The great thing about playing poker online is that you can basically play any time you have some free time. Got 30 minutes to spare? Then just sign on, find a game you like and start playing. It's really that simple.

The only problem as I see it, you can find so many different places to play online, how do you choose? By whoever offers the largest bonus? The fanciest looking site?

When trying to find a place to play online, consider how long the card room has been in business for - 4-5 years is a long time in the excellent online poker gambling agency gaming world. Sites connected with professional poker players are also more prone to be reputable - the theory being that they do not want to be linked to a shady outfit. The pro players don't want to put their reputations on the line.

You may belong to more than one online casino or poker room as I do. Some poker rooms provide a better sign up bonus, some have better or even more frequent freeroll tournaments. Another may have easier ring games. There is no limit to the number of poker rooms you can join.

Do some research at a site that you trust which reviews online casino and poker rooms. Start out by making a small deposit. Try out the software and see if the site fits your requirements. Does the site offer games at the limits that you want? Is it easy to withdraw cash? Are there enough players online whenever you are most likely to play so that you will always have a great game available?

By checking out the lobby of an online site you are certain to get to see who the players are within a particular game, the number of flops that they can be seeing - which helps you find a tight or loose game, the range of hands being played hourly.

The most profitable games will be the ones which have larger than average pots as well as a high percentage of players that will be seeing the flop.

As a result of the relative ease that players have in switching tables, playing during lunch or before dinner implies that occasionally you will be playing in shorthanded games.

When you are playing in a shorthanded game you should expect to play in a larger number of games. You should expect to play more hands as the value of low pairs now increases. The value of drawing hands will likely decrease because there typically not enough players within the hand to make the pot big enough to chase.

Just about all online casinos have games that start out at limits as low as .05/.10 that are great for a beginner and increase in increments small enough so that you may slowly get acclimated to playing for larger pots. Of-course if you prefer to go to the higher limit or no limit games, there's absolutely no shortage of these either.