In current years web-based poker and particularly the Texas hold em variant of the game has come to dominate our tv sets. I’m usually asked to comment on the differences in wager on in between web based poker and land based rooms which I look to set out in this article.
1. Speed of online poker bet on is roughly twice that of traditional poker play. The amount of fingers per hour in a land poker room would be circa 30 per hour at best, perhaps as low as twenty. Typical internet poker casino game would see fifty to sixty fingers per hour, and anything as much as one-hundred-twenty per hour for short handed "Turbo" play.
Two. Rake collected by a web-based poker site will probably be five per cent or less of each pot whereas brick and mortar rooms will probably be 10 per-cent or even higher. In this regard internet based play will be the greater value option. Some countries, such as the Great Britain have laws against the taking of rake. Instead they either charge by the hour or by the tournament. This will be the reason that Caribbean Poker is favoured over Texas hold’em in real world gambling dens in the UK.
3. The high quality of player observed in a web based poker room will generally be lower than that in land based rooms. There are many reasons for this except to really go to a land based smoky area sitting down at a table of ten takes an element of confidence that you do not need to have in an online poker environment. Traditional players are often much better in that they usually understand the casino game before betting it. By way of contrast your average internet based poker newbie has just watched the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel or ESPN. The only exceptions to this that I have identified occur in Vegas exactly where you get the full range of extremes from holiday makers attempting their hand with the best in the world.
Four. Internet based poker players can pick and select the time of day they play as they can wager on 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week and do so from the comfort of their own home. Brick and mortar gamblers must plan ahead and have to the venue at the due starting time.
Five. Web poker players have far more choice, in the variety and selection of games to choose from, ranging from free play to cash games to tournaments of all sizes. If you would like to win a seat at the upcoming 2006 WSOP, then you need to be looking towards on-line poker tournaments exactly where a far greater range of options await such as satellite entries from as little as 5 dollars.
Six. Poker Tells in between web and land based poker wager on are quite different. Traditional players spend much more time observing body language and voice tells via opponent questioning than they do observing time delays among bets and wager size relative to the possible odds of greater hands. Web-based Poker Tells have a lot more to complete with timing, bet size, and table position rather than the judgement of facial expression.
Seven. Poker etiquette is far more disciplined in real world poker rooms. The web based poker understanding can frequently be spoiled by drunken fools who believe they have Phil Ivey’s ability even though they clearly do not. Catch a lucky card in an internet poker room and you may perhaps locate your self on the end of a number of verbal abuse (by means of the typed chat system). Phrases such as "you’re an idiot" and worse would not be tolerated in a land based area but go largely unchecked web based. You often have the selection to turn off gambler chat but my preferred playing style is to goad the offending gambler into wagering on tilt (usually a basic thing to complete). One recourse you do have against abuse would be to report the gambler to the pit boss and they will be either banned from chat or thrown out of the area altogether.
8. On-line poker gives you the distinctive ability to bet on a lot more than one place at a time. Clearly this is not an selection open to real world players. I know of individuals who wager on up to six tables simultaneously.
As it is possible to see both environments have the prospective for a genuinely very good casino game of poker. Diverse experiences to suit different gambler needs. Personally I do not have a preference amongst the two. I worth the convenience of internet play, except still like the interaction of a live room.