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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ONLINE AND IN-PERSON POKER
With the growth of online poker, much could be written comparing the experience of online poker to that of a real cardroom. Here are some general considerations if you were to have tried one venue and not the other, or would want to decide in which venue to begin. Much lower limit games have existed online than would be found in a real cardroom. You could start your real-money poker career online much cheaper than in a real cardroom. It would be possible to find $ 0.25-0.50 Holdem poker games online,
Whereas stakes that low would never have produced enough profit for the house in a real cardroom (the lowest limit games that you would find in real cardrooms would usually be $20-4). Online poker play would have much less overhead than a real cardroom. Consequently, it would be easier to be more selective about the games you would choose to join. If you were to go to a real cardroom, you would have to incur the travel expenses.
For many people, the travel would be out of town with expenditures required for airline, taxis, dining, and overnight stay. Even if you were to live close a to real cardroom, it would cost money to drive your car and park. At the tables, waitresses would provide drinks and snacks, for which they would expect, a tip. Dealers would also expect a tip from each pot that you would win. All of these expenses would be in addition to the rake the casino would take for conducting the game.
To profit from poker play in a real cardroom, all of these expenditures would constitute overheads that would have to be paid from your winnings before a profit would be realized. Psychologically, overheads would make it difficult to be selective with the poker games in which you could choose to compete. All poker books have stressed on the need for choosing the right game, one that would be within your betting limit and populated with enough poor players to be profitable. Much has been written on choosing the right seat at the right game. But suppose after spending substantial time and money getting to a cardroom, you could not find an ideal seat at a good game.
Naturally, you would have to play in the available seat in whatever game would be underway. Another feature of online poker play would be the impossibility of violating conduct rules during play. You couldn’t act out of turne, place string bets, see other poker player’s cards, show your cards to others, or squirrel money away unseen in a table-stakes game.
The software would rigidly enforce the rules of the game and precisely display all the game parameters. At all times, you would know precisely the number of active players, how much money each would have, and how much money would be in the pot. In the privacy of your home, you could have poker charts and tables open to aid in your decision making, and you could make notes as you were playing. It would be simple to know the exact pot odds (a concept that would be discussed in the next chapter)
When you would bet because the exact amount in the pot would be displayed and you could tape a chart on odds from this book above your computer screen. The chart in Chapter 4 Minimum Pot Size for Correct Pot Odds has been particularly useful for online poker play.
When online, there would be no one blowing smoke in your face, an uncomfortable distraction to many. If you were a smoker, no one would complain or ask you to move. In contrast, poker in a cardroom would be a social event.
Poker players would talk, joke, and get angry at one another. If you were to get confused, people would help you out. The waitress would bring drinks and snacks. The dealers would switch tables frequently and banter with the players. There would be sensuality in a cardroom that fancy graphics and sound effects could not create on a computer screen: The feel of the weight of real chips when you would bet, the stiff shiny cards that you would lift slightly off the table to view, the many kinds of people that would play poker all races, ages, professions, and economic backgrounds. The social environment of a cardroom would also mean you could observe mannerisms and gestures that would be clues to your opponents’ thoughts, which are called ‘tells.’
Would someone who was starting off into space now be paying close attention? Would someone be so anxious to bet that their chips would be in hand well before it were their turn? Would someone be visibly disgusted with the river card? Obviously, none of this would be observable online. However, that would not mean online poker play was completely free of ‘tells.’ Online poker players would have their own response rhythms that would vary with the decisions they would make. Most poker room software would allow the player to click an action button at any time before their turn, even though the action would not be executed until it were their turn.
Preplanned actions would show up as instant responses, a possible ‘tell’ that the poker player would have an easy decision to make. Players might also use the instant response buttons as a bluff. Players’ Personalities, as manifested by their betting patterns, would be discernible in any environment. A player who were betting aggressively would be obvious both online and in person. Sid’s recommendation would be that if you were learning poker, you should go online and check out the resources. You should participate in play-money games as a way of learning the mechanics and structure of the game. However, the first time you would play poker for real money, you should do so in-person, in a cardroom surrounded by people you could observe and talk to. You should not play poker online until you have developed a good poker sense and could know immediately if the game situation wasn’t working for you.
However, once you were to be comfortable with poker and would know yourself and your limits, online poker would allow you to play anytime from anywhere.