I went back to Hustler Casino's free online poker site and it appeared to be radically different from what it was about a year ago. This time I signed on using Facebook and immediately started to play "free tournaments" that paid in "points" and then I found out that using the points won in free games you can enter other tournaments that pay cash prizes and some of these cash tournaments have some attractive cash prizes.

I won an entry into a Monday tournament that pays the top finisher about $80 and if you finish in 30th place it's $5. So you get to play for free and can win some coffee money.

Recently I told you about another free-to-play online site called Cafrino.com but Hustler's online poker site is much better with many, many more participants, and many, many tournaments. At Cafrino you could wait literally for hours for a tourney to start because of a lack of players.

The graphics on the Hustler site are also better, and yes, the site is advertiser supported so there are ads to watch and there are breaks in the tournaments with commercials running during the break.

It is interesting that so many companies are now offering free online poker and free online casino sites and all of this is, of course, brand building in anticipation that someday online gaming for pay will be legal. Nevada is already taking big steps to set up intra-state online poker sites and that is because Nevada brick and mortar casinos want to establish the brand and the expertise to roll out nationwide online poker when it is legalized.

California casinos have also formed an organization to push for an intra state online poker site.

By the way, federal laws do not prohibit intra-state online poker -- just interstate gambling. However, it is not likely that federal legislation to change the law will be enacted anytime soon.

Now make sure you go to www.hustlercasino.com which is also the site for the Hustler Casino here in Los Angeles. At the very bottom of the home page, in the "footer" click on "Play Online" which is at the bottom of the column titled "Games."

If by accident you go to hustler.com you are not at the site about poker or casinos, and the action is very, very different.