If you want to win a thousand dollars online, you first have to find the best bonus for your buy-in. Go to a poker review site and get yourself some extra cash for buying in that particular room. How long it takes to win $1000 depends on how much you buy in for, but if you go on a good winning streak playing $5/$10 limit holdem, you can make a $1,000 in a few days.

You could go to an aggressive $2/$4 no-limit room and play really tight. If you get some cards and bust a couple of guys, you could make your $1,000 in one session. That would require having at least $200, preferably more, with which to play.

You could also chop your buy-in into a bunch of smaller multi-table tournament entries and hope that you go deep enough into one of them to win $1,000.

After event #1 of the Bodog Poker Open ($250 + $20 no limit holdem) was finished, it looked like the pros would dominate the whole thing. The big story was the second- and third-place finishes by Evelyn Ng and Josh Arieh, respectively. But the event was won by an unknown player named rusostreet who won $26,062.50.

Event #2, (6-handed) - No Limit Hold’em - $300 + $25 buy-in didn’t have poker stars filling up the final table, and the $23,292.50 was taken home by 3pounder. The second-place prize of $14,822 was won by pepsiontherocks.

Event #3 was the No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys - $100 + $10 buy-in. PckAces won $28,270 for first place, and ibakitup won $17,990 for second. KGBluvsOrEos had to settle for the third-place prize of $11,924.80.

In event #4 Pot Limit Hold’em - $200 + $15 buy-in, foldpreflop85 was the big winner of $14,100.

I remember back in junior high, I used to make fun of those guys with their “Magic – The Gathering” cards, who played throughout lunch in the cafeteria. After learning about poker pro David Williams, I wish I had joined them instead of mocking them. Williams, who is now a World Series of Poker bracelet winner and Team Bodog Pro, progressed from Magic cards to real cards and poker.

Williams is probably best-known for finishing as runner-up to Greg Raymer in the 2004 WSOP main event. Williams may not have earned the title as world champion that year, but he still cashed out with a hefty $3.5 million. He won his first WSOP bracelet two years later in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event and he has also made it to three final tables on the WPT.

At only 25 years old, Williams – one of the WPT’s “Young Guns” of poker – has plenty of time to add to his growing list of poker accomplishments and to add to his bankroll, which already exceeds $5 million in tournament winnings alone. For more info on Williams check out his website at  www.davidwilliamspoker.com

Here’s my list of my favorite top young poker stars:

Julian Gardner- This guy is my favorite British player. Julian took 2nd place in the WSOP Main Event this year earning himself some nice pocket change of $2million making him the youngest millionaire in WSOP recorded history.

Annette Obrestad- She is clearly one of the most talked about online players in Europe right now and is known as one of the best online multi-table tournament players in the world. Starting here carrer at the age of 15 she is the youngest person to ever win a WSOP bracelet.

Phil Ivey- Some call him the “Tiger Woods” of poker. 2002 was this guys year where her won 3 gold bracelets in the WSOP which equaled the achievements of Ted Forrest and Phil Hellmuth for wins in one year.

Allen Cunningham- Starting out at 18 Allen has made a name for himself winning 2 WSOP gold bracelets so far proving him to be a formidable opponent.

Kirill Gerasimov- This young Russian player has a lot of wins under his belt. He’s the winner of the World Head Up Championship in 2002, he won the Paris and Vienna No Limit Hold’em tournaments and in 2003 came in 2md in the $25,000 World Poker Tour Gellagio event.

1. Have enough money to support yourself. I don’t recommend moving to Vegas to play poker unless you’ve been able to accumulate a sizable bankroll to live on.

2. Get a sponsor to fund part or all of your play. Even someone willing to stake you is good, but you have to pay them a share. Any sponsor wins are all yours.

3. Have a Plan B. Many professionals have had to try a couple of times before they were able to win enough to survive. Have something to fall back on just in case.

4. Study the game and practice thousands of hours of play. You need to be an experienced player who understands the game at all levels, or you’ll go broke fast.

5. Promote yourself at every opportunity. Recognizable poker players get sponsorship deals. Promote yourself by teaching, writing or making television appearances whenever possible.

I don’t think that women-only poker tournaments are anti-men. I know it’s kind of stupid that women have women-only events when people would be getting sued if there was a men-only event. The women-only events were created to increase the number of women playing the game because many women are less intimidated to play in women-only events, at least early in their career.

I think because of this – and a little bit because of tradition – there is reason enough to keep these events. They’re sort of a training camp or developmental league that women can play in until they decide to play in the open events. The best women players compete at the highest levels in the open events, and most top female players leave the female-only events to the new female players. They would rather play in the open events for the bigger and more prestigious prize pools.

While working towards an engineering degree at UCLA Allen Cunningham made the decision to drop out and become a professional poker player.

Allen burst onto the poker scene back in 1998 as one of the young guns and help revolutionize the game of poker with his talent and ambition. Currently with total winnings of $9,079,706, 15 first place finishes and 5 WSOP bracelets, at the age of thirty he is a forced to be reckoned with.

In October 2006 Allen became a full member of the Full Tilt Poker team and plays online poker exclusively at Full Tilt Poker.

Allen resides in Las Vegas with his girlfriend Melissa Hayden, who is also a professional poker player.

Thomas Austin Preston Jr., or “Amarillo Slim” as we know him, began playing poker at the age of 25 in 1953. Before the big tournaments like the World Series of Poker made poker popular, Preston travelled the country looking for high-stakes games with Doyle Brunson and Sailor Roberts.

He won the 1972 WSOP main event and added three other bracelets over the years, with his last coming in 1990. He hosted the Second Annual Poker Classic which became the now-defunct Super Bowl of Poker.

He’s had numerous television appearances which include The Tonight Show 11 times, Good Morning America, 60 Minutes, I’ve Got a Secret, The Tomorrow Show, Panorama, Georgia Today, and A. M. Los Angeles.

Slim’s autobiography entitled Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People was released in 2003 and chronicles his high-stakes games against the best and most famous players of the era.

There will always be young guns out there looking to become the next big thing in poker. The beautiful thing about poker is that age simply doesn’t matter. The young players can come up and try to make their mark, but it’s not like they knock old players out of the scene.  This isn’t boxing or an athletic sport; Doyle Brunson can play with the best in the world on any day, and he’s in his mid-seventies. A poker player gets better with age, as long as they’re in command of their mental abilities. Experience is the key.

Young players like Hevad “Rain” Khan, who finished sixth in the WSOP Main Event last year, are not intimidated by the older pros they face on the tables. Nineteen-year-old European poker prodigy Annette Obrestad has a WSOP circuit event bracelet, and she has been dominating online for a couple of years now.

Jennifer Harman and her poker pro husband Marco Traniello have joined an elite group of sports clientele that the Prince Marketing Group represents. The Full Tilt Poker-sponsored poker players will join icons like Magic Johnson, Hulk Hogan, Dennis Rodman and Joe Frazier in promoting brands for the marketing company.

The couple is very popular with poker fans now that their first child has been born. They present a positive picture of a family that balances gaming and family life, with great success at both. Harman plays in the biggest poker games in the world and Marco has had numerous big tournament cashes over the last three years.

“The couple is widely recognized within the poker industry, with Jennifer the top women’s player and arguably the best poker player in the world, and Marco… top-ranked in Italy,” said a press release about the two hiring the marketing firm.