A lot of players think that poker online skills will translate to successful offline play and vice versa. While this is somewhat true, there are a lot of differences between these two very similar games. Here are some of the differences between the two games.
Game Speed
The main difference between playing in an online poker room and at a traditional casino is the game speed. When playing online, everything is computerized and is almost done instantaneously. It takes no time for the dealer to deal the cards, stack the chips, or pay out the winnings. In real life, it could take a dealer quite a while just to shuffle the deck and stack the chips. Games like Texas Hold’em can move pretty fast, but when you start getting into more complicated games like Omaha Hi, where more cards need to be dealt, things really start to slow down. Therefore, when playing online poker, you get to experience more hands per hour. Also, in online poker rooms, like Littlewoods poker, you have the ability to play multiple tables at once, so you could be playing 4 times as many hands per hour online than at a real casino.
Player Tells
Player tells are a huge part of traditional poker. However, with online poker, it is almost impossible to read a player and pick up on their tells. You may be able to pick up a little information about their betting patterns, but there is no way you can see if they twitch when they have a good hand, or if they are sweating. This makes online poker more mathematical and systematic, where traditional poker involves more people skills.
Tracking Your Play
When playing in traditional casinos, it is almost impossible to track your play, but when playing online, you can run a computer program that can track your play, give you the odds of making a hand, and all necessary mathematical information needed to make a decision. You will probably be playing against players with this same information as well.
There are many differences between playing poker in an online poker room and at a traditional casino. While the above areas are just the basics, you can find out more information on this subject at various poker schools, poker news sites and even a reputable poker blog.