Welcome to the new dawn in risk free online poker on US Soil. The UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act) forced online poker rooms to operate outside the United States. The result was a near total pull out of poker rooms out of the US market. US poker players thus flocked to other poker rooms that accepted US players. These few poker rooms ended up being the undisputed rulers of this escalating industry resulting in a monopolistic situation where the card room and not the poker player defined terms.

These restrictions gave birth to a new and innovative concept that could fit in US poker players. This concept was termed as the Subscription Model. The subscription model is a real money model that has bypassed the UIGEA guidelines and works well preventing any of the hungry wolves out to shoot down other forms of online poker play on US soil. Above all it is a membership-based model and the revenues are taken care of generally via advertising.

The subscription model comprises of two types of membership which are the Basic (normally free) and the VIP membership. For a monthly advanced or VIP membership fee, players have an access to play in daily cash “real money” games wherein they earn points which can be then redeemed for prizes or gift certificates. What else would you do with your hard-earned money anyway?

Players can qualify for these ”REAL CASH” tournaments by earning enough “real chips” through play in other “Ring Games”, “Sit & Go Tournaments”, “Multi Table Tournaments” and also by means of daily offered “Satellite Tournaments”.

The UIGEA in essence, prevents a business from “receiving deposits for the purpose of unlawful online gambling”. This premise leaves open the option for players to come and play on a card room where one can essentially play for prizes, points, tokens, coupons and at the end of the day – “cash prizes”. The subscription model card rooms are normally piggy-backed on social networks such as Facebook or private social poker sites built on similar lines such as The Gold Shaft, which is a Social network that allows players to interact and enhances the pleasure of playing online poker for free.