66% Rakeback on Betfair Poker

I'm a big geek for social networking sites Twitter and Facebook and I follow a number of the big-name professional poker players such as Daniel Negreanu and Betfair's Annette Obrestad.

From time to time, Annette has been "tweeting" about a deal that she can put people onto if they add her as a friend and send a direct message to her. She has said that it is worth up to 66% so I have done a little digging to see if it is true and how the deal is structured.

It seems new players who sign-up with the appropriate code from Annette_15 will receive the standard rakeback allowed which is 30% rakeback if you earn between 0-29,999 Betfair Points (£0-£1,499 approx) or 40% rakeback for earning 30,000 points or more.

On top of that there is a sign-up bonus of $2,500 which is five times the size of the bonus mentioned in my previous post AND it clears at 300 Betfair Points per $10 rather than 400 Betfair Points.

To boost the potential rakeback to 66% it looks like Betfair are doing some sort of buy one get one free (BOGOF) with their $18k Guaranteed tournament that runs everyday at 2015 UK time.

The $18k is a $109 buy-in tournament that pays out at least $5,400 to the winner and usually has some sort of overlay attached to it., I know last night's had an overlay of $5,500 due to just 125 fish entering.

Apparenlty, each time you buy into the $18k Guaranteed tournament, Betfair Support will issue you with a ticket for another one, up to 10 times or $1,090 in cash value, absolutely free. It all sounds pretty good to me, shame I already have an account!

You can follow 2007 WSOPE Main Event winner Annette Obrestad on Twitter by clicking here and further details of this limited time only offer can be found here.

$500 Sign-up bonus for all new players

In times of financial hardship, like the times were are currently part of, there is nothing more welcome than free money!

Betfair Poker realises people love free cash so have increased their sign-up bonus for new players up to $500 regardless of how much you actually deposit. All you have to do is download the client, opt into the bonus and start playing.

You get 60 days from the first day you play a hand on Betfair Poker to sign-up for the poker bonus and once you opt in you have 60 days to earn as much of the $500 as you possibly can. The bonus releases in $10 increments for every 400 Betfair Points you earn at the cash and tournament tables.

The bonus will be paid into your Betfair account every Wednesday based on the amount of points earned in the previous week, as long as you have earned 400 or more during that time period.

A lot of sites brag about $600 or $1,000 sign-up bonuses but you have to deposit that amount and they match it, this is $500 absolutely free. Quite a useful way to add to your bankroll.

Betfair Poker Buddy

In order to improve as a poker player you must be prepared to learn and never stop learning as long as you shall play.

Take a look at Doyle Brunson, he's been playing poker for 60 years yet I can guarantee that he will still pick up tips and tricks during his daily grind.

One way to improve your play and makes sure you're continuously learning is to review your hand histories but I know how time consuming it can be to go through a huge text file to find key hands you have played.

Yes there is tracking software available that will record your hand histories but these after-market products, whilst very good in their own right, are not designed specifically for Betfair Poker and neither are the completely free of charge! That's right, totally free, you don't even have to earn a single Betfair Point!

Betfair Poker Buddy stores a complete database of all your hand histories in one place,m be they from Hold'em, Omaha, cash games or tournament play. By having all this data in one place it is much easier to track your results and analyse key hands you have played against specific players.

You can also quickly view your profit and loss for a session or over a particular period of time, nice and handy if you have had a prop bet with someone or if you want to prove you are indeed a winning player over a significant sample size.

You can download Poker Buddy for free at the bottom of the page that will open when you click here and there are more frequently asked questions on this page here.

Whilst all information given is as accurate as possible, the above text is written by Betfair Poker Guy and is not an official response from anyone connected with Betfair or their products

WSOPE Caesars Cup

Betfair Poker are currently running a promotion where the winner will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent Europe in the inaugural Caesars Cup.

The Caesars Cup has been inspired by golf's Ryder Cup and sees a team of European poker players take on a selection of players from The Americas in a a series of games.

One lucky Betfair Poker player will have the chance to be part of 2007 WSOPE Champion Annette Obrestad's team as she prepares to do battle with Daniel Negreanu.

To claim your place in Team Europe all you have to do is compete in the Caesars Cup leaderboards by taking part in SNG and MTTs in June until August. SNG and MTTs up to $22 will earn points for the $3,00 Guaranteed Low Stakes board whilst any SNG or MTT commanding a fee over $22 will earn points for the $7,000 Guaranteed High Stakes board.

The top 200 Low Stakes and top 100 High Stakes players will each month go through to Heat Low or Heat High and play an online tournament in which the top 18 finishers progress to the monthly $5,000 Guaranteed Monthly Final. Points will be awarded to the top 36 finishers of the $5k GTD Monthly Final and at the end of August the top nine players in the Caesars Cup Leaderboard will play in a one-off tournament where 2nd to 9th place share $25,000 but the inner wins the right to represent Europe in the Caesars Cup to be held September 25 at the 2009 World Series of Poker Europe.

Over $70,000 is up for grabs between now and the end of August along with large sign-up bonuses too.

Free Million Dollar Game

Janet Jackson once sang that the best things in life are free and she must have been singing about the Free Million Dollar Game promotion that Betfair are currently running.

Everyday there are regional freerolls running where the top 18 players from each progress to a Weekly Regional Final. The winner of the weekly game then progresses to a live regional final where 2nd to 5th win cash prizes ranging from $1,500 to $250 and the winner wins a seat at the WSOPE Free Million Dollar Game.

Should you be lucky enough to win the live game you will be awarded with $1,000,000 (USD) for absolutely no layout! Prizes are also available for the remainder of the top four places in the live final ranging from a £10,000 entry to the WSOPE Main Event, a £5,000 entry to the WSOPE Pot-limit Omaha Event and also a £1,000 entry to the WSOPE No-limit Hold'em Event. If you finish in second-fourth you can request the cash equivilant should you so wish.

Each an every player is entitled to at least one entirely free entry to the Daily Qualifiers but once you have used your free entry you need to accumulate 100 Free Million Dollar Game (FMDG) points per entry. These are exactly the same as Betfair Points for all intents and purposes. More details can be found on the official WSOPE site.

As mentioned previously, the freerolls have been split into 15 regions, which one you can play in depends on the region you were in when you first joined Betfair, not just where you reside now. Below is a list of the regios and the qualifying countries within, some are self-explanitory, others have full descriptions:

United Kingdom - England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland
Ireland - Republic of Ireland (Eire)
Greece/Cyprus
DE/AUT/CH - Germany, Austria, Switzerland
Spain/Portugal
Italy
Eastern Europe - Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia
Denmark
Sweden
Norway
Finland
France/Belgium
Russia
Rest of the World (ROW)
Canada - Please visit here for Canadian's unique path to the final

15 Regions. 1 Live Final Table. 1 Millionaire

Whilst all information given is as accurate as possible, the above text is written by Betfair Poker Guy and is not an official response from anyone connected with Betfair or their products

Deposit methods on Betfair Poker

It might sound obvious but in order to play for real money on Betfair Poker you will have to make a deposit of funds into the client. Betfair respect that some people do not like their debit or credit cards being used for gambling purposes and as a result have made several deposit methods open to everyone.

E-wallets such as Neteller and Moneybookers are very popular ways of depositing and withdrawing funds as you never have to enter your bank details into the poker client. Signing up for an account is free and easy, usually taking around 15 minutes plus a little extra time to verify your identity but once it is set up moving money around is very easy. Please note that depositing by Neteller will incur a 1.5% deposit fee from betfair but at time of writing they will refund this amount within 24 hours of your deposit.

Paypal is another method that a lot of customers choose to fund their accounts as they recognise the payment method from eBay. Paypal can be used to deposit between £5 and £500 if you are from the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. At present a 1.5% fee will be charged on all deposits.

Both Click And Buy and paysafecard are extremely convenient deposit methods using prepaid cards, meaning you can only sepdnwhat you load onto the card. Each of the cards are available whereever you see the Pay Point symbol in the UK and at registered outlets across Europe. At time of writing Click And Buy deposits are free whilst paysafecard deposits will incur a 2.5% fee.

Western Union is one of the largest money transfer services and is available to load money into your Betfair account from over 130 countries across the world. You can only deposit in your account currency and there are unique references needed to be quoted on the blue Western Union form in order for your deposit to be sucessful. These can be found in the Betfair cashier.

You can also send cashier cheques, personal cheques, money orders and bankers drafts directly to Betfair in British Pounds, Euros, US Dollars and Honk Kong Dollars. Cheques need to be made out in the Betfair cashier and send to the address supplied there.

Direct bank transfer are a free and easy method to deposit funds into Betfair and are a popular way to move larger sums of money although small amounts are allowed too. There is a pre-filled form that you need to print off and enter the details into your internet banking or give to your bank cashier to forward the money. Please see the cashier page for more details.

Finally, credit and debit cards are also welcomed and most UK cards in British Pounds and Irish Laser cards in Euros will not be charged a fee. All other credit and debit card deposits will be charged a 1.5% fee. Please visit the cashier pages to find out the rules and regulations with regards to Mastercard and Visa deposits and withdrawals.

Whilst all information given is as accurate as possible, the above text is written by Betfair Poker Guy and is not an official response from anyone connected with Betfair or their products

Bum hunting

Every now and again, something appears at every online poker table that really winds people up the wrong way. Over the past six or seven months all I have read on various forums is the problem of short-stackers in cash games and how they change the dynamic of the games but more recently people have spent most of their time complaining about bum hunting.

For those of you who aren't aware of what bum hunting is, I'll give you a brief description. Firstly, it doesn't actually involve any bums, bottoms or arses which will probably mean that the number of people who read the next paragraph has been halved!

Bum-hunting refers to heads up games where a number of players will open between four and ten heads-up cash tables and blankly refuse to play any of the other regulars and will only play against non-regular gambling players or bums.

You will probably have noticed on various sites that there are often 10-20 heads-up cash games open between the $3/$6 stakes and $10/$20 but actually only three or four actually running. This practice actually puts off the non-regulars from playing as they realise the players sat on several tables are probably decent players and therefore the games dry up quickly.

Betfair count customer experience and enjoyment as two of the most important factors of playing on their poker site and rest assured they constantly monitor all games on Betfair Poker and are continually updating their terms and conditions along with performing software updates to ensure they stay ahead of the game.

Whilst all information given is as accurate as possible, the above text is written by Betfair Poker Guy and is not an official response from anyone connected with Betfair or their products