Playing poker online: can you win money?

Yes you can. I do.

Some fifteen per cent of online poker players do. The rest are what us poker pros call "dead money". So how do you stop being dead money and become live money?

It takes knowledge, basic mathematical skill, a firm grasp of good strategy, discipline and - most important - confidence. You have to believe in yourself and your ability. And, to reach that point, you have to play and play and play - albeit for small stakes at first - and be prepared to lose before you win.

With bad beats and second-best hands, you can have long runs of losing and can drop as many as a hundred bets fast. Even for an established player, a $1000 swing is possible in a $5-$10 Texas Hold'em session. But in the long run, you will have as many good hands as bad ones, good beats as bad, and as much good luck as bad. It's up to you to turn that into profit.

I'll also tell you where the best places to play are. At the moment, my top review picks of online poker rooms are PartyPoker and Pacificpoker followed by UltimateBet.

Good luck today!

Tony G