Free Online Poker*
February 17th, 2009 poker tips and news
A few years ago when I had more free time and couldn’t get enough of poker, I turned to NLOP.com. The acronym stands for the National League of Poker.
The site’s outline was pretty cool. Everything was absolutely free and there was a tournament running every 15 minutes. The prizes ranged from hats, shirts, keychains, and other neat tangible items to cold hard cash. Yours truly took down a few cash tournaments of $5, $10, and maybe a few higher. If you weren’t the big winner or second place (sometimes larger cash would trickle down), then you got points with which to play in more tournaments. These points were helpful because you could keep playing instead of waiting for a recharge at the end of the week (or something like that).
The only thing that disappointed me was how many amazing bad beats there were. It was almost as if you were an overwhelming favorite going into a heads-up showdown, you were 50-50. For example, pocket kings vs 87 off was a coin flip. I was not the only one who thought this. It was the center piece of running dialogue while the games were being played.
Recently, I saw a friend playing PurePlay, a similar setup to NLOP, and it motivated me to catch a game for old times sake on NLOP. Things have changed. For one, the charge is $19.95/month for “VIP membership” which gets you in all the games with big payouts - and there are decent payouts. Secondly, Mike Sexton has his stamp all over the site (see below), even proclaiming in the opening video that NLOP is “free.” While yes, it is free to play, one would definitely be tempted to ante up the $19.95 a month to get in the real games. There is no denying the available cash and prizes.
You can still get in the game and play for money if you find the right times to play, but the membership level looks really tempting. I couldn’t play enough to make it worthwhile, but if you have several days with idle time, it wouldn’t hurt to try their free 14 day trial. If I was a security guard in a watch tower, I’d have it for sure.
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