Both online and live poker have their fair share of strategies and overall differences. If an old-school sort of play is where your heart is, the live arena is the place to be. However, in the past three decades, online poker has been the place where poker has exploded in popularity. Luckily, you don’t have to choose in today’s day and age. You can play both or just one. Today, we will be talking about the similarities and differences between online and live poker.
The similarities
In order to talk about what’s different, we need to establish a basic understanding of the similarities between the two arenas. First of all, the rules for a live Texas Hold’em game are the same as the rules in the online poker arena. The game moves in the same fashion, and the turns always move in a clockwise direction, whether that’s on a live or virtual table. You’re also betting chips, either symbolizing play money or real money, and there will be full-ring and six-max tables available in most cases. Skills such as bluffing, value betting, pot odds, and hand ranges are all skills that are necessary for both arenas.
Speed and Difficulty
Naturally, in an online setting, the dealer is going to be a computer. This cuts down on the time that a human dealer would take to check the cards, count the chips, deal the cards, or just size up the opponents. During an online poker game, cards and chips are dealt without that time barrier, so the game can start almost immediately. Not only that, you have a time limit to make your decisions.
In order to play and succeed at online poker, you have to make good, quick decisions, as you can play more hands during an online poker game on average than you can during live play. The average of hands played per hour on online poker is 100 poker hands compared to the 30 poker hands that you may play in a live arena.
Online poker tends to be more difficult as it’s a more structured game. You’re not sitting with your fellow players at a table like you usually would in a live poker game. The more hands you play, the better you become.
Tells
The way to become successful in live poker is to notice the players’ physical tells around you and use those to your advantage. When looking for tells in online poker, it’s not that easy. There aren’t ordinarily physical tells. There can be a webcam table, but typically you’re not going to be able to see other people’s tells.
In order to figure out a tell-in online poker game, you have to pay attention. What did someone bet, and what position are they in? What patterns do you recognize? You have to become a more technical person in order to be able to become successful.
