Are you interested in playing poker online?
If you're familiar with gambling in casinos, playing poker
online is essentially the same thing.
Unlike at a bricks and mortar casino, online you can play
at more than one table at a time. So sometimes you can log
into more than one poker site at a time, which means that
you don't have to be as good a player to make the
same amount of money.
But in some ways, online poker is a very different game.
It's a lot faster, as there's no banter around the table.
In fact, at a casino you will be at a disadvantage because
these people know all about body language. If you went to
a casino and got a royal flush - it does happen occasionally
- and your hands would be trembling so much that everyone
realised something was up.
An interesting article
about a user that play poker for a living.
"When
I meet someone new and they ask what I do, I just say 'I play
poker'.
I used to have more of a problem with it, not least because
I'd end up explaining it at length, as people are often more
interested in online poker than in talking about what they
do.
I make about $40 an hour on average and play poker
30 hours a week - it's not quite a full-time job,
and it leaves me time to do a bit of web consultancy, read
a lot of books, and go off on holiday without having to arrange
leave.
The most common mistake that beginners make is not folding
[stopping betting on a weak hand] early enough. I had to get
over that and learn to sit a hand out.
Even now, I'm constantly evaluating if I really know what
I'm doing. But there's always days when I can do no wrong,
when every bluff I make goes my way. I just have to treat
each and every hand exactly like the one before.
I consider gambling as something to tide me over while I
figure out what it is that I want to do next. So far it hasn't
worked out quite as I'd hoped - having no direction isn't
a great way to get direction - but it's been a wonderful vacation.
If I win a lot of money will I get paid? Are the
poker rooms financially sound?
When you play online poker, you are not playing against the
house. All the money you win comes from other players. The
online poker rooms have nothing at stake in any of the games—the
rooms simply sell chips to players before the game, and distribute
money to the winners after the game. Because online poker
rooms do not lose money when you win, you will get paid even
if you win millions of dollars.
Is online poker just another form of online gambling?
Online poker is not the same as online gambling. Casino games
such as craps, slots, or roulette are games of chance, where
the odds are stacked in the casino’s favor. But when
you play poker, you are playing against other players and
not the casino. In poker, odds are the same for all players.
What separate winners and loser is a matter of skill.
As Matt Damon said in Rounders, “Why do you think the
same five guys make it to the final table of the World Series
of Poker EVERY YEAR? What are they the luckiest guys in Las
Vegas?”
What are the advantages of playing online poker?
How is online poker better than live games?
- Lower
rake and no tips - With virtually no overhead costs, online
poker rooms have much lower rakes than real life poker rooms.
Online poker room’s rakes are usually capped at 5%
of the pot. Las Vegas and Atlantic City poker rooms can
charge as high as 10-15%.
- Tips for dealers and waitresses are another expense you
have to pay when you play in live poker rooms. Generally
you are expected to tip the dealers at least a dollar or
two for each large pot you win. The lower cost of playing
online definitely adds up in the long run, especially at
the lower limit games.
- More Hands per hour – Online poker rooms can deal
out twice as many hands per hour as live poker rooms. Therefore,
playing one hour of online poker is equivalent to playing
two hours in a live game. The increased number of hands
can double a good player’s winnings. In a live game,
a good player can expect to win one big bet per hour. With
twice as much action online, a good player can win twice
as much in the same period of time.
- Play Multiple Tables – Not only can online poker
rooms deal more hands per hour, they also offer players
the option of playing multiple tables. A good player can
play profitably on two tables, thus doubling their winnings
per hour. While playing two tables can double your winnings,
this does not mean playing four tables will quadruple your
winnings. There is a limit to how much information your
brain can process. Regardless of how good they are, a player’s
win rate will decline when they try to play more than four
tables.
- Wider selection of games – You can find any type
of poker game online around the clock. In addition to popular
poker games like Hold’em, Omaha, 7-Card Stud, and
Draw poker, you will find other more obscure variations
like Caribbean Stud, Panguingue, and Pineapple poker. You
can play regular games, tournaments, heads up games, private
games, or league games; you can play for free, for micro
stakes as low as $.01/.02, or for millions of dollars.
- Calculating pot odds and correct betting – When
you play online poker, the poker software will tell you
exactly how much money is in the pot, the amount other players
are betting, and the maximum and minimum amount of bets
you can make. For beginning players this is a relief, as
they can learn the game without making embarrassing mistakes
at a live table. For more advance players, they can utilize
the information to make much more accurate pot odds calculations.
- No dealer mistakes – Live poker dealers are human
beings and they make mistakes like everyone else. Once in
a while a human dealer will declare a wrong winner or muck
the wrong cards. These mistakes never happen online.
- Virtually no waiting time for Tables – The average
waiting time for an online poker table is less than two
minutes. At live card rooms, you could wait from 15 to 45
minutes for a table to open up.
- Easier competition – Novices are intimidated to
play live poker games because they are afraid of looking
foolish in front of people. The anonymity of online poker
attracts many first timers who are not familiar with even
the most basic of poker strategies.
- Bonuses – Due to their low overhead expenses, online
poker rooms can afford to give away enticing bonuses for
you to try out their websites. For more information, please
see our bonuses section.
- Play Money and Micro-limit games – Most online poker
rooms offer free money games absolutely free of charge.
These free money games use the exact same software interface
as the real money games, thus giving beginners a realistic
taste of the game. For beginning players, play money games
is a great way to learn the basics. After a week of free
games, a beginner can advance to micro-limit games, where
only pennies are at stake.
- Online poker rooms are a good place for meeting new people.
All online poker rooms have chat boxes where you can talk
to players from all over the world. Some of the newer rooms
personalize the games by allowing players to supplement
their avatar with their own images. Do not expect to make
any lifelong friends however. While many players are friendly
chatters, remember their primary goal is to win money.
What kind of computer do I need? What are the standard
minimum system requirements?
Almost any Windows compatible computer purchased within the
last four years will meet the requirements.
A typical system requirement for online poker rooms looks
like this:
Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP
200MHz Pentium or faster CPU
At least 64MB of RAM
At least 20MB of free disk space
Generally, Macintosh and Linux computers are less widely
supported. However, some poker software do support Macs or
Linux machines running PC emulators such either SoftWindows
or VirtualPC.
Can
I trust the online poker rooms?
There are over 450 poker rooms on the internet and not all
of them deserve your trust. Like any other industry, there
are good apples and bad ones. The key to finding a trustworthy
online poker room is making sure that the online poker room
is regulated by independent auditors. |