Getting Started With Online Poker
This is a lot easier than you might think. The first time I went to a poker site, like most of you, I was very eager to get started immediately. The first thing I tried to do was use my Mastercard and Visa to fund the account, but this didn't work. For the most part neither of these cards allows deposits to online gaming sites, so don't feel like you were singled out, because almost everyone in North America is declined :-)
If you come from another part of the world and you have one of these credit cards through a foreign bank, then you might like to have a shot at funding your account this way. I know for a fact that using a UK Visa card is normally fine, but I'm afraid that I can't speak for any other countries.
The more popular way to fund your account is through Neteller or Firepay (there are other ways to deposit money but I will only address the above methods here). Both of these companies have grown rapidly in the last couple of years and are like household names for transacting over the net. What they do is allow you to transfer money from your bank accounts to them and from there you can move the money from your Neteller account to the cashier at your favorite online poker room.
Let's break it down step by step for you...
1. Get an Online Bank Account.
First, you go to Neteller or Firepay and open up an account with them. You will punch in all of your information, much like buying anything else on the internet, and you will need a valid email address. In the future, they will send correspondence to that email address whenever you initiate a transaction. After opening the account and providing your bank information, within a couple of days, they will send you a deposit for a small amount (i.e. 62¢) and ask you to verify this odd lot amount.
Once you go to the site and verify the deposit, they validate your account and open it to accept deposits from your bank account. It's kind of like using a virtual ATM, in that, you're taking cash out of your bank account and Neteller or Firepay charge you a nominal fee for the service.
Now that your Neteller account is live, you fill out a simple form on the site and instantaneously deposit cash from your bank account to your online account. Once you have successfully deposited funds to your online account you will see the deposited amount under available funds and they will sit there until you move them to your poker room account.
2. Deposit Funds to your Poker Account.
Partypoker's Cashier has a Deposit button.
In order to move the funds to your poker room account, go to the cashier tab at your poker room and "buy chips" or "make a deposit". They will ask you for your Neteller or Firepay account information. Once you have typed this and everything matches up, they will transfer the requested amount from your online account to the poker room cashier section. From there you can take it to your favorite holdem table.
There you go, it's not very difficult at all :-)
Keep in mind, most poker sites will limit how much you can deposit to the site during any 24 hour period or monthly period, just so you don't get carried away. And if you can't wait the couple days for your bank to get the deposit from Neteller or Firepay, and you know somebody that has an established account, they can transfer money into your account as soon as it's open.
Now that you have the general idea down, it's time to pick a poker site and a good choice is to start playing at my favorite, The Gaming Club, because when you deposit just $20 at this poker room (which, incidentally, is one of the most popular poker rooms online!) you'll qualify for a massive $300 FREE sign-up bonus!
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