Sunday, August 30, 2009

Understanding Online Poker

By Peter Werth

You can find everything on the internet! Whether it's entertainment, books, business service, specialty products, gambling... you name it and the internet has got it.

Poker is the most popular game in the world, and with it's rise in popularity... the game has shifted to the online world.

In simple terms, online poker is payed on digital tables with people connected to them from their internet connections. This simple setup has made poker accessible to just about anyone in the world, which has fueled the popularity fire.

Brief history on Poker

For you to understand what online poker is all about, you need to know the history of the sport... so let's take a look!

From all the different types of card games, poker is a 'vying game'. In simple terms, your goal as a player is to outrank your competitors with high ranking card combinations.

Historians argue about the real origin of poker. Linguistic scholars insist that the name 'poker' literally descended from 'poque', a French word which in turn came from a German word 'pochen', which means to knock'.

An even closer match would be the 'as nasi' game played in old Persia. Studies suggest that the Persian sailors in the 17th century had taught the game to French settlers in the US state of New Orleans.

As things and time progressed, many adaptations and rules where invented to from different variants of the game. Just like humanity has evolved, so has poker, and now we see the online realm taking over.

Online poker vs. brick and mortar poker

Old School poker venues with tables and chairs are getting harder and harder to come by these days. Poker players are often hesitant to play poker at the brick and mortar venues like casinos and poker rooms due to intimidation and geographic problems.

Several brick and mortar venues and operators are also starting to shift away because of reduced and minimal profit they can generate from the operations. You must wonder, how could this happen when they charge so much for commissions or rake. For your information, those charges and fees do not usually offset the costs in running or operating an actual poker room.

Brick and mortar venues and casinos strategically survive nowadays from revenue generated by slot machines in their houses.

On the other hand, online poker rooms have very little overheads. Adding an extra digital table takes up no room and may be done instantly.

Players often view online poker as friendlier and more flexible. Ecah player is prompted by a software when it is already his or her turn to throw cards. Thus, no one will be missed. Online poker is also more attractive for beginners because they can be allowed to play online poker even for much lower stakes, which can be as low as a single cent!

Can you enter a poker room or casino without paying entrance charges? Not usually! How about online poker? Absolutely! Online poker rooms also offer deposit bonuses for their players to entice more people to join the fun. Pretty cool huh!

Security for online poker players

The grim reality that where there is money involved, scammers are always attracted. This does include online poker rooms, thankfully the online poker rooms are well prepared.

However, to avoid fraud and collusion among online poker players, Internet sites and businesses that run these sites often install anti-collusion detection software and programs. Another advantage that online poker rooms have over traditional bricks-and-mortar venues.

How does it work? Some known methods include checking IP addresses so that people in the same household can't cheat, this detects and stops collusion. Players using open proxy servers are also prevented from playing online poker on a single or same poker table.

Online poker rooms also check on an online player's strategy or play history. This would make patterns of behavior or thinking detectable. Traditional venues don't have such a privilege, so cheating at 'real' tables is much easier than online.

A lot of sites offer online poker games, and you can choose whether you would want to play against real-time players located anywhere in the globe or against computer programs. So if poker is your game, then log onto the internet and start playing.

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