Poker Players Are Society’s New Celebrities

According to the new Celebrity Apprentice Joan Rivers, professional poker players are “beyond white trash.” But I bet you could find millions of poker fans who disagree with that assessment. As a matter of fact, poker is incredibly popular at the moment and so are its practitioners. This is evidenced by the fact that professional poker players such as the rightful Celebrity Apprentice Annie Duke, Mike Matusow, Phil Gordon and many others have achieved enormous celebrity status in recent years.

Poker’s star-making ability has inspired many to try to make a living on online poker Web sites. The results have been good for some and as a result, poker has created a whole new wave of online millionaires. These poker successes are not always who you would expect them to be, because they’re often quite young and not seasoned pros. But for every group of successful poker players, there are also plenty of people who are victims of Internet gambling scams. Mostly new players step into this trap, because they don’t know how to verify a online poker site’s bona fides.

To make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to you, the following tips can help you assess whether a site has the potential to be a scam:

• If the site doesn’t look professional, don’t even register there. Sub-standard construction could be an indicator of the work of a quick-buck artist or a cash-strapped owner who may go belly-up and take your money with him.
• Check if the site or its owners are members of the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC). IGC members pledge to follow a code of ethics.
• Don’t register with a site that doesn’t have 24-hour support with both a toll-free phone number and e-mail addresses.
• If the site looks professional, is an IGC member and has good contact info, do a few small transactions as tests before you put up any major money. These should tell you a lot about the workings of the site.

Everyone has to start somewhere, so there’s no reason why with a little luck and a lot of practice you couldn’t become one of online poker’s stars. Just make sure to do your homework first, so any success you achieve won’t be spoiled by regret.