Poker night with the guys has some competition these days, and dinner and a movie with the girlfriend is not the culprit. Today, Texas Hold ‘em, the popular game that brought poker mainstream success during the last decade, is increasingly played on computers, video game consoles and other gadgets created as solitary substitutes for live, social gambling.

Online gaming grew quickly in the last decade because companies are bringing in higher profit margins through online sites than in casinos, since the web eliminates traditional expenses such as free drinks and property taxes.

Poker is the most popular online casino game. Today, anyone and everyone can play anytime, anywhere, with only a computer and a credit card. And that changes the game.

From card table to computer screen

Though playing poker online removes the social aspect of good old-fashioned live play, it has its advantages. For those who are serious about making money by playing poker, the online interface brings great opportunities.

John Hoppmann, 23, a student at UW-Madison, is a poker player who has made money throughout college by playing online. Hoppmann grew up playing live poker, but he started playing online in his freshman year of college. Today, he plays predominantly on pokerstars.net and fulltiltpoker.com, two popular poker sites where players can play for cold, hard cash.

Mike Hammerling, 23, of Madison, started playing Texas Hold ’em seven years ago.

“I started playing the beginning of junior year of high school with some friends in someone’s grandma’s basement,” Hammerling says. “My first semester of college, I started a Facebook group for players interested in playing no-limit Hold ‘em. I was messaged by Phil Galfond, the now famous online poker player, about lessons on how to beat online Sit ‘n Go tournaments.”

With Galfond’s tips, Hammerling moved his game play online.

“I only met him twice, but I learned so much that I had no trouble beating the games at that time,” Hammerling says. “From that point on, online poker was my main source of income to support my college life.”

Poker night: A dying pastime?

Now that poker players can play anytime, at whatever stakes they choose, and at as many tables they want, where does that leave live play?

One could say the rise of online poker has turned something that used to be a social event into an antisocial activity. However, poker is unique because people are not playing against machines like they do in most forms of solo gambling. They are still playing against other human beings, just not face-to-face.

Drew Pyatskowit, 24, of Shawano, Wis., still prefers live poker to online play. Pyatskowit plays no-limit Hold ‘em primarily in house games, but he frequents the casinos as well, and he thinks live play is more exciting.

“It’s fun to act at the table and see how other players present themselves. You can’t have much of a table presence in online play,” Pyatskowit says.

Pyatskowit says despite the provided chat boxes, online poker is an antisocial activity.

“A lot of online players play multiple tables at a time and don’t usually take the time to chat when playing,” Pyatskowit says. “They get their reads mainly from the numbers of the game, more than from the physical tells you would read in a live game.”

Hoppmann finds it difficult to compare live and online play.