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With the growth of online poker, much can be written comparing the knowledge of online poker to that of a real card room. If you have tried one venue and not the other, or must decide through which venue to begin, here are several general things to consider.
Much lower limit games exist online than are found in a real card room. You can start your real-money poker profession online much less costly than in a real card room. It’s possible to locate $0.25-0.50 Hold’em games online, whereas stakes that low would never produce enough profit for the house in a real card room (the minimum limit games found in real card rooms are usually $2-$4.
Online play has a lot less overhead than a real card room. For this reason, it’s simpler to be more selective about the games you decide to join. If you go to a real card room, you need to incur the travel expenses. For a lot of men and women, the travel is out-of-town with expenditures necessary for airline, taxis, dining, and overnight stay. Even if you live close to a real card room, it costs money to drive your car and park. At the tables, waitresses will provide drinks and snacks, for which they expect a tip. Dealerships also expect a tip from each pot that you win. All of these expenses are in addition to the rake the casino takes for conducting the game. To make the most of play in a real card room, all of these expenditures constitute overhead that must be paid through your winnings before a profit is realized.
Psychologically, overhead causes it to be difficult to be selective with the games through which you choose to compete. All poker books stress the need for picking the right game, one that is within your betting limits 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 card room, you cannot find an ideal seat at an excellent game. Naturally, you will play in the available seat in whatever game is underway.
Another feature of online play will be the impossibility of violating conduct rules during play. You can’t act out of turn, place string bets, see other player’s cards, show your cards to others, or squirrel money away unseen in a table-stakes game. The software rigidly enforces the rules of the game and precisely displays all of the game parameters. Constantly, you know precisely the range of active players, the amount of money each has, and how much money is in the pot.
Within the privacy of your house, you may have poker charts and tables open to help in your decision-making, and make notes while you play. It’s easy to understand the exact pot odds (a concept that may be discussed in the next chapter) whenever you bet because the exact amount in the pot is displayed and you’ll tape a chart on odds from this book above your display screen. When professional online casino, there is no one blowing smoke within your face, an uncomfortable distraction to many. In the event that you do smoke, nobody will complain or ask you to move.
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