Aussie poker player Andrew Hinrichsen has won the World Series Of Poker Europe Event 2: €1,090 No-Limit Hold’em collecting €148,030 for his efforts. The event drew in 771 players creating a prize pool of €740,160 which is a more than 30% increase in the numbers from the same event held in London last year. The event took place over two gruelling days, and Hinrichsen's win now places him in esteemed company as one of only a handful of Australian's to hold a WSOP bracelet.

The World Series Of Poker Europe is the first expansion effort of the WSOP brand outside of the US, and this year sees the event being held in Cannes, France for the first time. One of the major differences in the WSOPE to the WSOP is that due to local regulations governing the age of gambling 18-year olds are able to play in the WSOPE whereas in the WSOP the age for gambling is set at 21. This allows a much larger influx of younger players to the events as was highlighted in 2007 when at age 18 Annette Obrestad became the youngest player to win a WSOP bracelet event.

This years's WSOPE also marks the first year that the WSOP Player of the Year awards will include all bracelet events at both the WSOP and WSOPE.

This win is the biggest tournament result of Hinrichsen's career and although he has enjoyed moderate success locally, he now has a gold bracelet to show that playing poker isn't all that bad after all. On the final hand Gianluca Speranza raised from the button to 42,000 and Hinrichsen re-raised to 100,000 from the big. Speranza called and the flop landed  K♥7♣3♦. The Aussie led out with a continuation-bet of 115,000 which was called by Speranza. The turn produced the 6♣  and Hinrichsen once again bet, this time for 200,000. Speranza called and the river came the 3♠ . On the river Hinrichsen announced he was all in and Speranza immediately called turning over K♣9♠ for a pair of Kings with a 9 kicker. This however was no match for the Aussies A♠K♠ which was a pair of kings with a bigger kicker.

Here are the final table payouts from the 2nd 2011 WSOPE Event.

Final Table Payouts

1st - Andrew Hinrichsen - €148,030
2nd - Gianluca Speranza - €91,262
3rd - Tarcisio Bruno - €67,281
4th - Bernard Guigon - €50,146
5th - Roberto Romanello - €37,874
6th - Eric Baudry - €28,977
7th - John Eames - €22,449
8th - Nabil Nadjai - €17,608
9th - Gregory Lejolivet - €13,982

Miller's Guide has put together one of the most comprehensive guides to online poker on the net. When looking to chose where to play online poker, it is important that you know what to look for. Below we have outlined the most important factors when looking at an online poker operator.

The most important factors when selecting your online poker site are:

1. Software
2. Liquidity
3. Sign Up Bonus
4. Deposits / Cashouts
5. Support
6. Promotions

SOFTWARE

First and foremost when looking for a guide to online poker, you should consider the software. As you are probably looking to play online poker for the first time, you need to make sure the site you choose has the best software to help make your online poker experience as user-friendly as possible. In addition to user-friendliness, good software helps ensure a safe reliable platform for the players playing online. With the top online poker sites, there are often over 100,000 players playing concurrently, so the robustness of the software is crucial in this respect.

Due to the explosion of online poker, there has been an incredible increase in the number of companies offering online poker to players from all over the world. Online poker has been around since early 2000, and in the early days, there were no clear market leaders and only a handful of operators. Over the course of time, the best sites with the best software came to the forefront of the online poker market.

LIQUIDITY

The second most important factor when looking at a guide to online poker is liquidity. The number of active players playing with that particular site or network defines its liquidity. As poker is a game played between players, and not a house game, it is crucial that when you want to play online poker the site you are playing with has good liquidity, otherwise you won’t be able to find the game limits or game variation to suite your style.

SIGN UP BONUSES

Once you have narrowed down an online poker site based on these first two very important criteria, it is then simply a choice of bonuses. Most sites offer the same games, but not all sites offer the same bonuses. Virtually all online poker sites will look to offer you an initial sign-up bonus. This bonus is paid out when players make their initial deposit with the site, so it is often wise to try and make the biggest deposit your bankroll can handle so that you get the maximum bonus offered. If you are not a serious poker player, then making a small deposit is also not an issue, it just means that the initial deposit bonus will be smaller for you. Deposit bonuses are paid as players play online. Once you reach certain rake milestones, the site will unlock portions of your deposit bonus. Some sites offer immediate deposit bonuses, but these are rare, and generally are not from reputable websites, so beware of offers that look too good to be true.

DEPOSITS/CASHOUTS

The next key factor in determining who will be your choice of online poker site is Deposits/Cashouts. These two very important factors are crucial in choosing where you wish to play, as if you can't get money in or out of the site, it doesn't make much sense to play there. Almost all online poker sites offer a large variety of Deposit and cashout options, so you should investigate which option best suits you. Some players prefer to not use credit cards, while others will only use credit cards, fortunately online poker sites allow for methods that cater to all types of players.

SUPPORT

As with any type of transaction online, support is a critical factor. Generally speaking, most internet poker sites have exceptional support and these range from simple email support to live call centres or 24/7 online support. Whatever is your preference, support can sometimes be a critical factor for players as they like to know the answers to their questions as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

PROMOTIONS

The final factor when looking for an online poker site is Promotions. When it comes to the biggest and best online poker sites, promotions can be a big factor for players. Most commonly, online poker sites will run promotions that allow players to win packages to play in offline poker tournaments all over the world. These types of promotions are often called satellites or step-tournaments. A satellite is a small buy-in poker tournament that will award a seat into a bigger buy-in tournament such as the Aussie Millions or the World Series of Poker where the entry fee is $10,000 or more. Other popular promotions include poker tournaments with large guarantees. A good example of this is the Poker Stars Sunday Million. This event features a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000 USD each week, and it offers players the chance at life changing prize money.

Miller’s Guide has selected the top 5 online poker sites and given you a complete review of each site to help you decide where is best for you to play online poker. Check out each individual review of the top 5 sites to see which site best suits you.

If you still are not familiar with poker yet, you can check out the Miller's Guide Poker Rules section.

Alternatively, you may already play poker online but find that you are only playing online poker at a free play website. You might now feel that you are ready to take the plunge but have more questions about real money poker, then check out our comprehensive Real Money Poker section for a thorough breakdown of the key factors when looking to take the jump from free play poker to Real Money poker.