since he could be about to go tilt and steam away some chips.

The nature of poker is such that from time to time every player will experience a large financial reverse, either from a disastrous single session or a series of losing sessions. Even top players can experience long sequences of poor results (although this does not mean that if you achieve bad results you must be a top player!). Different players have different ways of dealing with such setbacks: some go to watch the high-limit heads-up games at the poker room, where the thousands of dollars that can be won and lost on every hand make their losses seem small by comparison; others take a break for a few days or spend some time reviewing their play and reading books; others practise relaxation techniques to try to restore their equilibrium; others tryout a different site or switch to a different form of poker for a while; and others drop down in limit or try to log a few short winning sessions to restore their confidence. Any of these methods is likely to be preferable to playing on tilt, making plays that you know are incorrect in a vain attempt to get even, in a game that has long since turned sour. It is not enough to be a good player; you must also play well on a consistent basis.

Most online casinos and poker rooms these days offer bonuses to attract players and then offer further bonuses and promotions to keep them at the gaming site. There are also a lot of high roller casinos which offer special high roller bonuses and these are what this article is about.

By standard Casino bonus I mean the type of bonus which you will typically see on the front page of the casino or poker room site.

There are however some major differences in how these bonuses get paid out. Most standard casino bonuses work on the principle of a matched bonus. For example at Joyland Casino they will match your initial deposit by 30% up to a maximum amount of £300. In other words if you deposit £1000 then they will put an additional £300 into your gaming account. The minimum amount you can deposit to get this bonus is £20. The percentage which is matched and the maximum and minimum limits vary form casino to casino put the basic principle is almost always the same. Now to prevent people just taking the extra £300 and running the casino set certain wagering requirements which must be met before the money can be withdrawn. At Joyland Casino you are required to wager 30 times your deposit plus the bonus so if you deposited £100 and received a £30 deposit you would need to wager for £3900 before you could take out the £30 bonus money. This sounds like a lot but in reality you will find that you will soon have wagered for this amount, it should on average only take about 150 games to reach the limit and assuming you have luck on your side you should still have some of the money left. In addition to the wagering requirement you will also find that some games are excluded form the casino bonus, in fact at Joyland only Slots games qualify towards the bonus, but certainly almost all welcome bonuses exclude blackjack for example.

The high roller casino bonus is along the same lines as the welcome casino bonus except it is for a lot more money. At Joylands Casino you need to deposit £5000 to receive the high roller bonus which is £850. The same restrictions exist as for the standard casino bonus but the amount of bonus is far higher. The standard welcome bonus is only up to a maximum of £300 whilst the high roller casino bonus is £850.

The bottom line with bonuses is to ALWAYS check the terms and conditions before signing up to them, for example at Joyland Casino there is little point signing up to either the £300 welcome bonus or the high roller casino bonus if you don’t intend to play on the slots as you will never meet the wagering requirements to be able to withdraw the money but if you like slots then it is avery nice boost to your bankroll and by all means you should take part.

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Check out this 100% Hot New Brand!

PayNoRake.com is a publicly-listed company in Norway(OTC).  All poker brands operated by Playsafe Holding AS are, and havealways been licensed and regulated under the rules of the Kahnawake GamingCommission-one of the most well-known and respected regulators in gaming.

PayNoRake.com is the ONLY poker website dedicated tooffering 100% rakeback to its players, and pays it daily right into the players’accounts.  The site also has a revolutionary new feature that we’ll explainin more detail later.

First, have a look and you’ll see about 90% of all poker-sitesare poorly-designed. Most rakeback sites are even worse!  Refreshingly, PayNoRake.com combines detailed,yet clear content that’s easy for the user to grasp and presents it in a very clearexecuted-design (obviously done by skilled graphic artists).

Like most popular poker games on the Net, PayNoRake.comoffers players a superb gaming experience. But the newcomer also rewards themwith real money back-up to 100% rakeback. This is paid daily, not monthly or weekly and no one else offers this.

PayNoRake.com offers a wide variety of secure and fastdeposit and payment options, so it’s for any poker player to start playing inminutes.  We’re sure that PayNoRake.com will be a hit with the pros allthe way down to the beginners.

The one-of-a-kind Rake-o-Meter

Now let’s get to PayNoRake.com’s unique feature that haspeople talking.

Aside from the 100% rakeback and daily payments, the Rake-O-Meteris the most outstanding feature on this hot new site, helping to set it apartfrom others in the category.

It’s easily the most advanced, real-time rakeback calculatorwe’ve ever seen.  The daily stats, weeklystats and other useful functions are appealingly displayed and easy to understand.

You really haveto see it to believe it.  I’d stronglysuggest that you open an account now and check out this new, personalizedRake-O-Meter.  It’s a revolutionary new concept in poker rakeback.

PayNoRake.comoffers a whole slew of exciting cash games and tournaments, such as:

Cash Games

• Texas Hold’em – No Limit and Pot Limit
• Omaha & Omaha Hi/Lo
• 7 Card Stud & 7 Hi/Lo
• Guts Poker
• Survivor Variation of Guts Poker
• Chinese Poker
• Big 2 Poker
• Pan (Panguingue)
• Blackjack

 

Tournaments

• Sit n Go
• Multi-Stage
• Pan
• Multitable

 

PayNoRake also offers all kinds of great games in its casinos.

Casinos

More and morepoker players are trying their hand at online casino games these days. So it’sno surprise that PayNoRake.com has an excellent casino built into the software.  It features casino games like Slots,Baccarat, Roulette, even Craps.

These terrificVegas-style games offer great  bonuses,too. Give it a whirl.  Try out some ofthe casino games at the PayNoRake Online Virtual Casino. Who knows? You mightget lucky and pocket a wad of cash!

Just open thesoftware, click on "casino" and you’re ready to go.

Browse through theonline casino games on PayNoRake and pick your favourite. You can practice forfree (no money needed casino games) or play with real funds to make REAL money! Just deposit your funds into your secureaccount using the 100% safe and secure Cashier.

 

Safe and Secure Deposit Methods

PayNoRake.com offers a variety of easy-to-usemethods for depositing money into players’ accounts.  Currently, real money deposits into players’poker accounts are accepted in several ways that are listed below.  Most of these are free.  

NOTE: Players unfamiliar with any of thesedeposit methods can consult the detailed, step-by-step instructions which willassist them in depositing.  The PayNoRake.comcashier system processes funds in US Dollars only. However, we do accept allforeign currencies that can be converted into US Dollars by the player’s bankat the bank’s standard conversion rates.

 

• Moneybookers (free deposits)
• eWalletXpress (free deposits)
• EcoCard (free deposits)
• PAYSAFECARD (free deposits)
• Visa and MasterCard
• UseMyBank
• NETELLER
• myCitadelWallet (Canadian customers only)
• Wire Transfer

 

Top Rakeback.  Exclusive Promotions.

Asstated, PayNoRake.com offers 100% rakeback. (You can’t beat that!)  Plus, they pay it daily. But it doesn’t stopthere. They also offer some of the most enjoyable – and rewarding – promotionsaround.  They’re specifically designed tohelp players "Make More Every Day" and have a great time while doing it!

It should be noted that PayNoRake offersa great sign-up bonus, access to major poker events, and the chance to win amillion at a tournament every week!

Check outsome of the promotions they’re offering players right now:

A $10,000 Guaranteed Tournament
What better way for a player torelax and unwind than playing for their share of a guaranteed $10k?  Hey,players are hitting the tables and taking their shots at that $10k right now!

Hanna Gabriels
You’ve got to check out HannaGabriels to see why all the players want to try to knock her out.  They’reall testing their skills and going up against this Champ because she’s neverlost a fight.  She’s KNOCKED OUT numerous opponents in the boxing ring andnow she’s got everyone trying to knock her out on the poker tables!

 

‘TheSheriff’
Every Monday, Tuesday andThursday, players try to find TheSheriff and knock him off. And why not?  If they do, they get paid handsomely – 25times the value of the big blind!   It’s as simple, and lucrative, asthat!

 

Plus All The Little Extras, 

While logged on, PayNoRake players receive convenientinstant messages that keep them posted about upcoming tournaments and events. Thisprovides a great ‘heads up’ so you don’t miss a thing.

If you have any questions or concerns while you’re on thesite, there are two informative and easy-to-understand FAQ sections: one forthe general site and one that’s rakeback specific. You can also contact them throughtheir well- trained, customer support representatives.

PayNoRake’s Customer Support via email is provided inEnglish, Spanish, Finnish, Russian, German, Polish and Portuguese. And theirLive Support feature is available in both English and Spansh.

 

PayNoRake.com System Requirements

Minimum System Requirements

• Microsoft© Windows^TM 98/ME/NT/2000/XP
• Pentium 300 MHz PC or faster
• 64MB RAM or more
• Screen resolution of 800×600 pixels or higher
• High Color (16 bit) color display or better
• 56k dial up Internet access or faster
• At least 25MB free hard drive space

RecommendedSystem Requirements

• Microsoft© Windows^TM 2000
• Pentium III 1000 MHz PC
• 256MB RAM
• Screen resolution of 1024×768 pixels
• True Color (32 bit) color display
• Windows^TM audio drivers and sound card with speakers
• Cable or ADSL Internet access
• At least 25MB free hard drive space

 

 

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