[Ray Of Light]

Five years ago, I was one of those play money players... and the reason I chose not to play for real cash back then (and it was for a good while, something like 6 months worth of exclusively play money gameplay), was because I did not trust depositing my money into the poker room (the poker room was pokerstars).

As far as I was concerned, the poker room was offshore, unregulated, promoted by people I had never heard of (remember, I was a newbie then, so I had not heard of the 'big' pro poker celebs back then) and had no bricks & morter presence to speak of.

For me, deciding to give my credit card details over to a poker room took a huge leap of faith. And even then, the first poker room I deposited into, was Victor Chandler (and that was only because their poker room is an offshoot of a well known UK regulated British sportsbook outfit). I simply felt my money was safe there.

As I became more educated about poker (started coming to twoplustwo and other forums) I relaxed and started using other poker rooms (Poker Stars and Party Poker), but it took time...