Aztec Riches Casino has a nice balance between the bonuses and the competitions and drawings. They are offering a tiered bonus for new players on their first three deposits:

• The initial welcome bonus is a 100% matching bonus with a minimum deposit of $20 and a maximum of $100.
• The second deposit bonus is a 50% matching bonus with a minimum deposit of $20 and a maximum of $500.
• The third deposit bonus is a 25% matching bonus with a minimum deposit of $20 and a maximum of $2000.

Their drawings and competitions are as follows:

• Super Saturday – Cash prize drawing every 30 minutes
• Power Power Poker – Sundays play Jacks or Better Power Poker
• Turbo Charged Tuesdays – Play Five Reel Drive and win.
• Wild Wednesdays – Cash prize drawing every 30 minutes
• Thursday Thunder – Play Thunderstruck Slots and win.
• Blackjack Bonanza – Monthly tournament

The Casino Action group likes to keep some information close to their chest. On the Aztec Rewards page they mention loyalty points and state the following: "The more you play, the more we pay! Bonus points are paid out in units of 1,000. Redeem 1,000 points for $10 or redeem 5,000 points for $50! Our Silver, Gold and Platinum VIP members can redeem their Rewards at a higher rate - meaning more cash every week." This sounds wonderful but means nothing. How do players earn points? Are there games that are better for points than others? I have no idea, and their customer service reps aren't telling. This does not make the rewards program much of an incentive for me to join.

Players place an ante on the table. The ante is set by the card room, and is not applicable in games where increments are $0.50/$1.00.

3rd Street - three cards are dealt - two "hole" cards, and one visible "door card".

At this point, the Player with the lowest card must bring-in the betting.

First round of betting - options are to check, fold, bet, or raise.

4th Street - the fourth card is dealt - face-up.

Betting round - options are to check, fold, bet, or raise.

5th Street - the fifth card is dealt - face-up.

Betting round - options are to check, fold, bet, or raise.

6th Street - the sixth card is dealt - face-up.

Betting round - options are to check, fold, bet, or raise.

River Card /7th Street- the final card is dealt - facedown.

Final round of betting follows. If two or more Players are still vying for the pot when the betting concludes, the hands at the table are turned face-up

The Showdown! All remaining Players create the best possible five-card high and five-card low poker hand using: any 5 of the 7 Cards to create a high-hand or any 5 of the 7 Cards to create a low-hand

The two Players with the best high and low hands split the pot!

8 Top Tips For Newbies
Source : Max Drayman (www.winneronline.com)

So you've read about gambling online or maybe heard it mentioned in the media and are gonna give a try. Okay, on your marks, get set - wait!

Before you venture forth it's time for a quick reality check because the road to online gambling riches is not without its potholes. Here are a few caveats to illuminate the path ahead.

1. What is a download and why do I care?

One of the first questions you'll be faced with if you decide to gamble online is whether you want to play games that require you to download and install software these are called "download" games or perhaps you'd prefer games that simply run over the web called "no download" games. There are big differences between the two.

For a start the download options will usually take a good 40 minutes to complete (although some software providers give you a lite version to play while the full version downloads in the background) whereas the no download is virtually instant. But with that 40 minutes comes the kind of superior user interface you'd expect, with nice graphics, sound and lots of games to play. With the no download version this is much more limited. Sure you can still play blackjack, slots and poker, but thats about it. It all depends how impatient you really are!

2. So now I've downloaded, what do I do next?

With no-download games it's pretty obvious what you need to do to start the action but with download games it may not be so obvious. You could go back to the casino's website and read their instructions, they all have them, but if you're impatient like me you just want to get to it!

The first step after downloading is to install the software and reboot your machine. I know, it shouldn't be necessary, but the bottom line is that computers especially those running Windows behave best if you reboot after an install. Once you're back up, click on the casino's icon that was placeded on your desktop. If there's no icon, check your Start menu under "Programs" and it will be at the bottom of the list.

Once you fire up the software it will probably connect to the casino's home site, verify your install, and ask you whether you want to play for Real or Fun. That's it, pick your poison!

3. I want my winnings!

So you've won big and you're ready to hit the mall. All you need to do is cash out, right? Wrong! All casinos have policies about how much you can cash out and when. In most cases you can only withdraw as much to your credit card as you deposited in the first place. So what about the rest?

Casinos vary widely on this, but the short answer is that you'll need to be patient. Even if the casino lets you withdraw right away it could take weeks to receive your check. Some casinos won't let you withdraw until you receive a PIN number from them through the mail. Still others require numerous pieces of identification be faxed to them so they can verify that you are who you say you are.

There are a few casinos that seem to want everything including your Social Insurance number and a fax of your fingerprints (no kidding!) It's up to you to decide if you can live with this invasion of privacy but in any case it's best to know what they're gonna want from the get-go: read the casino's info on withdrawals, it should all be spelled out pretty clearly there. If you don't like what you see, try another casino.

4. PIN Number, what's that?

In most cases the casino's cash-out policies are reasonable, albeit a little inconvenient. Many of them issue the user a unique identification number, a PIN, that you need in order to initiate a cash-out.

Often your PIN number comes via regular postal mail which can be annoyingly slow. The theory is that it's for your own good since receiving it confirms that you actually live at the address they have in their database. It also helps the casino avoid fraud. Whatever, it's become part of the way many online casinos do business so you're probably just going to have to get used to it.

5. How much is it going to cost me?

Another bitter pill is that many casinos will charge you a fee for your withdrawal. Some charge a flat rate, a few charge a percentage, and almost all will charge you more if you want your money "right now thank you very much".

It's well worth your time to read your casino's website page of "Banking" or "Withdrawals". The vast majority of casinos are quite reasonable in their withdrawal charges, but you never know until you know. If it's not clear, email or phone them and find out what the deal is.

6. Hidden banking fees

So the check is in the mail and that means you're home free, yes? Maybe, but again, it depends on the details. For example, receiving a check on a Swiss bank in US dollars may not be money straight in your pocket.

We've known people to be hit with stiff transaction fees when they ask their bank to process a check drawn on a foreign bank. Direct deposit and bank wires may be alternatives, but you'd best check into it before hand because not all casinos offer these services at attractive rates.

7. Will the software run on my machine

Good question. The answer in the vast majority of cases is "Yes, beautifully!". Unless your machine is really old, or you're running out of system resources (read: disk space) there's really not much to worry about.

I've installed casino software well over a hundred times on a variety of machines and have only encountered a major problem once or twice. On the off chance that you do encounter a problem you guessed it contact the casino's Customer Support people. That's what they're there for.

8. Bonus rules

Bonuses are a big deal these days literally and figuratively and you've no doubt encountered one that sounds really attractive. By all means, go for it but not before you've read the fine print.

Bonuses come in a bewildering variety and it's hard to keep track of what's a great deal and what's so-so. All casinos will require that you play the bonus before you can withdraw it. Some require you to play 2-times or 3-times the bonus, and on and on it goes. No one can offer advice that will apply to all the bonuses you'll find out there, other than the one we all know: caveat emptor.

Unfortunately we can't leave the bonuses issue without a few cautionary words. First and foremost don't abuse the bonus offers. In particular don't re-register using another name in order to get the bonus again. That's "bonus abuse" and the casinos can get pretty hostile over such attempts at subterfuge.

Finally, there's the issue of fair-play on the casino's part. Some casino managers have a tough time with the fact that a player can deposit $100, get a $50 bonus, hit a winning streak at the Craps table and cash out for $2200.

Whatever the reason, a few casinos have been known to withhold the player's winnings, or freeze player accounts completely. Do a little research if you're serious about using a particular casino's bonus. Read the message boards and check out the reviews. Also, there are other sites like ours that make it their business to keep the player informed so surf a little before you break out the credit card.

Belonging to the Casino Rewards group, Strike It Lucky is a Microgaming casino and is unusual as it is Flash and does not require a download. Each game at the casino loads independently and quite quickly. The games themselves appear to be slow which would suit the novice player or those of you who are more patient! We also found that the casino session timed out repeatedly when trying to open a new game and also if we left the table or machine for more than a few minutes. This results in having to login again and becomes more than a little annoying. We must stress that these timeout problems could be particular to our set-up and proxy arrangement and we advise you to try it out for yourselves.

We cannot advise that any of the games were notably “loose” but Blackjack was noted to deal us a 7 on opening cards of 14 and an 8 on cards of 13 on several occasions which made a change from it happening to the dealer all the time.

There is no music in the casino or ambient noise such as murmured voices or glasses clinking which we thought detracted from a casino atmosphere. The only sounds were a few beeps on winning or losing and the dealer’s “push” at the Blackjack table.

Our $1000 free chips became $1350 after Blackjack, $1525 after Cyberstud and gradually reduced through games such as Roulette, Red Dog (great fun!) and various slots. Although, after over an hour’s play on a number of games, we still had $805 in the bank. This is obviously not representative of all experiences at Strike It Lucky but overall we feel that the games are fair and not noticeably or unduly biased towards the house.