So you've seen poker on TV or heard about it from a friend? Want to get going but don't know where to begin? Or just need some advice and a push in the right direction? Well this is the place – over a series of articles we'll be going from the very basics of online poker such as choosing a site and signing up, through to discussing how to actually make money from solid strategies and good decisions. In this piece, we'll start with the basics of signing up and getting playing and address a couple of the concerns that 'newbies' typically have about playing poker online.


Step 1 - Choosing an online poker site

The good (and bad) news is that poker is so popular nowadays that there are literally hundreds of online poker sites to choose from, so to start with you need to decide which you want to try out. If your main interest is finding the site with the most players at any one time you can check this out via www.pokerpulse.com which also lists all sites online. You can probably then stick to the top ten, which include individual sites like PartyPoker, PokerStars.com, ParadisePoker.com, UltimateBet, PokerRoom.com, PacificPoker and Ladbrokespoker.com, and networks of rooms and sites which share players and software like PrimaPoker.com which hosts sites like RoyalVegaspoker.com and GamingClubPoker, and Cryptologic who host sites like BetfairPoker.com and WilliamHill.


Step 2 – Downloading the software

It would be hard to go wrong with any of these, as they are all reputable operators and have large numbers of players (although the biggest, like PartyPoker and PokerStars, far outstrip the others). So the next step is to begin downloading the free software from some of these sites, which can be done at the touch of a button via the relevant website.


Step 3 – Playing with 'play money'

If you like the look of the graphics and the feel of the site, the next step is to sign up and try it out via the play money tables – that's right, you don't even need to pay to play in the beginning, and the sites actively encourage new players to start out here until they feel comfortable. So all you need to do is choose a screen-name to play under, register an email address and play until your hearts content. You'll be given an allocation of play chips that you can sit at the table with, and if you lose them you can just click a button on the cashier screen that allows you to replenish them. If you get bored, you can always watch the high rollers in action at the other tables, and in the biggest games its likely you'll be seeing some of the biggest names in the world in action!


Step 4 – Playing for real

Once you've had your fill of play money and start to feel a little more confident it's a good idea to make a small deposit (most sites allow you to put as little as $25 or $50 into an account). This is because poker is supposed to be played for real money to stop people just doing random things, as they do in the play money games. Don't worry though, as despite crossing the line into sitting in a real poker game, this needn't be any more costly that a cinema ticket or magazine – most sites now offer 'microstakes', where the betting is in cents and you can play for hours with a few dollars, or enter small tournaments where the cost is as little as $1. Again there's no need to play bigger until you feel like it, and are confident you are better than the other players in the games. Also remember that most sites offer sign up bonuses for new players, so by playing a certain number of hands you might get $120 worth of value from a $100 deposit by taking advantage of a 20% bonus!


Other issues


The idea of an 'online' poker game can be a curious thing to anyone who hasn't played before, so here are a couple of questions often asked by newbies:


1. "I thought real poker was all about looking the other guy in the eyes and reading his tells. How can poker work online where you can't do this?"

The Hollywood mystique of bluffing and tells is really only part of the game (besides there are tells online). A lot of the time you must think about how other people play in certain situations, what the size of their bets means as well as other things that we'll come to later. Besides, a lot of pros actually prefer playing online as its faster, cheaper and more convenient – if you could earn $50 an hour sat in a casino poker game, or $25 per screen per hour playing on four screens at once from home, which would you prefer?


2. "I would play for real money but I'm too worried about security, fairness, and collusion. How do I know that the money I deposit is safe (along with my card details), that the site isn't crooked, and that the other players can't work together to cheat me?"

These are all important points, but you must realise that the biggest sites make millions in rake (or by charging tournament fees) and that its in their interest to have high level security and run fair games to keep people coming back. Besides, why would they care about whether you win or lose when they get paid anyway? Similarly, all sites have sophisticated random number generators that are certified as fair and undeterminable by companies like Price Waterhouse Coopers, and anti collusion software and experts monitoring suspicious play - so in many respects you're probably safer online than in a real cardroom!

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