How Online Poker Can Help You Learn Things That are Tough to Learn in a Cardroom

If you haven't yet played a hand of poker on the Internet, or are apprehensive about venturing into a virtual cardroom in cyberspace, take a deep breath and get ready to step out of your comfort zone. There are plenty of reasons to give it a go, and I'm going to share some of them with you.

For one thing, poker on the Internet can help you learn and improve your game in ways that poker in traditional casinos cannot. That shouldn't surprise you. After all, the differences in the medium itself make some things more easily learned in one venue than another.

It's not a one-way street, to be sure, and when you get down to cases, the majority of poker skills are probably more easily acquired in traditional casinos. You say you want to understand tells, and learn how to decipher the cards players might be holding by reading their body language and other nonverbal cues? You won't pick that stuff up online, but you will in a traditional casino.

Nevertheless, many other skills are more easily acquired in cyberspace, and if you've never played there, you'll have a hard time picking up some of these skills. So, let's get started:

Recently I found myself playing five-card stud online. It's not a game I've played all that often, because it's not spread very frequently in traditional casinos – if it's even spread at all. In fact, the last time I saw anyone playing that game was when Edward G. Robinson took it to Steve McQueen, and that was in the movies.

But online casinos offer games that traditional casinos can't, simply because a cybercasino's cost to spread a game is so small. If no one is playing, an empty table in cyberspace doesn't eat overhead expenses like real tables do under similar circumstances in brick-and-mortar casinos. But it's different online. If enough people want to play, a game will begin, and with a player base that's worldwide instead of localized to a traditional cardroom's marketing area, it's easier to find nine or 10 players who are interested in uncommon games like five-card stud.

And learning new games is a good thing. Even if you don't plan on becoming a regular at five-card stud, or any other relatively obscure game, variety is fun, and each new game you learn affords a broader perspective on poker in general, and improves your main game in the process.

Brick-and-mortar casinos can't afford to spread games with micro betting limits, because the drop taken from those games won't cover a dealer's salary, never mind the overhead. But that's not true in cyberspace, and this phenomenon makes it very affordable for anyone to learn new games without paying too much for the lessons they'll inevitably receive at the poker table. Planning on a trip to Europe, where pot-limit Omaha is the game of choice in many casinos? If you're not experienced at that game, or are new to pot-limit betting structures, you might want to get in a little practice before you belly up to a table where the blinds are pricey and you know in your heart of hearts that you're the fish the locals are planning to slice and dice.

Where should you practice? On the Internet, where else? Find a game with micro betting limits, anything from 50 cents-$1 down to 1 cent-2 cents will suffice. It puts you in a real-money game against live opponents, but at limits you can afford. You'll get lots of practice along with a chance to groove your chops, and you'll feel a bit more bulletproof when you plunk down your money in a traditional casino where the blinds and bets are higher.

You can play more tournaments in a day online than you can in a week of driving from one brick-and-mortar casino to another. Tournaments are available at a variety of buy-ins, and you can enter anything from a one-table "sit-and-go" to an event with 1,000 competitors or more. If practice makes perfect, you'll find more opportunities to practice on the Internet than you will anywhere else. Tournaments are available at any time of the day or night, and you can keep playing – going from one tournament to another – until your cup truly runneth over, and you've become a much better tournament player in the process.

It's tough to become a final-table expert. In the old days, you had to play in lots of tourneys to make enough final tables to even begin to learn how to play there. But poker on the Internet has changed all that. Just enter a one-table sit-and-go tournament. It's like playing at a final table – or at least it will be once the blinds begin escalating and represent a sizeable portion of each player's equity in the event. And there's no need to enter expensive one-table tournaments to garner this experience, as even small buy-in events with $5 entry fees will jump-start your learning. If you want to gain some experience playing heads up, enter some of the one-on-one events you'll find online. You might even feel like you're Chris Moneymaker playing against Sammy Farha for all the marbles at the World Series of Poker.

The reality, of course, is a long way from the final table at the World Series of Poker, but at least you'll be developing the kinds of skills needed to play in these situations. And those skill sets, so readily available to anyone who ventures into cyberspace to give it a shot, are tough to obtain if you follow the traditional route of playing all of your tournaments in brick-and-mortar casinos.

By jump-starting your learning on the Internet, it will propel you to a much higher level of skill far faster than you could otherwise. As a result, your experiences in traditional brick-and-mortar casino tournaments will be enriched. Not only will you be a better all-around poker player, but your skill level will escalate faster than the skill level of players who fail to avail themselves of all the learning experiences cyberspace offers. All you need to supply is enough dedication and desire to learn how to win. Japanese management theorists have a name for this. It's called "Kai-zen," and it's all about doing what it takes to continue improving at a more rapid rate than your competitors. Kai-zen is one reason why product quality keeps improving – it's why cars get better and television sets get cheaper – but the idea of continuous improvement doesn't apply only to business. It works in poker, too.

Raise your game with Lou Krieger, author of Poker for Dummies, at http://www.royalvegaspoker.com. His newest book, Internet Poker: How to Play and Beat Online Poker Games, is available through Card Player and at www.ConJelCo.com, and all of his books can be found at major bookstores and online at www.Amazon.com.