Why You Need To Take Notes At PokerStars
This tip is for those of you who have been playing cash games over at PokerStars.com. If you’re only playing in the play money rooms, you won’t get much value from it. Even so, keep reading. When you eventually get into the real money rooms, this will come in extremely handy.
PokerStars lets you take notes on other players in the poker rooms. This feature isn’t getting the circulation or exposure it deserves. But, that actually works in your favor. When you start playing in the tourneys, you’ll have a unique advantage over your opponents.
Here’s why…
Visit PokerStars to get started.
Taking The Advantage
Some of you tournament veterans know that you need to spend a few chips in order to read your opponents. You want to identify the tight aggressives, who’s loose, and who always pushes weak hands (don’t they learn?).
Now, imagine if you could open a small window while you’re in the poker room and refer to past notes that you’ve taken on your opponents. You’d have an instant advantage.
Here’s a little secret that a lot of online poker players don’t realize: the tournament players at PokerStars turn up over and over in the rooms. Chances are, you’ll be playing against them in future tourneys. If you’re already armed with great notes about their playing style, you’ll know how far you can push your hands.
For example, if you’re up against a tight player (and you know this because you have your notes in front of you), you can get out of hands early when that player stays in. On the other hand (no pun intended), there are plenty of fish that play at Poker Stars.com. If your notes identify them as fish, you can easily draw them into the flop.
Enjoying An Early Read On Your Opponents
Poker Stars.com has made it drop-dead simple to take notes on your opponents. When you’re in the room, you’ll see a chat box in the bottom left of your screen.
Just click the tab that says “Notes.” Then, double-click on any of the players that you want to take notes on and start typing. The next time you and that player are in the same room, hit the “Notes” tab, double-click that player, and you’ll see your notes.
Visit Poker Stars.com and use bonus code “stars50“. Or, read our PokerStars review.
The bottom line is that you need to start taking notes in the tournaments. A lot of your opponents will never know what hit them.
How To Clear Your PlayersOnly.com Poker Bonus
There’s a lot to like about Players Only.com and we’ve covered some of the reasons we enjoy playing there before. The first time you visit PlayersOnly.com, you’ll notice that they offer a 100% First Deposit Bonus that taps out at $650. Pretty generous. But, it gets better for you and here’s why…
KickAssPoker readers get a bump in the bonus. Instead of the $650, you’ll get a 100% match up to $1,000. But, you need to use bonus code KAP1000 to get it.
When you enter the code, you’ll see your bonus appear in your pending bonus balance. Today, we’re going to tell you how to clear it.
Visit PlayersOnly.com and enter bonus code KAP1000.
Clearing Your PlayersOnly.com Bonus
Once you see your pending bonus, you can earn it back by playing ring games and tournaments. Here’s how it works:
Players Only gives you “Frequent Player Points” every time you contribute to a dropped rake or pay a fee to get into the tournaments. It’s similar to how BodogLife does it. For every $1 of the rake you generate in the ring games, you’ll receive 1 Point. For each $1 that you pay in tournament fees, you’ll receive 7 Points.
Fractions count. So, if you contribute $0.50 to a dropped rake, you’ll receive a half point. Also, you can earn up to 3 Points per hand.
Each Point is worth $.06. As soon as you have $10 worth of Points in your pending account, Players Only.com transfers it to your real money balance.
Remember, you need to enter the bonus code KAP1000 to get the full match to $1,000.
Why PlayersOnly.com Kicks Ass
There are actually quite a few reasons why we like Players Only.com. If you haven’t done so yet, read our Players Only review.
Besides giving our readers the exclusive bump in bonus on the initial deposit (using KAP1000 for the code), they also seems to draw the fish in. The last time we checked, the pre-flop percentage was close to 50%.
If you know what you’re doing, you can go on a fishing expedition. With a pre-flop % that high, there are probably schools of ‘em swimming around over there! Of course, if you don’t know what you’re doing, make sure that you read our poker strategy tips.
Go download PlayersOnly.com and use the bonus code KAP1000 to get the bump. Then, start earning Points to earn your bonus back on your fishing trip.
How To Earn Your Full Tilt Points
A lot of you have seen our complete review of FullTiltPoker.com, but haven’t started playing there yet. Full Tilt is where a lot of the biggest names in poker (for example, Phil Ivey) spend their time. It’s one of our favorite poker rooms and we want you to get involved, too. Today, we’re going to tell you how you can earn Full Tilt Points and take advantage of their $600 New Player Bonus.
Before we get started, here’s the Full Tilt Poker referral code that you need to use in order to lock in your bonus: “kickasspoker” (or just click here).
Funding Your Account
Full Tilt Poker is still offering their 100% match on your first deposit up to $600. Here’s how it works, step by step:
Step 1: Make your deposit.
Step 2: Start playing.
Step 3: Earn your Full Tilt Points automatically.
Step 4: Enjoy your bonus.
The Details
Once you make your deposit, Full Tilt will credit your account with points each time you play a raked game, a tournament, or a Sit & Go. The number of points you earn varies by the type of game you’re playing.
For example, in ring games, you’ll receive 1 point for each $1 raked from the pot. You can earn up to 3 points per hand. For tournaments and Sit & Go’s, you’ll get 7 Full Tilt Points for every $1 you pay in fees. There’s no ceiling. You can earn as many points as you want that way.
Each point that you earn is worth $.06. The points keep collecting in your account until you reach the equivalent of 10% of your deposit or $20 (whichever you reach first). Then, that amount of your bonus is released to you automatically.
Click here to visit FullTiltPoker to get started.
Two Quick Examples
Let’s say you deposit $100 into your Full Tilt account. 10% of that would be $10. Once you earn 167 points, $10 is released to you. Pretty easy.
Let’s say you deposit $300. 10% of that would be $30. You won’t need to wait that long because you’ll reach $20 first. So, once you earn 334 points, $20 will be released to you. Again, easy.
How Long Do You Have?
Full Tilt Poker gives you 120 days to earn your points for the 100% Match Bonus. Trust us, that’s plenty of time, even if you go for the entire $600.
By the way, you won’t need to keep track of anything. The amount of cash in your account and your Bonus points are displayed clearly within the Cashier Window. Everything happens automatically.
If you haven’t taken a look at the 100% Match Bonus, click here to do that now. It’s one of the most generous poker room bonuses you’ll see. Frankly, we’re not sure how long it’ll stick.
Here’s the 10 worst choices from the Full Tilt Gear Shop
Get In On BodogLife’s 110% Signup Match
Last time, we mentioned how you can take advantage of PokerStars’ FPP and VIP Club (click here to read that post). Today, we want to remind some of you about BodogLife’s 110% signup bonus match. If you’re already playing at BodogLife, you’ll know why we like them. Fantastic bonuses and player rewards. You can read our full review of their poker room here.
For those of you who haven’t taken the time to jump start your winnings, we’re going to explain how BodogLife’s 110% signup bonus works.
Your First Deposit
The moment you deposit funds into your account, you’ll receive an immediate 10% bonus upfront. So, if you put $200 into your account, you’ll instantly see $220. But, that’s only the icing on the cake. Your real bonus kicks in when you start playing on the tables. You’ll earn BodogLife Poker Points for every poker game you’re in. The reason that’s important is because BodogLife will give you a $1 cash bonus for each 10 points you earn (up to a 100% match of your original deposit).
Let’s talk about the points.
How Your Poker Points Work
First, you don’t need to win games to earn your points; you just need to play. And there are a few ways to do that…
- Ring Games: If you play a ring game and contribute toward the rake, you’ll earn points. The number that you’ll earn depends on the rake, so check BodogLife’s site for the details.
- Tournaments: Whenever you play in a tournament and pay fees, you’ll earn 3 points for every $1 of the fees you paid. For example, if the fee is $10, you’ll earn an instant 30 points.
- Playing Time: Each hour you play earns another point. Play for 5 hours and you’ll earn 5 points. By the way, you can’t sit out and earn points. You have to actually play.
You’ll be surprised by how quickly the points start building. 5 points here, 30 points there, and soon, you’ll be cashing them in for your 100% cash bonus match.
An Easy Example
We’ll give you a quick example…
Imagine visiting BodogLife, opening your account, and depositing $200. You’ll get the $20 bump right away from the upfront 10% match. Now, let’s say that you play a bunch of ring games and tournaments over the next 30 days. In doing so, you earn 200 points.
Open the software, hit the “Account” tab and you’ll see a “Points to Cash” tab. Once you hit it, you’ll see a “Convert” button.
And you can do the rest.
Again, if you’ve never played at BodogLife, you’ll want to see what you’ve been missing. Click here to visit the site and get your 110% matching signup bonus.
Taking Advantage Of PokerStars FPP And VIP Club
Assuming you’ve seen our front page, you already know that we’re impressed with PokerStars. In fact, they’re our top-rated poker room (read our PokerStars review). Besides the upfront bonuses for new members, they have a loyalty program called the “Frequent Player Program”. They also have a VIP Club that a lot of folks don’t even realize exists. If you play regularly, you can rack up credits which can be redeemed accessories, electronics, or to enter tournaments. Today, we’re going to give you a quick overview of both programs.
PokerStars Frequent Player Program
Here’s how it works: you start earning credits from the first raked real money hand that you play on PokerStars. If you’re playing in a tournament, you’ll earn credits as long as there’s a tournament fee. As your credits accrue, you’ll have a wider selection of things you can redeem them for.
For example, you can use them for a chance to win a seat at the next WSOP. You can also use them to gain entry to PokerStars’s cash and online tournaments. Otherwise, you can redeem them in the store for clothes, DVDs, electronics, and cash bonuses to add to your PokerStars account.
PokerStars VIP Club
Now, on to their VIP Club. It works hand-in-hand with their Frequent Player Program (FPP). There are six levels:
- BronzeStar
- SilverStar
- GoldStar
- PlatinumStar
- Supernova
- Supernova Elite
Similar to how you earn FPP credits after playing your first raked real money hand, you earn VIP credits, too. The more you play, the more you earn. That starts moving you up the VIP Club ladder.
Here’s where it gets exciting…
Once you hit the SilverStar level, a 50% FPP credit multiplier kicks in. For example, every time you earn 2 FPP credits, you earn 1.5 VIP credits. At the GoldStar level, that multiplier jumps to 100%. By the time you get to Supernova Elite status, you’re earning 5 VIP credits for each FPP credit (a 400% multiplier).
If that sounds confusing, visit the PokerStars website to check out all of the details. It’s a great program that a lot of players miss. Some of the regular VIPs over there have even used their points to buy cars and vacations.
Click here to visit the PokerStars website and find out more.
