With online poker in full bloom these days, the internet is littered with online poker rooms, offering you a wide diversity of games right up to some pretty exotic poker variants, more or less generous bonuses, and promotions systems. Because of this huge selection of poker rooms, nowadays, the question is how to choose an online poker room. It has taken on a whole new dimension.
While a decade ago there were like 2-3 poker rooms you could join, today, there are possibly hundreds of such rooms, you can play at. This fact has given birth to a wild competition between the different rooms, which in turn, led to bigger, better, and more generous all-around offers.
What to Look for When Choosing a Poker Room
The very first thing you should look for when you seek a poker room you want to have some real-money fun is the sign-up and/or first deposit bonus they offer. This doesn't mean that is the most important factor, but it is a good initial lead. If you look around carefully, you might just find a site that will give you a free bankroll. That way, you'll be able to enjoy all the excitement of real-money poker, without actually having to pay a single cent. If you are looking to play poker for the fun aspect, these free bankrolls are great, (yes, there are poker rooms that will give you real money to play with, for free) but if you want to generate some money or possibly make a living playing poker, this will not help you much.
In theory, a person can build up a real bankroll from a free giveaway, in reality, however, it is extremely difficult. You are better off looking for a room that gives you a good (100-200%) match on your first deposit. When you go bonus-hunting, remember that all bonuses need to be unlocked. If you happen upon an unusually generous offer, make sure you check the redemption method as it may turn out to be quite impossible to unlock. Assess the amount of effort you are willing to put into redeeming your bonus correctly, and then see if it is a good offer.
The reason why you can not make it big on a free bankroll is linked to actual poker strategy. One of the most basic strategy concepts says that you should always play properly bankrolled in order to maximize the odds. You won’t exactly be able to pull that off on a free bankroll.
Once you find something that fulfills your needs as far as the first deposit bonus goes, don’t rush into signing up just yet. Check out what the room will give you once you’ve signed up. There are all sorts of promotions going on most of the time in every online poker room. See whether there is any value for you in these promotions. See if there are accessible private tourneys (which usually provide the best EV+), and whether their freerolls are any good.
Next thing you need to assess is the level of competition. If you read reviews about the site, which go on about how stiff a competition there is, you may not want to play there, despite all the other positive aspects. The objective in this game is usually to win money, and if it is made impossible by one thing or another, there’s no point in hanging around.
Many poker rooms offer recurring bonuses, as well. Some of them will call these “loyalty bonuses†and they’ll usually come in the shape of certain percent matches on your subsequent deposits.
Better still than loyalty bonuses are rakeback deals. A rakeback deal will make sure you get part of the money you pay to the room during play, back. This edge is something that will hugely impact your game. Some poker rooms call them “cash-back†offers, but they’re basically one and the same thing.
Last but certainly not least, you need to see about the method the room uses to calculate the rake. Many poker rooms use the no-flop, no-drop policy, which means they take no rake on hands that do not see the flop. Obviously, this is another tiny edge.
If you understand the nature of poker in general, and Texas Holdem in particular, you’ll know that you have to opt for the poker room offering you as many tiny re-occurring edges as possible.
by Steve Larson
