Gary Carson's sites
Bonus Whoring
Most online poker sites offer bonus payments for deposits. The bonus dollars are converted into spendable dollars by getting an implicit rebate on rake, you earn conversion of bonus dollars into dollars by playing a certain number of hands, the number of required hands depending on the size of the pot or the amount of the rake.
When Neteller was available to US players it was very easy to move money around from poker site to poker site. so taking advantage of deposit bonuses was fairly easy. You could deposit $500 on one site to get a maximum bonus, then quickly move $400 of it to another site for another bonus (leaving $100 behind as stake to "play off" the bonus). In that way you could generate many bonuses at different sites using the same block of money.
Since the demise of Neteller as an available payments system for US players, moving money around isn't so easy any more, making it more difficult to bonus whore effectively.
Also, some sites have begun to impose time limits on "working off" a bonus, creating another roadblock to taking advantage of multiple site bonuses.
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| Poker Site |
Features |
Open to US residents? |
US funding options |
Freerolls |
Network
|
|
Poker Stars
|
One of the largest sites, well known for its tournaments |
Yes |
| WPEX |
Reduced rake |
Yes |
|
Frequent |
WSEX sports book |
| Doyles Room
|
| Bodog |
|
Yes |
NuCharge
eWalletXpress |
infrequent |
Bodog sports book |
| FullTiltPoker |
|
Yes |
|
Sometimes |
|
| Absolute Poker -- They have recently been caught in a major cheating scandel. One involving insiders that they attempted to cover up. You pretty much have to be insane to even think about playing at Absolute Poker. |
|
|
|
| UltimateBet |
|
Yes
|
|
Frequent
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Party Poker
|
|
No
|
|
Seldom
|
|
PokerRoom.com
| | No | | | PokerRoom |
| FabulousPoker | | No | | | PokerRoom |
|
|
|
|
|
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| Miami Poker |
|
Online poker players in the United States are faced with
two related problems -- access and funding. The problems are related only
in the sense that they share an underlying cause -- the United States
government.
The poker sites seem to be of two minds. Some take the position that
online poker does not violate any US
laws (and so far the US
courts support that position) and they'll continue business as usual,
addressing the player funding issues as best they can. Others take the
position that the United
States government is a rogue government
who can't be depended on to abide by their own laws, and they want nothing
to do with any of it.
The only ones we really care about at the moment are those who are
willing to approach the situation as if the United States was really a
country of laws.
The funding problem is trickier. Those problems stem more from fear of
the United States
government on the part of US Banks than on any actual actions of the
government. That seems to still be in a flux, and no generally accepted
funding method has surfaced as yet. I'm sure it will find a solution given
a little more time.
|
|
The Poker Players
Alliance puts a lot of effort into claiming they are representing poker
players in a lobby effort to address the problems. That's a serious
misrepresentation on their part, they don't represent players in any way.
I've written a lot
of posts about them on my blog, Poker
Culture.
|
Stay Tuned
|
Funding options for US Players
NuCharge
eWalletXpress
|
