Online poker you may play anytime you want — 24/7 365. You may play it as a whole comfort, right from your own home, wearing whatever you like (or nothing at all), sitting, reclining, or jogging on a treadmill (even though we don’t recommend it). You may set the lighting, temperature, and ambience to be just as you like it. In many ways, with online poker you simply have more control.

You’ve got no other people to contend with (at least not face-to-face) — nobody hovering over you, talking at you, pushing you, crowding around you, giving you unsought advice, or shooting you nasty looks. You do not have to smell smoke in the event that you don’t want to. You’ve got no sexy waitresses tempting you with mind-altering drinks and otherwise distracting your attention away from the game at hand (pun completely intended). You should not have to drive anywhere (and with fuel prices what they’re, that alone preserves your bankroll tremendously), nor do have to get dressed up or tip your dealer — all of which save you time and money.

Another advantage of online poker is that you may play against people from world wide. Think about it next time you sit down at an online poker table — not everyone there even speaks the exact same language. And globetrotting on the web provides you with access to more casinos and poker rooms than you can ever find in one single place, even when that one place is actually Vegas!

Online poker players get to select from an inordinate selection of cardrooms, game types, and table stakes. Moments ago, we mentioned the ambience of the environment where you are going to be sitting down with your computer to play online poker (most likely your house), but best online gambling agent poker gives you almost just as much control in determining the ambience of the cardroom itself.

Whether you enjoy an Old West setting, a Hollywood setting, an Egyptian setting, a jungle setting, a resort setting, and on and on…you can most likely find an online poker room designed around what ever theme suits your tastes. Likewise, you can find rooms more more likely to have more (or less) experienced players, faster (or slower) action, higher (or lower) stakes, etc.

Through the same token, on the contrary, when playing online poker it also helps to be aware of its perceived disadvantages as compared to playing traditional “offline” poker. A simple awareness of the real difference alone will make you a better player.

For one, you do not get that intimate, face-to-face contact with other human beings. But don’t rule online poker out as a social outlet altogether. More and more online poker rooms are fostering a real feeling of community amongst their players with attractive and appealing member’s clubs, player forums, and sponsored land-based events.

For some poker players, the game just isn’t the same without the feel of the cards in your hands as well as the weight of the chips as you place them in the center of the table (or the sound of them clinking while you pull the pile towards you after a big win). And you can’t substitute a number, however large or small, for the visual impact of the chip stacks — red, blue, and white — increasing or receding in front of you and expect the same effect.

But probably the biggest deal that makes some offline poker players leery of playing online poker is the inability to read the additional players. Most expert poker players rely upon inadvertent visual cues given by their opponents — tells — as to the actual strength or weakness of their hands. There is one area to be said for the amount of information you may glean simply by looking your opponent in the eyes (thus the prevalence of sunglasses at the poker table) and watching their hands, their posture, their facial expressions, etc. Fortunately, on the contrary, there are a number of tells you can look for in online poker also, you just have to know where (and the way) to look. But that is a subject for another article.

As due to this article, we leave you having an analogy. If you like going to the theatre for your shows, the arena for your concerts, as well as the stadium for your games, get thee to a brick-and-mortar casino for your poker playing enjoyment. If you like Tivo although (or maybe if you just ain’t got the dough for the theatre, arena, and stadium tickets), then online poker is your ticket.