Long time readers know that I like poker. It's not
something I'm exceptionally good at, but I enjoy it and play with
friends regularly. I used to play on-line also, but have
given that up.

The problem with on-line poker is that I haven't found
what I want: everything I have tried is unsatisfactory
in some way. I think a site that meets my desires is
possible, but I haven't found it yet.

Free Sites

There are a lot of these - you see them advertised
whenever poker tournaments are on TV. They cost nothing,
and you don't have to worry about running out of chips:
you just refill anytime you need to. And that's the
problem: because its like playing for chips where you
can just grab another handful whenever you want, too many
players just don't take it seriously. It's not much fun
to play with those people.

Real sites

Real poker sites definitely attract more serious players,
but may be illegal in many places (are currently
illegal in the U.S.) and therefore it can be difficult to transfer money in or out of the site. Beyond that,
because there is money involved, these sites also attract
cheaters. Just like in the real world, the site operators
work hard to prevent that, but on-line cheating is
easier to do and harder to catch than in the real world.
Finally, there is the matter of skill: if you are a mediocre
player as I am, real money sites can get very expensive.

Skill Sites

I wrote about one of these some time ago. You pay a
monthly fee and compete for prizes. The serious factor
is present because of the fee and the prizes, but for the same
reasons cheaters are also present, and of course there is
the cost - it's not a lot, but it is an expense. Because of
that, it can be hard to find other players: not enough
members sign up, and sometimes you have to wait quite a while
for enough people to fill a table. I like
this option the best, but I think it's possible to do better.

What about this?

Here's my idea: a free site, but where you cannot refill
chips at will. I don't know what the magic number would be
to have a large pool of players while keeping it serious,
but I would think a few days between refills might do it.

That could attract serious players but discourage the drunks
and other "all-in all the time" players.
I don't know of any site that works this way (if you do, please
let me know).

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