Poker Forum - PokerForum.com's Online Poker Beginner's Guide: Part 1

If you're just coming into the online Poker scene the choices before you can be overwhelming. It's true that in the long run there is a lot to learn but for the beginner we think your basic questions are going to break down into three catagories:

- The mechanics of play (How do you sign up? Deposit money to play? Sit at a table? Use the software?)

- Etiquette (What do you do? What are the rules? What's expected of you? What can you expect from others?)

- Where to play? (Is one place better than another? Why? Where are newbies welcome? Where can I play that is the least risky for a new player?)

Believe it or not you'll end up making the last choice first --if you haven't signed up to play somewhere the rest of it is just talk-- so that's where we're going to start this Online Poker Beginner's Guide: Where to Play (and why)?

There are two things you'll need to up front. First you'll be asked whether you want to play "for fun" or for "money". Real money games are very different from the "free" games, so different in fact that they're hardly the same game at all. By all means, play the free games at first to learn what you can, but don't forget that the dynamics of the game --as in how people play and the real-time decisions they are likely to make-- will change dramatically when you move over to the cash games.

The second thing you need to know is that there are ways to significantly minimize your cash money risk as you begin your online poker experience. Most poker rooms offer sign-up and/or deposit bonuses which can, in effect, allow you to begin your real money play by using someone else's money. In fact the primary way we're going to differentiate the specific poker sites from each other (in this section) is by how much of their money you can use to play before you put your own money at risk. "Risk" is the key word here: our goal is to help you minimize that risk while you're learning how to play the game.

Ok, back to choosing a poker rooms. Fortunately the first part of this decision process is easy. Generally speaking poker rooms online are not unlike poker rooms in the real world: there are the "full meal deal" big rooms with thousands of players and hundreds of tables to choose from and the "small but friendly" guys who don't have anything near the player base that the big guys do.

The good thing about the big poker rooms is that everyone into online poker has heard of them, their reputations are well known, they are financially secure, when you win your withdrawals are processed quickly, and they're very familiar with the needs of their customer base. These are all good things for the newbie and represent the bulk of the reason why players should at least begin their online play experience at such places. So let's take a closer look at a few of the big guys.

For the purpose of our discussion here we focus on what makes the site a good choice for the new player, particulary in terms of getting you in, at a table and playing with real money at the lowest possible risk.

Party Poker

Pacific Poker

Interpoker