Now, I'm not writing this short guide to advocate playing online poker. To me, playing poker is "informed" gambling, to the "uninformed" gamblers, discipline issues like poor bankroll management, tilt will seriously get you into trouble with your cash. I'd like to give a simple startup guide based on my personal experience, to help interested players get into the groove of online ASAP, and start building an online bankroll ASAP too.
1. You need an online payment processor.
This online payment processor is like your online bank. You use it as a means to transfer money to and fro sites.
I personally use
NETELLER. Neteller was great before the US crackdown on online payment processors. Nonetheless its still great for Singaporeans. Neteller is also great for BONUS HUNTING/WHORING (I'll explain in another section). Right now, most major pokersites who accept US players accept Neteller.
Another common processor is
MONEYBOOKERS. However I discourage using it to transfer money to and fro poker sites, because if your MB account is in SGD, there will be exchange rate differences incurred. I use MB to withdraw money back into my local bank account only.
2. Start building your online bankroll by BONUS WHORING.
As said previously, bonus whoring involves the use of different poker sites, thus the use of a speedy online payment processor like Neteller is highly advised.
What is bonus whoring? Poker websites earn by the volume of players playing in their sites. To attract this volume, most pokersites usually give Sign-up bonuses and referral bonuses. When you join a new poker site, you will be given a Sign-up bonuses for you to clear while playing hands in the site. Referral bonuses are given when you refer friends to play in the site.
To better understand how bonuses work, check out
BONUSWHORES. Check out the BONUS WHORING 101 tab on the left to see a comprehensive guide of bonus whoring.
I also highly recommend this site
Poker Source online. I used this site alot when I first started, quickly building my bankroll. Sites like PSO are actually affliate sites. They help pokersites to generate traffic, as a result, pokersites pay these affliate sites, and in turn, they give us consumers nifty bonuses and promotions. The best way to grow your bankroll quickly is through such sites. You can sign up thru PSO, and pick a poker site to play. You earn the pokersite sign-up bonuses, as well as the PSO affliate site bonuses! It's killing 2 birds in 1 stone.
3. Start depositing and start playing!
Yes! But if you plan to play online poker seriously and improve along the way, there are 2 tools that are essential (MUST-USE) for an online player.
The first is
POKERTRACKER. Pokertracker is a program that tracks all your individual hands that you play on online sites. It also tracks how much you win or lose, how much time you have played, your true winrate. Best is that it also tracks all the hands your opponent plays. This is all the more important because poker is a game of understand your opponent tendencies. Together with another Heads-up-display (HUD) program, you will be able to see the stats of your opponents who are playing on the same table as you.
As for HUDs, I'd recommend
Pokerace HUD. Thus HUD gives you stats displayed on poker tables. I personally can't do without pokertracker and pokerace because the stats shown reflect the style of play of your opponents. You can then adjust your style in accordance with their style and act accordingly.
Both programs require a one-time registration fee. However, pokertracker can be earned thru promotions from PokerSource Online. There are also other free HUDs such as Gametime+, simple to use but not as comprehensive as Pokerace HUD.
4. For serious online players, get a RAKEBACK account at a Major Pokersite.
I can't overemphasize this as much. For every pot you play online, a certain % is taken away from the pot (called the rake) and is paid to the poker site. This is how pokersites make money. With a rakeback account, you can get from 27-40% of the rake you've paid to the pokersite back.
For example, I play 7-8 tables of 100nl for 1 hour. I pay about $45 in rake total. At 27% rakeback, I get back $12 dollars. This is infact my basic hourly wage just by playing poker (not inclusive of wins and losses). I recommend signing up a rakeback site via Pokersource Online again. (check out their rakeback tab for better understanding)
Thats all for this starting guide for now. PM me if you have any questions.
