People who have played a lot of live poker and who are interested in checking out the world of online poker want to know one thing more than anything else. They want to know how much the live and the online versions of poker differ and whether they will keep being good players if they were while playing live poker. In this article, we will be looking at some of the most important and prominent differences between these two types of poker and we hope that after reading this article, live poker players will realize that online poker is not that different and that it is very likely they will excel at it as much as they do in live poker.
First of all, we would like to say that all of the rules of live poker are exactly the same when you play online poker. The odds, the chances, the shuffle, the rules of the game, everything is exactly the same. Of course, depending on the kind of live poker that you played, you will need to find the tables with the same type of poker, but once you do this, the game is exactly the same. However, there are still certain differences that can be quite important for some people’s game and we feel that we need to cover at least those that are essential.
The biggest difference and the one that live poker players notice first is that you do not see your opponents. They are sitting at their homes just like you and you cannot see their faces. You might be playing against housewives or you might be playing Negreanu, you just never know. This is extremely important as it makes body language absolutely insignificant. You can react as much as you like when you get the hand and no one will notice it. However, this also means that you will not be able to see the reactions of other players. For those live poker players who rely on body language reading to excel, this might be a bitter pill to swallow.
Also, it needs to be pointed out that the online poker games happen much quicker. The amount of hands that is played in an hour is approximately twice of that you get at a live poker game. This means that there are more hands per game and that live players need to be aware of this fact in order to know how to act and when to act. All the counting of chips and shuffling is done virtually, which means that no time is wasted. This makes the game much quicker and you need to be more apprehensive when you play online poker.
Finally, you need to understand that some people will be much more aggressive online, mostly in chat, hiding behind anonymity that allows them to be as big of jerks as they want without having to face anyone’s stares and disdain. It is absolutely essential that you are able to ignore these people and to play your own game at all times.