JULY 20TH, 2005

With the poker boom now starting to get underway here in the UK many people are getting the taste for gambling. The thrills and spills of thinking "If only my card comes out on the next turn and I will win a small fortune" can be great but it certainly has its down side.

Any form of gambling can be dangerous, certainly if you become addicted and don't admit to yourself! Gambling more to cover the cost of your previous losses is a major no no! With the emergence of gambling online its becoming increasingly too easy to bet away your money without even seeing it pass through your hands.

Its that age old saying of, "It is harder to part with real money in your hand than electronic digits you don't even see" which holds up true in this case. This time there is a greater risk though of losing control!

There are already major concerns being expressed at the numbers of people becoming addicted. ( Check out http://www.gamcare.org.uk/ if you do feel that you have a problem, better to treat it sooner than later).

People are calling for controls of some sort to be brought in. The next few years of this current poker boom are going to be interesting as people have already remortgaged up to the maximum as well as their loans and credit cards. They cannot afford to gamble in the first place.

There are some options for safe, CONTROLLED poker playing to save some money and even play for free.

First poker playing option is all in all play for free! Hows that work? Well just play on the tables which are not for real money. You get a set limit of chips to start with which are reset each day if you lose it all. Play well and your chips build up!

Second poker playing option is to play the freerolls for real money in a real online tournament. Hows that work! Well some providers such as Ladbrokes and William Hill have freerolls from time to time, sometimes even daily. They allow up to generally 2000-10000 people play head to head in a real tournament situation for a small amount of money.

Its a simple knock out. Once your set chips are gone your out. Usually the top 50 who hit the 'bubble' as it is called win money. The higher up to the final winner the more you win. If its a £200 tournament for example, 1st will get £75 and the rest down to 50th place is split with £1 going to 50th. A multi table tournament can often last hours. After all you are playing against thousands of people on different tables.

Best still is its great fun, safe and doesn't cost you a penny because its free to sign up and play! Just check out each providers multi table tournaments and look for 'freeroll'. Some of the freerolls you have to meet certain requirements such as played so many real money hands but some have none. The ones with no requirements are certainly worth playing.

Third poker playing option is sign up only to new accounts and make use of the free offers for new players. Some give you free chips to start with and you can try and build up your stack that way.

Fourth and best poker playing option

You could always play with family and friends only. Play a single table tournament where it is controlled betting. For instance each player who plays adds £5 to the prize fund. If you have 10 people thats £50. Share out your chips equally to each other with a value of say 1000 credits. That means 10000 credits are sitting at the table. The winner who ultimately gets the 10000 credits takes £40 while the player who finishes 2nd gets £10. It means you get the buzz of playing at a low cost which is controlled. It can add up to some great fun and friendly competition. You can't go betting away your car or house with this platform meaning it won't get stupidly serious. After all it should be fun as it is a game!

Follow these tips and avoid the real cash tables and you can't really go wrong. Start dabbling and you could find yourself at higher stakes which you should be no where near!

All in all be careful and don't get addicted. Twice a month is fine but start playing daily and losing daily is bad and you should stop as soon as possible. Don't gamble at all if you are trying to save or are in debt, the two just don't go together in the equation. You should only gamble when you can afford to lose after all! (Personally its a waste of good money you could use for other things).

Good luck and safe controlled gambling.