Online poker you can play anytime you want — 24/7 365. You can play it as a whole comfort, right from your own home, wearing what ever you like (or nothing at all), sitting, reclining, or jogging on a treadmill (however we don’t recommend it). You can set the lighting, temperature, and ambience to be just as you like it. In several ways, with online poker you simply have more control.

You have no other people to contend with (at least not in person) — no one hovering over you, talking at you, pushing you, crowding around you, giving you unsought advice, or shooting you nasty looks. You do not have to smell smoke should you not want to. You’ve got no sexy waitresses tempting you with mind-altering drinks and otherwise distracting your attention away from the game at hand (pun completely intended). You do not have to drive anywhere (and with gas prices what they are, that alone preserves your bankroll tremendously), nor do have to get dressed up or tip your dealer — all of which save you time and expense.

Another advantage of online poker is that you can play against people from throughout the world. Think about it next time you sit down at an online poker table — not everybody there even speaks the same language. And globetrotting online gives you access to more casinos and poker rooms than you can ever find in one single place, even if that one place happens to be Vegas!

Online poker players get to select from an inordinate variety of cardrooms, game types, and table stakes. Moments ago, we mentioned the ambience of the environment where you certainly will be sitting down with your computer to play online poker (almost certainly your house), but online poker gives you almost just as much control in determining the ambience of the cardroom itself.

Whether you enjoy an Old West setting, a Hollywood setting, an Egyptian setting, a jungle setting, a resort setting, as well as on and also on…you may almost certainly find an online poker room designed around whatever theme suits your tastes. Likewise, you may find rooms more likely to have more (or less) experienced players, faster (or slower) action, higher (or lower) stakes, etc.

By the same token, on the flip side, when playing online poker additionally, it helps to be aware of its perceived disadvantages as in comparison with playing traditional “offline” poker. A simple awareness of the real difference alone can make you a far better player.

For one, you do not get that intimate, face-to-face contact with other human beings. But do not rule online poker out as a social outlet altogether. Increasingly more online poker rooms are fostering a real experience of community amongst their players with attractive and appealing member’s clubs, player forums, and sponsored land-based events.

For some poker players, the game just isn’t the exact same without the feel of the cards within your hands and the weight of the chips when you place them within the center of the table (or even the sound of them clinking as you pull the pile towards you after a big win). And also you cannot substitute a number, however large or small, for the visual impact of the chip stacks — red, blue, and white — increasing or receding in front of you and expect the exact same effect.

But probably the biggest deal that makes some offline poker players leery of playing online poker will be the inability to read the additional players. Most expert poker players rely on inadvertent visual cues given by their opponents — tells — as to the particular strength or weakness of their hands. There is a thing to be said for the total amount of information you can glean by just looking your opponent within the eyes (thus the prevalence of sunglasses at the poker table) and watching their hands, their posture, their facial expressions, etc. Fortunately, alternatively, there are numerous of tells you can look for in online poker also, you just need to know where (and the way) to look. But that is a subject for another article.

As due to this article, we leave you having an analogy. If you like going to the theatre for your shows, the arena for your concerts, as well as the stadium for your games, get thee to a brick-and-mortar casino for your poker playing enjoyment. If you like Tivo though (or Suggested Studying if you just ain’t got the dough for the theatre, arena, and stadium tickets), then online poker is your ticket.