See, online casino bonus offers are seldom a good thing for a Caribbean Poker player.  Okay, often it’s debatable if they’re really a good thing for any player, but bonus offers are often geared mostly toward online slot games.  The problem with these offers is that they come with restrictions. Sometimes far too many restrictions.  First there’s a play through requirement before you can withdraw any money. Now, that may not always seem bad because most of us enjoy playing online anyway and a play through requirement is an excuse to play more. But read carefully, often the play through is based on the player playing slots. Play any other game, and the play through goes up. Caribbean Poker may count as 20 cents on the dollar. Or it may not count at all, because these offers often exclude games.

But the big downer when it comes to offers and the reason I’ll have a casino exclude me from an offer – a limit on how much I can win. Read the terms of the offer carefully. Sometimes you can only win twice or three times the bonus amount. So, if I accept a free $20 offer, I can only win $40. Now, look at that progressive jackpot on Caribbean Poker. Do you want to win that only to have the casino point to a bonus offer you accepted and tell you that you can only have $40 of the thousands you just won? I don’t.

See, here’s an interesting thing about the Department of Justice. Give them a law to enforce, and they’ll actually take time to study it. Take the UIGEA and the Wire Act of 1961. Now the Wire Act of 1961 is what everyone thought made online gambling illegal. But the way the act was worded, it applied to sporting events and contests. The Department of Justice had to decide did that mean making distance bets on sporting events and distance bets on contests. Or did it mean bets on sporting events and sporting contests. See the difference? This is where the legal system could just use a good English teacher. The act is vaguely worded. So is the UIGEA. Which leaves room for interpretation.

And the DOJ has decided that the Wire Act of 1961 applies only to sporting events and sporting contests. Which means the state of online gambling in the US is in a bit of limbo and some states are rushing to make their own laws since we seem to have lost the federal law against online gambling. Nevada is in the process of establishing online poker. California has said it will pursue putting the state lottery online. And 2012 will be an interesting year.

See the UK Gambling Commission is a bit concerned about the US gambling laws. Even more concerned after the April 15^th Black Friday Poker Shutdown where the US feds seized the domain names and bank accounts of four top online poker rooms. Since three of those poker rooms haven’t recovered from the seizures, the UK rather suggested that Bodog might be better off out of the US and since their contract was ending at the end of the year, they agreed not to renew it.

Now, this isn’t the same level of crisis for US players as something like the Full Tilt Poker shutdown was. After all, this is a planned withdraw and Bodog can’t keep its reputation up if it can’t honor its commitment to players. So US players can withdraw their winnings from their accounts. Or they can take up Mohawk Gaming’s offer of keeping their accounts and letting them move over to a new Mohawk brand casino.

While the US will be sad to see Bodog leave the country, the company plans to expand in the EU, UK and Asian markets. And if the US ever does get more reliable gambling laws, I’m sure Bodog will be glad to come back in.

Full Tilt Poker is at its heart an example of poor company management.  The company really should have been doing well. PartyPoker was and PokerStars seems to have rebounded from the April 15^th Black Friday Poker Shutdown where 4 poker companies were kicked out of the US market and their bank accounts seized. But that action by the US Feds pulled the rug out from Full Tilt and the lid off the whole money management mess.

The problem actually seems to come down to one poor decision. The company decided to mix the funds in players’ accounts with operating funds. Well, there were a few more problems. They gave big players loans to play on and even when they had trouble processing US deposits, they put money in the players’ accounts so they could play.  These last two items made Full Tilt popular with players. The first they didn’t know about. But as long as nothing upset the Full Tilt apple cart, everything seemed to run just fine. But once the DOJ gave a shove, the whole thing toppled over.

Since then Full Tilt has had its license pulled by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission and can’t offer online poker right now. The licenses won’t be considered for reinstatement until the pay back about $300 million they own to players in the US and internationally.  And they keep coming up with promises that business deals are taking place that will make all this happen. Players think they’re bluffing. Poker players are good at calling bluffs.

But since most of us have regular jobs that we have to go to, we also can’t make it to a land based casino on a regular basis. After all, we’d spend most of our available playing time driving, which isn’t nearly as fun as playing Caribbean Poker, despite what the car ads want you to believe. Look, I drove to work today. That involved two construction zone, a bunch of toll plazas and a some extra long traffic lights.  Driving isn’t fun. Caribbean poker is fun. So where do we go play Caribbean poker?  How about online casinos?

Most online casinos have Caribbean Poker and other Caribbean games and they even have the popular progressive jackpots available to win. Now you’ll want to check out the casinos and the gaming platforms that they run on. But that’s easy to do. For example, you can even read this  wiki page about realtime gaming.  Or check out the casinos we have on this site. We like to check out the casinos for you before we recommend them.

This means that unless the dealer has a A K or better in their hand, the player doesn’t win on his bet, even if he has a royal flush.  Now, here’s a little way to make this work in your favor. Because the other side of the equation is that unless the dealer has a qualifying hand, you don’t lose the money you bet, you get it back.

So, let’s take a look at a hypothetical hand. Say you have a bad hand. You’ve already placed your ante, so if you fold, you lose the ante.  But the dealer’s up card is a 2. So, we know that the dealer has one low card. If we bet and he doesn’t qualify, we don’t win but we get our bet and ante back.  Now, take another look at that situation. We have a bad hand and the dealer is showing an Ace. The dealer’s chancing of qualifying are better and we aren’t going to win anything with a junk hand. So here we want to fold and just lose the ante while we’re ahead.  Like this tip? Check out gambling.org for more great tips on playing at your favorite casino.

A friend who has only been to a casino once in her life was telling me that they must have known she and all her friends where first time visitors to the casino because they all won money. I asked her a question – did you stop playing when you realized you were ahead?  The answer was, yes, of course she did. After all, she’d made nearly $20 and was very happy.  Besides, they all had to drive back home, so it seemed a good time to stop. My friend is the biggest danger to any casino – a sensible player.  The type who starts with $10 and makes it to $20 and leaves happy.

Because most gamblers don’t do that. We chase the win. I had to explain that to my friend and how it is the reason many gamblers lose money.  We start with $50 and play for a while and we’re up to $100, so we’re happy. But that progressive jackpot is calling.  So, we keep playing. After all, we’re ahead. Then we hit a bad streak and we’re down to $10.  Do we stop? No, we keep playing because we have to win our money back. After all, if we can hit $50, we’ll break even. So we when back the $50. Do we stop? No, of course not. We played that first $50 to $100. We can do that again.  And the cycle repeats until we run out of money.

Now, this is not a problem as long as we’re managing our bankroll and only playing with the money we can afford to play with. The problem happens when we hit the ATM or pull out the credit card. Then we’ve lost control of the bankroll.  So, sure chase the win, but know when to stop. For more bankroll management tips, check out the information at Online Casino Project.

Club USA Casino is a great place for US players to play because as the name suggests, it is very open to American players. The site offers a great $777 sign up bonus, but check out the terms, because bonus money doesn’t always include Caribbean Poker.

Bodog Casino is a great casino to play at. I usually play Caribbean Poker on this site in the web play format so I don’t even need to have the software installed on my computer. A great option when playing at work (during my lunch break of course) or on a shared computer.

HighNoon Casino has a great sign up bonus offer right now. Unfortunately this one is just for slots but it will get you started playing on the casino and it’s great for those of you who have been putting off signing up for an online account because you just are sure about playing online. Sign up for a real money account at HighNoon Casino and they’ll give you $60 to play on. You don’t need to make a deposit to take advantage of this offer. Just sign up and tell them you want to take advantage of the free $60 bonus offer.

These are just some of the casinos available to play at. Check them out for some great Caribbean Poker action.

But then you need to decide if you want to risk a dollar on the progressive jackpot. Here’s one thing to look at in Caribbean Poker when making this decision – does the progressive pay out on winning hands even if the dealer doesn’t qualify?  Normally the answer is “yes” because that’s the whole point of the progressive jackpot. But I’ve come across a casino or two where they only pay out on the royal flush if the dealer doesn’t qualify and not on all winning hands.  For me the whole point of playing the progressive is so I can win something when I have a winning hand and the dealer fails to qualify. Well, of course the other point is to win big if I hit a royal flush.

Now people will tell you the odds on hitting that Royal Flush are terrible and chasing the jackpot is going to drain your bankroll.  True, but how will you feel if you hit a Royal Flush and didn’t bother to put that $1 on the progressive?  Why play a game with a progressive jackpot if you aren’t going to try for the jackpot.

Looking for a great site to play Caribbean Poker? Why not check out the best online casino reviews on the web?

In today’s installment of Caribbean Poker Locale, I introduce you to LuckyRedCasino.com. More than that, though – I aim to make you all become very good friends. After all, we can all use more friends (at least I can), and this is especially true when said friends allow you to play at their online casino even though the US Government doesn’t want you to.

Seriously, being an online gambler in this country is like being stuck in adolescence. While we want to go see some awesome concert that will change our lives, Daddy Department of Justice puts his foot down and says, “No. This is my house, my rules. Go to bed.”

But I digress…

Lucky Read Casino may be based in the UK, but it has been servicing players from around the globe since 2004. Even after the events of Black Friday, at which time many online casinos shut their doors to the US market, Lucky Red opted instead to hold its ground. And bless them for it.

Lucky Red provides players with a multitude of games, but we’re going to pay attention to the only one that matters (go with it): Caribbean Style Poker. The site offers three variations of the game, each one with its own unique bent.

• Caribbean Stud Poker: Of course, we are all familiar with this. I won’t beat a dead horse, but here is a refresher on the rules of Caribbean Stud Poker for those who would like it.
• Caribbean Hold ‘Em: Played much in the same way as Texas Hold ‘Em would be, only with the rules of Caribbean Style Poker. Players get two cards, and must match them with the cards on the River. Hold out for a decent pair, and hope to Doyle Brunson the dealer has a slightly worse hand than you do.
• Caribbean Draw Poker: Much like Caribbean Stud, only players can now feel free to hold/draw cards in hopes for a better outcome. As I’ve written in the past, it’s a tricky one if luck isn’t on your side – but if it is, the payouts can be rather generous.

Of course, what good are the games if there are no incentives to join? You might as well stay at home and play Caribbean Style Poker with your cats, right? We’ve all done it… Er… luckily, you don’t have to.

Lucky Red offers players a variety of bonuses, but there are two in particular that will be of use to us:

• Card Game-Specific Welcome Bonus: For players who enjoy all card games (but especially Caribbean Stud Poker) Lucky Red will offer a 100% Match Bonus to new players on their first deposit of up to $1,000. That’s a lot of hands, depending upon your play style.
• Refer a Friend Bonus: For every friend that members of Lucky Red Casino refer to the site, Lucky Red will reward said members with a free chip worth $50. And there’s no limit, so refer all of your friends. Go crazy!

I urge you all to give Lucky Red Casino a shot. They’ve been around for a while, boast some of the best customer service around, and really do look out for the privacy of all their players. As usual, give the site a gander for yourselves before making any decisions.

Take it easy, Guys and Dolls!