Using a credit card to play online poker

A question we are often asked by players new to online poker is whether it is safe to use a credit card to deposit to their account.

The short answer is yes. If you play at the online poker sites recommended by many player , your personal information like credit card numbers will always be safe and you should be able to make a deposit without any worries.

The poker rooms we recommend all use secure servers for financial transactions and are reputable companies with a long history of good customer service. Not only will your information be safe, but you can also be guaranteed of receiving your cashout if you have a win at the tables.

There are however some things you should know about using a credit card to play poker online.

Identity Verification

If you deposit to your account with a credit card, many online poker rooms will want to verify that you are authorized to charge the card being used. This is often not done immediately when you join a poker room, and may only be requested when you reach a certain deposit limit or if you attempt to cashout within a certain timeframe.

They will sometimes just want to give you a phone call or send a security code to your billing address. If they are performing a more thorough check they may ask you to send them copies of your Photo ID or a utility bill. It is best to co-operate with the poker room staff if they ask you to confirm your identity. They only do this sort of thing to ensure that you are authorized to charge the card being used in your account, and the information you provide is not used for any other purpose.

Any verification requirement should not be seen as an annoyance like some inexperienced players seem to think. These days we welcome this sort of request when we join a new poker room because it shows they take their site security seriously, and we should only be playing against players who are playing with their own money.
Blocked Transactions

For some unknown reason many banks have decided they should have the power to control how their customers spend their own money! Even though most online poker players would only ever be transferring $100 or less to their account to play, banks in some parts of the world automatically block these types of transactions. The worse thing is they will rarely even admit to doing it.

If you call the bank customer service department, or even speak to a teller in a branch they will usually tell you that the bank is not blocking any of your credit card transactions. This is because lower level bank staff are rarely informed of this practice, and also because credit card business is often outsourced to other banks and not directly controlled by the bank that you have an account with. The banks realise that public outrage would be high if everyone knew that they like to control where their customers spend money, so this practice is swept under the rug and not spoken about publicly often. In the online poker industry, these types of transactions are known as '7995' failures - 7995 being the ID code associated to online gambling merchants by credit card companies.

What can you do if your credit card won't work at your poker room of choice?

If you have your heart set on playing at another room, you could try a new credit card. There are many different types of credit cards available, from pre-paid cards to low interest and fee free offerings. Some will work online - not all are blocked.

Or probably our best suggestion is to use an online wallet as your payment solution. Online or 'E' wallets allow you to move funds between credit cards, bank accounts and online merchants, such as poker rooms and casinos.

There are just two more things you should understand if you are going to use a credit card to deposit to your online poker account.
No cashouts to credit cards

Something to remember if you do deposit with a credit card is that not many poker sites can offer you the ability to cashout any winnings back to your credit card. Credit cards are designed to be used for payments only and are not a full service banking product like an online wallet.

Some older sites, may be able to process cashouts to your VISA card as long as it is not issued in the United States. But the general rule is that this is not possible due to credit card company regulations. It used to be possible in the early days of online poker, but these days it is very rare.

About 50% of online poker players still use a credit card to deposit, so if you do deposit with a credit card, there will always be other ways to cashout your winnings, such as checks, bank transfers or online wallets.
The only risk - your PC!

There is one thing all internet users should remember when inputting any sort of personal or financial information online. Your own computer's security is the most important thing!

Make sure that you run regular spyware and anti-virus checks on your machine, and never respond to suspicious looking phishing emails asking for personal information. The most common type of online fraud is perpetrated by hackers and virus writers who use software planted on your PC to log keystrokes when you type information into online forms. Or they will create websites that are identical to a site such as your bank or credit card company and trick you into providing them when your personal information via an email.

The best way to ensure that your credit card information remains safe online is to make sure your own computer is secure, and only input personal info into trusted sites, such as online poker software, or websites that use secure encryption of your data.

Four Key Poker Skills

Poker sharks are commonly described as tight and aggressive: "These poker pros do not play many hands, but when they play them, they play them like they have the nuts."

That's a nice general description, but it doesn't say much. In my opinion, a solid poker player is one who has mastered the four key skills of poker.

Skill #1: Mathematics

• A solid poker player knows the general probabilities of the game. For example, they know that you have about 1 in 8.5 chance of hitting a set when holding a pocket pair, and that you have about a 1 in 3 chance of completing a flopped flush draw by the river.

• Good players understand the importance of outs. Outs are simply the number of cards that will improve your hand. Count your outs, multiply them by two, and add one, and that's roughly the percentage shot you have at hitting.

• Good players can figure out the pot odds. Knowing outs is meaningless unless it's translated into rational, calculated betting. Knowing you have a 20% chance of hitting, what do you do then? If you're not sure, check out our Pot Odds article.

• Math skills are the most basic knowledge; it's day-one reading. Anyone who doesn't understand these concepts should not play in a game for real money until they do.

Skill #2: Discipline

• Good poker players demand an advantage. What separates a winning poker player from a fish is that a fish does not expect to win, while a poker player does. A fish is happy playing craps, roulette, or the slots; he just hopes to get lucky. A poker player does not hope to get lucky. He just hopes others don't get lucky.

• Good poker players understand that a different game requires a different discipline. A disciplined no-limit player can be a foolish limit player and vice versa. For example, a disciplined limit hold'em player has solid preflop skills. When there is not much action preflop, he or she only plays the better hands. When a lot of people are limping in, he or she will make a loose call with a suited connector or other speculative hand.

• A disciplined player knows when to play and when to quit. He recognizes when he is on tilt and is aware when a game is too juicy to just quit while ahead.

• A disciplined player knows that he is not perfect. When a disciplined player makes a mistake, he learns. He does not blame others. He does not cry. He learns from the mistake and moves on.

Skill #3: Psychology

• A good player is not a self-centered player. He may be the biggest SOB you know. He may not care about anyone but himself, and he may enjoy stealing food from the poor. However, when a poker pro walks into a poker room, he always empathizes with his opponents. He tries to think what they think and understand the decisions they make and why they make them. The poker pro always tries to have an answer to these questions:

1. What does my opponent have?
2. What does my opponent think I have?
3. What does my opponent think I think he has?

• Knowing the answer to these questions is the first step, manipulating the answers is the second and more important step. Suppose that you have a pair of kings and your opponent has a pair of aces. If you both know what the other has, and you both know that you know what the other has, then why play a game of poker? A poker pro manipulates the answers to questions #2 and #3 by slowplaying, fastplaying, and bluffing in order to throw his opponent off.

• Good poker players know that psychology is much more important in a no-limit game than in a limit game. Limit games often turn into math battles, while no-limit games carry a strong psychology component. Thus, poker tells are much more important in no-limit games.

Skill #4: Understanding Risk vs. Reward

• Pot odds and demanding an advantage fall into this category. Poker players are willing to take a long-shot risk if the reward is high enough, but only if the expected return is higher than the risk.

• More importantly, they understand the risk-vs.-reward nature of the game outside of the actual poker room. They know how much bank they need to play, and how much money they need in reserve to cover other expenses in life.

• Good poker players understand they need to be more risk-averse with their overall bankroll than their stack at the table.

When you play in an individual game, you must value every chip equally at the table. You should only care about making correct plays. If you buy in for $10, you should be okay with taking a 52% chance of doubling up to $20 if it means a 48% chance of losing your $10.

However, you should be risk-averse with your overall bankroll. You need to have enough money so that any day at the tables will not affect your bankroll too much. If you worry too much about losing, then you will make mistakes at the table. You need to leave yourself with the chance to fight another day.