How to Play Poker Online: An Introduction.

For those of you that already know the basics of how to play poker, but aren't quite sure about playing online poker - I've written this brief tutorial to help you learn a little more about the both the obvious and subtle differences and how they can affect your game-play.

Playing at online poker rooms

Playing at an online poker room isn't all that different from playing at a casino room or even your friends house on a Friday night. The most obvious differences of course are;

You only 'virtually' sit with other players around the poker table.
They're real - but you'll have to rely more on their playing habits than any physical 'tells' to determine their playing style, since you can not actually see the real player.
You can't cheat at online poker.
At least, you can't cheat at online poker by yourself. Collusion is a potential problem (that is usually dealt with promptly even online), but if you only win every weekend playing with your friends because they're not paying attention to your deal (or you're peeking at their cards), you probably won't adjust too well.
You'll have a lot more choice on where to play and how much to play for.
With your friends or at the casino, you're usually not given a lot of options as to who you'll be playing with and where to sit at the table. Online however; if you can afford to play at an open table, just take a seat. Some poker rooms will even allow you to set up private rooms to play at with friends.

Asides from that, the hands are the same, the games are the same, and the rules are the same as any normal poker room would have them.

Playing poker for real money

Of course, you can't lay cold-hard cash on the table when you play a game of poker on the Internet, so the process requires you make a 'deposit' with the poker room to get your chips before you actually begin the game. Of course, you can withdrawal the chips too once you're done playing (assuming you didn't play really bad and have some left that is :)

Each real online poker room will have it's own different options available for making a deposit at their poker room. Most rooms will let you use Visa, MasterCard, NETeller, Firepay, checks, and bank wires (for larger deposits). Like most casinos, you make this deposit at the 'cashier'.

When you're ready to cash-in, you simply visit the software's cashier again and withdrawal your chips back into cash as a check, wire, etc. Again - withdrawal options vary depending where you play real online poker, but a check is probably the most common route for player withdrawals.

How it affects your poker game

You don't have to let the migration to online poker affect your playing style, but then again, you don't have to win either. Some basic things you should keep in mind when you're playing on the Internet:

Bluffing is displayed by bets, not expressions.
In a 'normal' poker situation, bets are the primary way a player tries to bluff people off the table, and the way other players try to determine whether a player actually has good cards or not. At the same time however, how a player acts and/or looks while playing his or her hand can also give off signals as to whether or not they actually have a winning hand. This is not the case online. While players can still chat via text, every face is a poker face online. This tends to result in more people bluffing and more people calling during online play.
It takes a long time to build a 'reputation' online.
Just as you are free to move to different tables, so are other players, so you can't assume that you will be playing with the same people for long periods of time. In fact, it's not uncommon for aggravated players to move after just a few hands if they're not happy with your or other people's playing styles.

This can sometimes make it difficult to establish yourself as a 'type' of player. Getting caught on a few bluffs intentionally can set the tone for a night of poker when you're playing with the same group of people, but if new players are constantly being seated they may not have seen you're earlier aggressive play. Try to play for the short term - if you stay at the same poker room long enough people will start to recognize you, but that can take months.

If you'd like to read about general poker strategies, tips and more, please use the navigation to the right for more information on how to play poker online.