So You Want to Play Online Poker?

So you’ve watched the World Series of Poker on television. You’ve seen the likes of Jamie Gold and Chris Moneymaker talk, bluff, and play their way to fame and fortune. The entire time you watched, you thought to yourself, This can’t be that hard, I can do this!, but before you don the dark sunglasses and head to your local cardroom, or just because you’d rather play poker in your pajamas, you decide to try it out online first. Online poker can be a great learning experience. It can be rewarding in itself, and it can also prepare you for a trip to a live cardroom. So what do you do to get started?

• Download and install the software — All of the major online poker sites make it easy to download and install their software. The system requirements are not very restrictive, so even if your computer is old, you should be able to run it with no problems. The “big five” online cardrooms are PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, UltimateBet, Bodog, and Absolute Poker.
• Familiarize yourself with the interface — I don’t care how good you think you are; if you’ve never played online at a particular site before, it pays to play some free poker there first to get used to the interface. And if you’ve never played online poker before, the pace moves very quickly if you’re not used to it. Get used to making decisions within the framework of the site. All sites have play money options you can use as long as you’d like, and although the play is often very poor, it’s worth your time to familiarize yourself with the site before putting real money on the line.
• Play some freerolls — All of the major sites run freeroll tournaments regularly. A freeroll is exactly what it sounds like: You pay nothing to enter and there is a small prize pool that the site puts up for grabs. One well-known and very prosperous online player, Annette_15, built her entire bankroll off money she won in a freeroll without ever making a deposit. I myself used to play freerolls when I was starting out. It’s a great way to learn online poker with no risk and a chance to make a little money, if things go well. Some sites even offer freerolls that can eventually win you a seat in the World Series of Poker main event.
• Make a deposit — Okay, you’ve downloaded the software, played some free poker, and you think you’re ready to test your mettle with some real hard-earned cash. Using a credit card is probably the easiest way to deposit on a site. All of the sites accept major credit cards, although not all credit cards will allow you to deposit onto online sites. If your credit card won’t allow you to make a deposit to the online poker room of your choice, then the next option is using an eWallet like ePassporte or MyWebATM to deposit. The logistics of using these services is a bit beyond the scope of this article, but basically an eWallet is a “virtual credit card” you can load using either your credit card or a bank account. It can take a few days or longer to set up, but once you do, you’ll be able to safely move money into the eWallet and then into the online poker rooms and back from the online poker rooms to your credit card or bank account when you withdraw. As always, if you’re having any difficulties funding your account, feel free to contact support for the poker room in question. The support at the “big five” poker rooms is excellent, and since their main method of making money is for you to deposit and then play, it’s in their best interest to help you out.
• Is it safe? — In a word, yes. I’ve been playing online for over four years now without issue. I’ve never had any money come up missing, and I’ve always received my withdrawals in a timely manner. The only word of caution I have is that you must treat it like any other situation in which you have personal information online in the digital age. Run a firewall, don’t give your information out to anyone, and keep your computer security up to date. Basically follow common sense best practices and you should be fine.