Online Poker vs. Casino Play
It's been my experience that playing at a casino isn't as
profitable as playing online for two main reasons: cost and time.
There's a lot of cost involved in going to a casino to play a live
game. Money for travel expenses like gas, tolls, food, getting a
room as well as tips for dealers and waitresses and a bigger rake,
can all add up. Comp dollars pay for some of this stuff, but not
nearly enough. It also takes time. Like most people, I don't live
near a casino, and to get to the nearest casino in Atlantic City, I
would have to drive an hour there and back. That's two hours taken
away from actual game play. On top of the lost driving time, live
play tends to be slower than playing online. With optimal conditions
(players acting quickly and a strong dealer), you may only get to
play about 30 hands an hour. In comparison, you can play anywhere
from 60 to 80 hands an hour online. You can also lose time waiting
to be seated at a table in a casino. The popularity of poker has
grown faster than the casino's ability to accommodate it, and it's
not uncommon to wait for more than an hour for a table, two hours if
it's the weekend. That's why I prefer to play online, and I've done
much better with online casinos for a few reasons:
- Experience - I play online every day so I'm used to it. I
pick up players' tells pretty easily, and I'm probably more
experienced than most players I'm up against.
- Playing Only When I'm At My Best - Table selection is much
better online, and I don't have to wait for a table. If I sit
down and realize all the players are good, I can instantly
switch. It's much harder to do that at a casino. It's also
considered poor etiquette to leave a table if you win big really
quickly, but online I can easily leave, bank my money, and start
a new table. Another big benefit is that I can pick and choose
when to play. If I'm at home and I play two hands and think,
"You know what, screw this," I can stop. The same goes for if
I'm hungry, tired, drunk, dumb, angry, or sad. The same cannot
be said about playing in a casino because I've already spent so
much time, energy, and money to get there.
- Bankroll Size - When I play online, I don't sit down with more
than $600 on a table at any one time, but in a casino, it's
quite common for me to have $800 or $1,000 in play at once.
There's a lot more pressure when a bigger percentage of your
bankroll is in play. The last time I was in the casino, I folded
hands I would've called while playing online because I would've
been out of money if I lost. Playing online also means I have
access to all of my money. At the casinos, I only allow myself
to use the money I bring, and having a sufficient bankroll is
almost as important as being a good player.
- Tells - There are certain tells that I've learned from online
play, but I don't need to read any social situations online. So
even though my knowledge of poker theory, playing the cards, and
reading online tells has expanded rapidly, my ability to read
people in live games hasn't grown, in fact it may have even
shrunk. Online playing experience also comes with advantages and
disadvantages when transferred to a live game. For instance, I
have way more facial and behavioral tells in a live game because
I don't need a poker face to play on a computer. On the other
hand, I have less verbal and mannerism-related tells because I
am used to playing in solitude and silence.
- Patience and Time Management - As I said before, online games
move much faster than live games. I'm also able to play two
tables simultaneously online which results in constant action.
When someone is used to constant action and then plays in the
casino where there's a ton of dead time, they can end up playing
loosely and forcing things that aren't there. That can lead to
poker suicide and losing sessions.
- Skill Level - I think online players tend to be worse than
those who play at the casinos. The dehumanizing factor of the
computer makes good players play poorly, and when you combine
them with the regular poor players, the net result is pretty
good for someone like me who has outgrown and overcome the
computer's dehumanizing effect. In contrast, casinos in places
like Atlantic City draw the sharks that are playing at the top
of their game and preying on fish, so there's less of a chance
for bad players to gain experience and win some money.
Although every player feels differently about
the pluses and minuses of online vs. casino play, I hope that my
personal comparisons of the two poker venues helps shed some light
on the differences between them and what can be expected. |
