Playing Internet Poker Again

Now that you have been playing poker for a few weeks, hopefully you have enough money in your account and want to withdraw some of it.

Typically, poker sites want you to withdraw using a method you have deposited with. If you deposited via Gift Card, this option is not available to you. Still, withdrawing is as easy as deposing once you know a few key peices of information.

I have been playing at Absolute Poker for a few years now, and I have cashed a number of different ways, but the easiest method to make a withdrawal is by check.

I recently made a withdrawal of $1000 so I could document the process for you and report on the time it took. I requested the check very late Wednesday evening. I assume the check was processed on Thursday because the envelope I received was postmarked Friday. I received the check in my mailbox on Monday. As you can see this process is very fast.

The check arrived in a plain white envelope that could easily be mistaken for junk mail. If you are worried about being hassled by someone because you are playing poker, the check and envelope had nothing on it to indicate it was from a poker site. These links will show you a sample check with most of the personal information removed.

Check Image
Envelope Image

The biggest drawback to withdrawing by check is that you pay a fee. At Absolute Poker that fee is $8. Other withdrawal methods have fees too, and they are usually higher.

The easiest and most comfortable way to make a deposit is by credit card. Because of legality issues for the banks, not you, most will decline your credit card transaction. There are other deposit methods available, but some require leaps of faith that seem fishy, such as wiring money to someone in Bulgaria.

Credit cards are still the easiest way to deposit but you need to find the right one to make sure it doesn't get declined. The best credit cards are "Gift Card" Credit Cards.

Non-reloadable gift cards are sold at many locations, including; grocery stores, gas stations, and drug stores. These are Visa or MasterCards preloaded with a set dollar amount (usually $25 to $200) for a small fee. Most fees are under $10 and many are even $5 or less. Make sure you verify the minimum the amount you can deposit via credit card, most sites are between $10 and $50.

This weekend I made a deposit via gift card to make sure nothing had changed. I went to a local grocery store and bought a $50 gift card for $54.95. The poker site asked for me to verify my address and said it was required to match the address on the card. Because gift cards do not require an address when you buy them, I simply put in my home address. Next, I was sent to a external webpage so the card could be verifed for the transaction. I needed to review the information and click YES. Within seconds the money was loaded into my poker account and I was ready to play.

About 5 years ago, I deposited my first $50 into online poker. Playing at .50/$1 ring games, I quickly doubled my money and couldn’t believe how easy it was. So within a few hours, I stepped up to the $1/$2 table and promptly lost my entire bankroll.

That lesson would be one of many along the way. I took a couple days off and deposited another $50. Slowly but steadily I built my bankroll to a couple hundred dollars at the .50/$1 tables. Again it was time to try the $1/$2 tables and this time I had enough reserves to hold my own.

Then I started hearing about other site that will pay bonus dollars for just playing at their sites. I moved my bankroll to a different online site and cleared out $100 in bonus money.

Another bonus came along and I discovered that I could clear the bonus faster by playing at two tables at the same time. Bonuses were everywhere and I didn’t want to miss out, so I started playing more and more tables simultaneously.

So, I went and bought two flat screen monitors with high resolution so I could easily play 8 tables at once with no overlap. I could clear $100 in bonus in less than 45 minutes. I could barely concentrate on the poker being played, but winning or losing at the tables versus the other opponents really didn’t matter, I just was trying to break even and take all the bonus dollars as profits.

My plan was working to perfection until the new laws came into effect that drove many of the poker sites out of the U.S. market. With the competition out the way, the remaining site no longer needed to offer as much bonus money to get people to play.

So with no bonuses to clear and a sizable bankroll, I sat down at my first $200 + $10 heads-up tournament table. I promptly won three in a row and I had found my new niche. I quickly figured out that if I just won 52.5% of these tournaments, I would have enough profits to cover the fees.

Figuring by this time I was an above average poker player, I didn’t see winning just over half my heads-up tournaments as much of a problem, and I was right. So for the last few years, I have become exclusively a $200 through $500 heads-up tournament player and I’m reaping the rewards of my years of experience.

I am primarily a low limit player, because I hate to lose and I hate to feel like I am leaving it up to chance. I like poker because very few people recognize the skill involved. In low limit game you can still gamble, but you can avoid the huge risks and allow your skill to beat the other players.

In 2003 an article online about poker caught my eye, and I began researching more about poker and what it took to play online.

A short while later I used an online service to help me write an e-check, and I made my first $50 deposit. At first I didn't play for much, nickels and quarters mostly. Looking back, I wasn't very good, and neither were the other players.

I the beginning I won $100 or so and I promptly lost all of that and most of my first $50 too. I also bought my first poker book. Winning Low Limit Hold Em by Lee Jones

After reading the book, I got a better understanding of Texas Hold Em, and I also learned about what it takes to win at poker online. At the point I had $8 left in my poker account, but I went to the very low limits and I started winning again.

After that I was hooked, I joined poker forums and learned about other sites I could play at. I was riding the wave of the poker boom. I jumped from site to site, setting up new accounts and earning bonus money. Later I would withdraw that money and create a new account somewhere else for another bonus or I would redeposit at a site I had already been to because they were offering a redeposit bonus.

At the height of the poker boom you could be an average player, and as long as you didn't lose too much, you were making money from the bonuses. I would guess more then half of my profit was bonus money. It was free and everywhere!

In early 2006, I lost the time to play and I lost interest in poker. At that time, my poker career went from 10-20+ hours a week to maybe 2-3 hours a month.

Later that year Congress passed a law that did not ban online poker, but it caused some of the larger sites to no longer accept US customers. Also the largest payment processor ran into legal trouble and suddenly froze all US players’ funds.

Now here we are almost 2 years later. The smoke has cleared from the legislation and there are still a number of poker sites still allowing US players to play for real money. The major difference is how you can deposit and withdraw money, but that didn't take too long to figure out.

My next article will help you figure out how to make your first deposit.

This blog has been launched to help people learn how to play Internet Poker Again. A few years ago it used to be very easy to play online poker and everyone was doing it. Currently it is not hard to play for real but it is quite different then it was in the beginning.

In 2002 an amateur won $2.5 Million in the $10,000 WSOP Main Event and the online poker craze followed. Since then the prize money has exploded and first prized in 2008 will be $9.2 Million.

In late 2006 you could find numerous tables on multiple sites. There were also a few different online payment processors to help you deposit and withdraw money. In October 2006 this changed quickly with the passage and signing of the Safe Ports Act. Attached in that bill was the Internet Gambling Enforcement Act 2006 (H.R. 4411). Effectively, American financial institutions are banned from processing any transaction with an online gambling operator.

This caused a chain reaction of events, including poker sites disabling access to American customers, and payment processors doing the same. Internet poker went from a huge craze to a fraction of it previous size very quickly. Meanwhile the WSOP Main Event keeps growing demonstrating that interest in poker is still there.

Even before this legislation passed, I had greatly reduced my online poker playing time, and I was never able to get started again until recently. When I started, I had to figure out things like how to deposit money. Fortunately the players still have the same skill level as they did before so I went back to winning and had to figure out how to withdraw as well.

In the next few posts I want to share that information with you. Together we can help build the online poker craze again.