Have you seen the commercials? You know the ones, for ClubWPT, or SpadeClub, or many of the others that tell you that anyone can play free poker to win over $100,000 in cash and prizes? Yah, so have I, just however to find out once you go to their site, download the software, register an account and get ready to actually play poker to see an annyoing popup saying, "You are not eligible to play this game, only Club members may play". At this point, your like "What the heck is going on here", and seeing a hyperlink, click on it to find out what's going on? The link, it happens, takes you to a webpage telling you for $20 a month, or $239.95 a year, you can play in all the games free.

 

Now correct me if I am wrong here, but $240 a year is NOT FREE, right? Did I jump into some terrible timewarp where paying for something is allowed to be considered FREE? No??? Ok, good since I thought that the Twilight Zone theme was playing in the background.

 

So with all of these sites advertising you can play for free, there has to be some way to do so, no? Digging through the site does find one or two games during the day you can play without paying the $20 a month, but come on, play all you want also is NOT just 1 or 2 games a day, right?

 

So that was what led to the mission. Playing these sites, with the minimal cost involved in doing so. (Note: I did say minimal costs, as it's not 100% free, but let me get into that now).

 

Items needed for "Free Poker Challenge"

I proceeded to work with four of the largest of these type of sites to see if it is indeed possible to get in without ponying up cash. The sites chosen for this adventure are ClubWPT, SpadeClub, NLOP and PurePlay.

Starting at my first site, ClubWPT, digging into their terms and conditions, I came upon an opening. Sending an envelope with a 3x5 card with my username, email address, name, physical address, dob would allow the player to get a month free. Not the easiest thing in the world, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try. To speed this story along, I went thru the other three sites, found similiar (but more confining) details to follow there to get the free month available.

It seems, to be able to operate without being shut down in the USA, they have to offer this "Free" way to play. It says nothing on how easy it has to be, nor any real oversight to actually make sure it happens, as all four sites spell out if anything is not followed to the letter they are able to disqualify your request without even contacting you.

Soooo, we start the wait (mailed them on Tuesday), and early next Monday morning I got an email in my mailbox from SpadeClub poker stating they had received my entry, and as of August 12th, I will be entitled to play for the next thirty days. Later that same day ClubWPT emailed to go one step further than SpadeClub did, and make me eligible to play immediately for the next thirty days. (Note: Thirty days is what all these sites consider a month, instead of a straight calendar month). As of this writing, I have not yet heard back from NLOP or PurePlay, but expect to hear from them soon.

Sooooooo, time for a tally and result:

Is it possible to play for Free, or nearly free at these sites? Yes, it is possible to do, provided you do jump thru enough hoops to do so. Would someone want to do so? So far, my answer to that is yes, granted this has been with just playing ClubWPT which became live for me on Monday. Cash, WPT Boot Camp Seats, and WPT trips available for what amounts to a 48.2 cent investment (majority being the postage stamp) to play for the entire month. Would I go and do all four sites? Maybe for the first month to see where I like and not to like to play, but probably going forward I'll pick one or two sites to concentrate on which should be enough for most to play and concentrate to win at.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PAGE #2, which will have the sites listed, and what you need to do to get the free month on the site(s) of your choice. (LINK AVAILABLE SOON)  Also, keep tuned to this page as I play the four sites in question for my pros, cons and overall feel of all four of the pay to play, but free if you know how to do so.