Starting from scratch online...help please!!

[ThaKidSleez]

Hey all,

Obviously I am new here (1st post & all), but I've been reading the forums for the past few days because I've heard good things about this site. I'm posting today because I need help. I've played online before for play money, which obviously doesn't help improve skills much. However, I'm looking to step into the real money arena...but I have no idea where to start! I need a comprehensive checklist on what I need to do. For instance,

1. What site is best/easiest/most user friendly to start playing at? Being a beginner to the online cash games, I would be looking to play at micro limits ($.01/$.02 etc.) with a small bankroll.
2. Being in the U.S., how can I deposit money into an account on that site? (I realize this depends on what site I am playing on)
3. How does rakeback work?
4. Anything else I need to know?

I guess you could kinda say I am working backwards...as most of my hold 'em experience has come in live home mini-tourneys or cash games and I'm just now trying to play online. Anyway, I would appreciate any help/advice you all could give. Thanks in advance!

[dying2win]

if you live in the US and want to play 0.01 0.02 then i would say pokerstars however they dont have rakeback there. im not from the USA so i dont know but i think they all use Epassporte to deposit and withdraw.

also, even though your playing so low, i think you should get a cardrunners/stox poker/deuces cracked membership because its just so vital to be able to win. i dont think you will win if you dont use those sites. post hands in the micro forums. dont be discouraged when you lose pots when someone hits a one outer on the river. you will lose at first, everyone does. But sticking with it and finding where your going wrong will turn you into a winner eventually. also- buy pokertracker and pokeracehud.

some people wont agree with me about buying all this stuff. but i garuntee you wont be winning without it - especially if your just starting for real money because honestly you wont know how to play. (no offence intended, i still dont know how to play, lol)

[numbnuts007]

Hey KidSleez, welcome.

Opinions on stuff like this are like @$$holes if you know what i'm saying, so take everyone's advice with a grain of salt. Your first step depends on how much money you have to deposit because you want to take advantage of bonuses. You don't want to waste a $50 first deposit bonus at full tilt where you could get a $600 deposit if you had that much to deposit. Assuming that you don't want to deposit very much to start, I would suggest pokerstars. Sign up through www.pokersourceonline.com and I think you can get your $50 bonus and poker tracker, which is vital. Try depositing with any and all credit/debit cards you have because some of them work. If none of them work, i suggest www.epassporte.com. Sign up for an account, it will take a few days, but then you should be able to deposit on most any site.

As for rakeback, stars doesn't offer any, but once you clear your stars bonus you'll probably want to move to another site to clear their bonus, and when you make an account at that site, you'll definetly want rb if it's offered. Check the rakeback/affiliates forum towards the bottom of the main index. I'm not sure what a good site to go to after stars would be, check out www.bonuswhores.com and make sure you getting maximum value for depositing your bankroll.

I'd also suggest using any points you get at stars or any other site to purchase poker books for the game you're playing, so you can improve. That's all I can think of right now. Keep reading the forums and you'll get a feel for what you want your next move to be. Good luck. PM me if you have any other questions.

[saal13]

I think Poker Stars is a good first site. It doesn't offer rakeback but I think you can take advantage of s first time deposit bonus, check out www.bonuswhores.com. I'd play at Pokerstars until I could fully take advantage of bonuses and rakeback at other sites.

I would recommend you invested in Poker Tacker and PokerAceHUD. RealtimeHUD is a good (free) alternative to PokerAceHUD at Stars (free - see www.holdemranger.com).

To get rakeback who usually sign up at a site using affiliate The affiliate credits your poker account each month with a portion (usually around 30%) of the rake you play. There are two sponsored forums here that you can get more details from.

EDIT (bobbyi): Link to example affiliate removed. Forum policy prohibits affiliate links because they tend to promote spam (not to imply that you were spamming). Thanks.

[ThaKidSleez]

thanks to all of you guys for responding. it's all valuable info to me, believe me. i'll be scouring the forums as often as i can and i'll try to update how i've progressed (if anyone cares LOL). again, many thanks. see y'all around.

[Poker Clif]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey all,

Obviously I am new here (1st post & all), but I've been reading the forums for the past few days because I've heard good things about this site. I'm posting today because I need help. I've played online before for play money, which obviously doesn't help improve skills much. However, I'm looking to step into the real money arena...but I have no idea where to start! I need a comprehensive checklist on what I need to do. For instance,

1. What site is best/easiest/most user friendly to start playing at? Being a beginner to the online cash games, I would be looking to play at micro limits ($.01/$.02 etc.) with a small bankroll.
2. Being in the U.S., how can I deposit money into an account on that site? (I realize this depends on what site I am playing on)
3. How does rakeback work?
4. Anything else I need to know?

I guess you could kinda say I am working backwards...as most of my hold 'em experience has come in live home mini-tourneys or cash games and I'm just now trying to play online. Anyway, I would appreciate any help/advice you all could give. Thanks in advance!

[/ QUOTE ]

Pokerstars has a couple ways to depost that work for US players, each with it's plusses and minuses.

Western Union: It's quick, but the minimum deposit is $100 (plus you have to pay Western Uniton fees).

E-passport: You can deposit with as little as $10. The big drawback is that every time you move money from your bank account to E-passport, it takes ELEVEN DAYS for the money to load.

So you can have fast, or you can have cheap--but not both.

[JereLock]

Wow, I completely did not know about the free poker tracker offer when I signed up for pstars....depressing

[cryallyouwant]

I would suggest to get a prepaid card that you can reload whenever it's depleted. Mine costs 2bucks to reload.

[basementproject]

I suggest you study the hell out of 2+2 and know your stuff before you play, so you never have to reload!

[cryallyouwant]

[ QUOTE ]
I suggest you study the hell out of 2+2 and know your stuff before you play, so you never have to reload!

[/ QUOTE ]

I was just suggesting another payment option that's cheaper than Western Union and also quicker than epassporte.