Poker Winner Blog

Sometimes you simply have to know that you’re playing against, well, real people — not against computer creations. When the computer opponents of interactive software games have you talking to yourself and longing for human adversaries to gripe about, what can you do?

Just as you can find almost anything else on the Internet, you can find poker games. These cybergames have no physical location, but you can summon them up from your personal computer at any time. Like genies in a bottle, they await your command — all it takes is a few clicks of your mouse!

Internet Play-Money Games

If you’re not ready for cash stakes, you can play in mock games for play- money on the Internet. Your opponents may be anywhere in the world. They won’t be in the same room with you, but they’re real folks looking for a game.

You’ll have to make a few adjustments when you move into online playing. Internet poker games take place in cyberspace, the universe of electronic connections that is at once everywhere and nowhere. At first it’s a little disconcerting to hear a disembodied voice ask for your blind, or to have your cards yanked away by invisible hands instead of folding them yourself!

The Internet game designers have done all they can to simulate the sights and sounds of a real poker game:

• You see yourself represented in pictogram form, seated at a virtual table with other pictogram players, whose real counterparts may be anywhere in the world.
• Your player name or “handle” and the amount you have in play are listed above or beneath your virtual representative.
• Vibrantly colored cards, tables, chips, and player costumes mimic the visual elements of real casino poker.
• An invisible dealer announces bets and raises and declares winning hands. (However, he doesn’t accept tokes.)
• You hear the sounds of cards being shuffled and dealt, and chips clacking when the pot is pushed to the winner.
• You “converse” with other players in the “chat window” by typing messages back and forth on your keyboards.
• To check, bet, or raise, you click on-screen choices with your mouse. Help and hand history are easily summoned by clicking other options. Want to leave the game or go to another? Click!

But it isn’t real poker, is it

Internet play-money poker isn’t real poker, but it’s not supposed to be. Real poker is played for real money. Even so, you can practice many skills in these cybergames. For instance, you can brush up on

• Evaluating hands
• Reading hands
• Folding, betting, calling, raising, and reraising
• Categorizing opponents
• Figuring pot odds

As in most free (or nearly free) things in life, there are some inherent limitations when you play in online play-money poker games:

• You won’t be able to watch for tells (the involuntary physical and emotional slips that often give away a player’s hand) unless you’re psychic. The opportunity to fire in a raise because you’ve seen fear in an opponent’s eyes is an experience you won’t have in Internet games.
• You won’t be able to practice tricky strategies. You’ll probably have to “show down” a real hand after all the cards are out — forget fancy moves and bluffs. Players will usually call with anything when no money is involved.
• The games are generally slower than live games and much slower than interactive software where you play against computer opponents. Many people play in the games while doing other things, or they may have slow computers or problems with their Internet service providers (ISPs).

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