Online Poker Sites For Cash

Every now and then at MyPokerBasics we will have various types of office challenges and competitions amongst the staff just to see who can back up all of their talk about being a poker stud and really knowing their stuff. This past weekend was certainly no exception when we decided to each throw in a $100 side bet that would go to the top money earner in three pre-selected tournaments at real cash poker sites around the net.

Normally, we will usually pick just one of the online poker rooms for real cash just to test our skills against each other, but that’s usually at a table game where we will play a “last man standing” type of format. Since we decided to go with tournaments instead, it only seemed fair to pick a couple of different real cash poker sites since it’s our job to tell you guys about them in the first place. Besides, since this was technically a paid assignment to share some data with you guys, I figured that I would end up a winner either way.

The Format

Since anyone can get knocked out of a no limit Hold’em tourney with a single bad beat on a huge pot, we decided to play in three separate tournaments; one at Sportsbook Poker, one at Players Only Poker, and the third one at Ultimate Bet. We wanted to try and find three different tourneys that had around 200-300 entrants so it would not take forever to complete if one of us won, yet large enough so that each of us had to play a little bit conservatively in order to have a chance at the final table. This was my first visit for larger tournaments in most of these online poker rooms for real cash as well, so I was pretty excited about proving myself to my fellow co-workers.

Sportsbook Poker

One first tournament was at Sportsbook Poker, which is considered one of the better known real cash poker sites on the web because they are so well established in the international community. We were playing a $50 buy-in and I was pleased to see that my credit card deposit went through almost immediately, and the layout makes it easy to find the various tables and tournaments. After checking my email to see which tournament I was supposed to register for, the entire process from start to finish was less than a minute…even though there were dozens of tourneys starting around the same time.

Well, needless to say, I caught my first big snag on my 6th overall hand. I could tell that many of the other players at the table had plenty of experience at real cash poker sites, but when I saw those pocket jacks in my hand I couldn’t help but re-raise. When the flop came out K,10, 7 of clubs I knew that I should fold, but instead I stuck around like a dummy and lost ¾ of my chip stack right off the bat. I did make somewhat of a comeback and finished in 194th place (out of 437), but I was also the first person out of all our staff members. Ouch.

Players Only Poker

Players Only is one of the online poker rooms for real cash that gains a lot of popularity off of sponsorships from professionals on the WPT, and after my colossal choke the night before I was really nervous about the second tournament. To make matters even worse, my credit card was denied…but after I called their customer service they were able to get the transaction manually approved. It turns out that there are so many banking restrictions out there that sometimes your credit/debit card will be declined for no reason at all, so it was really nice to see an understanding staff member at Players Only who got the details worked out.

Honestly, I really did not want to play in this second tournament; I had embarrassed myself enough at Sportsbook the night before to ensure that I would be the laughingstock of the office for weeks. I ended up winning the first pot though on queens and sevens, then I took the third pot with a full house. On the very next hand I ended up with a flush on the flop; suddenly I was in first place in the whole darn tournament pool of 536 players.

Truthfully, I should have won the whole darn thing…I was gliding through the tournament without a care in the world and my reads seemed to be dead on just about every single time. Just before we went to the final table though, I was once again an idiot and looked at the payouts for the final 10 players; it was almost $9,000 for first place! From that point forward I completely choked, but I’ll give you a piece of advice that I learned from experience- when you’re playing in online poker rooms for real cash, never think about the money. I settled for 4th place (and $2,700!) because of it.

Ultimate Bet

Going into Sunday’s tournament at Ultimate Bet, the only possible way that I was going to lose the office pool was if someone else finished at the top table. My strategy for day three was simple; play with confidence and try to eliminate someone from the office. It didn’t matter that I collected big money the night before or that I would almost definitely win the office pool; bragging rights were on the line.

Ultimate bet is one of my favorite real cash poker sites to begin with, so it helped that I was familiar with the interface and the table settings. I usually avoided tournaments on this website because there are well over 100 professionals that play at UB; the lower table stakes are very easy money though. Most people assume that professionals wouldn’t bother with a little $50 tourney but that’s not always the case…remember that the winner is collecting around $10,000 in a 500 person competition.

Well, of all three tournaments, my play at UB wasn’t the best or the worst. I was actually holding around 30th place for a good hour or so, but then all of a sudden some tables merged and I was sitting directly behind a co-worker. I’m not completely sure what happened but suddenly I couldn’t help myself; every time Jason bet, I would raise the pot and force him to fold. To this day he still mumbles about it but hey…he was eliminated before I was. Mission accomplished!

Conclusion

Truthfully, I know that I should say that Players Only was my favorite real cash poker site for tournaments since that’s where I won the most money, but in all honesty I had a great time playing inside all three poker rooms. Sportsbook Poker is packed with players and it’s very professional all-around, from the graphics to the customer service to the quality of the opponents. Players Only was nearly just as good, but that was also the only website where I needed help from customer service. Still, they really came through for me and I walked away with almost $3,000…it was a great experience. Ultimate Bet was also a really fun environment because the skill levels are all over the place; it made me feel like a pro because I really walked over a heck of a lot of players there.

Although my 4th place finish on day two ended up making me the big office winner, our little experiment was mainly to give all of you some insight on what it feels like to play at real cash poker sites against quality opponents. Even though there were definitely some hurt feelings once Monday morning rolled around as I strutted around the office, all of us had a good time playing at online poker rooms for real cash. Hopefully you will too!

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