suggestions/recommendations for exchanges ?

If you are euro then bitstamp. If you are american kraken.

You can cash out to a greendot-type card like you were thinking beforehand. If you're talking about SWC, people are buying chips with reload packs all the time.

(Be careful, use escrow, etc etc)

Bitstamp is great once you're verified. Getting verified is a pain in the ass as they request very, very high quality documents.

IIRC, they've started verifying their user base using credit report information (meaning, you can't enter John Smith, DOB 01/01/1990, SSN 123-45-6789)

When you activate a green dot card, you have to provide all sorts of information and if it doesn't line up, they'll request copies of ID. If they suspect money laundering, they pass that information off under various reporting requirements which could cause a chain of events that leads to your life sucking.

Truly anonymous cards are very early 2000's. That's been changed for quite a while, after a few narco-traffickers were stopped with hundreds of thousands of dollars in loaded prepaid debit cards.

Right now, the biggest 'problem' with bitcoin is getting it converted back into a completely liquid medium (ie, cash) without having to undergo the same bull**** that causes people to use bitcoin in the first place. There are plenty of theoretical solutions but as soon as they pop up, they'll be regulated into oblivion.

As a reminder of just how ****ing awful its getting out there with this sort of thing: the last time I was in Italy, I had to pay for my hotel weekly- rather than for my entire stay at once- because cash transactions can't exceed 999 euros.

hold on a second. one of the selling points for bitcoin is anonymity and there isn't an easy, reliable process to convert bitcoins to cash anonymously?

Just think about your post for a bit and you'll figure out why this is not possible outside of solutions like Local Bitcoins. Thankfully, I don't think anyone was expecting it to be possible.

https://coinomat.com/

I haven't used this service but it seems legit. You can withdraw from it to Visa/Mastercard.

this seems interesting.

WM2......it's not COMPLETE anonymity I am looking for, but rather the ability to CHOSE of my own accord where my USD gets sent to. of course my prepaid cards have my real identity on them. thats fine. i still prefer to have my USD put on my green dot / prepaid style card vs. being forced to turn over my checking account and local bank info to the exchange. plus....I really prefer to just keep my local american bank out of this. back in the day i guess that was a selling point of BTC but seems to be less so today.

LOTS of good tips in this thread. thanks for all the replies. any additional appreciated.

(just getting back into online poker)

You want to send money into a super intrusive non-anonymous system and are complaining that you can't do it anonymously?

[IMG]http://assets.diylol.com/hfs/a09/0c7/a89/resized/op-went-full-******-meme-generator-you-went-full-fiat-never-go-full-fiat-db8df3.jpg[/IMG]

Just buy **** with Bitcoins if you want things. Use an exchange and sell the coins and hand over the blood of your first born if you want to use the banking system.

It is. The problem is going to cash. All these complaints about Bitcoin "oh it's expensive to move fiat to an exchange and slow! Bitcoin sucks! Transferring to fiat from Bitcoin is expensive and requires lots of personal information!" No ****, you are trying to mix the legacy banking system with one that does not need it.

no ones complaining......least i am not. however, until i can buy groceries down the street with BTC, along with fuel for my car, pay my mortgage at the local bank, pay my home heating bill, electric, gas etc...etc....etc.....then I need to convert BTC to USD.

I know you can buy stuff with BTC.......but it's simply not at a point yet, where you can rely on it for your sole currency. At least not where I live. And this is a POKER forum. I personally am only using BTC so that I can access and play online poker (for real money).

Converting back to USD is essential to my use of this currency. Perhaps not the case for you. But I am sure I am not the only one.

Add price volatility to the mix, and this conversation is a valid one to have for some folks.

Are you planning to earn enough to pay all those bills with bitcoin poker?

nope. income supplement as poker has always been for me.

i play mostly live, but would like to get back into online.

(not really interested in the "just buy stuff w/BTC" point of view)

original question stands, and thanks to all those who have provided input.

have plenty to go on at this point

Is seals with clubs the only legit bitcoin poker?

I think 5dimes has poker too and you can deposit btc there too

I was playing on ACR, and recently started playing on BETCOIN. BETCOIN lets you play in BTC but also join the WPN Networks Tournaments. (they convert the BTC/USD as you sign in/cash out of WPN tourneys

Bitcoin is not anonymous, it's pseudonymous. If you want to use an anonymous cryptocurrency try Darkcoin:
http://www.darkcoin.io/intro.html

The easiest way that I've found to move from bitcoin to Fiat is through sites like Gyft.com. You can change out your coins for target or amazon gift cards with little or no hassle. If you're pulling enough money off of seals that you can't spend all your coins at target, amazon, home depot, sears, whole foods, etc...not to mention directly spending the coins at expedia and overstock, then you are really raking.

I don't even think there's enough traffic at seals to earn enough money to cover what you can spend in a month at those stores.

Last year I made about 20K on Seals, but a lot of that, at least half, was due to the price of bitcoin rising. I should go back and calculate how much my winnings were worth in USD at the time I won them. This year I've hardly played as the traffic is so low except at microstakes, and btc isn't moving either.

Ignore him. He's looking to launder money

how are the players on seals?

The games seem softer than Merge, which is my only basis for comparison. They usually have 4-5 tables of NL-BTC100+ running when I play (evenings). Occasionally a game as high as BTC1000 (NL600 USD) will run.

If you're looking for recreational play it's pretty good. If you're looking for massive volume, you'll need to multi-site or go somewhere else.

What a shocker! http://www.coindesk.com/industrial-b...d-theft-fraud/

Really? A coin insta mined by the devs. No thank you. It is based on the btc protocol and they add coinjoin. Other anonymous features they are trying are unproven and closed source.

You want anonymity at the protocol level? Try Monero based on cryptonote not btc. It is based on proven cryptographic methods. The following is a review, just released, of the cryptonote white paper.

http://monero.cc/downloads/whitepaper_review.pdf

Monero is still in alpha but it works. Improvements in the DB and daemon should be completed shortly which will make it much more resource and user friendly.

Unlike the hundreds of alt coins based on btc that provide nothing other than the dream of getting rich by those that think they missed the btc boat, Monero offers something that btc can't. Therefore it is not a competitor to btc like the clones are, instead it is a complement.

What a horrific idea BTCJam is... personal loans in Bitcoin. Can't wait to see what happens if Bitcoin suddenly doubles in value, lots of defaults.

Once people have built up rep on the site as well, I expect you'll see lots of large value defaults as scams.

Just looking at a listing, someone is willing to pay 25% APR on a 3.5 Bitcoin loan ($2,100) to buy mining equipment with... yeah no thanks! What a cluster**** of an idea.

Or someone who got 100% funded looking for 0.75 BTC at 50% APR to trade with because "I have been successfully trading altcoins on various exchanges. This would go directly into that". lol.

Bitcoin is a terrible medium for finance.

Why are people so keen to put their BTC at risk is beyond me. The biggest sink I've currently seen is Moolah.io, so much wrong with it. Just lots of people scooping up noob coins.