To answer the first question, I can only speculate, but my answer is no. A competent programmer would know that in order to make the game as secure as possible, the client (software on the player’s computer) should only be sent information about it’s own cards. Your computer is thus, on a “need to know [...]

It happened in the earlier days of online poker, when a group of security experts hacked Planet Poker by defeating the random number generator used to control the deck. In English, they figured out how to correctly predict the entire deal from start to finish: player hole cards, flop, turn and river. Needless to say, [...]

Yes, many of the popular poker sites such as Party Poker, Pokerstars, Pacific Poker, and Ultimate Bet have a number of poker celebrities or poker professionals that play there. Some professional poker players that play online are Phil Helmuth Jr, Phil Ivey, Annie Duke, Kathy Leibert, Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen and Daniel Negraneau to name [...]

This question is not asked enough by most people and is a very important topic. First and foremost, you need to keep your computer up-to-date with all the patches and updates for your computer. If you’re using Windows, that means you need to go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com on a regular basis to update your copy of [...]

In the past, Paypal was a popular payment method that gamblers used in the past, as players only needed to reveal financial information to Paypal, and not the sites themseleves. Paypal was also popular because many people already have Paypal accounts thanks to eBay. However, Paypal was charged in 2003 of violating the Patriot Act [...]

A Schedule 1040C is the form for an individual business or sole proprietorship. This is for people who work for themselves and are the only owner of a business(s). If you file a Section C, you are able to write-off expenses that are related to your “business”. Usually this means you will be able to [...]

Collusion is when players team up with each other to cheat other players. Active collusion means that players will actively work with each other to juice the pot when one of them has a winning hand. This type of collusion can range from a novice level to a highly refined level that is hard to [...]

A shill or bot is basically a fake or paid player that is used by the poker site in order to make the room look more popular. All of the major poker rooms claim that they do not use shills or bots at all on their site, “unlike some other poker sites”. From my knowledge, [...]

There’s been a lot of heated arguments that online poker is rigged and that there is cheating in online poker. Usually the argument is that the sites offer ‘action flops’, which means that it deals good hands to each person, giving all of them more reason to stay in the pot and bet more. In [...]

Credit cards are the primary method used by most players to fund their online accounts. Credit cards are recommended because it gives you a form of protection against potential problems that might occur, such as being overcharged, scammed or having your money taken.
However, as of 2002, there has been an industry wide credit card for [...]

A lot of players ask what is the best poker site to play at. This question is a bit difficult to answer, since it’s like asking “What is the best car?”. It really depends what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for the largest site, then PartyPoker is the most popular. Pokerstars is known for [...]

Depends on what you mean by ’safe’. Most players worry about losing their money that they deposit. This has happened before (look up “Pokerspot scam” if you want the details) in the earlier days of online poker, so it is a risk. That said however, the established poker sites are your safest bets, since they [...]

You are required to pay taxes on any and all income you make, regardless of the source.
For the casual gambler, the amount of money you can earn without needing to report is $600 per year (if memory serves me). If you make more than this amount, then you are required to pay taxes. You should [...]

This is a very difficult question to answer at the moment. Currently, online gambling is in a legal limbo of sorts. The Internet Gaming Prohibition Act prevented casinos from opening up shop within the U.S, but never stopped players themselves from making online bets. There is another law however, The Wire Act of 1961 that [...]

‘Pattern mapping’ was a joke created by a few regulars over at the Two Plus Two Forums in March 2004. The premise was that by using complex mathematical formulas and pattern recognition, you would be able to predict the turn and river cards after the flop. Of course this created a big ruckus even with [...]

Most all of the poker rooms state that they have software in place to monitor for collusion between players. From my knowledge and what I have read, the software is mainly used to monitor passive forms of collusion. Passive collusion is much easier for the server side to monitor than from other players, because the [...]

When a site is regulated, such as from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission or Antigua Directorate of Offshore Gaming, what it means in English is that the regulator gives it’s word that the poker site will pay it’s winners. In addition, the regulator vouches that the site is fair and is up to a level of [...]

There are a number of posts that have been made about players going to the neighborhood check cashing stores to cash their poker payouts into non-traceable (thus, non-taxable) cash. While this method will probably prevent the IRS from tracing those poker winnings, I don’t recommend it, even if you think your chances of getting caught [...]

Chip dumping has been a problem in poker for awhile and thus didn’t originate online. What happens is that when two players are working with each other in a tournament, when they face off against each other intentionally or unintentionally, one of the players will purposefully lose or dump their chips to the other player. [...]

Most people learn how to play Texas Hold’em by playing their friends or relatives, so my advice is to simply ask around and find someone you know who plays hold’em. Chances are, they will be more than happy ot help you out and invite you to a game where you can watch everyone play. Otherwise, [...]

Most all of the poker sites (including Party Poker) have play money tables for you to learn the ropes. You can create an account without having to deposit money, so there’s no risk involved while you’re learning.
A note to remember however, is that free play should be used to learn the mechanics of the game, [...]

Party Poker, Pokerstars, and FullTilt are the main choices for the poker professionals. These sites have the biggest games around, which is what the poker professionals are looking for. Ultimate Bet seems to attract some high stakes players, as they offer big no limit games, but Ultimate Bet got a black mark in 2003 for [...]

Poker sites cannot be regulated by U.S agencies because internet casinos are not legally allowed to operate within the United States due to the Internet Gaming Prohibition Act of 1997.

There’s a lot of different stories about how it started out, but surprisingly the story doesn’t begin in Texas as you would think. Also it’s never been called Taxes hold’em as a few silly people have said.
The most likely origin of the game’s name comes from a story from Life Magazine back in the early [...]