WHAT NEXT?  Continued from yesterday...

4) PLAY ON THE MERGE NETWORK.  You have three choices for playing in the US:  Merge, Bodog and Cake.  You can play on Cake (but it's kind of retarded with no HUD).  But I don't know - maybe you're into that kind of thing.  You can play on Bodog if you somehow lost both your arms during the whole Black Friday thing so you physically could only handle three tabling (which is their max - some places say 4 is the max, but since I'm not a quadriplegic, I don't care to find out).  So your only "real" multitabling choice is the Merge Network.  The mid stakes full ring game selection is pretty putrid.  For 6max, it's not bad - you'll have enough 2/4+ tables most nights to be able to multi-table.  But for small stakes (0.5/1 and 1/2) full ring, there are actually some nights with over 20 tables.  That's about as good as can be expected.  A lot of times, it's mostly regs, but at least half of the regs don't look particularly solid.  Merge came from nowhere and surged up the list of top poker sites, so that in the US evenings they have the third highest cash game volume, behind only Stars and FT.

HEM works fine (and I think PT3 does also).  And the site is big enough where there are third party pieces of software you can get like hotkeys, table scanners and mods.  Sometimes the software seems to stick a little, but otherwise, the software is not too bad.  Yes!  I've played there (later post).  A Western Union only costs 1.5% and is at all of our local supermarkets, so depositing was pretty painless.

Anyway, I decided to follow my own advice and start generating income streams outside of playing poker.  So I started a rakeback affiliate site with RakebackPartners (RaketheRake).  They seemed to offer the best deals, and it's really not that much work on my end.  I thought the best skin for the Merge network (for me) was Carbon poker.  It's because in addition to the 35%, RaketheRake has a personal rake chase that offers up to 40% more in additional rakeback (for up to 75% rakeback).  That's if you don't believe in sleep and can play 24 hours a day for 30 days.  Or if you are one of those Korean pros on FT who share accounts and can generate that kind of play.  For normal multitabling grinders, it's probably going to be an additional 15%.  But even 15% is a lot of money.  And they credit your rakeback to your account daily, which is actually nicer than waiting until Fridays.

[Edit:  UGH!  Apparently the promotions vary from month to month.  But I can't imagine April's was so awesome (pre DOJ), and May's is gonna suck.  But we'll see.]

Carbon also offers a $2,000 200% deposit bonus (deposit $1,000, get $2,000).  But TBH, that deposit bonus is kind of a scam.  You basically need to rake $12.50 (net) to earn $1 of that bonus (more "standard" is $7.50 for $1 in bonus).  And those numbers are post-rakeback, so you need to pay $19.23 (vs $11.54) in rake to get a measly dollar in bonus.  And the deposit bonuses disappear once you make your first withdraw!  Like WTF?  Have they heard of a little thing called a DOJ crackdown?  I'm supposed to generate $38,460 in rake for you to clear that crappy bonus and you're not going to let me withdraw if I want the whole bonus?!?  Oh.  And you have three months.  FU!!!  (I know I'm an affiliate, but I'm going to tell it like it is.)  They also have a new player freeroll that's too busto for me to play in, but the other promo that's nice is they're giving away a bunch of ipads this month.  Not sure what they do other months.  [Edit:  I just noticed that on my rakeback site, they are offering a $600 100% deposit bonus instead of RTR's $2,000 200% bonus.  But the $600 bonus clears 67% faster (only $7.50 in NET rake per $1 in bonus), so I think that's better for most people - unless you are a high volume grinder.  I seriously doubt I can pay anywhere near $38K of rake in 3 months on that site.]

I was more concerned with the longer term benefits of getting 50+% rakeback than any short-term deposit bonuses.  I'm assuming that personal rake chase is a regular promotion, but I have an email I sent them over the weekend that I'm waiting on a reply for.

Anyway, if you sign up at Carbon thru me, I get an extra 4% of your rake.  You still get all the benefits if you signed up directly - it's not coming out of your benefits.  But you'll be helping Mrs. Fly look even more fly.  So basically, it's win-meh-win (you-me-Mrs. Fly).  I really like this deal - I would never recommend something that I didn't think was the best deal for you.  If you email me at (doubleflypoker@gmail.com) the site you're interested in and your rake volume, I'll point you in the right direction.

DISCLAIMER:  I am not URGING you to put money in US sites - there are significant risks.  But if want to play, and the other playing options don't look appealing to you, I think Carbon Poker is the best way to go (for reasons listed above).  And I think RaketheRake has the best offer for high volume players.  Also, I warn you guys against putting A LOT of money on a US site.  Making a deposit is usually just a trip to your local supermarket, and you don't save on fees by depositing more.  It's not clear to me that the US Dept of Justice has used up all of its bullets, so in case the new trio of US poker sites get raided, don't get caught with your pants down (again).  Leave as little money in there as possible.