Why Play Poker Online?

If you have ever seen poker being played live on one of the growing number of TV channels featuring the game, you can’t have missed the fact that “internet qualifiers” are frequently getting into real life tournaments. Whereas online poker used to be viewed as a kind of “amateur league for wannabes”, it is now becoming just as respectable as traditional casino poker. So much so that even seasoned professionals are regularly playing on the internet to keep their skills sharp and they pockets full.

Here at Poker.Gamble you’ll find everything you need to take part in this poker revolution, from the basic rules of poker, through independent reviews of the best online poker rooms, and on to advanced Texas Hold’em strategies

If you fancy playing online, no matter how keen you are, make sure you understand how to choose a quality casino and how to avoid getting ripped off, by reading our Poker Basics section.

Apart from the fact that winning an online tournament can often win you an entry into a traditional poker tournament, what is it about online poker that’s made it so darn popular? Well, that’s a good question, and one to which we have no less than five good answers:

1 - Accessibility

Let’s start with the obvious: traditional casinos just aren’t nearly as accessible as online poker rooms. Even if you’re fortunate enough to have a local casino (and most people aren’t) it isn’t likely to be running tournaments for all levels of ability every day of the week. And even if it did, you’d still have to make an effort to get there in order to play.

Online poker, by comparison, offers more tournaments than you can shake a stick at - from those that cost just $2 to enter to those that offer hundreds of thousands in prize money. And, because these games are online, you don’t need to leave home to play. You can play at any time of day or night, and you don’t need to dress up for the occasion. In fact you could play in the nude if you wanted to.

2 - Action

Casino poker can be a long, slow, drawn-out affair. In fact you might have to wait five whole minutes waiting for the local Terry “Texas” Tooting to decided whether or not to fold or call. Online, the game is much faster, and those players who hang about too much are automatically folded to ensure that things never slow down too much. This gives online players a lot more “action” than their casino counterparts, and enables them to gain as much experience in a year as they’d get in a decade offline.

3 - Education

You could feasibly learn to play poker at a local casino, but it would probably cost you an absolute fortune. Playing online, you can find small money tables which require only a couple of dollars (literally) to get involved. Most online casinos also offer a number of free-play tables which enable you to learn and practice your poker skills without risking a penny. When viewed from the educational perspective alone, online poker beats traditional casino poker hands down.

4 - Potential

Because a large number of online players are...uhm...not very good...there is a lot of potential profit that can be made by even a fairly green player who follows a sensible strategy. You’d imagine that all players would do this, but they don’t, and that’s what gives the sensible, strategic player a distinct edge over the competition.

Another thing that makes the online game so great is this the fact that you can make notes about online players, noting, for example, that a certain player is a total buffoon calling station or, at the opposite extreme, a dangerously shrewd shark. This allows you to deliberately target certain weak players and avoid playing the very strong ones.

5 - Prospects

The online game can lead to big things. Sometimes really big things. As we said at the beginning of this article, and increasing number of internet players are qualifying for professional traditional tournaments where the prize money can sometimes run up to seven figures. Of course, we’re not saying that playing online poker will automatically make you a millionaire, because it won’t. But it will give you a much better chance than the guy who puts his money on the horses.