Online Poker Rules
Whether you play poker in a casino or on a computer, it's still the same game with the same poker rules. A flush hits a straight whether you are sitting at a real poker table or a virtual one. Players in both games bet, bluff and get bad punches when things do not work so well, and many of the skills developed in one format can be easily transferred to the other. On the other hand, many players have convincingly claimed that the games still have significant differences, while those between over-the-board chess and online chess are often offered as a comparison.
It can be argued that Online Poker is a kind of video game, and live poker is more related to a sport. One is virtual and the other is real. Not long ago, the contrast between live and online poker players was quite strong. Many professionals belonged to one group and actually ignored the other. There were stories from live poker players who tried poker tables online and claimed that it was not real poker. Online poker players, on the other hand, had trouble playing with real cards and chips, and struggled with the etiquette of live poker. As mentioned, there is an obvious difference between the two environments in the pace of the game.
Online poker is played much faster because, instead of having a dealer do all the work that goes into one hand - shuffling, handling, policing the game and so on - and the players in a live game get more thinking time, everything is automated. The software on the web is so fast that we can expect at least twice as many hands played per hour per full-ring table, and even more with short-handed tables. Given that online poker fans also have the opportunity to play two or more tables at the same time (thus increasing the volume difference further), it is easy to understand why they may get bored and impatient and wait for a new hand to start in a live game. An obvious difference when playing online is that you cannot see your opponents (nor can they see you…), so you do not get the opportunity to observe potentially useful physical and verbal stories.
Of course, there is a chat facility in many online poker rooms, and it is possible to retrieve information from what players write, but it is dwarfed by the amount of information we can retrieve live. Experienced live players claim that it is much easier to 'profile' opponents when they play live, especially the less experienced players who tend to give away a lot of information about themselves and their hands. One of the benefits of online poker - namely convenience - can also be detrimental to fans. For example, an online tilt player may react to losing by simply figuring out which table or new game they are convinced will help them chase their money the fastest, which we know is a foolhardy approach that tends to do matters worse.