Put Solid Management Behind the Company

First, Full Tilt needs to put together a management company that will not only satisfy the DOJ terms, but also put a bit of confidence back into online players minds. Nobody with any stake in the old Full Tilt should be allowed in any type of upper management role.

Forget the AGCC and Go with Isle of Man or Another Licensing Body

For whatever reason, GBT seems to be implying that they will reapply with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission for a license after the company is back up and running.

First, the AGCC did next to nothing to protect people prior to the Full Tilt debacle and there is nothing suggesting they will do any better.

Pokerstars on the other hand were forced to segregate accounts by Isle of Man and this alone saved their skins once the US was blocked. Full Tilt needs to make a similar move.

Reestablish Pro Stable and Have them Rally for New Full Tilt

Regardless of what people claim, many poker players are lemmings. They will go to the place where a majority of the pros play just for the chance to see or even play with them. That gimmick worked well for Full Tilt in the past, and it will work for them again. Play, chat, learn, and don’t get ripped off by the pros.

If Full Tilt wants to move back up among the elite poker sites on the web, they need to take the above points into consideration. The UltimateBet scandal proved people are willing to forgive if you give them a reason to. If Full Tilt can prove that it is not the same company as it was, players will return and in mass.

The only way to attract non-gamblers into a casino and perhaps convert them into gamblers is by offering non-gambling amenities. These amenities often include top-tier restaurants, theaters, unique attractions, and high-end shopping. The concept for the modern casino is that once the non-gamblers are close to the casino floor, they might take a shot at the slots or another casino game. If you’re ever in a modern casino, notice how it’s set up. All of the amenities geared to attract the non-gamblers are close to the casino floor. In some cases, these amenities and attractions will even be on the casino floor. The thinking here is that if a person must walk through the casino to get to a restaurant, they might be tempted to play a game or two.

Complementary are another factor. Modern casinos don’t just offer comps to their players, but their families as well. For example, if a gambler is married and a hotel casino offers two free nights for two people, he is likely to bring his wife. What is she going to do while he plays poker or blackjack? She’s going to play the slots, of course. If she loses, the casino wins. If she wins, she will be interested in coming back again. By the way, if you’re a good poker player, then you can make a profit at a casino. If you’re married and you’re offered a comp, take it. While your wife, fiancé or girlfriend might lose a little money at the slots, it will still pay off. You will get free meals, a free room, and you will have an opportunity to explore local attractions.

That’s one good option for a wise gambler. However, an even better option is to look into online gambling casinos. Though it might sound strange, online casinos can also fall into the “modern” category. A modern online casino is one with advanced software for great graphics, fast payouts, huge bonuses and 24-hour customer service. With everything online gambling has to offer, most intelligent gamblers prefer to play online instead of visiting a live casino.

Casinos are fast-paced environments. They are loud and crowded. They’re also full of people who probably have a lot more experience playing poker than you do. Most beginning poker players are scared to death of playing in live games because they might make mistakes and embarrass themselves or upset others. Online poker, on the other hand, is a whole other story.

Anonymity And Safety:

There is a certain amount of anonymity that comes with playing poker on the Internet. So, even if you make mistakes, you won’t feel as badly about it. There won’t be the pressure of everyone staring at you or talking to you.

Also, though, playing poker online gives you a certain amount of safety. There are a lot less mistakes that you could make, since cards are automatically dealt and turns are automatically regulated. So, you can learn in a calmer and easier way and not be afraid of making errors as often.

Easy To Do:

Playing poker online is also easy to do. After all, you probably have a computer with an Internet connection in your house already. It’s much easier to go into the next room and play poker in your home than it is to drive to the casino. It also saves money and time.

In fact, you can find games of all types at all times online. Even if you did drive to a casino, you might find that the game that you want to play isn’t running at that time. It may not be scheduled at all. So, that’s another advantage of online play.

Free Games And Free Money:

Also, when you play online, you can often find free game rooms. Almost every poker website has them. At those free tables, you can learn the rules of individual types of poker, like Holdem or Omaha. You can also learn variations, like Omaha Hi/Lo.

Free money is another thing that draws people to online poker. Almost every major poker website offers sign up and deposit bonuses. Those bonuses are often viewed as free money and they sometimes are. However, sometimes there are things that you have to do to claim the bonus, such as spending a certain amount of money at the poker tables. So, although bonuses are good, they aren’t always as good as they seem.

Multi-Table Gaming:

Another fun thing about playing online is that you will have the ability to play on several tables at once, if you want to. While you’re learning, though, it’s best to either stick to one table or play only free games while you are multi-tabling. That way, you can figure out what your limits are, as far as the number of tables that you can comfortably play on.

Get with the Program

While every real-money player automatically earns loyalty points, some players earn more and can buy more than others. These players are members of the casino’s VIP club. Generally the club is open to everyone, but you have to take the time and make the effort to become a member. Whereas the use of your loyalty points as a regular casino member is pretty limited, VIP members are privy to special bonuses, promotions and added points events.

Know What You Want

Whether you’re hoping to earn cash back or an iPod, it’s good to familiarize yourself with your casino’s points program before you play. Pay special attention to their dollar-to-points ratio, bonus terms and playthrough requirements.

Work Your Way Up

Obviously the more you play, the more points you’ll earn, but playing frequently has other perks. Regular participation at your preferred online casino can move you up the VIP pyramid, earning you bigger and better rewards. Just be sure you know what it takes to stay at your current level or to move up to the next one, so you’re not missing out on any VIP benefits.

Plan Your Play Days

If you’ve got a schedule that allows you to be flexible about when you play online, then why not play on the days when you’ll get more for your money? Most online casinos offer double or even triple point days/hours and also have larger VIP reload bonuses on specific days. Check your online casino’s promotions page to find out when you’ll get the most bang for your buck.

Doesn’t life suck sometimes? Well for you it does, I’m sure. But not for me! Anyway, since I am in a good mood today, I decided to offer this deal to you guys. This is especially important, because both the Ultimate Bet and Full Tilt offers have expired (at least temporarily).

Luckily, Cake Poker has jumped on board. They have rooms filled with absolutely shitty players to take advantage of. Cake is the only US Friendly site currently offering such a nice no deposit bonus, so get in while the offer is on the table!

Here’s  how to get your free $100 bankroll without depositing anything:

Remember, you have to follow these instructions specifically. Don’t screw this up or you’ll lose your opportunity!

1. If you already have a Cake Poker account, forget about it. This is for new accounts only. You must also be over 18
2. You must sign up using this link. If it asks you for a referral code, use free100cake. if it doesn’t ask, don’t worry about it.
3. It is NOT available in the following countries: Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia Moldova, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela and Vietnam.
4. You will receive an initial deposit of $25, which can be played with like real money. The remaining $75 is deposited at $10 increments every time you accumulate 166.67 FPPs. To see how bonus points work, check out my deposit bonus winback guide.
5. Your bonus money becomes “real money” just like regular bonus money at Cake Poker. Check out the guide again to see how long that will take.
6. Once you sign up here, you will have to do an identity verification. This involves getting a personal key phrase over the phone (via voice mail or SMS), as well as submitting a photocopy of your ID. The information on your ID must match your account details!
7. All requests are subject to approval by both YPC and Titan Poker. Expect it to take a few days (in my experience, it takes less than a week, but they say up to 2 weeks).

UFC Vault is a pretty cool idea, giving fans the ability to watch a selection of old matches, Pride FC fights, and dark matches that otherwise never get broadcast. Problem is, this normally costs money. And it’s pretty expensive – up to $2 a fight.

So UFC decided to do this promotion with Edge shaving gel, where people who buy the shaving cream get a free 3 month Vault subscription. All you have to do is enter the UPC code from your can of shaving cream to get your free subscription. There is no need to enter any credit card data!

As anyone with a functioning brain realizes, all UPC codes are the same. So you don’t have to buy a can of shitty shaving cream to get the deal. You just need the number, which is 046500020353.

So here’s what you do:

1. Go to this page (it’s the page for the promotion)
2. Enter the UPC 046500020353
3. Complete the registration (name, email, birth date, but no credit card # is required)
4. Enjoy 3 months of UFC footage in crappy 360P quality!

This offer is not available for US Players. If you are in the US, you can get a similar (but not as good) deal at Cake Poker. If you are outside the US, stick with Titan.

Another day, another sweet deal for all you losers looking to get something for nothing. Usually I’d say that’s impossible, but thanks to our pals at YPC, every lamer’s fantasy has become a reality!

That’s right, if you follow these instructions carefully and specifically, you can get $150 worth of bonus money deposited to your Titan Poker account without having to deposit a single cent.

You do have to follow this very specifically, because this good a deal doesn’t come without some limitations. It will work for 99% of you out there though, as long as you don’t live in an unwelcome country and don’t already have a Titan Poker account.

Here’s what you do:

1. If you already have a Titan Poker account, forget about it. This is for new accounts only. You must also be over 18
2. You must sign up using this link. If it asks you for a referral code, use free150titan. if it doesn’t ask, don’t worry about it.
3. It is NOT available in the following countries: Afghanistan, Australia, Belarus, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela and Vietnam. If you’re from USA or UK, you can get a similar deal at Cake Poker.
4. You will receive an initial deposit of $50, which can be played with like real money. The second and third deposits of $50 each are released after accumulating 5000 Titan Points. To see how bonus points work, check out my deposit bonus winback guide.
5. Your bonus money becomes “real money” just like regular bonus money at Titan Poker. Check out the guide again to see how long that will take. It can also expire in 180 days, so you will have to be active with this gift you’re receiving!
6. Once you sign up here, you will have to do an identity verification. This involves getting a personal key phrase over the phone (via voice mail or SMS), as well as submitting a photocopy of your ID. The information on your ID must match your account details!
7. All requests are subject to approval by both YPC and Titan Poker. Expect it to take a few days (in my experience, it takes less than a week, but they say up to 2 weeks).

And that’s about it. Yes, it is a bit more involved than just signing up at Titan and depositing your own money, but this is fucking FREE. You can’t expect to have everything handed to you on a silver platter. Well I can, but you can’t.

Update: This offer has expired (temporarily, at least). I recommend getting a free bankroll from Titan Poker instead. US Players will want to get theirs at Cake Poker.

Much like my Full Tilt Poker offer, I am also able to offer a similar bonus for Ultimate Bet. That’s right, if you don’t have an Ultimate Bet account already, you can sign up here and play with $100 of real money without depositing a cent!

Here are the details (pay attention, because if you screw up once, you’ll lose your chance to get free money!)

1. It’s only available to new UltimateBet.com accounts. If you already have an account there, or at their free .net site, forget about it.
2. You must sign up for an account from our friends at YPC. You must sign up through this link, or you will not be applicable for two free deposits!
3. It’s only available in the following countries: United States, Canada, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine
4. The second $50 bonus is applied once you have played 100 real-money hands. Your hands count as long as you are playing real money poker games, even if you are playing with your free $50
5. You can only withdraw the bonus money after playing 2500 real-money poker hands.
6. Free bonus is subject to approval by both YPC and Ultimate Bet. You will have to do an ID verification with YPC, to prevent people from signing up multiple times
7. The bonus will expire in 120 days, so be sure to accumulate your 1000 points within that timeframe.

So yes, it’s strict. But of course it’s going to be strict – it’s free money! No go sign up here and get your Ultimate Bet money!

Update: This offer has expired. I recommend getting a free bankroll from Titan Poker instead. US Players will have to get theirs from Cake Poker.

If your eyeballs are functioning, you surely have seen Full Tilt Poker’s logo somewhere. They are taking the “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” approach to marketing. Basically if an event fits the 18-34 demographic, Full Tilt is buying as much ad space as they can there.

They also offer a nice incentive for new users – $50 worth of bonus money deposited right to your account, as soon as you open it, and another $50 after you play some poker. You don’t  have to deposit a cent, and you can use it to play for real money right away. Sign up for an account here to get started!

There are, of course, a few conditions:

1. It’s only available to new Full Tilt Poker.com accounts. If you already have an account there, or at their free .net site, forget about it.
2. You must sign up for an account from our friends at YPC. You must sign up through this link, or  you will not be applicable for two free deposits!
3. It’s only available in the following countries: United States, Canada, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine
4. The second $50 bonus is applied once you have accumulated 300 points (I wrote a guide on how deposit bonus money is calculated at different poker rooms, so read that for more details). You can gain points as long as you are playing real money poker games, even if you are playing with your free $50
5. You can only withdraw the bonus money after accumulating 1000 points playing real money poker games
6. Free bonus is subject to approval by both YPC and Full Tilt Poker.
7. The bonus will expire in 120 days, so be sure to accumulate your 1000 points within that timeframe.

And that’s it! Totally acceptable in my opinion. So even if you have no interest in joining a new poker room, it’s totally worth joining Full Tilt and trying your luck with the free $100 they will give you.

The things these idiots do are so fundamental, that I wondered if I could write up a quick article with 5 tips that, if they actually followed, they would stop being such losers immediately. Well, the shortest list I could come up with is 7. And here they are:

1) Read, study, and learn. If you are trying to earn money playing poker, then you need to take it seriously. Consider it a job. If you were one of those schmucks who went to school to work in a field,  you probably read a lot too (and paid a lot to do so). Well now you have the advantage of websites like mine, and tons of books that are available. So read what they have to share, and learn how to play poker properly.

2) Find out who you are, and change your game to suit yourself. Okay, so you just stopped reading this post after point #1, and went out and bought Power Poker by Doyle Brunson. You skimmed through it, headed to Ultimate Bet, and lost a few hundred dollars. What went wrong? Well you may have learned something from the book, but you also need to apply it to yourself. You are not Doyle. You are not me (thank god). You are you. You have your own strengths (well, most people d0 at least) and weaknesses (probably more than you’d admit). Find out what they are, work on the strengths, and try to avoid the occasions where you lose a lot of money. Manage your swings by adjusting your strategies either way, but don’t get too carried away.

3) Don’t force things. If you’ve stuck with me so far, you already know which areas of poker you suck at, and which ones you are… better at. So you will also know what will put you on tilt or make you feel invincible. Don’t let the game change your style of play. You can easily see a bad streak turn into a really bad week, or more. If you have the technical part of poker down, then just worry about what goes on in your head. Maybe even work on tilting other players, so you can see how not to play. Because I can almost guarantee, you can be manipulated if you’re not careful. I’ve done it many times.

4) Know your opponents. You are not playing against bots, you are playing against people. And like I said before, most of the people you play against will be losers. Knowing that, you should easily be able to be a winner. This goes beyond just knowing who is loose or aggressive. You should use tracking software, or at least take notes of certain plays. Like how much does this guy raise pre-flop when he has this type of hand in this position? Or do you notice someone always checking the flop when he gets the set with no two sets on the board? This will help you know exactly what you’re up against, and after a while will become second nature to you. When that happens, you will start to win more, I promise.

5) Know your positions, and respect them. I wrote about this at length already, so be sure to read those articles if you haven’t.

6) Pick the right table. If you play at the same poker room most of the time, and it’s not absurdly huge, you will begin to recognize players. So eventually, you’ll know who the newbies are (but remember, just because someone is new to a room doesn’t mean they automatically suck!). But more importantly, you’ll know who the sharks are, and who sucks. Learn who the sharks are, and stay away from those tables. That way, you’ll have more fish to yourself! You should also be able to determine a table’s style of play after watching it for a while. Is it aggressive? Passive? Lose or tight? Find out, and go to the one that matches your playing style the best.

7) Even if you are a winner like me, you have to keep in mind that you won’t win every single night. So keep in mind that your bankroll will swing here and there, and it is normal. Don’t get pissed off by losing streaks, and don’t get overly excited by winning streaks. They will all end eventually, and as long as you are winning overall, that is what matters most.