Online Poker

I preface this by saying kudos to the Ottawa Senators, I am still licking my wounds from last night. But as Dan Aykroyd so aptly said in the film classic Tommy Boy, savor the flavor cuz it's not gonna happen again. Now on with the show

Online poker, as well as the hole cam, has revolutionized the game of poker. It has made poker accessible to so many wannabe players and has been used to speed up the maturity of poker players around the globe. Primarily now in the United States, there is no cash poker since Congress poked their nose into the homes of Americans again and banned payouts for online gaming. But I digress. What makes online poker such a good teaching tool? Simple, you can see so many more hands playing online than you can in a live game. Most sites, including my favorite Ultimatebet.net and Partypoker.net allow you to keep stats on your own play including % of hands played, showdowns won, Flops and turns seen and % wins of each. These sites also allow you to keep notes on game play for your opponents, helping you to track and see betting patterns, thus sharpening these skills for live games. The fact that the pot is also enumerated on the screen is a very helpful teaching tool in calculating pot odds, which is another essential skill for beginners to the game.

The drawbacks to playing online poker, especially with "play money" are great. With some players, it is virtually impossible to get people off of hands (as it is in some home games). It is also hard to gauge hands preflop because online players almost always see a lot of flops, regardless of the cost. You have to find the happy medium and play your game and try to get in with the best of it, but that does wear on you after a while. My best advice is play tournaments where there is a prize to work towards and hope that the players aren't the types to run with J-6 offsuit (once again, as in some home games). Try to hone your skills and get in with the best of it, just as you would in any live game.

Most online sites are now awarding point prizes now since the ban has occurred. There are multi level tournaments on almost every site now to win trips, seats at large tournaments (such as the WPT and WSOP) and even some that will stake you for a year to play poker professionally. Since the ban on the cash payouts, online sites have learned to adapt and thrive. There is no risk involved in joining an online site and the rewards can be great, so download, create your username, sit down and learn. Just stay out of coachsassy's way!

Any nice poker sites to suggest, send it to the heronegreanu mailbag at sassypoker@gmail.com