While live poker (especially the one played at land based casinos) is still a big draw for many serious poker players, online poker games have taken the world by storm over the last few years. Those who play poker online often make the transition to live poker games, either by choice or by design via live event satellites. But it seems a multitude of live poker players are still a bit wary of making the transition from live to online poker games.
In reality, there is very little difference between the two. Online poker software has become so incredibly sophisticated that it virtually mirrors the live poker scene. There are a number of perks to playing online poker games, as opposed to the live variety. Of course, there will be disadvantages as well.
The biggest variation from live to online poker games is the ability to read your opponents. In a live poker game, you are looking directly at your opponent. You can detect any emotional discomfort or behavioral patterns that may relate to their current holdings, or how they are playing different hands.
In online poker, behavioral observations are more subtle, but they still exist. There is always a live chat open, and some players are all too willing to relay their emotions here. The better poker players will congratulate a player on a hand, or spout off about a bad beat, but they aren’t going to flat out state that they are getting frustrated.
Then again, the better poker players in a live poker game will not let their features display their true emotions anyway.
The advantages of online poker games far outweigh the drawbacks. For one, you can earn some pretty hefty bonuses playing online poker games. When you join any online poker site, there will be a welcome bonus matching your first deposit, usually 100% up to an average of $500. How many live poker rooms hand out up to 500 free poker chips on your first visit?
There are other promotional perks as well, like reload bonuses on subsequent deposits and referral bonuses for bringing a friend. If you get someone else to sign up and make a deposit, you could collect up to $100 just for being the referrer.
Promotions don’t just come as cash rewards, but special tournaments as well. The largest online poker rooms will offer a multitude of satellites to online and live poker events. Land-based casinos do host satellite tournaments to the World Series of Poker, World Poker Tour and other major live poker tournaments, but not with nearly the abundance of online poker rooms.
The biggest poker sites host these special tournaments all day, every day. If you can’t make it to the 6pm WSOP Satellite at the nearest participating casino (which could easily be hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away), you can simply log onto an online poker site and join the 2pm, 10pm, even 4am satellites.
Convenience is perhaps the best reason to make the transition from live poker games to online poker games. Online poker rooms are open 24/7/365, and since players are flocking in from all corners of the earth, there is always good action to be found.
