There’s a lot to be said in favour of playing Holdem online, but there are pitfalls you need to avoid. You might expect that we wouldn’t try to talk down the subject of this section, but when you’re putting money on the line, you need to go in with as much knowledge as you can so you don’t get caught up. But there are good parts to the ride, too. Over the next few pages, we’ll cover

• Reasons to play Texas Holdem online
• Reasons not to play Texas Holdem online
• Legalities of online Texas Holdem

Reasons to Play Texas Holdem Online

But why should you play online Holdem? It does seem odd that folks are willing to put their money in the hands of a privately held company based in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, or Antigua and engage in a game of chance with faceless players from around the globe who may or may not be using their wireless phone company’s unlimited night time calling plan to conspire against you. Then again, playing online has its advantages, not the least of which is that you can play from home, where you set the rules. Not, eat at the table, wear whatever catches your fancy, and listen to music without wearing headphones. You can also find poker games at any time of the day or night. Curt is a night owl who’s often up until 3:00 AM or later, which means that he hits the sweet spot for mid-day players in Great Britain , Germany , Sweden , Norway , Denmark , and Finland . Doug is more of an evening player, so he often shares poker tables with players from the eastern part of the United States , early starters on the Pacific coast, and the late-night players from Europe and Scandinavia .

To top it off, you can leave a game whenever you want to. It’s not uncommon for someone to log on and play for 15 minutes to kill time before their favourite television show comes on, so leaving abruptly doesn’t raise eyebrows the way it might if you drove for an hour-and-a-half to a brick-and-mortar casino, won a few hundred dollars in a nice little rush, and shoved off before your first drink arrived.

There are also procedural benefits to playing Texas Holdem online. For example, the limits can be much lower than in a physical casino. Believe it or not, you can play poker for as little as two cents a bet-yep, that’s $0.02. Online poker rooms also tend to take a bit less money out of each pot (the rake) because they don’t have to pay for dealers, cocktail servers, floor personnel, or carpets. Also, because the cards are shuffled ed within a second after a hand ends, you will often get in 30 or more hands per half hour, as compared to 20 hands per half hour in a traditional casino. When you’re a favourite to win money at your poker table, you want to play as many hands as you can. Yes, the rake grinds away at everyone’s bankroll, taking a few dollars out of circulation every time the cards are dealt, but with some good play on your part, you can get your share of the loot. As Holdem genius Mike Caro says, the chips flow clockwise around the table and eventually end up in the good players’ stacks.

If you’re good at making good decisions quickly, you can play at multiple tables simultaneously and increase the number of chips coming your way.

Finally, the number of aggravations that make a game a struggle goes down when you play poker over the Internet. Online dealers don’t make mistakes, and the other players can’t fold out of turn, reach for their chips while watching for your reaction, or talk trash without your permission.

To be continued…

Also recommended:

1. So What Is This Online Texas holdem Thing?
2. Online or Live Texas Holdem?
3. Reasons Not to Play Texas Holdem Poker Online