If you like freerolls, you will love the Mermaid Poker's Aprils Freeroll Maddness. This poker room is offering each month a subleme selection of freerolls.

Ever wondered your self how all the poker rooms can keep offering bonuses, free gifts and tournaments? No there are not a charity organization, managing a poker room is a business. The major part of the income is coming from the generation of rake (1) during the cash games at the tables. Rake is a small percentage of the pot that you pay the house for winning the pot. 

"Nobody is always a winner, and anybody who says he is, is either a liar or doesn't play poker."
Amarillo Slim

"The most difficult aspects of playing poker professionally are coping emotionally with the losses and coping with the recurring idea that you're not doing anything worthwhile."Mike Caro

"Hold em is to stud what chess is to checkers."
Johnny Moss

This is a short list with basic tournament information and definitions. You also get the explainations to the used tournament expressions and terms. The definitions of poker tournament structure are important and we advise you to examine the rules before you join any tourney.

Entry Fee: A fee paid by each of the players to the house for hosting the tournament. The fee is usually 8-10% of the buy-in.

Buy-In: The amount of money it costs to enter a poker tournament on top of the entry fee. The buy-in is added directly to the prize pool.

Re-buy: The option to buy additional chips. Rules vary a lot in rebuy tournaments. Some tournaments have unlimited re-buy for the first hour, while others only allow re-buy if you are below a certain amount in chips.

Here are some terms that you'll hear on this site and whenever you're talking about poker odds...

OutsThe number of cards left in the deck that will improve your hand."I had four hearts on the turn, so I had only 9 outs left to finish that flush."

Pot Odds The odds you get when analyzing the current size of the pot vs. your next call."There's $200 already in the pot, and only another $10 bet coming at me, so my pot odds are good if I hit that flush."

Texas Hold 'Em is a seven card poker game with simple rules that a beginner can easily learn and begin to play immediately. In spite of the simplicity, it is a fast and complex game that takes skill and practice to master. No wonder it has become one of the most popular forms of poker played today. Texas Hold 'Em uses a disc called a dealer button to indicate where the cards are to be dealt. Prior to the deal, the two players to the left of the button place live bets called the small and big blinds. It's called blind because it's made prior to seeing any cards.

Pictured below are the possible hands of poker, listed in order from high to low.

Royal Flush The five highest cards, the 10 through the Ace, all five of the same suit. A royal flush is actually an ace-high straight flush. Which suit it is doesn't matter in poker. Two people with royal flushes would tie.

Straight Flush Any five cards of the same suit in consecutive numerical order. Our example shows a five-high straight flush.