Online Gambling

Days ago, Everleaf Online Poker Network banned all new sign-ups and players from the United States as well as two other counties. The move was in response to a letter issued by the US Department of Homeland Security, as well as in response to the seizure of one of Everleaf’s payment processor’s funds.

There are approximately two dozen online poker sites that are part of the Everleaf Online Poker Network. US players may experience significant delays in withdrawing their funds; Everleaf has not commented on how they are going to facilitate the withdraw of funds by their US players.

Everleaf online poker players will want to find an alternative for their online poker play. There are few online poker networks that continue to accept real-money play from US players.

• Bovada Poker: Accepts all US online poker players
• Americas Cardroom: Bars WA MD players
• Intertops Poker (Cake Poker): Bars LA WA NY NJ KY MD MO
•  OddsMaker.com Poker: (Merge Poker): Bars KY LA MO MD NY WA DC

Intertops Poker accepts players from most US states.  Barred states are: LA WA NY NJ KY MD MO.

Match & Win – Hearts Edition

The Intertops Match & Win – Hearts Edition will award you with single Gold Card cash prizes. The higher heart cards, Jack thru Ace, will pay up to $1,000.

Visit the Promotions page at Intertops Poker for more details.

Knock-Out Challenge

The most satisfying feeling at the table of a poker tournament is eliminating another player. Not only do you win the pot, but you are also one step closer to the prize money! Every second weekday in February we are offering two very thrilling special bounty-tournaments, with a buy-in of only $5+0.5.

To make this even more exciting and profitable, you not only win money in the tournaments you play, but you also earn 1 point for every player you eliminate. $1,000 in prize money is up for grabs for the Knock-Out Challenge Leaderboard winners.

Visit the Promotions page at Intertops Poker for more details.

Intertops $25,000 FPP Race in February

$25,000 are up for grabs at Intertops Poker in February. Each week there will be a FPP race worth $6,250; Finish in the top 100 Frequent Player Point earners and you will win a share of the money that week.

Visit the Promotions page at Intertops Poker for more details.

Super Poker Event of Europe 2012

‘Super 2012′ is estimated to be Europe’s largest ever poker tournament with 4,000 poker players all sitting down at once to play for the estimated prize-pool of €1.2 million and Intertops will take you there!

Intertops provide an array of daily satellites which you can find by visiting the Events Tab within ‘Tournaments’ on the Intertops Poker software. There is still time to qualify since satellites run until February 12th.

Visit the Promotions page at Intertops Poker for more details.

Irish Open 2012

The Irish Poker Open is the oldest No Limit Texas Hold’em poker tournament in Europe and the 2nd oldest in the world – it was first held in 1981 and only the World Series of Poker can claim a longer history. The tradition continues and Intertops will take you there!

Win a $6,000 package at Intertops and you will have the chance to put your name in the history books!

Visit the Promotions page at Intertops Poker for more details.

Intertops Poker accepts players from most US states.  Barred states are: LA WA NY NJ KY MD MO.

Online poker is a fluid, dynamic industry. Just last month, a United States Department of Justice ruling came to light which many feel has paved the way for online poker legalization and regulation in 2012.

It seems that each month — heck, sometimes each week — online poker sites come and go, or change the policy toward accepting US-based real-money players. Complicating things is the fact that there are some online poker networks that have several “skins”, or front-ends, and you’re only allowed to register at one of the skins. So, even though there are more than a dozen US-friendly online poker rooms, you can only open an account at a handful of those sites.

Here is the latest list of US-friendly online poker rooms where you’ll want to have accounts.

According to CNN Money, there is a deal in the works that would get online poker site / ponzi scheme Full Tilt Poker back online, and perhaps even get money back into the hands of US players that got screwed out of their funds by Full Tilt Poker.

But there’s a BIG catch for US players if this deal goes through.

“American players would apply to the Department of Justice for compensation.”

Wait, what?

You read that right. The DOJ’s motives in doing this are yet to be uncovered — perhaps there is a legal requirement that they be involved in returning players’ funds due to Full Tilt Poker being declared a ponzi scheme. However, I can imagine that they also may be looking to get a little Big Brother on y’all and keep tabs on who was playing online poker.

Is it worth it to apply to the DOJ to get your funds back? That’s a decision that you’ll have to make, if it comes to that.

More wait and see to see if online poker players in the US will ever get their funds back from Full Tilt Poker.

Online Poker sites on the Merge Poker Network have recently began accepting new online poker accounts from poker players in the United States. While not all online poker players are accepted, most are eligible to open an online poker account. (Online poker players from the following states/jurisdictions are still barred at Merge Poker sites: KY LA MO MD NY WA DC).

My top three online poker sites on the Merge Poker Network are:

• OddsMaker Poker
• Poker Nordica
• PokerHost

All offer a 100% match bonus on your initial deposit, with OddsMaker matching up to $1K — the most of any Merge Poker Network site that I am aware of. In addition, OddsMaker spreads $40K a month in online poker freerolls: 7 x $200 daily free rolls, with the games varying from Pot Limit Omaha, to H.O.R.S.E. to No Limit Hold’em.

Back in the day, every US-facing online poker site worth its salt ran regularly-scheduled online poker freerolls with real cash prizes and no entry requirements. Before Black Friday in April 2011, the least amount of time that you would have to wait before another online poker freeroll started somewhere was maybe 90 minutes.

I just reviewed the top US-friendly online poker sites, and online poker freerolls seem to be a thing of the past. Only one of the four top online poker sites, Poker4Ever on the Everleaf Network, runs regularly-scheduled freerolls any longer, and the prize pools are as small as $5.

And while Doyle’s Room does have their “Freeroll Fridays in September“, this is a special promotion and isn’t a part of their regular freeroll tourney offerings. Finally, Cake Poker and BoDog have freerolls, but only for their new players.

It’s too bad that freerolls appear to be a thing of the past. I think newbies looked forward to getting their feet wet with these types of tourneys.

Since Black Friday in April 2011, online poker players in the United States have been struggling with not only where to play, but also with how to make deposits and withdrawals from their accounts in a way that minimizes the fees to conduct these transactions. Granted, medium-to-high-stakes players probably worry less about these fees, but for recreational, low-stakes players, fees make a difference.

I’ve written previously about the few online poker rooms that are still accepting new US-based real-money players. As a quick review, they are:

Doyles Room Poker – 100% bonus on initial deposits between $25 and $1000!

Bodog Poker – 110% bonus on initial deposits between $20 and $1000!

Cake Poker – 110% bonus on initial deposits between $25 and $545!

Poker4Ever – 100% bonus on initial deposits between $10 and $500!

I’ve just spent several hours running down as many details as I can about their deposit and withdrawal options, and their associated fees. It is frustrating to say the least. Often times, the information that they have on their sites is out of date, unclear, or is contradictory to information that they have published elsewhere.

So, as far as I can tell, only DoylesRoom offers online poker with no fees for certain deposit and withdrawal methods. Specifically, DoylesRoom offers no-fee Visa deposits ($20 minimum); in addition, they will credit to your account any fees incurred when depositing via Western Union or MoneyGram (both $200 minimum). On the withdrawal side,  they offer 1 free check-by-mail per month ($20 minimum), as well as debit cards ($5 monthly fee + per-load and per-use fees).

Remember the good old days of  the free (or nearly free) e-wallets like FirePay, NetTeller, eWalletXpress, EcoCard, Click2Pay, QuickTender/UseMyWallet? Me too.  The current e-wallets that are accepted by various online poker sites all have 5% or more fees by the time you perform one deposit and one withdraw. The online poker site itself does not charge any fees to use these e-wallets, but the fees to load the e-wallet and then make a withdraw are substantial.

• BoDog Poker supports MyPaylinQ, which loads via credit cards at 7% fee, or for free via Western Union (WU). But the only payout option is WU with a $20 MyPaylinQ fee + WU fees.
• Cake Poker supports MoneyLineWallet (MLW), which charges $4 per load from your linked checking account. However, Cake Poker cannot payout back to your MLW account. Even if they could, there are MLW payouts fees — via a check for <$1000 (the fee is $10) and via a Bank Wire for larger amounts (with a $55 fee (plus your bank may charge an incoming international wire fee)).
• Poker4Ever supports PICCLUB, which has the same load and payout fees as MyPaylinQ.

Real money online poker players that reside in the United States have fewer options for their online poker play since Black Friday of April 2011. As I am sure you are aware, many online poker rooms have left the United States market in light of the FBI’s actions on that day.

DoylesRoom.ag has decided to keeps its online poker room open to US players. They are even allowing new accounts to residents of the United States (except WA and MD residents). They have recently moved to the Yatahay Online Poker Network, joining a half dozen or so other online poker rooms on the network. In addition, they are offering a LIMITED TIME initial deposit bonus of 100% when you deposit between $50 and $1000.

Doyle’s Room deals Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, and 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo tournaments (both normal and turbo) and cash games in fixed limit (FL), pot limit (PL) and no limit (NL) formats. You can easily find your favorite game using the filters provided in the poker lobby.

The easiest way to make a deposit at Doyle’s Room is with your Visa card. Otherwise, you can deposit via a Bank Wire or a Person-to-Person transfer; however, these deposit options are obviously less convenient than depositing via your Visa credit card. There is a $50 minimum deposit — this is perfectly reasonable, in my opinion.

Your best withdraw option is probably a bank draft / check. Checks can be requested for between $25 and $2500 once per week and have no fee! You can also choose debit cards as your withdrawal method, but there is a $5 monthly fee, plus a load fee of $2 each time that you load the card. Debit cards usually also have a per-transaction fee when you use the debit card to make a purchase.

Your online poker options are limited if you live in the United States. Doyle’s Room is a solid online poker room that you should consider for your online poker play.

Sorry — this deal has expired. Check out the deals at Intertops, which is open to all players.

Bodog Poker offers fantastic value to players of all types. From sign up to cashout, experience the VIP treatment, Bodog style!

Sign Up with Bodog for a Huge Poker Bonus

Bodog Poker now has the best sign-up poker bonus in its history at 110%! Make any deposit and you’ll immediately receive an up front cash bonus of 10%. Then hit the tables and for every 10 poker points you earn you’ll receive an additional $1 bonus up to 100% match of your first deposit (up to a maximum of $500). You earn poker points in three different ways:

1. Rake: You earn up to 1 poker point per raked pot.
2. Tournament Fees: You earn 3 poker points per dollar in tournament fees.
3. Time Spent Player: You even earn an additional 1 poker point per hour of play!

Plus, based on thousands of hours of user interaction and feedback Bodog Poker has recently released a slick, new version of their poker software. Check it out today while taking advantage of this limited time offer.

Find out more about Bodog Poker’s 110% signup bonus.