Just because you’re new to poker doesn’t mean you have absolutely no chances of winning in online poker. You certainly have as good a chance as any other player, but only if you know how to choose the right tournaments to join.

Understanding the Types of Online Poker Tournaments.
This is the first thing you have to understand. Knowing the difference between freezeout and satellite tournaments can only improve your chances of winning because you know what to expect once you join a table.

Double stack tournaments are arguably one of the best types of tournaments for beginners. They start out slow, and the game only gets risky after the flop. Amounts for blind rise gradually, and players are given more chips to start with.

Freezeout tournaments are the standard type of tournament. Players can’t enter the game at any time. There’s a fixed schedule to follow and all players are given a specified stack of chips. Once you run out of chips, you’re out of the game permanently.

Rebuy tournaments work just like freezeout tournaments but with a twist: players are offered the rebuy option to replenish their stacks and have the chance to play longer. In most tournaments, the option to rebuy can only be exercised at the first hour of play. At times, there may be another rebuy option offered at the end of the first hour and players may buy more chips for an additional charge.

Satellite tournaments have numerous formats, and rewards or prizes are mostly composed of buy-ins to yet another tournament. As such, it’s unavoidable for players with winning streaks to continuously meet each other in succeeding tournaments while losing players get nothing in return.

Sit and go tournaments can operate with just one table, but it can also include less than two hundred players. It has a very flexible structure, with games starting the moment all available seats in the tournament are availed.

Turbo tournaments, on the other hand, are distinguished from other tournaments types by their blind levels. Amounts for blinds rise very quickly, which certainly induce players to adjust or change their gaming styles when they are in the position to post the blinds.

Factors Affecting Your Chances of Winning in Online Poker Tournaments
Now that you know the different types of online poker tournaments, you should then consider next factors directly and indirectly related to the tournament that could help you win.

Time
Consider joining online poker tournaments that are not held in peak hours. There are fewer players to contend with, and certainly a smaller percentage of experienced poker players to expect, both of which consequently improve your chances of winning.

Online Poker Rooms
Most poker players, if not all, would love to be known as the best in the game. That’s why online poker tournaments that receive excellent media coverage are frequented by the experts and veterans. If you want to win, you should try your luck at the lesser-known poker tournaments online. Focus on winning prizes now. Fame can always come later.

Chip Stack
Finally, it’s best to stick with poker games that allow you the greatest amount of chips to start playing with. The more stacks you have, the more chances you have of finding the best strategy to play your way to the top.

While playing poker games online can certainly be convenient and exciting, doing so also poses a marginal risk to your bank account.

Secure Your Computer
Poker players concerned about their safety when playing online often focus on the security measure implemented by the gaming website and end up forgetting about the security measures they should also implement for their computer.

Hackers have two doors of opportunity to access your account: the gaming website and your computer. Even if the gaming website you’re playing in is secure, it will still amount to nothing if you forget to install and update the anti-spyware and anti-virus programs of your computer.

Lending Money to Other Players
There is no gaming website in the world that offers insurance to players who lend money to other players and find out later on that they’re unable to recover it. The Internet is certainly not free from beggars and con artists. Hackers are not the only ones that can swindle you out of your money. If you want to play it safe, you might consider being less generous and act more cautious for now.

Verify Email Authenticity
Money laundering from Nigeria, letters of appeal from victims of all sorts of injuries and tragedies, and spectacular lottery rewards are not the only email scams you’ll encounter and attempt to steal your hard-earned money.

Verify the authenticity of every email you receive, not just those related to online poker but any other subject as well and as long as the recipient is yet unknown. Once hackers and other malicious parties figure out your love for online poker, you can be sure they’ll do their best to tempt you into committing a mistake with a barrage of deceptive emails.

Even if the subject heading, email content, and URL address all appear familiar, play it safe and contact your gaming website to verify the email’s authenticity.

Accredited Gaming Websites
Competition may be tougher or the rewards may not be as generous, but at least you’ll have the assurance that your online money isn’t under any security threat. Stick to playing with accredited gaming websites. These websites usually employ the best security measures for the safety and convenience of their players, and when something does go wrong, they often have insurance policies to minimize costs of damage.

Three important things accredited gaming websites can afford to offer and that other websites may not be able to match are round-the-clock customer support, disconnection protection, and excellent payout policies.

24/7 customer and technical support may be provided either through email communication or a customer hotline. Either way, you’ll be able to play in a better frame of mind knowing that there’s someone to ask for help at any time of the day.

Disconnection protection is absolutely critical when playing poker games online. Regardless of whether the problem was the fault of your Internet connection or the website’s, accredited gaming websites will give you better options for resuming the game rather than assuming that you’ve chosen to go ‘all in’ or fold whenever you get disconnected.

Finally, accredited gaming websites release your payouts efficiently and doesn’t require you to jump through several hoops just to get what’s rightfully yours.

For a better poker gaming experience online, play using the Red Star Poker room.

If singles, doubles, cuckoo, and bombs are the only Greek poker variants you know and you’d like to expand your knowledge and experience, here are more poka variations to enjoy – some of which you might even have the opportunity to play online.

Bombs with a Hat
If you’re familiar with the rules for playing bombs then learning this particular poka variant won’t be a hardship. The only difference between bombs and this game is the presence of one or two wildcards, also referred to as hats.

There are three acceptable hand combinations for bombs with a hat. The first combination would make use of 2 of the player’s cards, one wildcard, and two from a bomb. The second combination would make use of 2 of your cards and the rest from the bomb. The last will make use of all three of your cards, one wildcard, and one from the bomb.

Whether tria-full (three-full) or kenda-chroma (straight-flush) is used will depend on the hand combination allowed and used by the player.

Asanser or Elevator
One card is dealt to each player at the start of the game, followed by two board cards and forming a row of its own. Players are dealt another card, followed by two more board cards. By this time, you’d have three rows and two columns on the table. Players get another card before two cards are once more added to the table, creating two columns with three cards each. A wildcard is finally added at the middle of the two rows.

Winning hands are composed of either two hand cards and three board cards or vice versa. Community cards used in a hand must belong to the same row. The wildcard may be used in combination with either row. Finally, elevator is judged according to kenda chroma due to the number of cards available for play.

Pyramida or Pyramid
The game begins with players getting three cards each. On the table, a pyramid of cards are laid down – one card on top, two cards on the second and continuing on with the bottom row containing four cards.

A winning hand must be composed of at least two hand cards and two or more community cards. Players however can only use one card from each pyramid row. Community cards are revealed row per row, starting from the bottom.

Nekrotafeio or Cemetery
Players are dealt three to five cards each, depending on the number of persons playing at the table. Next, two rows of 5 face down cards are dealt on the table.

One card from each row is first revealed. The card with the higher value is considered the good row. The other row will then be considered the bad row and all cards held by the player that match those in the bad row would have to be discarded.

To make things more exciting, the deciding factor on which row is good or bad can depend on the last rather than the first card revealed. Cemetery is always played according to kenda chroma.

For the online poker game fanatics, have you already tried the Carbon Poker room.

In the world of poker, there’s almost no end to what you have to learn and master in order to be consistently on the top of your game. This is especially true with poka or Greek poker, when new poker variations seem to crop up everyday.

Basics of Greek Poker

Greek poker or poka is actively played in Greece but is slowly finding its way to other parts of the world. Three hand orders are used in poka, and you have to familiarize yourself with each and every one of them before you can proceed to learning the different poker variants that make up poka.

Types of Greek Poker

Monos or Singles
A tria-full or three full is often used for this type of poka. The dealer deals each player one card and betting commences as the dealer reveals a community card. When three community cards have been dealt, players are dealt another card. Afterwards, betting resume as two more cards are added to the poker table separately. Singles is the only game where players favor the tria-full hand order.

Diplos or Double
This poker variant adheres to the same rules used in Monos except that this time, once the third community card has been revealed, the dealer deals players with two and not just one more cards. This will bring up the total number of cards available to players to eight. Players are required to use at least two of his own cards to form his own hand.

Diplo Tampo or Double Tableau
In this game, two rather than just one set of community cards are used. Players have to decide then which set they’d prefer to use in combination with his own cards. He must use at least two of his own cards. Furthermore, players are prohibited from combining cards from different sets of community cards.

Mpompes or Bombs
This is one of the most popular variants of Greek poker. Players are dealt one card each before the dealer lays out a bomb. A bomb is made up of three cards – although it could be more, depending on the rules of the game – revealed to the players concurrently. The dealer then proceeds to dealing each player another card before laying out another bomb.

When the third bomb has been laid out, it’s up to the dealer or management rules if two triple or quadruple bombs would follow. Betting takes place between explosions. Bombs explode one by one and players must form a hand by combining at least two of his own cards with one of the bombs on the table.

Mpompes Me Kapelo or Bombs with a Hat
This game is like playing bombs with a twist. Bombs are still made up of three or four cards. A kapelo or hat, on the other hand, may be one or two wildcards dealt on the table. A winning hand is composed of at least two of the player’s cards combined with cards from one bomb and, if he so chooses, one of the wildcards.

It will take a bit of time to look for websites offering Greek poker games online, but at the meantime, you can divert yourself by playing it with your friends. Good luck!

If you’re itching to play online poker, try the Virgin Poker room.