At Sports Media Network we are also often asked by many if playing Online Poker differs from offline or in a brick and mortar poker room? The basic answer is yes, playing online poker differs from playing in brick and mortar poker rooms, or casino rooms in a few ways. Playing online can be a lot less intimidating than a real world casino room, where the smallest limits one can bet are often $3/$6. The main problem with that is that players have a tendency to sit at tables where the stakes are to high for their individual cash flow.
We tell new players to just play your bankroll which is usually 40 times the big blind, so at a $3/$6 table it would indicate that your bankroll needed to play would be around $240.
Not even high rollers need to tip the dealers in an online poker room, whereas that’s pretty much a common practice in a real-world casino type poker room. However, the primary difference that all agree on has to do with the fact that you can be sitting thousands of miles away from your opponents rather than across a short distance of green felt of a poker table. The main weakness of the online poker game is that you cannot physically assess the other players. You can’t look for what we call “tell” and play your opponents in that sense.
With this generally being true we have come across a few things that, if nothing else can attempt to compensate for the lack of actual physical clues.
First-Slow Bets: With hands normally being played more quickly online, some players will take the full amount of time allowed to place their bet no matter what. Often time ones has to fold on the hand when this is happening, because the other player who is guilty of stalling more than likely has a good hand and is trying to lure other players into betting more money, so they will bet slowly to make it appear that their hand is weaker than it actually is.
Second-Extremely fast bets: These fast bets are usually used to projects ones confidence in their existing hand. Many players will bet quickly on a less than Steller hand to make it appear that the hand is better than it is. Third-Odd betting amounts: Many players bet and odd dollar amount that requires the use of several different colors of chips because they use this trick to make their bets appear bigger than actuality.
But in General poker translates well to the online poker medium. As its the same game with the same cards and the same rules. One’s best bet, especially when beginning is to play poker by the book, very smart, conservatively and as disciplined as possible, and that’s the better way to win, especially in an low stakes online poker game. These same types of games and experiences we can share with you at PokerHost.com and we suggest you should try them as you soon see that they understand the mind of online poker players, so why not play poker with them.




