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So Carbon Poker has just released a new reload bonus for its current poker players. From now until May 31st, you can receive a 50% Carbon Poker Reload Bonus for any deposit of up to $500. Hence, with this bonus, you could get as much as $250 extra in bonus.

Also, with this reload bonus, Carbon Poker will also give you a free $5.50 Allin or Fold Step 2 HU SNG entry Coupon.

To receive this reload offer, you must deposit at least $20 and use the carbon poker reload bonus code 50HU.

If you don't already have an account at Carbon Poker, you can qualify for their 1st deposit bonus of 100% for up to $600 + an entry in a $500 freeroll. You must use the Carbon Poker Bonus Code NPF600.

Carbon Poker is a site that I like a lot, which is why I talk about it a lot here. If ever you have any questions or issues with playing on their site, shoot me a PM and I'll get in touch with them on your behalf. They have great support.

There are a lot of new poker rooms popping up lately, and I will be checking out a couple of them. On this site, I'm mainly focusing on what I believe are the top 5 poker sites out there, but that doesn't mean that there aren't others that I recommend. Actually, if you take a look at our Poker Bonus Codes page, you will notice a couple of more sites with interesting offers.

In any case, one site I've been meaning to try is Victory Poker. It's a new site on the Everleaf Network, and it's being sponsored by a couple of pros, including The Magician, Antonio Esferiandi - did I spell that right? In any case, I haven't tried the site yet, but I've hearing good things about fellow poker players. If you want to check it out, head to Victory Poker Rakeback for more information.

I will try my best to get a review up on the site as soon as possible. Actually, there are a number of poker sites I intend to feature on the site; I need to first play at these sites and provide a review. There are some sites I have played at, but will never feature here, I'll get into that another day... Also, I'm always trying to work out good bonus deals with the rooms that are featured on this site, but if there's a site you'd like to get a deal for, or would like to see featured here, just let me know.

While we're on the general topic of poker sites, there was a big move this past week, where two skins joined the Merge Poker network, whose main site is Carbon Poker. This means that Carbon saw a nice boost of players online. They've couple that with some recent promotions, like the one I emailed to you newsletter' subscribers, and I heard they're working on some good things for their tournament line-up. That's always good to hear...

Just a quick note to let you all know about a new promotion at Carbon Poker. They're throwing a $100,000 Freeroll for all their players.

You can find more information about the freeroll on their website here.

Remember, if you don't have an account at Carbon Poker, make sure to use the Carbon Poker Bonus Code NPF600 to receive a 100% bonus of up to $600 on your first deposit.

(Contribution by Aaron Lambert)
In order to be a successful poker player you have to have three things; skill, bankroll management, and discipline.  If you lack in any of these areas your profit won't be sustained and you risk losing it all.  The one attribute that I think is most overlooked is bankroll management.

Let me start by explaining my background into this particular subject.  I had absolutely no bankroll management skills when I was playing poker for a “living”.  I use that term loosely as you'll see soon.  I would basically deposit $32 dollars at a time. I would play a $12 180-man tournament and sit with the rest playing cash.  I would try to run this deposit up playing with the entire roll and get myself to cash a couple hundred dollars or maybe even a few thousand.  If I bust I repeat the process.

This added a whole new dimension of stress to the game of poker.  I would reach deposit limits or I would run up a roll to $2000+ and bust the whole roll in a matter of minutes.  This was something that my soon-to-be wife didn't appreciate very much.  I needed to make a change so I decided to get a backing agreement and this taught me bankroll management.

Proper bankroll management can reduce the stress of poker variance.  It can allow for you to play your A+ game longer because the fears can be reduced of going broke.  These two reasons alone or worth learning proper bankroll management.

For tournament players you should know that variance is rather high.  I suggest trying to set your bankroll requirements according to your ROI and couple that with your average buy-in.  For example my average buy-in for March was $46.  I played some $215 tournaments but the blunt of my work was at a smaller level.  So with this example I would need a bankroll of $4600 with my ROI over 20%.

ROI of 20%+ should have 100 average buy-ins
ROI of 10-20% should have 150 average buy-ins
ROI of 5-10% should have 200 average buy-ins
ROI of 1-5% should have 400 average buy-ins

For sit n gos you can be a little more aggressive since the variance isn't as high as multi-table tournaments.  Following the same method of determining your ROI to your average buy-ins this is what I would suggest.

ROI of 10%+ should have 50 average buy-ins
ROI of 5-9% should have 100 average buy-ins
ROI of 3-5% should have 150 average buy-ins
ROI of 0-3% should have 200 average buy-ins

For cash game players I would suggest that you have around 30 buy-ins before you sit down at a game.  For an example if you are playing 1-2 NL (200NL) you should have a bankroll of $6,000.

Notice in these examples I don't suggest a bankroll unless you are a winning player.  This is because setting a bankroll as a losing player ensures that poker is going to become an expensive hobby.  These suggestions are for those who are winning players and want to conquer bankroll management and turn poker into a real business.

Full Tilt Poker is offering a special promotion until March 14th. If you log in into your account and request your bonus offer, you should find a $50 (and sometimes even $100) free poker bonus waiting for you to clear.

Full Tilt is offering this exclusive bonus to get players to play their new game, Rush Poker. Rush Poker is the new poker game that FTP launched about 2 months ago, which offers the same type of poker as normal poker, but much much faster. You can quick fold at any time, even out of turn and you're redirected to a new table immediately.

If you don't have an account at Full Tilt, I suggest you sign up now using the referral code "MTLBONUS" which will give you a bonus that will match your first deposit all the way up to $600.

Full Tilt Poker has just launched a new game, Rush Poker. It is super fast. Basically, it's just like regular poker on steroids - it's the Jose Canseco of poker.

You sit on a table as usual, but you have the option to fold out of turn - as in you can fold your hand at any time. And as soon as you fold your hand, you're moved to another table where a new hand, and so on, and so forth. I love it.

It is very different though, and it takes some adapting. Read more about it in this Rush Poker Review.

Just a quick heads up that PokerStars is offering a 25% reload bonus to all its poker players for the beginning of the new year. You must use the code '2010'.

The bonus gives a 25% bonus on your reload deposits up to $150 in bonus for North American players. It gives 25% up to 100€ bonus for European players.

The reload bonus code '2010' is valid from 9:00 ET on January 1 until 23:59 ET on January 10. You have 60 days to clear the bonus and can make up to 2 deposits to claime the bonus.

If you don't have a PokerStars account yet, visit our pokerstars bonus page, to receive a 100% up to $600 bonus when you create a new pokerstars.com account.

PayNoRake.com is offering not one, but two $5000 Guaranteed Tournament this weekend.

To qualify for free in one of the two poker tournaments, you must make a $50 or more deposit and you'll receive a free entry to one of the $5,000 Guaranteed Tournaments running this Saturday and Sunday at 6pm EST.

If you want, you can also buy in directly for a $15 + $1.50 buyin.

To play in the Saturday, use the bonus code Beat17 when making your deposit. For th Sunday tournament, use the bonus code Sun5k when depositing.

There will also be a $30 bounty on a guy named Stanley - naw, I don't who he is either, but I'll be gunning for his head nonetheless!!

You can visit PayNoRake here.

In a single-table tourney, your chip stack (how much cash you have compared to your opponents at any given point) relative to other players is the most significant aspect of the game.

Chip stacks bears a substantial impact on the hands you wish to play and the method you bet those hands after you jump right into the pot.

Your chip stack matters a lot. As you move on through a tourney, two players frequently acquire bigger stacks than other players in the table. Watch any growing giants closely. If they seem to seek to bully people a little, try not to stay in the middle of a hand where there is a head-to-head battle.  You must watch King Kong vs. Godzilla from a safe distance. You shouldn't be running among the civilians of New York getting trampled by those huge feet.

Determining your chip stack

To find the latest standings for the tournament, head to the tourney lobby. (The lobby is likely the place where you previously registered for the poker tournament.).  You can see the list of players registered with the tournament, as well as the blind amounts (during play at any moment), the start time, and the size of stack size owned by each player. Although the info itself is easy to grasp, the way it influences the game is a little more subtle.

To fully understand your chip stack, you should consider a few factors:

• Any big discrepancies between the stacks
• The blind sizes compared to your chip stack and other small stacks
• Your standing compared to any stacks

Pay attention to opponents with big chip leads or those falling quickly behind; both have a moderate tendency to over-bet the hand. If you have a superior hand, you shouldn't be afraid to go up against those desperados; in fact, you need to raise when you have the opportunity to show you are serious about that hand.

Always have a general idea about the number of level big blinds your current stack is equal to. If you have less than ten big blinds worth of chips, you should be ready to swing directly into the “5-to-10” rule, which prescribes that you conserve chips followed by an aggressive stance when you have a good hand.

Leading a single-table tourney in the initial stages does not do much for you, other than the mental comfort that usually comes with knowing you are not losing the game.

If you ever find yourself down after an early knock or two - particularly if an opponent knows that you are bluffing - tighten your playing style considerably and wait for high quality hands. Don’t guard the blind if you have mediocre hands. Once again, you want to conserve your chips to use them only if they can bring you more chips later.

Finally, you are good and ready to play for real in cash games. The time has finally come and the bell has tolled. Get yourself and your cash ready; you are about to break into the low-stakes tables.  In the real life poker world, low-limit usually means anything below $6/$12.
Occasionally you can find real life poker limits at $2/$4 for Omaha and Hold 'Em and maybe a Stud game at $1/$2. The cyberspace gives you a whole lower spectrum of poker world, sometimes starting at $0.01/$0.02. (The site's main menu always informs you the available limits - just choose a game type and see the bottom of the list.) People refer to anything under $1/$2 as micro-limit and call anything from $1/$2 to $5/$10 as low-limit.

Micro-limits

In the micro-limits, the playing level typically isn't too high. These games tend to be quite easy to beat; good for boosting the ego of a skilled player. Players at this level are substantially more sociable than their bigger-monies counterpart on the higher-limit tables.

Another good feature of micro-limit games is that the house frequently doesn't take a rake (meaning that the poker site doesn't take a percentage of each pot). Most sites do not take a rake until the pot hits $1, and if you choose to play in the fixed-limit poker games with stakes of $0.02 / $0.04, well, the pot will never get that big. Rakes normally don't amount too much, but when you just begin and have just enough skill to beat your fellow players, you'll be happy you don't need to outpace the rake. If a few extra cents in your online poker account make you happier, this will be a good thing.  Don't ignore the difference between the $0.02 /$0.04 games and the $30/ $60 games. Your successes at the micro-limit games do not mean you are automatically in par with those heavy hitters. Micros are played a lot more loosely than the upper-class games. The level of play rises in accordance to the limit on the tables.

Low-limits

If you have played low-limits in the real life poker environment, the playing experience on the cyberspace should seem very comparable. The most visible difference is the quality of player. In the real life poker world, we encounter some really good players at the lowest limit games. They just practice to improve their skill and prey on the clumsiness of low-limit beginners.

You do not find these seasoned players on the cyberspace as much. The level of play on low-limit online poker tables seems to be substantially lower.  A percentage of those people may be players who want to see some action above the micro-limits but simply don't have enough skills to match the new limits.

Due to the mediocre playing style, low-limit online games are probably the most profitable place you can have when we consider the amount of profit you can make each hour relative to the limits.

Where to play?

Good places to start playing at low stakes cash games includes PokerStars, Party Poker and Aced Poker.