Grubby at PokerWorks

After trying two more debit cards to deposit into poker sites, I finally found one that works. Whether it still works a week from now is debatable, so get in while you can.

The debit cards that haven’t worked for me are through Cirrus, La Salle Bank, Washington Mutual, and NetSpend. Your mileage may vary, though, because I suspect being in one of the banned states is the main cause of receiving the all-to-familiar message: “Your credit card transaction has been DECLINED.”

The savior with the small fee is GiftCards.com, and you don’t even have to wait for a physical card in the mail.

As a bonus, their site includes a talking cyber girl that I was somehow compelled to watch and listen to a few times. If Microsoft used her instead of the animated paperclip, I’d never complain about Microsoft Word again.

For a $2 fee, you can purchase a virtual debit card from $25 to $500. You pay for it with a Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover, and it shows up on your statement as a regular purchase (as opposed to a cash advance). There are no other charges except a monthly $2.50 maintenance fee, but that’s waived for the first six months of the card. Presumably you’ll load the exact amount you need and deposit it all into a poker site.

They have multiple types of cards, just make sure you pick the virtual debit card.

I purchased an e-card using different email addresses (the gift sender and recipient) but the same name, and in about three hours I was emailed my invoice number, which I used to go to their website, create an account, and retrive my virtual debit card number, expiration date, and the irritating three-digit CVC code. You can include a gift message, and I chose the one with hearts and the message: “Congrats, you’re one of the fathers of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby.”

Like with a regular credit card and online gambling, you can’t withdraw to the card. Some enterprising poker site should consider offering these gift cards as a way to withdraw.

I immediately set about depositing small amounts into Poker Stars, Full Tilt, and Ultimate Bet, and all three were successful.

Trying to deposit to my online casino, however, still came up as denied. I feel like I’ve missed out on an easy $1400 the past month, because the past weekly match reloads have been $300, $300, $400, and $400. My host assures me they’re working on adding payment processors.

I wanted to play Stars to clear out the four $120 reload bonuses sitting in my queue:

Road to WSOP 2005 Bonus Award
2005 WSOP Month
WCOOP 2005 Start
WCOOP 2006

Yep, haven’t played at Stars in quite awhile.

At some point they added an expiration date to their bonuses, so WCOOP 2006 now expires in March. The others have no expiration.

Since I’ve been gone, they also increased the clearing rate from 600 to 840 FPPs.

I still had some FPPs earned for the Road to WSOP 2005, and when I played, it finished that out first and then hopped to the WCOOP 2006. I’d thought I’d have to try to clear all of them by March, but it’s nice they moved up the priority so I can take my time.

There are still many things I don’t like about Stars’ user interface — not being able to tell what SnG denom you’re in unless you click the lobby, for example — but two things stand out from Full Tilt:

The players seem worse in SnGs, with more of the field dropping out early or making wild Kill Phil plays.

The entire SnG fee goes toward clearing the bonus, so it’s like playing SnGs for no juice.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 11th, 2007 at 6:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.