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School of Poker » Poker’s Holy Matrimoney

Let’s face it: nobody in their right marketing mind truly welcomes competition, especially in the high stakes world of gambling in general, and poker in particular.

One would think that online poker and its traditional version played in “brick & mortar” casinos would be at total odds (no excuses for the pun), considering the present lack of harmony between online casinos and their firmly-established land-based predecessors. Yet luckily, or perhaps due to skill (but more likely the result of mutual financial interests), the two forces now find themselves overtly courting one another’s patrons without the usual animosity between competitors. Funny, isn’t it, how love can fill the air when massive profits can be shared.

Opposites Attract
Not surprisingly there are a number of differences between traditional poker and the cyber-based form, most noticeably the fact that players do not actually sit and compete at the same table while playing online. This, of course, eliminates perhaps the most intriguing aspects of poker; bluffing. True, when playing over the Internet, you cannot read a player’s facial expressions or body language in order to assess their reactions during game play. But that’s not to say there aren’t other ways to read your opponents.

Seasoned online poker players are remarkably adept at picking up non-visual behavioral patterns such as betting habits and the amount of time it takes for a player to react to other players’ moves.

High Speed Meets High Demand
The speed and rate of playing are also significantly different when comparing virtual poker rooms with actual ones. For instance, a dealer in a land based poker room is required to deal the players their cards, collect them and reshuffle before dealing each new hand. Not so with online casinos where the dealing and shuffling are completely automatic and instantaneous.

Rate-of-Play Online Wins Hands Down
The normal rate of poker play at an actual table is estimated to be about 30 hands-per-hour. A cyber-based poker session, however, can average a remarkable 50 to 80 hands-per-hour. This increased playing speed has become a very attractive benefit with particular appeal to those more experienced poker players.

In addition to the high-speed action, online poker players can also boost their overall winnings (and overall losses) by playing at more than one virtual table at a time. Naturally this is not something one could get away with in a traditional casino. But online, it’s not only permitted by most poker site operators, it’s a common practice.

Depending on how a poker web site is designed, players can potentially play at anywhere from one to as many as 10 tables simultaneously. Playing ten hands at once is a losing proposition in itself, though entirely possible nevertheless. Players need simply flip from one window – or poker hand – on their computer screen to another. It’s that easy.

From the Comfort of Your Home
But perhaps the greatest offspring to result from this “match made in gaming heaven” is that poker players who were already schlepping off to perhaps distant poker rooms now need only schlep to their living room, or whichever room their computer occupies.

Conversely, those folks who always considered taking up the game of poker but never had the opportunity to learn how, or were too intimidated to try their hand in a real-life casino, can now learn almost everything one possibly can about poker, online or off. Of the estimated more than 300 poker sites, it’s a safe bet to assume each offer some form of poker instruction or even a “poker school” for beginners. In addition, most online poker rooms offer the luxury of “free play” for players not yet comfortable with playing for real money. This has proven to be an extraordinary advantage for online poker site operators trying to attract new “real money” players. Once they’ve grown comfortable playing poker over the Internet, they’re also more inclined to visit land-based casinos and traditional poker rooms. Online or off, one is proving to complement the other.

Online and traditional poker. Ahhh, what a fine romance indeed!