Sweet Sweet Loots

Today I got my first poker books... "The Theory of Poker" by David Sklansky, "Harrington on Hold'em" by Dan Harrington, "Caro's Book of Poker Tells" by Mike Caro, a new puzzle toy made by Hoberman... and I got them all just for playing poker.

I think that's really cool.

As I mentioned yesterday in The Rules, any money made from the advertising of the products and services that I am about to discuss will go to a good charity. You really only have my word on that, and "good charity" may be a subjective thing, but what matters is that my conscience will be clean regarding the pimping that follows.

Shortly after I started playing for real money, I was playing at a limit table, working on clearing a deposit bonus, when one of the players asked if anybody else at the table had used Instant Bankroll. A second player claimed that they had, and was glad that he did. I looked it up online, and my first instinct was that it had to be a scam.

I was a bit pissed off when I found out it wasn't.

You see, by the virtue of my having played for real money already, I was no longer valid, and never can be. I could have seeded this entire venture with no money down, but because I didn't look into any of that stuff ahead of time, I was out of luck.

Poker Source Online is the site that runs the Instant Bankroll program, and their plan, basically, is that they share the money they make from referring you to various online poker rooms with you. Referral kickbacks.

I had already been thinking about moving my funds from one site to another to "Bonus Whore" my way into some free money, so I decided to give PSO a test run with one of the promotions they were running that I would be eligible for. Reading through the forums (doing my homework this time), I found out that they have upgrades for certain sites, and decided to try one of those sites for my first time, for $90 in Amazon.com gift certificates.

The picture above is the result, and the entire experience was a satisfying one. The guys that run PSO are friendly and helpful, and the few problems that I had were my own fault, but always handled professionally and quickly. I've actually met some of the other players from the PSO forums in various rooms online, and every one of them has been enjoyable company at the table. Also, now that I'm a member, I can participate in the freerolls that they run from time to time... though I didn't perform so well in the one I was in.

So now I am waiting for my seed funds to clear the withdrawal process, in order to move on to another site and do it all over again. And I can recommend PSO with clear conscience to anyone who is either interested in trying online poker for real money, or is already in the game.

-Tommy

P.S. I'll be sure to post my thoughts on the books as I read them, but the toy I'm absolutely in love with.