The beginning of online poker not so many years ago spawned an interesting poker question. What is better, online poker or live brick and mortar table games? While the two generally have the same or similar rules and structure, there are a lot of advantages and disadvantages to each form. So to answer our question.... It depends.
If its speed and sheer volume of hands that you're after than online poker is the hands down winner. Dealing, shuffling, counting chips, and collecting cards is all done automatically by the poker room software. A lot of time is also saved by knowing how much money is in the pot at all times and how much money is in each players stack. When you also factor in the clock that is put on each player when it is their turn, you start to get double and even triple the amount of hands per hour when compared to a live game. Another thing to consider is the fact that you can play several tables at a time online. If you are good enough to play six to eight tables at once you may well get 600 or more hands in every hour. Under some conditions you may well end up playing more than 20 times the number of live hands that would be dealt in a similar amount of time. As a skilled player, the more hands you play the more money you make right? The answer again is "it depends".
Playing live poker has its advantages too. Poker is not all about the quantity of hands that you play. Live poker generally has much weaker opponents than similar levels online. You get a lot of casual players who just happen to give poker a try since they're already in the casino. You will also get players who are unaware of what hand beats what. These players are just asking you to take their money. Soft players lead to soft games. Ive played in 20/40 limit holdem games in the casino that were much softer than 1/2 games online. These stakes are 20 times that of the 1/2 online game that I mentioned, and you should be able to make a lot of money per hand in these games. So for the winning poker player we would assume that higher stakes means more money to win right? Maybe and maybe not.
The financial advantages to online poker and live poker are different and will be seen differently by different players. But there are other factors that can help us decide if online poker or live brick and mortar games are best for us. Live poker has a social element to it that online games just don't have. If you want to get out of the house, have some conversation, and possibly sip on a cocktail, than live poker may be much more rewarding for you. Online poker, while lacking in the social aspects, has its own unique advantages. You are able to play anytime from anywhere that you can connect to the internet. You can play in your underwear if you like(if that is advantageous in your opinion). The bottom line is that it's convenient, fast, and allows you to take advantage of other tools like rakeback, poker software, poker bonuses, and all that good stuff. If you're looking for convenience, nothing compares to online poker. If its the money your after though, online poker probably affords you more opportunities to pad your bankroll.
So the answer to our question whether online poker or live poker is better... It really depends on what you are trying to get out of your poker experience.
The author of this article plays poker online and receives Rakeback at Full Tilt Poker. He is also a contributer at Rakeback Solution.
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