A high roller, also referred to as a whale in the casino industry, is a gambler who wagers large amount of money at a casino or a poker room. As a reward for the huge amount of money spent by them, these high rollers often receive lavish “perks” from the casinos and the poker rooms. Their rewards might include facilities, such as free private jet transfers, free limousine use, and free use of the casinos’ best suites.

While the high rollers may not provide a significant portion of the revenues in the casino industry as a whole, they can have a major effect on the net income of the casinos. There is a huge cost involved in  attracting the highest stake gamblers. If a casino takes this chance and wins a whale, its expenses become large. But, if the casino’s investment pays off well and the high rollers lose, the casino’s or the poker’s room gain  exceed its expenses of attracting the VIP gambler.

Some of the poker rooms that offer VIP bonuses are the Titan poker, the Everest Poker, the RedKings, the Party poker and various others. In Titan poker, players are ranked VIP on the basis of the number of points earned by them in each month. The more points they earn, the higher they move up the VIP level.

Titan poker’s VIP Levels and the benefits associated with it are as follows:

Party poker: It offers a VIP status to players who earn more than 5,000 points a month under its Palladium Lounge. The Palladium offers:

• Around-the-clock assistance from the Palladium Lounge Team
• Personalized service
• Exclusive promotions
• The rewards you want, and the way you want them
• Free cash outs and increased deposit amounts

Everest poker:

Benefits of the VIP Summit Club at Everest poker includes:

• Open enrollment for all players
• Cash rewards up to $5,000 a month
• Bonus Summit Points up to 750% a month
• Priority Customer Service

Redkings poker:

Offers the following facilities to its VIP players:

• Daily Points Race
• Bonus Vendor (coming soon)
• Reload Vendor

In order to become a VIP Club Member, a player is regularly required to wage real money at the poker sites. The more loyal a player is, the more rewards and benefits he/she receives.

Name: John Phan
Awards: 2008 Player of the Year Award from Card Player magazine
Winnings: $430K in prize money in First bracelet
$150K in prize money in Second bracelet
$1 million at the Legends of Poker tournament

Titan poker Winners:

Name: Jan BjoerslandJan Bjoersland
Player from Norway
Representing Titan Poker at the ECPokerTour Salzburg in April

Name: Michael Schuhardt
Nickname: “parlo”
Player from Germany
Winner of a $4,000 prize package to the ECPokerTour Salzburg

Name: Wolfgang Müller
Nickname: “deledder”
Player from Germany
Winner of a $4,000 prize package to the ECPokerTour Salzburg

Everest Poker Winners:

Name: Shaun Craig
Amount won: $6,500
He will represent Everest Poker at the 2009 Irish Open in Dublin.

Name: Shaun Craig
Nickname: “yurMI007″
Player from Ireland
Shaun Craig will represent Everest Poker at the 2009 Irish Open in Dublin after winning a $6,500 package from a buy in of just $80.

Name: Hanno Hörmann
Nickname: “Fmeinheit”
Player from Austria
Hanno Hörmann will represent Everest Poker at the 2009 ECPT Salzburg event in April after winning a $4k package from a $200 satellite

Name: TheWrangler
Nickname: “thewrangler”
Player from Denmark
‘TheWrangler’ won the $250k Guaranteed Tournament on Sunday 4th January.

Name: goFold
Nickname: “goFold”
‘goFold’ won the $250k Guaranteed Tournament on Sunday 18th January.

Party poker Winners:

Player Mstr_Splintr was the highest placed Party poker Qualifier and ended his tournament in 19th place cashing for EUR 3000.
Player Vorbix won the EUR 500 side event and cashed for EUR 13,000.
Player GIOWIM1 managed to win his place to Galway for only $1.

Winners of the Progressive Bad Beat Jackpot

Winners of the $300K Guaranteed Sunday

18-January-09

Screen name Win Amount
I_SpooK_Y     $60,000.00
Flpro_157      $33,000.00
Kuli100999     $20,700.00

$50K Guaranteed Saturday

17-January-09

Screen name Win Amount
Frydbrun        $12,539.00
Tiefenmuehle $8,569.20
Spyfluga        $7,046.00

Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Online Poker rooms dominate the online gaming industry by offering round-the-clock poker tournaments. All that a person willing to play poker games requires is a computer with Internet connection.

An Internet poker room is a good place for players to learn the rules of the game, test their basic skills and chalk out a proper game strategy without risking their money. This is possible because the players can study the basic poker rules, play free poker games, visit Internet poker forums, and also chat with other poker card players.

The online poker rooms include poker rooms of large online poker networks and independent poker rooms. A poker room belonging to online poker networks is called a skin. Some of the significant independent poker rooms are Titan poker, Pacific Poker, and Paradise Poker.

However, before selecting a poker room, a player must ensure that the poker room is protected by a reliable Internet security firm. Another requirement for online poker room is a valid license from a trusted gaming commission. Next, a player must check whether the poker room offers unique features like multi-tabling and operating system compatibility. Checking player traffic is also one important aspect in online poker rooms. The larger the traffic, the more games a player can play.

In addition to the games, the level of bonuses and promotions of online poker rooms must be checked for. Beware of scams involved in it. To ensure this, a player must read all the small prints carefully. He must also make himself fully aware regarding the rules for procuring such bonuses.

Other important factors to be considered for selecting an online poker room are financial stability, accessible customer service, and ease of competitions. Reviews offered by other players are also regarded as one of the best sources to compare various online poker rooms and choose an appropriate online poker room.

Last but not the least, a player must place a limit on the money he is going to gamble before he starts playing live poker game. As a beginner, one must not play too many poker hands. A player must also not rush into Internet poker room tournaments until he masters the art of the game. If these points are
kept in mind, the game of online poker will be entertaining as well as rewarding for any new player.