So what happened?!

Why did they all of a sudden decide to pull the plug on some of the top poker sites that allowed US players to play and leave this little reminder to all of us?

Really? That’s a confusing message. It makes you sound like play a game of skill is a felony! All they do is host a platform which people can get together and play for money. They aren’t the “House” because they aren’t playing against the players. These sites are just a very profitable service; to the tune of several billions of dollars a year.

What’s even more confusing to me is the timing of the whole event. Just last week, the District of Columbia passed a law making online poker legal to play inside of Washington D.C. So I have one thing to say the US Government – Make up your mind! Is online poker good or bad? Decide! You can’t talk from both sides of your mouth. “It’s illegal in this context but not in this particular case” That doesn’t work for me.

So why did they decide to slam the hammer down on April 15th?

Here’s a Story …

That’s where all of the fun begins. The following story will definitely be coming to a theater near you sometime in the upcoming years. It all begins with the US Senate passing the “Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006″. This was a law that was tacked onto the back of a US Port Security bill that needed to pass through Congress. Definitely leaves a lot of room for some shady back dealings with lobbyists backing some major players (like the NFL and Horse Racing). This law actually has in the writing that NFL Fantasy Football and Horse Racing are legal online in the United States.

Many of the major players in the game back then (Party Poker, Neteller, etc.) paid Billions in fines for the new made up law and backed out of the US market without challenging the government’s authority. Other players in the online poker market decided to ignore this law, considering online poker to be a “game of skill” and not a “game of chance” and therefore it didn’t apply to “Internet Gambling”.

The game of chance is any bet that you make that you do not directly have control of. This includes betting on a sports team winning, playing blackjack against the house or betting on a spin from the slot machine. The game of skill did not directly involve only chance, since a professional would clearly beat a novice most of the time.

This is where the slick 20-something Australian enters the scene. He was responsible for setting up the system to allow the online poker giants like Full Tilt and PokerStars to subvert this law by lying about the product that they were selling. Everything was going fine until he became greedy and got caught steeling millions of dollars from Full Tilt Poker. Being the jilted lover in this situation, Full Tilt decided to give this man up to the US government when he came to Las Vegas last year.

Instead of doing hard time for bank fraud and money laundering, he turned the tables and described to the government in detail how Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet got around the laws prohibiting banks from allowing online gambling transactions. This was the trigger for the chaos that ensued last Friday. All four of the sites’ domains were confiscated and the US government is trying to get close to $10 billion dollars when it is all said and done.

Why did the US government wait until now to pull this off? There will be a lot of speculation, and I will add to it. It just so happens that Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars were considering a partnership with some of the major casino players in Las Vegas. Since all of this went down on Friday, both casinos that were considering these deals have now backed out.

The US government will eventually find a way to make online poker legal; but for now, they found a way to punish those that did not follow the rules, however convoluted and idiotic they are. Eventually, I believe that you will see the re-emergence of Party Poker as the top dog when this all gets settled in the next couple of years.

Will I get my money back from Full Tilt/PokerStars?

I have been through this before with online casinos and Neteller back in 2006. If things happen in a similar way, it should take between 2 and 3 months for you to get your money back. So you may have to be patient, but don’t worry about it.

So where can I find a place to play online if I’m from the US?

I would start by taking a look at the two most previous posts on this site: Carbon Poker and Aced.com Poker. Both of them are part of the same poker network called the Merge Poker Network.

There are two other poker networks that are still up and running as well:

The Yatahay Poker Network – The largest poker room on this network is Doyle’s Room. You will find that Doyle’s Room offers lots of poker bonuses.

The Cake Poker Network – Cake Poker is the largest poker room for a poker network which features it’s name. One of the interesting features about Cake Poker is that you can play on your mobile phone if you have a Windows Mobile Phone.

These things are what have caused Carbon Poker to become such a good choice for players. When a player chooses to play at Carbon Poker they know that they are going to be afforded the opportunity to get in on a lot of amazing bonuses.

Different Bonuses at Carbon Poker

One of the bonuses a player can expect to receive when they play at Carbon Poker is the 100% Initial Deposit Bonus. This bonus is the sites way of welcoming their new players and giving them the opportunity to receive as much as $600 extra dollars into their account. New players can always use a little help when it comes to getting extra cash into their account and this is a great way for them to get quite a bit of cash.

One more bonus Carbon Poker players will want to pay attention to is the Money Tree bonus. This bonus offers Carbon Poker players the chance to win a lot of cash. All a player has to do in order to try for this bonus is to make sure that they keep playing those ring games, SnG’s, and MTT’s. Players who earn ten VIP points or more on ten different days will be able to qualify. Everything over that will simply increase the player’s chances of winning. Carbon Poker will automatically track the player’s points so all they have to concern themselves with is enjoying all of those great games and tournaments.

Most people like to share good news with their friends. They will already want to tell all of their friends about the great online poker site they have been spending time on. Carbon Poker offers a great referral bonus that will give players even more incentive to tell everyone they know about the site.

This bonus will allow players to get free cash and all they have to do is spread the word about how great of a site carbon Poker is and convince their friends to sign up and enjoy everything the site has to offer. Players will be able to earn as much as $75 just for offering Carbon Poker the email of their friends and once their friends make an initial deposit the player will receive their bonus.

Royal Flush Bonus

Players at Carbon Poker will also want to check out the Royal Flush Bonus. This bonus allows a player to have even more reasons for wanting to see a royal flush appear in front of them. If a player wins at Carbon Poker with a royal flush, they will find themselves winning 100 times the amount of the big blind. It is important for players to know that this bonus is only offered for the real money Texas Holdem games at Carbon Poker.

Carbon Poker has a lot of bonuses and any player there will want to make sure they go through the bonus section of the site so they won’t miss out on a great opportunity. By keeping track of what the current bonuses are at Carbon Poker a player will be sure that they are getting in on all of them they can and this can really help them to see the money in their account add up. This is a great online poker site and the fact that it even has so many generous bonuses is just one more reason for any online player to consider it.

Want to find out more about Carbon Poker? Take a look at this review of Carbon poker room.

Features of Rake Free Friday

You get to earn a bonus equal to the value of all of Friday’s rake and fees. These fees will be put back into your account on Saturday morning. This will also help accelerate you through Bet365 VIP Scheme. The more you play, the more important you become and the faster you will achieve any other bonus restrictions that they have for other promotions.

You don’t have to wait until the end of the month in order to improve your VIP Status. All you have to do during rake free Fridays is contact Bet365 and ask them to upgrade your VIP level when you get enough Merit Points.

There is an unlimited amount of bonus money available for Gold players and above. Play all day and all night and you will earn some serious money. If you are a Bronze or Silver player, you can still earn up to $100.

In order to start claiming your bonus, you must decide to opt in by going to poker.bet365.com promotion page.

Other Bet365 Poker Promotions

Don’t forget about the €500 Freeroll that happens every Wednesday night at 19:00 GMT. All you have to do to qualify for these freeroll tournaments by earning 10 or more Merit Points on any of the GBP or EUR cash tables.

This reload bonus is worth up to $150 if you deposit $600. Use the promo code 2010 and the bonus will be credited to you account.

How do I get the $150?

In addition to the deposit you make within the given time frame, you must also make two additional deposits within 60 days to be eligible for the full bonus.

You will not receive the $150 in you account right away. They dollars are earned through play at PokerStars.com. You have to earn VIP Player Points to be able to collect bonus money. Every 20 VPPs that you earn will credit a bonus dollar into your account.

Depending on your VIP Level with PokerStars, VPPs are collected faster through you poker playing.

How would you like the chance to play in one of two large online poker tournaments taking place every Sunday? The two poker tournaments are the PokerStars Sunday Million with a total prize pool of $1,500,000 guaranteed every week and the $750K Sunday Guarantee hosted by Full Tilt Poker.

PokerStars Sunday Million

PokerStars host the largest weekly poker tournament in the world. The Sunday Million is a no limit holdem tournament that has a guaranteed prize pool of $1.5 Million. Players all over the world sign up and play their way into this tournament every week. They are all trying to get the $240,000 first place prize.

There are two ways to get into this poker tournament. The buy-in to play in the tournament is $215. If that is more than you can afford, you can play for this tournament by qualifying in a satellite for as little as $2.20 or 400 FPP credits.

How do you qualify for the Sunday Millions

After you have downloaded their software and have created an account and signed in, you will find yourself in the PokerStars Lobby. All you have to do is select Tourney and Regular or you can type in Sunday Million in the tournament filter.

You can buy into the tournament directly or register for a satellite. The satellites run every day throughout the week. The Sunday Poker Millions will start every Sunday at 4:30PM ET.

Other Sunday Tournaments at PokerStars

There are also 5 other major tournaments that take place each Sunday starting in the afternoon to night. The Sunday Warm-Up cost $215 to buy-in, a $750,000 prize pool and starts at 1:00PM ET. The DNG Sunday Special has a $55 buy-in, a $300,000 prize pool and starts at 3:00PM ET.

The Sunday 1/4 Million has an $11 buy-in, a $250,000 prize pool and starts at 3:30PM ET. The Sunday 500 cost $530 to play, has a $500,000 prize pool and a start time of 5:30PM. Finally, the Sunday Second Chance starts at 6:30PM ET for all players that bust out of the main tournament. Buy-in is still $215 and the prize pool is $250,000.

Full Tilt Poker $750K Sunday Guarantee

Full Tilt Poker’s biggest weekly tournament is also on Sunday. The $750K Guarantee tournament starts every Sunday at 5:00PM ET. This tournament will feature 5,000 in starting chips and late registration through level ten.

You can buy-in to this tournament for $200+$16 or you can qualify for this tournament through a satellite. The buy-in for the satellite can be as little as $2+$.25 or 300 Full Tilt Points. There is a new satellite tournament almost every hour between Sunday and Tuesday. Then there is one no limit holdem satellite for each day between Wednesday and Saturday.

First Time Depositor Bonus

Both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars offer a 100% deposit poker bonus for your initial deposit with their site.

Full Tilt offers a 100% for as much as $600. The $600 is earned through your raked hands and tournament entry fees. You are also given a free ticket to the $100K First Deposit Freeroll Tournament. Every Full Tilt point that you earn is worth $0.04.

PokerStars also offers a $600 signup bonus. If you only deposit $300, you will only be eligible for a $300 bonus. You will earn this bonus through playing raked hands and tournaments. You will earn a dollar for every 17VPPs that you acquire.

• Peter Costa from England won $394,870 in 2003 and defeated 122 players

• Tony Bloom from England won $ 426,500 in 2004 and defeated 133 players

• Jamil Dia from New Zealand won $1,000,000 in 2005 and defeated 263 players

• Lee Nelson from New Zealand won $1,295,800 in 2006 and defeated 418 players

• Gus Hansen from Denmark won $1,500,000 in 2007 and defeated 747 players

• Alexander Kostritsyn from Russia won $1,650,000 and defeated 780 players

• Stewart Scott from Australia won $2,000,000 and defeated 681 players

The 2011 Aussie Millions Tournament begins in January. Tournament organizers expect that there will be in excess of 800 individual Poker players in the $10,500 Buy-In NLTexas Hold’em Main Event. The home to the grandiose event – the 6th largest in Poker Tournaments – is the Crown Entertainment Complex. The Crown is among the largest entertainment resorts in the world with 13 cinemas, 2 nightclubs, the Palladium, the Crown Casino, the Crown Towers and Crown Promenade Hotel, the Palms and a rollicking 40 restaurants and 30 bars. It’s anybody’s guess who’ll take the pot, but one thing’s for certain – it’s going to be absolutely huge!