Establishing Criteria for Ranking Reviews of the Best Poker Sites

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of online poker review sites cluttering the Internet.  It doesn’t take much searching to realize that too many of these sites are big on ads, but small on actual content and quality analysis of the rooms they review. You might know something’s missing, but what is it?  There are [...]

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Daily Poker Tips offers new poker tips every day to help keep your game on track. With tips covering everything from bankroll management to reviews of rooms like 888 poker to playing trips against a large field in the late stages of a sit and go, you're sure to find something useful.

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Merge Poker Is Perfect For New Poker Players

If you have witnessed the online poker phenomenon yet felt it wasn’t right for you, there is no need to feel as though you should have to miss out. There are plenty of poker sites to choose from and they cater for all manner of players. You don’t need to feel as though you are a poker expert to have fun and success online, in fact, starting afresh can sometimes be a blessing. There are a great number of poker sites to choose from and Merge Poker can give you the rundown in what you need to know to make sure you have a great time when playing online poker.

Learn the rules of poker

If you are playing online poker for the first time, knowing the rules of the game is a great place to start. A number of the Merge Poker sites take the time to run through the many different poker games and show you how to play them. If you don’t know your Omaha Hi Lo from your 7 Card Stud, don’t despair because help is most definitely at hand. You will quickly learn that the word hand is pretty important when it comes to playing poker but it is the helping hand you receive to pick up skills that will impress you most.

It is also important to not just be bowled over by flashy graphics and interesting animation on a website. Yes, the presentation should count for something when looking for a great website but there has to be a lot more to it than that. A great looking website with terrible game play will be of no use to a serious online poker player and this is where Merge Poker will not let you down. The variety of Merge Poker sites has a varying reliance on graphics to wow players but there is always a focus on the game play element.

Poker bonuses are always a boost

Another major factor for players when looking for the right poker site to join has to be the welcome bonuses and the poker bonus codes. You will find that your pot can often disappear quickly when you are honing your skills so having as much money as possible is always going to be of benefit to an online poker player. This is where a regular visitor at the Merge poker site will find all the poker referral codes and welcome bonuses they could ever need. You will hopefully soon learn the importance of managing your bankroll but until you develop these skills, boost your chances of winning by picking up a poker bonus or two.

There is no doubt that online poker is an exciting way to play and it should be open for everyone. If you are new to the world of poker and it seems as though it is all too much for you, visit the Merge Poker site and find out everything you need to know. Developing good habits is an important part of poker success and visiting this site can help you get a heads up on what online poker is all about.

Is Party Poker Poised for a Return to the US?

Rumors continue to swirl regarding the prospect of regulated online poker coming to the US.  While it’s not entirely clear what a regulated market would look like, many believe that any regulation will almost certainly exclude international companies for at least some period of time, giving US casinos –  who are likely to have a major influence on any legislation –  some time to secure their position in the market.

Where would that leave Party Poker?  After Poker’s Black Friday in April 2011, Party’s decision to exit the US market after the passing of the UIGEA suddenly seemed like a much better idea than it had for the five years or so since the bill passed in to law.  While PokerStars and FTP were scrambling to find new domain names, Party Poker saw a small bump in traffic and breathed a sigh of relief at not being one of the rooms in the crosshairs of the DOJ.  In addition to exiting the US market in a timely fashion, Party reached a monetary settlement with the DOJ several years ago.  Those two facts would seem to point to a path for Party to return to the US market after regulation hits.

So, is Party Poker for US Players a sure thing?  Far from it.  Party Poker may be square with the government, but there’s no way that a major US casino would just let them barge back into the market.  That would be too much competition; Party has great software, an experienced poker team and still enjoys solid name recognition in the US market despite being shut out for several years.

A more likely scenario is that Party Poker reaches some partnership agreement with a major US casino whereby Party would provide the software and services –  and possibly some element of their bran –  while the casino would do the heavy lifting on the branding and promotion.  That’s probably the fastest way for anyone in the US to take a seat at Party Poker anytime soon.

What’s New at High Pulse Poker?

High Pulse Poker was opened on the 15th of November. It has been operating real money games for a month already. One month is not a very long period but this month was full of hard work for HPP team. Many problems were solved and many errors were fixed.

When the room was opened for real money games the software of the room was not ready enough. Though High Pulse had a beta test, several errors and bugs had occurred after the launch. We could see and feel it during playing at the room. These bugs were not serious and support staff made all their best to fix them. Moreover HPP had implemented a new server to make the game more comfortable. Now we can enjoy playing at High Pulse Poker without lags. Ring games are stable and crash free now.

Due to a very large amount of e-mails and work they decided to increase their staff with 400% in November. Now all players receive quality and quick help. Website of the room was also modified. Now it is more informative.

Though High Pulse Poker is a new poker room it offers several interesting promotions with good rewards. €10 000 X MAS Freeroll will be very soon and you will hardly be able to take part. But do not worry. HPP announced another new and very attractive promotion: The Pro Contract. It is a great tournament with more than €20 000 in prizes. Top 3 winners will get WPT Vienna Main Event seats and Pro Contract. Other winners will receive cash prizes. You should definitely try to participate. *Download High Pulse Poker* and try to become a Pro player.

High Pulse Poker is famous because it runs a lot of freerolls. But the real reason to play at HPP is a huge variety of overlay tournaments. Buy-ins vary from 1 euro up to 100. Every player will find a tournament that suits his bankroll. If you have small bankroll you can take part in the “Big Little Tournaments” (very small buy-in and good prize pool). Serious players can participate in daily €5 000 GTD or in weekly €12 000 GTD with €33 buy-in.

As you can see High Pulse Poker is developing and it has real chances to become one of the most attractive poker rooms in the internet. More and more players come to High Pulse to benefit from awesome promotions. Do not miss a chance.

Basics of Beating Turbo Sit N Go Tournaments

Low limit online players are looking for games that give them a profitable edge while not eating up a huge chunk of their bankroll.

Small rebuy tourneys are full of SLAG donks, but they can be critically damaging to a fledgling bankroll if they go awry. Most of the small tourneys on sites such as Poker Stars have massive fields, and the rewards for a few hours of play can be quite paltry, while smaller sites like Sky Poker have fields a fraction of the size but lower scores for your wins; I just slogged through three hours of 3.3 buy in stud to pick up a grand total of twenty bucks profit; I make more pumping gas. What’s a low limit player to do to become profitable? Why not look into the 3.4 turbo sit n go’s on Poker Stars? The one table variety are chock full of the same SLAG players from the rebuys, but now, their mistakes are magnified many times by the blind system and are ripe for exploiting. Generally, I 4-6 table these tourneys, and have made considerable profit in doing so.

What strategies are needed to become a profitable turbo sng player? A few basics:

*Very early (Level 1-2) don’t be afraid to just shove preflop with AA-JJ, AK and even AQs. The range that the majority of these players will call with varies generally between AA-66, AK-A10, suited Ax, even KQ and KJs. With minimal time to accumulate chips, plays with big hands are actually a little less encouraged. Just get your money in preflop and you’ll do well in the long run.

*Blinds don’t become worth stealing until Level 4 (50/100) and therefore should be left alone until then. Keep an eye on stack sizes when attempting steals; if six players are left and the BB is 6th with 850 chips, many players at this level will be happy to dump their stack in with K7s or 109s, so make sure your steal has some value heads up if the stack you’re stealing against is short.

*Be aggressive to a point once you get four handed! You’ll generally get to this point at Level 6 (100/200) and the 300 in blinds is 20% of your starting stack. Don’t think that because this is a short, cheap tournament that people don’t care about the bubble; blinds are easily pilfered at this point. Make sure your stealing hands have some value if your try to steal from the cutoff; hands like K2o or Q4s gain value over Ax simply because short stacks are much more willing to put their stack in with dry aces than dry k’s or q’s.

*Once you make the money, blinds have likely reached Level 8, (200/400, ante 25) and with 675 in the pot every hand, stealing becomes much more crucial. Still, try to have semblance of a hand when you make your steals; you’re going to have to your stack in sometimes with weak holdings, so make sure you at least have some value if you’re forced to gamble.

That’s all you really need to know to put a small bankroll to use; using this information, you have more than enough knowledge to keep a bankroll alive infinitely at lower limits.

Can Party Poker Ever Catch up to PokerStars?

It might surprise some who are new to online poker, but Party Poker was once the undisputed king of the industry.  That’s right –  the site that now sits a distant second to PokerStars once boasted a lobby that was the busiest by a far margin.

Then came the UIGEA, and Party Poker’s subsequent exit from the US market.  With that exit came the loss of a substantial part of the room’s traffic, which by and large migrated to either Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars.

Now that PokerStars has been forced out of the US market, many are wondering if Party will be able to take a run at the top slot once again.  The company has been busy in the last year or so, purchasing the World Poker Tour and merging with bWin.  Their brand is definitely strong, especially in some European countries –  when German players ask the question “where can I play poker online,” the first answer is usually Party Poker.

Those steps, however, don’t seem to be sufficient –  at least not to date –  to rocket Party back to the top of the online poker heap.  PokerStars did see a traffic decline after Black Friday, but Party wasn’t able to capitalize much, if at all, on those events.  Party continues to offer very generous promotions to players, including a first deposit bonus that offers great value (get the best PartyPoker bonus code if you’re interested in playing for real money at the site) and a VIP program that kicks back up to 50% of a player’s rake right back into their account.

Unfortunately for Party, PokerStars does all of that and a bit more.  PokerStars also seems to have a capitol resource that allows them to expand into emerging markets quickly and decisively.  Party’s ace in the hole, ironically, could be a re-entry into the US market post-regulation –  a feat that PokerStars, even with their extensive resources, would be hard pressed to duplicate.

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