Players Try Merge Network Out With a Free $5

Warning, I’m going to try and sell you something, kinda.

If U.S. players have been hesitant to put money online after Black Friday, here is a chance to try out one of the Merge Network skins. Rakeback.com and Black Chip Poker are giving new players a free $5 with no deposit required.

All you have to do is click on the Rakeback banner add over on the right of the screen and open a new account. If you are viewing this in a reader click here and open your account.

Once you have an account do the following:

1. Click on ‘Rakeback Offers’ tab near the top of the page.
2. Click on the Black Chip Poker link and follow the instructions to download the poker client.
3. Go back to Rakeback and have your account tracked to get 41.5% rakeback. Simply click on the ‘Rake Tracking’ link at the top right of the page and enter your Black Chip Poker account to have it properly tracked.
4. Go to the promo page here and follow the instructions to get your free $5.

I decided to use the money and see if I can get the balance up to $100. If so I will start grinding out some cash games. Give it a try and see what you think.

Plan B???

It’s time to get of my Snarf-like streak of not posting on the blog. That would mean that Snarf would actually have to show up on the blog every once in a while though.

Well to say the last two weeks or so has been a bit hectic would be a massive understatement. Ever since the news broke the workload over at Rakeback.com has been big. First thing was trying to keep up with the news and write about it for all of the players. The second phase was adding new rooms.

Since April 15th we have added Carbon Poker, Ladbrokes and BlackChip Poker. We also added Players Only and as soon as it was posted we had to take it back down. there will be three additional rooms to launch this week (one US friendly). We are also working on a sister site that is set to open in the upcoming weeks.

So back to online play it looks like I won’t be winning my WSOP Main Event seat on PokerStars this year. I actually didn’t have a whole lot of time to grind steps sit & go’s before the ban hammer was dropped. BTW, I requested my withdrawal Tuesday afternoon via direct bank transfer and the funds arrived in my account on Friday. Even in the wake of this PokerStars is a classy organization. When online poker becomes legal again in the U.S, and it will, it would be a shame to not have PokerStars there to play.

I was planning on going to the WSOP June 7-14, until last week. Turns out my son’s graduation from pre-K (yes they have that now) is on the evening of the 7th. My new date are June 8-15. The 8th will be a wash as the only flight option was a mid-afternoon one and I will miss the start of all of the days events. Here is my new planned schedule:

• 6/8 – Cash games
• 6/9 – $235 WSOP 2p Deep Stack NLHE
• 6/10 – $235 WSOP 2p Deep Stack NLHE
• 6/11 – $350 Venetian DSE NLHE
• 6/12 – $350 Venetian DSE NLHE
• 6/13 – $240 Golden Nugget Stud 8
• 6/14 – $200 Binions NLHE 6max

One of those days (probably the 9th or 10th) I am going to most likely grind single table satellites all day. I want to play around ten $125 – $225 single tables to try and accumulate $4K in lammers. If I am able to do that I would like to get back to Vegas right before the Main Event to play one or two of the $2K mega-satellites.

If all of that works out and I actually win a Main Event seat (that’s’ a lotta if’s), I honestly don’t know if I would play it. My whole goal was to play the Main Event this year so I would have a VPP head start for Supernova the following year. That’s no longer an option so I think having the cash to add to the roll would be better.

I am in the midst of brainstorming for pre-WSOP articles. Anyone have ideas on what they would like to see? Right now I have the following articles in my head:

• Other events around town (Venetian, GN, Binions, etc.)
• Non-pokery things to do (Red Rock, damn Dam tour, etc.)
• Places to eat (need locals help here)