The echeck poker deposit option will work much the same as before, but now have some different deposit maximum.

The first deposit must be $50 to $100. After your first deposit has varified, you will be able to increase your maximum deposits as follows:

$100 USD per week

$400 USD per 30 days

Keep in mind, after you have made several deposits and they have cleared. You may want to ask the cashier if they will increase your deposit limits. There is no guarantee, but with special exceptions you may be able to increase the maximum deposit amount.

After you make your first deposit, you can choose to make echecks a “1-click” reload option. Which helps speed up your next deposit using echecks.

Full Tilt echecks will work the same as the did before, however there are a few deposit maximums that may have changed.

Your first echeck deposit can be from $10 to $100. After 7 days, which allows account verification you will be able to make more echeck deposits. The maximums are as follows.

Daily $600

Weekly $1500

Monthly $2000

Full Tilt echecks require the same simple information to set up the deposit option. Once you make your first deposit, that information can be stored for fast, simple and safe deposits.

We have found that the echeck deposit option is still available at PokerStars.com.

 Alternate Deposit Option:

If you are having trouble depositing with echecks, we recommend using an ewallet such as PICclub or UseMyWallet.

 Depositing by Credit Card:

If you prefer using the tried and true method of credit cards, try PlayersOnly.com. They have the highest acceptance of credit card deposits among US poker sites.

June 22, 2009- PokerStars echecks are still experiencing some problems, however they are available on a limited basis.

The problems with echecks that began the first week of June have shown some signs of resolution. A few sites such as Absolutepoker.com and Ultimatebet.com have fully restored the echeck deposit option to their network. However, Pokerstars and Full Tilt are still experiencing some issues. These networks have made the deposit option available again, however it is only on a limited basis. The reason for the limited availablily is not known for sure, but it is speculated that there is a pent up demand for this deposit and withdraw method, so the processor who handles these deposits and payments are currently being overloaded.

We are unsure of when echecks will be fully restored to Pokerstars.com, but we expect a full resolution in a few weeks. The only way to know if the echeck process will work for you is to try a deposit and see what happens. It may also help to try different times of the day. If you find that the echeck deposit options does not work, Pokerstars recommends that their players use one of their alternate deposit options: Visa, MasterCard, Diners Club International, Western Union or Money Order/Cashier’s Check. All of which are US deposit methods, but of course some US players may have trouble with the credit card options.

Below is a Pokerstars.com customer care response to the echeck issue:

Hello,

Thank you for your email.

Due to capacity restrictions, eCheck deposits are currently available on a limited basis. We hope to offer you this option again in the near future.

In the meantime, you may want to use an alternate payment method to deposit. If you need help in using some other deposit method, please send your phone number and an appropriate time to call, to dad@pokerstars.com. Please include ‘phone request’ in the subject line of your email, so that we can contact you quicker. Alternatively, we may provide assistance by email.

We appreciate your continued patience and understanding.

Best regards

Andrew
PokerStars Payment Services

June 17, 2009- Echecks are reportedly working for FullTiltPoker.com, however availability is limited.

The problems with echeck poker sites that began in the first week of June have begun to see some resolution.  Echecks are in full operation at a few other poker rooms and it has been reported that echecks are available again on a limited basis at FTP.

Most players will notice the instant echecks deposit option will appear in the Full Tilt cashier, which is a good sign that the issues are being resolved. However, depositing by echecks on Full Tilt will be a trial and error situation. The only way to know if they will work for you is to give an echeck deposit a try. If echecks do not work for you, fulltiltpoker.com suggests using one of their other deposit options, however the alternatives are somewhat limted. These echeck alternatives offered by FTP are Visa (US), Mastercard (US), American Express (US), Western Union (US), Cash Transfer (US) and Click2Pay (non-US).

Note: Echecks are back in full operation at AbsolutePoker.com and UltimateBet.com.

The Best Poker Software

The important thing to keep in mind is that not everyone will have the same opinions on what software is the best and what software is the worst. That is the wonderful thing about online poker. There is plenty of room to make your own decision and decide for yourself what software is the best. We can always tell you what we think is the best, but does that mean you will agree? Unfortunately not–so instead, we try to guide you and help you figure out for yourself what the best software for you is.

There are a couple of things that you want to think about when it comes to online poker software. Reliability and speed are two of the most important features of the software. This is something that is fairly universal, which most of anybody would agree upon. There is not anyone out there that is going to say that they would prefer slow and unreliable software. With that in mind, you can narrow down your selection a little bit and figure out the most reliable and fast poker rooms on the net.

Features to Look for in Online Poker Software

Other than speed and reliability, you will want to think about some other things when it comes to online poker software. These are the features that would depend on an individual’s preference. An important feature that pretty much every software package offers would be statistics and hand history. Where the problem comes in is that there are a lot of different ways to handle both of these features and present them to the users. So which one do you like the best? That is something to consider. The same goes with features such as multi-table play and also the graphics will have an impact on your opinion.

There is a reason why you have the option to play at so many different online poker rooms. There is also a reason why there are a lot of players at each of them. Every single person has his or her own preferences and opinion. It is just important that you base yours around a real analysis of the playability of the poker room. Do not play somewhere because someone else told you to. Play at a poker room because it is the absolute best fit for your online poker needs.

Editor’s Personal Favorite

Aced.com is a relatively new poker room, but their player base is expanding rapidly. This is mainly due to their creative use of the poker software that gives the player tons of control over the game.

Outstanding Features:

Run It Twice:
Just like in cash games, you are allowed to run the deal twice if it is a heads up, all-in situation where both players agree. Each outcome splits the pot. Let’s say for instance two players are all in with the turn and river to come. Two different trials will be dealt, meaning two different turns and rivers will be played. If player 1 wins the first outcome and player 2 wins the second, they split the pot. If one player wins both, that player takes the entire pot. Running it twice reduces the variance, but it does not change the odds of the hand.

Show 1-card:
This feature allows you to show 1-card when you fold. This is allowed only if you are last to act. You are also still allowed to show both cards if you wish instead. This can be used in many ways, such as maintaining table image. If you have a weak Ace and you lead off and bet strong with a pair of aces on the flop, only to get re-raised. You can fold and show only your Ace. This shows the player who raised that you were not bluffing at the pot, but that player does not know exactly how strong or weak your hand really was. You can use this feature in many ways to keep your opponents guessing.

Bad Beat Jackpot:
Aced.com is one of the few online poker rooms that offer a bad beat jackpot. Many players who have played at live casinos are familiar with bad beat jackpots. They are a huge attraction as it gives the players a chance to be rewarded handsomely for suffering a true bad beat. Aced.com jackpots have been known to grow to over $1 million. How do they work? If a player is beat with a qualifying hand, then the ‘loosing’ hand is awarded 35% of the jackpot. The ‘winning’ hand is awarded 17.5% of the jackpot and the players seated at the table split the remaining 17.5% of the bad beat jackpot. 20% seeds the next jackpot and 10% is returned to Aced. One of the things that makes the bad beat jackpot so great is that you can win just by sitting at the table!

One of the biggest skills that a great poker player probably has is the ability to read his or her opponents very well. If you know the game inside and out and have this skill; you are going to be successful, hands down. The problem is that many players that want to play online will struggle because it is a completely different game in the aspect of reading opponents and understanding tells.

Online Poker Tells do Exist

Believe it or not, there is such thing as an online poker tell. In fact, there are quite a few of them, and it is possible to read your opponents online. It is not quite as effective and/or skillful than a live poker game but there are a lot of tells to consider. Just like in real life, people have their tendencies and they will mess up somehow. It is your job to figure out what these tendencies are and how to capitalize on the information they are giving out to you.

Common Online Poker Tells

Sometimes it can be extremely difficult to kind ones tell, whether it be online or offline. When you are playing online however, it can be even more difficult. The reason being, is because for one; you are playing over the internet and for two; you can misread things, because there are lots of reasons for your opponents to do things that you may think to be a tell when it was really just nothing. You will understand better as you continue to read about some of the common online poker tells.

Although it may seem rather ridiculous, many players use the chat box. Some may only use it when they have a good hand and others may only use it when they have a weak hand. If you can figure that out about a player, you will have a huge edge. Some players use the auto features to make decisions before it is their turn to act. Many times, players will not do that when they have a strong hand. Once again, this is a tell that could be very valuable.

For the most part, learning your opponents tells online is not a whole lot different than a live game. You will still need to be very observant and figure out for yourself what your opponent’s tells are. It is a skill that is not easy to pick up and takes a lot of time and effort to work at. Once you get good with learning online poker tells, you are going to reap the benefits for the rest of your online poker career.

1. Loose Post-flop

2. Loose Pre and Post flop

The softest games will feature passive players in all situations. Again, those are players that do not regularly make large bets or raises. I advise sticking to those games.

Loose Post-flop:
This game will allow you to make some position bets pre-flop. This game will still be somewhat loose pre-flop, but a $20 bet will narrow down the field to heads up, but that doesn’t mean they are holding QQ or better. The main difference here is that your pre-flop raise will mean more to the competition and they tend to “respect” them more. This game will also allow you to make follow up bets on the flop and take down the pot if your oppenent wildly misses. You will tend to see less rivers on this type of game. You can also make the occasional and well timed bluff (depending on your opponent of course).

Loose Pre-flop and Post flop:
This is my favorite and most lucrative game. This should really read: “looser” since a loose/passive game is always more loose than a typical game, this games is just more loose than the above game. Let me define this game as follows: A raise to $20 will get callers with hands like K2h, 84 off, J10 off. (From personal experience, I’ve seen these hands played) When playing this game it is important to understand that you cannot make position bets like you can with better or tighter players. On a 1/2 loose pre-flop game, raising to$20 can easily entice 4 callers. Now, this bet has gotten you nowhere unless you flop a monster hand. Since these players are loose anyway, it is better to keep the pot smaller so that you do not have to invest a lot of money until you get a great hand (after the flop). This also means that you are really going to have to make a large bet with QQ KK and AA pre-flop to narrow the field pre-flop. This should get you in a great position heads up with some crap hand like KQoff.

DO NOT try to win against this field by bluffing. There may be 1 or 2 players at these tables that will lay down a hand, but you will more than likely get called with any variety of hands on this table.

Notice: there is not a specific game labeled “loose pre-flop”. That is becuase, if they are loose pre-flop, they will be loose post flop. These games typically do not tighten up after the flop on low limit games. If you find this rare game where you find players are calling w/ marginal hands and are eager to fold after the flop. You can take down decent sized pots with follow up bets on the flop, especially when an Ace hits the board. But, these games are boring and still a grind. I advise sticking to the loose post flop action games.

Watch and Wait
You will notice this type of play is a watch and wait strategy. You will appear very passive to the table until you get a hand, then you will attack. A personal touch I make to this strategy is to “set up” the table early. Some set ups are a little more complicated than what is required here. This is a simple game that requires very little “set up”.  It is as simple as this: Make one large bluff early in the game, make sure everyone sees your hand win or lose. I find it is best to bet from start to finish and end with an all in. Best case, you take down pot, worst case…you lose. In either case, these players will now think you bluff EVERY hand. They will continue to think this even after you show winning hand after winning hand thereafter. Since you brought 5-7 more buy-ins, you didn’t just blow your wad on this bluff if you get called. You may want to make weak bluffs every so often just to keep them guessing and continue the charade. By weak bluff I mean a fairly small bet $10-15 (where this is about a pot size bet, it won’t be much of a bluff at a $100 pot) on the river with low pair or nothing and of course SHOW YOUR HAND, WIN OR LOSE. You may think this is a waste of money, but you have a small chance to win the pot, however the main purpose is investing in the idea that you bluff. This is so that when you hit a hand, they will think your $100+ bet is a bluff too. Bad players can’t tell the difference between all ins and regular bets. To them, once you bluff, it doesn’t matter what you bet…you MUST be bluffing. Of course, after this set up, it is a bad idea to try to actually win a pot by bluffing. You will want to only bet when you have it, but bet strong, because to them your always bluffing.

Play the Field
This article is a general plan and is most effective against the bad to average player. You must still play individual players against their nuances. You can’t play a good player and a bad player heads up the same way. But you have to remember, when other bad players are in the hand, you have to dumb your game down to the lowest level first. You may think it is a good pot, flop and position to bluff against the better player, but as long as dumb players are in the hand with you, it is better to stick to the plan. Also, remember your targets are not the good players. Chances are you and your well playing counter part will gather most of the chips on the table. You will find that the good players will stay out of each others way. I’m there for the easy money. If I wanted a real game, I’d play a better field for higher stakes anyway.

Summary:
-Look for true loose/passive games: Players call many bets with many hands, but rarely raise and they tend to  bet small.

-Always have an appropriate bank roll: 20 times the max buy-in or 2,000 times the big blind.

-Sit to the left of large stacks

-Open up your pre-flop hand selection, but adjust the rankings

-Call early position with any playable hand, since it is rarely raised, first position is nearly the same as last. If you find yourself getting raised out of this call a lot, find a new table. In that case it is NOT a passive table.

-Always raise BIG with QQ or better pr-flop

-Do not slow play EVER!

-When you make a hand, bet and bet hard

Try your low limit strategy at PlayersOnly.com: This site is known for huge fish and poor play. They also have the highest credit card acceptance rating among online poker rooms.

Pre-flop
This is where the biggest mistakes really begin for any player. With softer and often times less experienced competition, you will find many players play loose-passive. This means, they call a lot of bets and even large ones with marginal hands, but rarely raise or re-raise. This is the best competition to have. If you find your table is too tight, try to find a better table. The fact that your competition rarely raises or re-raises allows you to play first position as if you are last to go on a loose passive table. You will want to see as many “cheap” flops as possible with any connectors, suited cards, low pocket pair and Ace rag. You can simply call with any of these hands from early position without much risk that the pot will be raised. In the rare case the pot is raised, it is a very marginal raise; Typically to $6 or $7. If it is raised anymore than $10. Your opponent probably has a monster. I’ll tell you when to call those raises with marginal hands later. With a loose table, implied odds for any hand are very high. In other words, you will get paid if you hit a hand with 4 other people in with you.

Marginal Hands:
Connectors: consist of hands like 56, j10 and even 79; where the two cards are separated by no more than 1 card. Just call.

Suited Cards: consist of ANY two cards that are suited. Lower suited cards, just call. A or K suited or suited connectors raise to $6 or $7 to build the pot.

Low Pocket Pair: 99 and below. Just call. Up to 5% of your stack. Or go all in if you are short stacked 77 and above.

Ace Rag: A3, A7. Just call…unless it’s suited, then raise to $6 or $7 to build the pot.

Good Hands:
Strong Ace: AQ and AK and above. Call or Raise to $10. A10 and AJ should be played as connectors. These hands are good but your kicker may not be any good. You are really looking for straights trips or two pair.

Mid Pocket Pair: 10 10 and JJ. Many people will try to argue this and say JJ is high pocket pair and 77 is mid pocket pair. You are still really looking for trips or a very non threating flop with the hand. The problem is, even if your 10’s or J’s are top pair after the flop. Players still call looking for face cards. It is definitely safe to bet after the flop, but you have to be careful. Call or Raise to $10-$15.

Premium Hands:
AK AQ Suited: These are premium hands in the fact that you can call larger raises with them, but I still am looking for 2 pair or greater after the flop.

High Pocket Pair: QQ, KK, AA. Raise to $20 or more. Best situation, try to get all of your money in pre-flop with 1 caller.

Not A Donkey…Maybe a Little
After reading this hand selection breakdown, you may be thinking that I am telling you to play like a donkey…well, I am…kinda. The difference between you and the donkey is your bets when you make a good hand. You will know how to bet and make max profit from made hands. That and their hand selection is even less selective.

You will find these rules differ from “textbook” poker. You will call much more often from early position and refrain from raising with hands like 99. Again, the reason you can call from early position is because, the pot is rarely raised on a passive game, so the risk it will be raised a large amount, even if there are a lot of callers is slim. Raising with 99 will not get you any information since many loose-passive players will play K3 off suite after a raise. If 633 flops and there were 3 to 4 callers, you have no clue if your 9’s are good. A large pot is going to get A6 to call after the flop as well. Does your opponent have K3, A6 or AQ and still coming along? Let me express this important point: You are looking for MONSTER flops and draws. You still need to bet when you think you have the best hand. But don’t get too carried away unless you have a monster. A monster is top two pair or greater, depending on the board.

Ace Crackers: Calling raises with marginal hands
These are literally any of the hands discussed in this section, marginal through premium. (However, you should be careful if you only flop top pair, you are looking for 2 pair or greater.) In fact, the lower the cards, often times the better. If you have suited connectors and raise to $7, only to get re-raised to say $15 or more.  You can bet they have a big pocket pair, usually JJ or higher. You should then look at their stack, because if you hit your hand, their chips are as good as yours. In this case, you are not calling because you think you have the best hand pre-flop. They need to have a lot of chips along with you to make these kinds of calls. You are looking at the implied odds of the situation, you want to at least see 2 pair on the flop or a great draw.

Play accordingly. There is really no reason to go all in on the flop when it is heads up in this situation, without a made hand. The reason being, your opponent will more than likely call. Do not go all in if you are behind in this situation. The purpose of going all in on a draw(semi-bluff) should be primarily to win the pot right then and there. Some players might think that is the best chance to win a big pot if they hit their big draw, because their opponent might fold on the turn or river if they hit. You do not have to worry about your opponent folding if you make a hand. They will most likely call off $500 dollars with their pocket pair, whether it improves or not. That is why implied odds are so good in this situation. If you completely miss a flop…bail! Do not try to outplay them, you can pick a better spot. You will find badd players will call with AK down to the river with just Ace high, so it is hard to shake them off any hand. Save that for when you have a made hand.

Let them bet the hand. The main reason implied odds are in your favor is because loose passive tables do not know how to bet. They have a tendency to try to “trap” with over pair. With a $50 pot, you will find them betting $10 on the flop and possibly $10-20 on the turn. You are almost guaranteed pot odds if you flop a good draw. (If you find a player tends to bet larger amounts when checked to, but tend to only call smaller bets if you act first; go ahead and lead bet an amount that will give you favorable pot odds.)

Many players at these low limit games play big pocket pair horribly. You will find many players limp in with 10 10 and better. In this case, these pocket pair will probably be crushed because 4-9 players will be in the hand, reducing the strength of just top pair. I have seen many cases where big pocket pair will hit a set, only to get crushed by a straight or higher. When players limp in with big pocket pair. It can be difficult to put them on say AA, typically you can tell they have a good hand, but that is about it. Just play your monsters and watch the disappointment on their face when they lose and you take down a nice pot.

Ace crackers are what make me appear to be a stupid poker player at these lower limit games. Many players have lost a huge pot to me with big pocket pair after I have called $10-$15 raises to hit hands. The reason being, they have had $200 or more in front of them and I have at least matched their stack. Many times I will take down a huge pot like this and players will say things like, “That’s OK, if you keep playing like that, all those chips are coming back over here.” To which I reply “Yes, $10 at a time” or whatever their raise was.

Only call raises with marginal hands against the poor and average player. The good players will price you out of draws and are more likely to make a great lay down if you hit a good hand, thus lowering your implied odds against them.

Continued: Low Limit Poker Strategy| Part 3

Try your low limit strategy at PlayersOnly.com: This site is known for huge fish and poor play. They also have the highest credit card acceptance rating among online poker rooms.

Blinds/Buy-in
A lower limit game is generally considered to be a $2/$2 game or lower. These games typically have a $200 max buy-in or lower. While many people will argue that $200 is not chump change, in the world of poker…it is. These games will generally attract softer competition, which can get a lot of “text book” players in trouble. I respect the “Super System” and other well known advanced poker strategy books, but these books are only half truth when it comes to low limit NL hold em.

Bankroll
Like in any poker game, you then want to think about an appropriate bank roll. Your bankroll is how much money you have behind you devoted to playing poker. This should not include IRA’s or your children’s college fund. It is a roll of money you absolutely can afford to lose. Generally, your bank roll should not be any less than 20 times the buy-in for your preferred game. The most important reason to have this size bank roll is psychology. If you only have $100 or $200 to gamble with and losing that money will make you lose sleep, you will play scared. If you know you have 20 buy-ins to play with, you will be able to play with the proper aggression and take proper risks. However, that does not mean that you should bring your entire bank roll with you to play. I typically bring about 5-7 times the buy-in to play and leave the rest at home. The reason you do not want to bring your entire roll is simple. If you loose more than 7 buy-ins you will probably not be able to play right. Whether these losses where due to poor play or not, you will more than likely be on tilt. You will either play scared or take too many risks trying to “catch up”. I typically call it a day if I loose 5 buy-ins, even if I bring 7.

Seat Selection
If you have time to observe a game before sitting down, it is best to sit to the left of any player who raises a lot and plays aggressive. If you do not have time to observe the table, a good rule is to sit to the left of the big stacks. These rules apply to all games as well, but we needed to mention it. If you do not have a seat choice, just sit down and play. Players will be knocked out and you will be able to change seats if it will benefit you later.

Competition
Now you need to evaluate your competition. The optimable table will consist of 2-3 bad players, 4-5 average players and 1-2 good players (including yourself of course). Too many bad players and the game can be too erratic. Many times it is already difficult to know where you stand in any hand at low limit games, but adding more bad players increases the random calls of players who you did not think stayed with a gut shot draw for a pot sized bet. If there are not enough bad players, the game can be fairly tight and is usually not the best to make money at. Good players help control the game a bit, but you do not want too many of these either. They are your direct competition, they are the only players who will consistently win at these tables along with you. Average players are just in the mix. You can make money on them and they give you the opportunity to make bluffs the bad players won’t fold to and the good players might sniff out.

Note on good players: There will be two types of good players you will encounter, “low limit sharks” and “poker elitist”. Both of these types understand the game of poker completely, they have probably read books, played many hands and have studied the game as if it were an art. The difference between the two players is that the shark understands that “textbook” poker does not apply to lower limit. The elitist is a poker snob and is too smart for his own good. He has read all the books and now he wants to apply them to a game where the “rules” don’t apply and other players don’t play by the “rules”. He is a player that will constantly get frustrated that no one gave him respect after 3 calls, a raise and now his re-raise. He is also a player that will check in the dark with a big hand, thinking it will insight action. It usually just confuses people into checking at low limit games. I have seen these players routinely walk away in frustration and call me a donkey, because they don’t understand how to play low limit. What they fail to understand is their raise 4 times the big blind is still only $8. When they have $400 in front of them along with me, $8 is well worth the risk to “hit” a monster and drain their stack. Elitist can be pooled with the average players if you spot one.

Continued: Low Limit Poker Strategy Part Due

Try your low limit strategy at PlayersOnly.com: This site is known for huge fish and poor play. They also have the highest credit card acceptance rating among online poker rooms.