The sickly thrilling (and scary) truth about online poker is that to win some money, you gotta bet, and to bet, you gotta have money. Playing poker online is no exception – if you want to win money that is. The difference with playing poker online is you have to put your cash out “there” . . . which is a spooky kind of trust. You may feel a bit uneasy transferring cash the first time; after all, you send your bank account info to a poker room or a third-party transferring web site. Before you get too worked up, grab a cup of coffee and chill a bit; a couple of easy and sensible choices on your part make this payment process fast, easy, and low risk. Transferring cash only seems difficult (and possibly hazardous to your bank account) the very first time you do it; then, funding your entertainment is a snap.

Unless you decide to send a real check to an online poker room via the old-fashioned post service, you use a third party firm to transfer cash from your bank account to the poker room. These third-party firms are nothing more than quarantine for your unused cash until you can use it for the online poker site of your selection. Online poker room hosts don’t want to be involved in the banking bureaucracy, and they actually choose not taking your cash directly – they prefer to orchestrate your online poker game and leave the money business to someone else. It may seem like unnecessary hassle for you, but a pleasant side effect of this process is that online finance companies provide you with an extra layer of security, because your virtual poker room never contacts your bank directly. One stage of indirection between your real world capital and your potential cyberspace poker castle is just another precaution that should make the online poker experiences fun. If you’ve ever employed PayPal for a cyberspace transaction (like paying for a celebrity’s used hotel towel you won in online auction), you’re likely familiar with the way third-party online finance holding businesses work. The mediators you use for online poker games operate the same way PayPal does for online transactions. But PayPal made the decision to drop their support for online gambling activities (including online poker), so you can’t use their service specifically.