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Poker is a game of skill, and every decision you make is about maximizing your Expected Value or EV for short. The term “EV” will undoubtedly be used throughout this article and will be seen in two ways. A player can have +EV, that is positive Expected Value or – EV, that is negative Expected Value. No Deposit Poker is not gambling and the following explains why.

Most gambling games have a poor EV for you, and a positive EV (5.49% in this instance) for the casino. In the short run you could win, but in the long term, in the event that you played typical gambling games 1000 times, the casino would always find yourself winning by about 5.49%. As you can plainly see these kind of gambling games are in favor of the house. Poker pits you against other players rather than the house. In a complete ring game (9 players) or shorthanded game (6 players), the target is to make the best EV decisions against the a great many other players playing worse (making -EV decisions) than you.

A simple example would be if you were dealt KK prior to the flop came (preflop), which everyone understands is a good hand preflop. This hand includes a high possiblity to win against all other hands preflop. If you played and raised “all in” with this particular hand against a new player who played and called every all in, you’ll have an enormous advantage as you’ll be a favorite every time, rendering it a +EV decision. This is an exaggerated example and playing one hand would not be the smartest idea. What you would do is play say the top 20% of hands because against a person who plays maybe 70% of their hands, you again, will be making a +EV decision each and every time you play with him. It’s likely that your starting hands will have a whole lot higher probability to win. That is just scraping the top, and there is an EV attached to every decision and every situation. Many online poker sites provide starting hand charts for novices to use, which would function as simplest way to improve your EV.

In addition, there’s always variance and for a while weaker players might get lucky, but that’s also what attracts them to come back and keep playing. In the end, a good player who makes +EV decisions will always end up a winner. For this reason poker isn’t gambling but a casino game of skill and finding out how to exploit your opponent’s mistakes.

Could it be safe to play online poker?

Absolutely, some sites have over 50,000 people playing at once. Major sites like Full Tilt Poker run advertisements on it and the web and are even listed on the stock market. They allow you to play poker online free of charge or real cash. Any negative publicity would affect their business so these sites often supply the best customer service. Maintaining your password secure can be your responsibility and if you do that, your money will undoubtedly be safe. Online poker sites haven’t any incentive to cheat when dealing hands given that they want to be extremely fair so you continue to play, which allows them to earn their income by means of “rake.” That is a very small percent of the pot (usually significantly less than 1%). In poker, you are playing contrary to the other players, and not the house.

Obviously if the poker site seems shady, you have never heard of it, they don’t really advertise on TV or the web and there aren’t members playing frequently – you wouldn’t be depositing your cash there!!! With that said, the majority of the major poker sites have become safe and reputable.

What are the best online poker rooms?
There are three major sites for playing online poker. Full Tilt Poker, Pokerstars and Party Poker have lots of traffic, play money tables, a lot of freeroll tournaments and have excellent customer support. If you are a beginner you should play at Full Tilt Poker or Pokerstars when you begin. Other sites like Party Poker call you up after you sign up and require some type of id verification to activate your account. Some people may such as this extra security, and can certainly go that route. Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars usually do not require this. Overall, all three sites are incredibly safe and well known.

Many sites state “Deposit and get another $600!” Do they really double your deposit amount after depositing?

That depends on the website. Some sites give you a really small portion (around 10%) of your deposit instantly, but that is rare. What typically happens is you deposit $600, and after you accumulate a certain amount of player points, they will give you the full $600. This is to ensure depositing players may also be active. With online poker sites such as Full Tilt Poker these points are achieved very quickly.

Online sites will publish poker bonus codes which should be entered upon account creation. After that, the amount you earn depends on the time you spend playing and the stakes you play at. Whenever a player reaches 400NL limit, this means 2 to 4 dollar blinds and have a good percent of wins, they are able to make up to 5K per month. This is of course if you treat playing just like a job and dedicate a long time every day to playing. Ultimately job freedom and the lure of easy money that is only a click away, is what draws a lot of people to online poker.