12:26
Greg
This is not an article about which type of poker is best, that is for you to decide. Instead read about the differences between the two games and how they are played.
Without stating the obvious there are many differences between the two games one being played around the green felt of the poker table the other in virtual cyberspace. Poker was first played in the darkened rooms of casinos with a haze of cigarette smoke making it difficult to see your competitors at the far end of the table. The game suffered from an image problem it was often featured in many a gangster film with players required to smoke large cigars, look menacing and have a pistol within reach to shoot the cheat who held the aces up his sleeve.
Invention and Creation
Two things brought about the remarkable change to the game of poker. The first was the invention of the card camera and late night televised games. Overnight poker became a spectator’s sport and it attracted a surprisingly large and loyal following. Suddenly people could watch the pros and learn how they play the game. Cameras saw the cards as they were dealt and for the first time the secrets of the game appeared in front of the viewers as they watched.
The innovation of the card camera coincided with the world going online. The internet has without a doubt changed the world and poker has not escaped its reaches. Some clever programming and online poker was born, no longer did people have to drive to their local casino. This opened up the game to a whole new type of player, some of whom had never stepped inside the four walls of a casino. Players could now sit there in their shorts or a lot less and play until the small hours of the morning and thousands did.
These two factors combined and thousands of new players to poker joined online and continue to do so to this day making poker the most popular game online.
The development of online poker rooms has now changed the game of poker forever not just online but live play too. The game you see on the televised events bears no resemblance to the slow game of old, and this is in part due to influx of online players joining the events through online qualifiers. Live poker pros have admitted that they have had to adapt their game to take on this new breed of players. Many of the large and glamorous poker events can now claim to have online players as tournament champions such is the success of the online game.
Millions of people now log on daily to play their game of choice and the game continues to grow from strength to strength. That is if you are not American and your government thinks you are not capable of making the decision to play poker responsibly like the rest of the world!
The innovation of the card camera coincided with the world going online. The internet has without a doubt changed the world and poker has not escaped its reaches. Some clever programming and online poker was born, no longer did people have to drive to their local casino. This opened up the game to a whole new type of player, some of whom had never stepped inside the four walls of a casino. Players could now sit there in their shorts or a lot less and play until the small hours of the morning and thousands did.
These two factors combined and thousands of new players to poker joined online and continue to do so to this day making poker the most popular game online.
The development of online poker rooms has now changed the game of poker forever not just online but live play too. The game you see on the televised events bears no resemblance to the slow game of old, and this is in part due to influx of online players joining the events through online qualifiers. Live poker pros have admitted that they have had to adapt their game to take on this new breed of players. Many of the large and glamorous poker events can now claim to have online players as tournament champions such is the success of the online game.
Millions of people now log on daily to play their game of choice and the game continues to grow from strength to strength. That is if you are not American and your government thinks you are not capable of making the decision to play poker responsibly like the rest of the world!
Two Games and Two Ways to Play
So just what are the differences between the two games of poker?
1) Well first stating the obvious, trousers are a necessity for the live game of poker, no casino is going to let you sit at one of their tables in your pants. Not even a clean pair! Whereas online you are free to wear whatever you like or not as the case maybe.
2) Secondly with the boom of the game online a person can play poker 24 hours a day or until bed sores developed in places that are embarrassing to describe. Unless you live in and around Las Vegas poker still remains a mainly nocturnal activity.
3) Now more importantly to the differing styles of play. The first and most obvious of these is that the number of hands played in an hour is hugely different. Online poker is so much quicker and most sites encourage even quicker games often highlighted with the word 'turbo.' Decisions are made in the blink of an eye with thousands of dollars exchanging hands.
4) The next major difference between the two games. In live games players look for a facial tick, a holding of the breath or that bead of sweat to tell if a person is bluffing or sat on the hand of his life. Online all you have is a person’s avatar to look at! So when a person flops a full house he can scream the house down, tell the neighbours and no one at the table will be any the wiser. Something an online player should remember when playing at a live event, it really isn't good to punch the air when you make that flush you probably ain't going to get paid out!
5) Technology is great and where would we be without it however some would argue that it has infected the game of online poker too much. When sat at an online table how do you know if a player has a poker computer running advising them on their every move. Calculators to give them the probabilities of winning and losing, programmes to access the risk. You have to wonder are you playing a real person at all or is terminator sat on the other end of the Internet connection! Does this take some of the skill out of the game? Is it cheating? Should players have to declare if they are cybernetically enhanced?
6) By contrast live poker has but one computer you can use, that bit of grey matter between your ears, the brain. Players have learnt the pot odds and probabilities and can calculate the risk versus reward or each hand. That comes with practice and skill, surely a far more pure form of the game! To help live players make their decisions there is the human element, the so call 'readers' of the game. Studying body language, facial movements, nervous ticks and acts of repetition some players believe they can read their competitors giving them an advantage in the fight to claim a pot or drop a losing hand. An inexact science, would you go 'all in' on a person scratching their nose?
So beware of the sharks be they online or sitting across from you at a live table. You never stop learning and arrogance is a dangerous emotion to have around a poker table. Even the best players who have the big chip stack can just as easily lose it!
4) The next major difference between the two games. In live games players look for a facial tick, a holding of the breath or that bead of sweat to tell if a person is bluffing or sat on the hand of his life. Online all you have is a person’s avatar to look at! So when a person flops a full house he can scream the house down, tell the neighbours and no one at the table will be any the wiser. Something an online player should remember when playing at a live event, it really isn't good to punch the air when you make that flush you probably ain't going to get paid out!
5) Technology is great and where would we be without it however some would argue that it has infected the game of online poker too much. When sat at an online table how do you know if a player has a poker computer running advising them on their every move. Calculators to give them the probabilities of winning and losing, programmes to access the risk. You have to wonder are you playing a real person at all or is terminator sat on the other end of the Internet connection! Does this take some of the skill out of the game? Is it cheating? Should players have to declare if they are cybernetically enhanced?
6) By contrast live poker has but one computer you can use, that bit of grey matter between your ears, the brain. Players have learnt the pot odds and probabilities and can calculate the risk versus reward or each hand. That comes with practice and skill, surely a far more pure form of the game! To help live players make their decisions there is the human element, the so call 'readers' of the game. Studying body language, facial movements, nervous ticks and acts of repetition some players believe they can read their competitors giving them an advantage in the fight to claim a pot or drop a losing hand. An inexact science, would you go 'all in' on a person scratching their nose?
So beware of the sharks be they online or sitting across from you at a live table. You never stop learning and arrogance is a dangerous emotion to have around a poker table. Even the best players who have the big chip stack can just as easily lose it!
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