Online poker you may play anytime you want — 24/7 365. You can play it as a whole comfort, right from your own home, wearing what ever you like (or nothing at all), sitting, reclining, or jogging on a treadmill (however we do not recommend it). You can set the lighting, temperature, and ambience to be just as you like it. In several ways, with online poker you simply have more control.
You have no other people to contend with (at least not face-to-face) — no one hovering over you, talking at you, pushing you, crowding around you, giving you unsought advice, or shooting you nasty looks. You do not have to smell smoke should you not want to. You’ve got no sexy waitresses tempting you with mind-altering drinks and otherwise distracting your attention away from the game at hand (pun completely intended). You do not have to drive anywhere (and with gas prices what they’re, that alone preserves your bankroll tremendously), nor do have to get dressed up or tip your dealer — all of which save you time and money.
Another advantage of online poker is the fact that you may play against people from on the other side of the globe. Consider it next time you sit down at an online poker table — not everybody there even speaks the same language. And globetrotting via the internet gives you access to more casinos and poker rooms than you may ever find in one single place, even if that one place happens to be Vegas!
Online poker players get to select from an inordinate number of cardrooms, game types, and table stakes. Moments ago, we mentioned the ambience of the environment where you definitely will be sitting down with your computer to play online poker (most likely your house), but online poker provides you with almost just as much control in determining the ambience of the cardroom itself.
Whether you enjoy an Old West setting, a Hollywood setting, an Egyptian setting, a jungle setting, a resort setting, and on and also on…you may almost definitely find an online poker room designed around what ever theme suits your tastes. Likewise, you may find rooms more more likely to have more (or less) experienced players, faster (or slower) action, higher (or lower) stakes, his explanation etc.
By the same token, however, when playing online poker it also helps to be aware of its perceived disadvantages as compared with playing traditional “offline” poker. A simple awareness of the main difference alone may make you a far better player.
For one, you do not get that intimate, face to face contact with other human beings. But do not rule online poker out as a social outlet altogether. An increasing number of online poker rooms are fostering a real feeling of community amongst their players with attractive and appealing member’s clubs, player forums, and sponsored land-based events.
For some poker players, the game just is not the exact same without the feel of the cards within your hands and also the weight of the chips while you place them within the center of the table (or perhaps the sound of them clinking while you pull the pile towards you after a big win). And you cannot substitute a number, however large or small, for the visual impact of the chip stacks — red, blue, and white — increasing or receding in front of you and expect the same effect.
But probably the largest deal that makes some offline poker players leery of playing online poker will be the inability to read the other players. Most expert poker players count on inadvertent visual cues given by their opponents — tells — as to the specific strength or weakness of their hands. There is one area to be said for the total amount of information you may glean simply by looking your opponent within the eyes (thus the prevalence of sunglasses at the poker table) and watching their hands, their posture, their facial expressions, etc. Fortunately, conversely, there are many of tells you can look for in online poker also, you just have to know where (and how) to look. But that’s a subject for another article.
As for this article, we leave you with the analogy. If you like going to the theatre for your shows, the arena for your concerts, and also the stadium for your games, get thee to a brick-and-mortar casino for your poker playing enjoyment. If you like Tivo although (or if perhaps you just ain’t got the dough for the theatre, arena, and stadium tickets), then online poker is your ticket.
