BY TOM SOMACH

Most poker websites offer two ways to play the game: for fun, where you don’t risk anything, but can’t win anything, either; and for real money, where you can win cash, but also risk losing it, too.

There’s also a third way, believe it or not–some poker websites allow you to win cash WITHOUT risking a penny!

One such website is www.nlop.com, home of something called the National League of Poker (NLOP).

NLOP went online last year and, according to the company, is the first free online poker site to offer players risk-free poker tournaments that award cash and prizes.

So just how popular is NLOP?

Popular enough that over 75,000 people have joined the site to play risk-free poker, the company says.

“Our NLOP division continues to experience amazing adoption numbers, averaging over 10,000 new players per month,” said Michael Clebnik, chief operating officer of Power Play Development, the Framingham, Mass.-based parent company of NLOP.

“The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) has changed the online poker landscape forever,” Clebnik said. “The withdrawal of offshore sites like Party Poker (www.partypoker.com) from the U.S. market has left millions of Americans abandoned. NLOP is the leading legal alternative for online poker play.”

So how does it work?

According to NLOP officials, NLOP has designed a fantasy sports-style weekly contest structure where players receive “NLOP Points” each day they log in.

The players use the points as entry fees to tables where they can earn more points, qualify for finals or win cash and prizes, NLOP says.

“We have developed the all-important ‘loss factor’ into our competitions,” said NLOP spokesman Roy A. Evans. “The poker play on our site is as serious as real-money sites because our NLOP points have true value. Play poorly and you go bankrupt on points and can’t play again until the next day.”

NLOP expects to award over $250,000 in prizes this year, Evans said.

And how is the website able to offer cash and prizes without asking for entry fees?

According to the NLOP website: “It’s completely free to play in all NLOP tournaments. You won’t be asked for a credit card. We don’t want your money. Sponsors and advertisers pay for the prizes, just like network TV.”

For more information about NLOP, visit the NLOP website.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)