The Bonus Site – Online Gambling

Pokerstars is still the largest online poker site in the world, even though they are not offering real money games in the United States anymore. It seems that a new online poker legislation should rapidly been enacted in the US, but pokerstars will probably not been allowed to get a license there for a long time given that they are currently sued by the Department of Justice for money laundering and other frauds related to online gambling.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Pokerstars is the dominating force in European online poker. This is a much more segmented market and indeed the American market may look more and more like it, as each State can decide to ban or to regulate online poker once a clear federal law has been implemented. So in Europe each country has its specific legislation.

In France for example a new online gambling law was voted in 2010 that regulates online poker. Online casinos are totally banned and online sports betting is very tightly regulated in order to protect the Government operators such as PMU. For online poker each operator must obtain a license from ARJEV and this is a stringent process. Pokerstars got one, so if you use the code marketing pokerstars you can register there.

In Italy only online poker in the form of tournaments is offered, but no ring games. On the other hand Great Britain is a very free country when it comes to online gambling and most types of games or betting are allowed. The UK has a very long history of allowing all sorts of gambling games and some of their bookmakers were created in the nineteenth century.

In Germany people play online poker as well, but they are working on regulations that may change that. Most other European countries do not have a clear online gaming as well. Some countries are heavens for gambling operators, such as the Isle of Man, Malta or Cyprus. These small island states benefit from their status as a sovereign land to allow and license gambling in order to collect fees and attract businesses.

Segmented is the word in online gambling and the trend will only get stronger.

I manage maybe 5 to 15 hours per week of online poker, depending on the circumstances.

Currently I’m playing $100 NL 6-max and struggling to come to grips with it to be honest. I have a tiny win rate (less than 1PTBB) over 13,000 hands since I started it a couple of months back. Before then I was running pretty consistently at about 9PTBB on full ring $50’s and $100’s. But I really want to crack the 6 max as that is where the action is going to be in the near future I think.

I’m also going to devote some time to Pokerstars $15 Turbo SnG’s. These are good for when I’m a little antsy and I’m running an experiment to see if I can get my ratio of 1st places as high as possible. I play 2 at once.

This week I’ve played more than usual as I’m stuck at home waiting for the baby to come. So I’m more in the groove than I have been recently. This week I’ve played 14 $15 Turbo SnG’s and placed 1st in seven of them (and 3rd in one) for net winnings of $343 in 4-5 hours total.

The 6 max are packed with maniacs and sponges (calling stations who will raise/bet at you if you slow down). The Full Ring is an easier game to read. Swings can be insane in 6 max, but there are more games and more money to be made there in the long run. Not sure how the $25 tables play these days. But the $100 NL 6 max play very much like the maniac-fest that was the Party $25’s 18 months ago.

In 6 max Ring my winnings so far this week (ignoring bonuses) are $161 at 7 PTBB/100 (7.5hrs). I’m due a $90 bonus from pokerstars soon (I’ve cleared all the easier bonuses already). I tend to 2-table the 6max (but I used to 3-table full ring).

My roll started from a $50 deposit at PokerStars at the end of 2008 (since cashed back out). My lifetime winnings stand at +$8,433.16 and my current bankroll (spread across about 12 poker sites) is $4,179.42. I also have about $2,700 in bonuses waiting to be earned (mainly at PS, UB, Absolute and Carbon Poker). So I’m waiting until I make the jump to $200 NL before I go for clearing these.

I will try to post the biggest winning and losing hands of sessions for comments. This might also make me think twice before making stupid plays.