It gets metered out as you play (pay rake), so they're pretty much assured to not lose money. They just make less while you're under bonus.

So I opened a Coinbase account and there are options for different coins to buy. Is one more advantageous over the other?

It depends what your goal is. If you want to hold for the long haul and hope it goes up you go Bitcoin. If you want to send it somewhere that accepts Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash then go Bitcoin Cash because it is usually cheaper and faster to send. If you want to buy ERC20 tokens on an exchange then consider Ethereum. Litecoin is similar to Bitcoin Cash but personally I do not know why the world really needs it. I do not see any use case for Ethereum Classic and would stay away.

Make sure you use an intermediary wallet between Coinbase and the poker site you choose. I recommend Blockchain.info because it's easy to use.

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Kahn

I like the Bitpay Wallet as you can change your receiving address for every new incoming transfer as some sites ask you to do when withdrawing. They also allow you to have a pre paid debit card which makes getting back to USD very easy.

I would advise against using BP or CB without the use of an intermediary wallet. There are posts by some in this forum who have used intermediary wallets with CB and have still gotten their account closed for transactions with gambling sites.

BitPay is fine and dandy. However, you will still need to use an intermediary wallet between the gambling sites and BitPay. They have similar terms of service as Coinbase. i.e. no gambling transactions (and they count poker as a gambling transaction however misguided that might be )

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Kahn

So bitcoin has been dropping like a stone lately. How does that affect me using it as poker currency?

There are other threads in this forum dedicated to discussing Bitcoin. Check the links below.

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...poker-1039832/

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/3...rency-1011408/

It doesn't really affect you unless you hold it. When you send btc to the major poker sites, it is converted to USD at market rate. When you withdraw btc, you get current market rates again.

So long as you quickly convert your btc into USD at an exchange, which is easy to do, you will have very little time exposure to price swings.

Also, keep in mind that btc started at a value of exactly $0.00. Holding it, thus far, has proven to be an insanely profitable venture for anyone who got in before approximately this time last year. (some of those people are flat, some are down depending on when they bought and assuming it was their first purchases).

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Kahn

Somewhat related to that, if you're going to Poker News for information be aware that it's owned by PokerStars.

Would like to hear from those who have experience playing on any of the state regulated sites and your thoughts on them.

How is the traffic, competition, bonuses, withdrawals etc.

You would probably get a lot of such info by reading the relevant subforum and the dedicated threads.

The general wisdom here is that the bonuses are mediocre, the withdrawals are fast and easy, the competition is relatively weakish (though this is game dependent), and the traffic is somewhat sub-par, even after all the player pool sharing.

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Kahn

Hello everyone , im new here but ive been lurking for a minute. I had some questions because im just now coming back into the online scene and what better place to ask than here

First a lil about me: I haven't played online poker since Pokerstars got shut down in California (almost 10 years i think). I never even considered myself a great player or anything, it wasn't competitive for me in that way. All i knew as a kid was that it was making me some money and i really enjoyed playing it. It was a time when WSOP was on ESPN and not ESPN 3 - so i would consider it a golden age lol (wish i knew back then)

Back then from what i remember - you could buy into like a $100k tournament on Pokerstars for $2 and you would play like 10k players (MTT) or you could pick out from hundreds of sngs that would literally take MAX 15 seconds to fill up.... Im not even sure if im exaggerating because it sounds so good compared to what ive seen since coming back lol so if anyone wants to correct me go for it.

Ive come back and made deposits on the only sites available in California (on a side note - i cant believe its still illegal, it literally blows my mind) those sites are : Global Poker, a Chico network skin called Sportsbetting, Ignition and ACR

They all have the same basic interface i remember from back in the day (not global though, that site is definitely something else) - it seems intuitive enough - and lets me choose 4 color decks , etc etc. so the software is basically like it used to be and i didnt have a hard time picking it back up.

My main concern is something that i dont even know the players on these sites are aware of - Volume (no ones brought it up lol)

I waited literally (literally) 40 minutes for a $15sng table to fill up on Chico and not one person even complained in the slightest. Like they were used to it. Same thing on ACR. Ignition doesnt even have player names! and Global poker is browser based so i really have no idea what there strategy is (doesnt seem legit). I took a shot at MTTs and they have very small player pools so i was happy with that, but Chico has like 3 hours of late registration! Im not making this crap up. And people seem to be ok with it - i didnt hear one complaint from anyone lol

How the hell can you pull money playing SNGS on these sites like that?? MTTs are always a headache so idc about them. I just want to know from SNG Tourney players - how do you do it?? I dont see the volume or game variety to make it work reliably. Can you please tell me something i dont know on how to make this work

Thank you guys and i really really hope something happens with online poker going forward. Im not sure what the holdup is - i dont know why the hell my state (CA) isnt taking the lead with this stuff but heres hoping we all have a bright future playing online

The link below will give you a general idea of what the traffic is compared to most other sites. If you scroll down you will see that the regulated site with the most traffic is ranked 25th out of all sites listed. Then there are a handful of regulated sites that are ranked further down the list.

https://www.pokerscout.com/

SNGs are basically dead. Also dont do DMT and post.

i havent done DMT in a couple years! but i recommend it... hard to explain what happens lol. if you do it - take 3 hits . thats all ill say

and that sucks about the SNG thing...i was reading up on some SNG strategy posts and stuff - guess those arent relevant for US players? so were stuck playing cash games? =(

do you think taking shots at big sngs (friggin rare these days) is basically mandatory to make up for the lack of volume?

You didn't play $2 mtt's on stars with $100k prize pools and 10k entrants, that's an $80k overlay. It might have happened once, but it didn't happen regularly. Maybe you meant to say $22?

As far as SnG's go today for American players, you can get a decent amount of volume on WPN. It's not like Stars use to be, but it's as close as we have these days.

Ignition has softer games, in every format (sng's, cash, and mtt's) but you're restricted on your number of tables, 4 (except in mtt's), and the games tend to fill a bit slower at most times. But, assuming you're willing to play the popular formats, it's pretty easy to keep 4 running for an entire session during peak hours.

The other networks, you'll be lucky to play 10 sng's per session.

If you insist on playing sng's, I'd suggest playing on all of the networks simultaneously if you're interested in maximum volume. It's probably still not as much as was available on Stars, but it's likely to be more than you'd want, during the peak hours anyway. WPN has decent rakeback + Sit N Crush, Ignition has softer games but no rakeback, the other networks are also pretty soft, but you'll only get a few games per session. Doing them all at the same time should fulfill your desire for volume.

Mtt's are not like they were 10 years ago, the ridiculous late registration periods are normal everywhere now. And the only network offering a good schedule for Americans is WPN. Where not only are the late registration periods ridiculously long, but virtually every tourney is unlimited re-entry, so count on spending at least 12 hours of your time to win even the smallest field mtt. Ignition does have long late registration periods, but not as long as WPN, and Ignition doesn't have any of the re-entry nonsense. But, Ignition also doesn't have the same level of guarantees, nor do they have as many mtt's to offer. So again, the best way to grind mtt's imo is to play both WPN and Ignition, and possibly adding a few of the best offerings from the other networks as well.

wow great reply! thanks

its a shame how far we have fallen though lol. and your right i dont remember how much the buy in for the big MTTs on stars was back in the day - but i do remember seeing some ridiculous guaranteed prizes and very low buy ins

I've had access to them for a few years and I don't play on them cuz of their traffic, RB, no hud/hand tracking policy.

It's not illegal to play online poker on unregulated sites. Just illegal for banks and financial institutions to facilitate transfer of funds to/from gambling sites.

Been playing poker on and off for about two years and now I want to get more into it. I started out playing live with friends, then a little bit of 1/2 at a local poker room, and tried micros online on ignition and lost a lot there about a year ago. I stopped playing last year due to university but now I have been getting back into it. I played on Global Poker and did quite well, bringing my bankroll from 50 to 240, but then had poor money management and played some .5/1 for fun and got coolered, and rebought out of tilt and ended up losing it all plus more over a weeks time. I want a fresh start with a new mindset to rid of this and wanted to know where I should play. I started on ACR last night and it's been alright, but I've already had software issues and terrible customer service reps, and have also heard about their DDOS attacks and more.

I live in Florida, and go to university in Michigan, and want to play online poker. Mostly cash games, with some good tournament action occasionally. It seems like rake on global is pretty high, but their deposit and withdraw and customer service is great. Ignition seems like there is a lot of anon bots but I like their zoom poker tables. ACR has good MTT from what I've heard, but seem untrusting.

Im really lost here and want to pick a good, safe, secure site to start my official journey in online poker. Any suggestions or tips? have read through most of the 2+2 stickies btw.

Seems like a crazy commute between Florida and Michigan

I used to play on both acr and ignition. I much prefer ignition. From my understanding it's acr with the majority of the bots, as a matter of fact I'm pretty sure that's why they're not advertising and lost their forum here in 2p2.

That being said, I actually moved to Nevada and after playing on acr and bovada, the customer service is a dream on wsop.

I'd still recommend bovada in your situation. Bigger player pool, anon tables Carter's to fish but you can still use a HUD.

Yeah I've really been leaning towards Ignition with their zoom tables and pretty decent MTT selection as well. Any good rakeback/bonuses I should know about? Will probably set up a new account this time around, think my old one is full of dead bonuses I resigned back then after I stopped.