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Play Great Poker ranks this book as the Best Poker Book for those looking to start online for the first time or are new to online. This is a preview. The number of pages contained here is limited.
Introduction
Search the Internet these days for information on poker and you can’t help to find numerous sites, videos, podcasts, training tools, and news articles all talking about playing Texas Hold’em online.
For many players who play Texas Hold’em at a casino or home games, it's not news to them that Texas Hold’em is available to play online. Actually, playing online Texas Hold’em has been around since the late 1990s. It gained steam and peaked around 2006 when online tables were full of weak players known as fish and when making money at online poker was easy for anyone with even a little knowledge of the game. Over the years, regulations have tried to make access to online poker in the US more difficult, but online poker is alive and well.
The players playing online today have vastly improved over the years. There are still fish around online, but with the Internet full of poker videos and training sites for learning poker, players have a much greater knowledge of the game than in years past. Online players are skilled even at the lowest betting levels. They use advantageous software applications known as HUDs (Heads Up Displays) that give real-time information and highlight an opposing player’s weaknesses to help the HUD users gain an advantage. For those dreaming of opening an online account and starting on their way to rapidly making millions, be prepared to hit a few bumps in the road.
In order to make real money online and become a consistent winning player who moves up the ranks to higher stakes online, you need to build a strong fundamental game. This means building a solid basic strategy backed by math and using tools such as HUDs to gain an advantage over the other players.
This book focuses on creating a strong fundamental skill set for playing online No Limit Texas Hold'em. The fundamentals and mathematically backed strategies in this book will allow you to make money and move up the ladder to higher stakes and make more money, which is a goal for most, if not all poker players. It will highlight the tools available and how to use them, which will be required to level the playing field. Whether you're just starting to play online for the first time, already playing online and want to refresh your fundamentals, or want to build on your basic skills, this book should provide you with the building blocks you need to make money playing online No Limit Texas Hold'em.
Why I Wrote This Book
When I first started playing online poker, I was not able to find a good resource for players new to online. I struggled for several years when I first started. It was a long hard process researching and applying the techniques required to become a winning player. After my struggles, I decided to write the book that I was looking for and wished I had when I first start playing online poker. This book’s mission is to provide you with a comprehensive guide that will allow you to quickly overcome these struggles. This book will cover all the essentials, from first starting out online to becoming a winning player.
About This Book
I’ve made several assumptions about you as a reader. I assume that
Research and Strategies in This Book
I compiled the strategies and information presented in this book over the course of six years while playing more than a million hands online, reading numerous poker books, researching online poker sites, watching hundreds of online poker videos, and listening to more than a thousand audio poker podcasts.
I selected to share with my readers the techniques that have proven successful for me at the lower stakes where you will be refining your fundamental game. They are the ones I have found the most proven and reliable. They should not be used rigidly against all players on all tables. You can use these strategies as a learning tool and test what works while playing on your selected online site. Pick the ones you like, test them out and see if they work for you.
No one poker book, video, podcast, or website will teach you everything you need to master online No Limit Texas Hold'em. This book is intended to enforce the Fundamental Building Blocks for playing online that will give you a strong foundation to build your poker knowledge.
The Fundamental Building Blocks
This book will provide the readers with a wide range of helpful information to get started and help them become a winning player online. It covers everything from picking a site, to multi-tabling, to moving up in stakes and of course, the main playing strategies you will need to learn. The strategies that will be emphasized I call the “Fundamental Building Blocks”. These are your core strategies that need to be mastered first when playing online. These Building Blocks are designed to enforce a base set of strategies that all winning online players utilize as well as targeting the most common game situations.
Here are the Fundamental Building Blocks that will be covered in this book. The goal and focus of this list are to build a strong foundation for the situations that occur the most.
Common Terms Used in This Book
Instead of using dollar amounts for betting examples, I may refer to Big Blinds (BB). That allows readers to think in whatever table limits they feel comfortable with. For example, if we raise three Big Blinds at a 10/20 cent table, that means we raised 60 cents. If we are at a .50/1.00 table, our three Big Blind raise would be 3 dollars.
When we are reviewing hands and cards, the “s” next to the cards refers to the cards being suited. For example, KTs is King Ten suited. When there is an “o” next to the cards, that indicates the cards are unsuited. For example, KTo is King Ten offsuit.
Some poker terms used may be new to some readers. Many of the poker terms in the book will be available in the glossary to help clarify the meaning for the reader.
Chapter 1 - History of Online Texas Hold’em
Online Poker was born in 1998. The first real money online game was played on January 1, 1998. Planet Poker was the first site to offer a real money Poker game. Even though there were many network connection issues and servers were slow, online gambling netted over 800 million dollars the first year. In 1999 a second real money website launched called Paradise Poker. It quickly overtook Planet Poker and became the most popular poker site online. Soon, numerous online sites started popping up in offshore areas like Costa Rica and Antigua. Online Texas Hold’em continued to grow but really took off in 2003.
What is now known as the online “Poker Boom” was a period between 2003 and 2006 during which poker, mainly Texas Hold’em, grew in leaps and bounds with the poker player pool at least doubling in size every year.
One event helped fuel the boom. In 2003 Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas. Moneymaker won his seat into the main event with a $39 satellite tournament in the PokerStars online poker room. His first-place finish in the World Series of Poker, which netted him 2.5 million dollars, became headline news and helped start the upward trend in poker's popularity over the next few years both live and online.
During this boom period of online poker, the games were easy to make money for anyone with basic knowledge of poker. The tables were full of fish. Many experienced players became Internet pros making a living at online poker with some becoming household names. At any time of the day, tables were full at every betting level and dozens of tournaments were running all of the time.
This era was not without concerns. The poker rooms were all offshore and not regulated. Internet poker rooms were popping up daily and also going out of business with a high frequency. Sites that failed would disappear and players would lose any money in their accounts with no recourse. Some worried whether it was legal to have and play with an offshore account, as well as if the government crackdown would occur on offshore gambling. Still, even with these concerns, the online poker market was booming.
The beginning of the end of the boom is generally considered to be October 2006. The US Senate attached the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) to the Safe Ports Act, making it illegal for US banks to process online gambling payments for US residents. This caused several online poker sites, including the industry leader at the time, Party Poker, to leave the United States.
Most offshore sites continued to accept US players and alternative payment methods like NETeller became popular for transferring funds.
Then more trouble came along for sites hosting offshore gambling. April 15, 2011, became forever known in the online poker world as “Black Friday.” Three of the biggest online poker sites serving players in the United States had their web domains seized and shut down by the US Department of Justice, which alleged they were in violation of federal bank fraud and money laundering laws. All three stopped serving the US, subsequently crippling the online poker market. Players who had money on those sites could no longer gain access to their funds. By the end of 2011 easy access to Online Poker was a thing of the past. The boom seemed over, maybe forever.
The year following Black Friday was probably the most down period for online poker. With online poker crippled, player confidence shaken, and very few options remaining, many players stopped playing online. Some online poker pros moved out of the country to places like Costa Rica and Mexico to continue playing online. There, they could access their frozen assets from the blocked sites and play free of government impediment. Very few players in the US continued to play and the offshore options were extremely limited.
If Black Friday was the low point then 2012 was the start of the comeback. Good news came along with a ruling by a federal judge that helped pave the way for states to legalize online poker in the US. The judge ruled that poker did not violate federal law because poker is not a game of chance, rather a game of skill. In 2013, Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware legalized regulated online poker. The first ever US regulated poker hand was dealt on April 30, 2013. Residents in these states could play online legally and regulated. The good news was tempered by the fact that in these few states with legalized online poker the online poker experience did not compare to action in the boom days of 2005. The player pools were smaller and players much tougher, but poker was available and legal for anyone of age to play. Unfortunately, the good news was limited to residences in those states.
From 2013 to 2016 only Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey had legalized poker but with Black Friday in the rear-view mirror, online poker made a comeback. Not long after Black Friday, small private offshore sites started to become available to US players. More sites became available to players with each passing year. Players slowly returned and online poker gained steam as each year passed without any additional federal government interference. Even though the top offshore online poker sites continued to not accept US players, by 2016 plenty of options existed. Although not robust as the poker boom, online poker was healthy and available for anyone in the US.
During this period, many other states like Pennsylvania, New York, California, Illinois, Michigan, and Massachusetts tried year after year to legalize online poker only to be blocked by state government politics and political agendas.
Finally, in 2017 more good news came for legalized poker in the US. Pennsylvania became the fourth state to pass an online poker bill allowing residents in that state to play legally regulated online poker. Then in 2018, the US government passed a bill that allowed states to legalize sports betting. This provided even more incentive for states to pass a combination bill of sports betting and online poker. Now the floodgates were open for states to legalize poker and to spread across the US.
Today online poker is available to just about every US player whether you live in a state that has legalized online poker or not. Players not playing in one of the states with regulated poker are playing on offshore sites. You can easily find online poker sites available to you with reviews in a few minutes with a quick internet search.
Chapter 2 - Differences Between Online vs Live Texas Hold’em
For those who have never played Online Texas Hold'em, the game can be very different from a live casino or home games. So, let's first take a look at what are the main differences.
Key Differences Between Live and Online
Here are the key differences you will find when you start playing online.
Another interesting difference may be the demographics of online players. Based on a study by Rutgers University analyzing online players in New Jersey, online poker players were generally younger than live poker players and the high majority were male. The study showed that 92% of players were male and the average age was 35.
Many experienced Poker players use online poker as a training tool. These players know that like with almost everything else you get better with repetition. With online you will see so many more hands than at a casino, so you can improve very quickly. This point was never highlighted more than during the 2017 World Series of Poker. Scott Blumstein an online player from New Jersey won 8.1 million dollars winning the World Series of Poker in 2017. Blumstein who lived in Brigantine New Jersey at the time told reporters after winning the tournament, "The best way to get better at anything is through repetition and practice,”… "When you play online in New Jersey, it's hard for any live pro to see even close to the amount of hands I've probably seen in the last two years."
Summary
At the end of the day, poker is poker. But, as I have highlighted, the online game can have a fair amount of differences from the live games. By knowing some of these differences it will allow you to more smoothly transition into the online world.
Chapter 3 - Picking a Site
Getting Started Online
These are some of the most important factors that need to be considered when picking a site which is best for you. To help with your research selecting an online site, you can visit my website at PlayGreatPoker.com. There you will find everything you need to help you pick the best site for you.
Playing Online
If you are just starting to play online for the first time, then you should crawl before you walk. Resist the temptation to sign up, deposit money, and go straight to the highest stakes you think you should be playing.
Here are some steps and considerations that can give you some guidance into the online world of poker.
Poker Client – After signing up to a site the next step is to download the Poker Client. This is almost always quite small and shouldn’t take very long to download.
Screen Name -- What should your screen name be? It’s up to you. Screen names come in all forms. Some use their real name as part of their screen name while others pick letters and characters that make no sense whatsoever. There are some who think the screen name can affect the game. For example, if you have a screen name that suggests you are a loose player and love action but are actually a tight player, that could give you an edge.
Navigation - Once you start playing you don't want to lose money while getting familiar with the interface of the poker client. You should consider playing low stakes or even for free until you are comfortable with the navigation. You should experiment until you are comfortable with features like call, fold, raise, hand history, the chat window, buying chips, and rebuy options.
Lobby Stats -- most if not all poker clients have lobby stats. Here you can see all the tables with stakes and number of players. These stats can become useful in choosing the best tables once you are comfortable online.
Heads up Display - when you first start online you may not have a HUD from the first hand, but you should be thinking about getting a HUD soon after getting comfortable playing online. Many of the Poker tracking software packages with HUDs can be downloaded with a free trial period. You should do some research and try one or more to see how you like them and ensure they work on your site. The sooner the better. Beware that some sites do not allow HUDs, so make sure you check if your site allows HUDs before making any investment. For help researching poker tracking software packages, you can visit PlayGreatPoker.com.
Other Considerations
Playing from your computer is different than a home game or Casino. You will need to make sure you are set up to play at your best all the time. A good computer setup and an environment that will instill discipline to the game are good places to start. Here are some considerations for setting up and playing online.
Which Level Should I Play?
This is the most important question. When you start playing online you will need to find the level which is right for you. There is no easy answer. It all depends on your skill, your tolerance for variance, and your bankroll, which we will explore more in a later chapter on Bankroll Management.
In a perfect world, you would start at a very low level like 5\10 cents, play at that level and gauge your skill level against the other players. Once you are comfortable try adding an extra table or two. When you are consistently winning at that level you can consider moving up.
Once you have moved up, repeat the same steps. Keep moving up in stakes until you hit your ideal level. Be aware that the players are going to get better at each level. Be prepared to move back down if you hit a level that you are not ready for.
Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world and most players probably will do the exact opposite. They will start too high and move down losing money until they find the level where they have an edge. By that time, they are already in a deep hole.
Another consideration is your bankroll and tolerance for variance. Tables are available from 1/2 cent blinds all the way up to as high as you want to play like $25/$50 blinds and everything in-between. Based on what your bankroll represents can be a factor. If the money you are playing with is totally recreational and you can easily make another deposit, then you can probably risk starting at a higher level. If you are going to have a hard time replacing the money if you lose your deposit then the safe and recommended method is the one mentioned earlier in this section. That means beginning at lower stakes than even you think you should and start your upward journey methodically.
Don’t compare online table stakes to stakes at a live casino. Remember online you can and probably will be playing multiple tables while playing many more hands per hour. Due to this extreme number of hands per hour online vs live, you can play at a lower level and still risk the same amount of money as you would in a live casino at higher stakes.
Think about a 25\50 cent table with a maximum buy-in of $50. This may not sound like a lot for someone playing $1\$2 live. But remember you could play multiple tables at once. It would not be out of the question to win or lose well over $100 in a few hours.
Summary
Getting started online can be exciting. Resist the urge to just pick the first site you hear about, sign up, and start playing. Do some research and read some reviews first. Most importantly, when playing online start at a lower level than you think you should and work your way up.
One last thing about playing online for the first time. As previously mentioned, players are more skilled at lower betting levels than at a casino. This is not just my opinion. If you listen to any of the poker podcasts, you will routinely hear the show hosts, as well as the guests who are professional players, talk about the higher level of skill of the online players vs players at a casino.
Where to Buy the Book
Fundamentals of Playing Online Texas Hold'em Poker
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 - History of Online Texas Hold'em
- Chapter 2 - Differences Between Online vs Live Texas Hold'em
- Chapter 3 - Getting Started Online
- Chapter 4 - The Online Journey Starts Here
- Chapter 5 - Poker Tracking Software and HUDs
- Chapter 6 - Positional Awareness
- Chapter 7 - Starting hands
- Chapter 8 - Opening the Pot
- Chapter 9 – Facing Preflop Raises
- Chapter 10 – Leveraging Heads up Displays (HUDs)
- Chapter 11 – Blind Stealing from Late Position 62
- Chapter 12 – Playing from the Blinds
- Chapter 13 – Drawing Hands
- Chapter 14 - Continuation Betting
- Chapter 15 – Common Post-Flop Mistakes to Avoid
- Chapter 16 – Poker Math
- Chapter 17 – Player Types and Ranges
- Chapter 18 – Bluffing and Online Tells
- Chapter 19 – Managing Tilt
- Chapter 20 – Multi-Tabling
- Chapter 21 – Bankroll Management
- Chapter 22 - Moving up the Ranks
- Chapter 23 - Discipline to Win
- Chapter 24 - Conclusion
- Glossary
For many players who play Texas Hold’em at a casino or home games, it's not news to them that Texas Hold’em is available to play online. Actually, playing online Texas Hold’em has been around since the late 1990s. It gained steam and peaked around 2006 when online tables were full of weak players known as fish and when making money at online poker was easy for anyone with even a little knowledge of the game. Over the years, regulations have tried to make access to online poker in the US more difficult, but online poker is alive and well.
The players playing online today have vastly improved over the years. There are still fish around online, but with the Internet full of poker videos and training sites for learning poker, players have a much greater knowledge of the game than in years past. Online players are skilled even at the lowest betting levels. They use advantageous software applications known as HUDs (Heads Up Displays) that give real-time information and highlight an opposing player’s weaknesses to help the HUD users gain an advantage. For those dreaming of opening an online account and starting on their way to rapidly making millions, be prepared to hit a few bumps in the road.
In order to make real money online and become a consistent winning player who moves up the ranks to higher stakes online, you need to build a strong fundamental game. This means building a solid basic strategy backed by math and using tools such as HUDs to gain an advantage over the other players.
This book focuses on creating a strong fundamental skill set for playing online No Limit Texas Hold'em. The fundamentals and mathematically backed strategies in this book will allow you to make money and move up the ladder to higher stakes and make more money, which is a goal for most, if not all poker players. It will highlight the tools available and how to use them, which will be required to level the playing field. Whether you're just starting to play online for the first time, already playing online and want to refresh your fundamentals, or want to build on your basic skills, this book should provide you with the building blocks you need to make money playing online No Limit Texas Hold'em.
- You have at least some previous knowledge and experience playing No Limit Texas Hold'em
- You’re hungry to enhance your knowledge of online poker, whether you're just getting started online and need help, playing online already and need help improving, or an experienced player that just loves learning more about online poker
- You are dedicated to improving your game
- You want to make money playing online
I selected to share with my readers the techniques that have proven successful for me at the lower stakes where you will be refining your fundamental game. They are the ones I have found the most proven and reliable. They should not be used rigidly against all players on all tables. You can use these strategies as a learning tool and test what works while playing on your selected online site. Pick the ones you like, test them out and see if they work for you.
No one poker book, video, podcast, or website will teach you everything you need to master online No Limit Texas Hold'em. This book is intended to enforce the Fundamental Building Blocks for playing online that will give you a strong foundation to build your poker knowledge.
Here are the Fundamental Building Blocks that will be covered in this book. The goal and focus of this list are to build a strong foundation for the situations that occur the most.
- Positional Awareness
- Starting Hands
- Heads Up Displays (Huds)
- Blind Stealing
- Playing from the Blinds
- Continuation Betting (CBetting)
- Poker Math
- Player Types and Ranges
- Managing Tilt
When we are reviewing hands and cards, the “s” next to the cards refers to the cards being suited. For example, KTs is King Ten suited. When there is an “o” next to the cards, that indicates the cards are unsuited. For example, KTo is King Ten offsuit.
Some poker terms used may be new to some readers. Many of the poker terms in the book will be available in the glossary to help clarify the meaning for the reader.
What is now known as the online “Poker Boom” was a period between 2003 and 2006 during which poker, mainly Texas Hold’em, grew in leaps and bounds with the poker player pool at least doubling in size every year.
One event helped fuel the boom. In 2003 Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas. Moneymaker won his seat into the main event with a $39 satellite tournament in the PokerStars online poker room. His first-place finish in the World Series of Poker, which netted him 2.5 million dollars, became headline news and helped start the upward trend in poker's popularity over the next few years both live and online.
During this boom period of online poker, the games were easy to make money for anyone with basic knowledge of poker. The tables were full of fish. Many experienced players became Internet pros making a living at online poker with some becoming household names. At any time of the day, tables were full at every betting level and dozens of tournaments were running all of the time.
This era was not without concerns. The poker rooms were all offshore and not regulated. Internet poker rooms were popping up daily and also going out of business with a high frequency. Sites that failed would disappear and players would lose any money in their accounts with no recourse. Some worried whether it was legal to have and play with an offshore account, as well as if the government crackdown would occur on offshore gambling. Still, even with these concerns, the online poker market was booming.
The beginning of the end of the boom is generally considered to be October 2006. The US Senate attached the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) to the Safe Ports Act, making it illegal for US banks to process online gambling payments for US residents. This caused several online poker sites, including the industry leader at the time, Party Poker, to leave the United States.
Most offshore sites continued to accept US players and alternative payment methods like NETeller became popular for transferring funds.
Then more trouble came along for sites hosting offshore gambling. April 15, 2011, became forever known in the online poker world as “Black Friday.” Three of the biggest online poker sites serving players in the United States had their web domains seized and shut down by the US Department of Justice, which alleged they were in violation of federal bank fraud and money laundering laws. All three stopped serving the US, subsequently crippling the online poker market. Players who had money on those sites could no longer gain access to their funds. By the end of 2011 easy access to Online Poker was a thing of the past. The boom seemed over, maybe forever.
The year following Black Friday was probably the most down period for online poker. With online poker crippled, player confidence shaken, and very few options remaining, many players stopped playing online. Some online poker pros moved out of the country to places like Costa Rica and Mexico to continue playing online. There, they could access their frozen assets from the blocked sites and play free of government impediment. Very few players in the US continued to play and the offshore options were extremely limited.
If Black Friday was the low point then 2012 was the start of the comeback. Good news came along with a ruling by a federal judge that helped pave the way for states to legalize online poker in the US. The judge ruled that poker did not violate federal law because poker is not a game of chance, rather a game of skill. In 2013, Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware legalized regulated online poker. The first ever US regulated poker hand was dealt on April 30, 2013. Residents in these states could play online legally and regulated. The good news was tempered by the fact that in these few states with legalized online poker the online poker experience did not compare to action in the boom days of 2005. The player pools were smaller and players much tougher, but poker was available and legal for anyone of age to play. Unfortunately, the good news was limited to residences in those states.
From 2013 to 2016 only Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey had legalized poker but with Black Friday in the rear-view mirror, online poker made a comeback. Not long after Black Friday, small private offshore sites started to become available to US players. More sites became available to players with each passing year. Players slowly returned and online poker gained steam as each year passed without any additional federal government interference. Even though the top offshore online poker sites continued to not accept US players, by 2016 plenty of options existed. Although not robust as the poker boom, online poker was healthy and available for anyone in the US.
During this period, many other states like Pennsylvania, New York, California, Illinois, Michigan, and Massachusetts tried year after year to legalize online poker only to be blocked by state government politics and political agendas.
Finally, in 2017 more good news came for legalized poker in the US. Pennsylvania became the fourth state to pass an online poker bill allowing residents in that state to play legally regulated online poker. Then in 2018, the US government passed a bill that allowed states to legalize sports betting. This provided even more incentive for states to pass a combination bill of sports betting and online poker. Now the floodgates were open for states to legalize poker and to spread across the US.
Today online poker is available to just about every US player whether you live in a state that has legalized online poker or not. Players not playing in one of the states with regulated poker are playing on offshore sites. You can easily find online poker sites available to you with reviews in a few minutes with a quick internet search.
For those who have never played Online Texas Hold'em, the game can be very different from a live casino or home games. So, let's first take a look at what are the main differences.
- The first and most obvious difference is that with live poker it requires driving or flying to the nearest casino. The online game is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, while only being a few steps away. You can find a game online day or night and log in from your den, bedroom, or basement dressed in whatever you please.
- Another stark difference is the stakes at which you can play. At most casinos, the minimum table poker games are $1/$2 blinds, whereas online you can play for the smallest stakes imaginable (literally pennies) or even for free. You can find games online with blinds as low as 1/2 cents and going up in stakes to 10/20 cents, to 25/50 cents, continuing to as high as you probably would ever want, like 25/50 dollars.
- Hands per hour -- Online play is much faster than live poker. You can play many more hands per hour online. At a casino, you will be playing 30 to 50 hands per hour. Online the games are much faster and you can easily play 100 hands per hour. You can also play on multiple tables at once. It's common to play 200 to 400 hands in an hour online because you most likely will be playing multiple tables at once.
- Online players are much more skilled even at the lower levels. This is due to a few factors. One is the sheer number of hands online players can play gaining valuable table experience very quickly. Another factor is there are many “regulars” online, so you don't find as many casual players as you do at a casino. When playing at a casino you will find many tourists who rarely have the opportunity to visit a casino and are not very experienced poker players, but just want to play poker at a casino. Once you are playing on an online site you will probably see the same players day after day. In the online world, these regular players are called “Regs”.
- Players online use profiling tools. Most serious online players use one of the poker tracking software applications with built in Heads Up Display, referred to as HUD. HUDs attach to the game and give valuable information on opponents based on a database of hands. These applications are an enormous advantage in decision making. You will need a HUD to even the playing field when playing online.
- Analyzing your play with poker tracking software - If you like stats, trends, and running reports to determine patterns -- you will absolutely love playing online. As you play, you will be building a database of all the hands you played as well as all the hands your opponents played. As your database grows, you can run almost any report imaginable on these hands finding weaknesses in your own game as well as your opponents.
- Logging winning and losing - You can run but you can't hide online. With live poker, you have to log your wins and losses manually. This is easy when you're winning. It’s human nature that it is always much easier to track successes than failures. When people are not successful, they stop keeping track. Just ask anyone who has ever been on a diet. With online poker, your wins and losses can't be cheated. You can’t conveniently forget or just not be in the mood to log your losing sessions. Being online will allow you to absolutely track your total lifetime gain or loss. With Poker tracking software you can run reports on any date range you wish allowing you to see your win \ loss progress much easier.
- Reviewing hand histories - If you are one of the few who writes down your hands to review later in live games, you will love online poker. Since hands are automatically saved to a hand history database, every hand you play is available for review later and can be replayed in a Hand Replayer at any speed you please.
- Rake - Rake structures are generally lower with online poker. Live games have many more expenses due to paying dealers and allocating floor space. An online casino can add another table without any additional costs.
- Tells – With online poker, you can’t look someone in the eyes and get a sense of what they have. You will have to rely on betting patterns and bet timing for online tells.
- Six Max Table -- Playing cash games online has a variety of table options. On many sites, the most popular table is the six-player table known as Six Max Tables. Full ring games are offered as well but don't seem to be as popular with online players.
- Devices - With Online you can play anywhere 24 hours a day, 7 days a week using a PC, Smart Phone, Tablet, iPad. This can be a double-edged sword which will be discussed later.
Another interesting difference may be the demographics of online players. Based on a study by Rutgers University analyzing online players in New Jersey, online poker players were generally younger than live poker players and the high majority were male. The study showed that 92% of players were male and the average age was 35.
Many experienced Poker players use online poker as a training tool. These players know that like with almost everything else you get better with repetition. With online you will see so many more hands than at a casino, so you can improve very quickly. This point was never highlighted more than during the 2017 World Series of Poker. Scott Blumstein an online player from New Jersey won 8.1 million dollars winning the World Series of Poker in 2017. Blumstein who lived in Brigantine New Jersey at the time told reporters after winning the tournament, "The best way to get better at anything is through repetition and practice,”… "When you play online in New Jersey, it's hard for any live pro to see even close to the amount of hands I've probably seen in the last two years."
If you have never played online before you will need to find and pick a site to start. Not all sites are created equal and you will want to pick one based upon the factors that are important to you. I will highlight some areas that you should research when choosing a site to invest your money into.
- Site Traffic - Generally you want to select a site that has a lot of traffic. The main reason is that there is a high likelihood of finding the tables you want to play available and with a wide choice of games. A word of caution, sites with the most players are known to have the most skilled players as well. Sometimes you can find a site that has less traffic, but the competition is weaker at the same stakes.
- Rewards - Most sites offer a reward program. For example, you may get a certain percentage back from the rake based upon how many hands you play per month. These programs typically have escalation levels which give you a higher percentage the more you play. Sites also offer incentives to attract new players. You should look for first time deposit bonuses. Sites can offer a 100% match for opening an account which generally is phased in as you play. Be sure to read the fine print about these matches. It usually takes a massive amount of hands at the lower levels to get the full 100% matching.
- Rake – The house cut, known as Rake, can be lower online vs live. But you should still research the sites and compare one to another to understand the rake. This is typically not a deal breaker since most sites are similar.
- Site Support - You probably want a site that has good customer support. This can be helpful for anything from loading the client to withdrawing money.
These are some of the most important factors that need to be considered when picking a site which is best for you. To help with your research selecting an online site, you can visit my website at PlayGreatPoker.com. There you will find everything you need to help you pick the best site for you.
Here are some steps and considerations that can give you some guidance into the online world of poker.
- Computer Setup - You can play online using a Smartphone, iPad, or almost any mobile device. But if you want to play multiple tables you will want to use your computer. You should strive to have a computer with a large monitor or even dual monitors to ensure you can play multiple tables with no problem.
- I would advise that you don't watch TV, Text Message, check Social Media, or Drink while you are playing. When you play, you should concentrate only on the game.
- Don’t surf the Internet while you are playing -- if you have extra time between hands, either add another table or use the Poker tracking software to analyze the other players you are playing against.
In a perfect world, you would start at a very low level like 5\10 cents, play at that level and gauge your skill level against the other players. Once you are comfortable try adding an extra table or two. When you are consistently winning at that level you can consider moving up.
Once you have moved up, repeat the same steps. Keep moving up in stakes until you hit your ideal level. Be aware that the players are going to get better at each level. Be prepared to move back down if you hit a level that you are not ready for.
Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world and most players probably will do the exact opposite. They will start too high and move down losing money until they find the level where they have an edge. By that time, they are already in a deep hole.
Another consideration is your bankroll and tolerance for variance. Tables are available from 1/2 cent blinds all the way up to as high as you want to play like $25/$50 blinds and everything in-between. Based on what your bankroll represents can be a factor. If the money you are playing with is totally recreational and you can easily make another deposit, then you can probably risk starting at a higher level. If you are going to have a hard time replacing the money if you lose your deposit then the safe and recommended method is the one mentioned earlier in this section. That means beginning at lower stakes than even you think you should and start your upward journey methodically.
Don’t compare online table stakes to stakes at a live casino. Remember online you can and probably will be playing multiple tables while playing many more hands per hour. Due to this extreme number of hands per hour online vs live, you can play at a lower level and still risk the same amount of money as you would in a live casino at higher stakes.
Think about a 25\50 cent table with a maximum buy-in of $50. This may not sound like a lot for someone playing $1\$2 live. But remember you could play multiple tables at once. It would not be out of the question to win or lose well over $100 in a few hours.
One last thing about playing online for the first time. As previously mentioned, players are more skilled at lower betting levels than at a casino. This is not just my opinion. If you listen to any of the poker podcasts, you will routinely hear the show hosts, as well as the guests who are professional players, talk about the higher level of skill of the online players vs players at a casino.