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.“Comparing [online play] to a live game where most of the time people are relatively talkative, usually in decent spirits, is like night and day,” Hoppmann says. “In the games I play online these days, it’s mostly younger people who are out to make as much money as possible. Being cordial and chatting and having a good time seems to take a back seat. They will do what it takes to keep their opposition happy and playing, but not much more.”
Pyatskowit says online and live play are “different animals.” He says poker nights will not go away completely because those nights are primarily about hanging out with other people.
“I think there are still enough poker players who appreciate the thrill of playing live,” Pyatskowit says.
Hammerling agrees the live game has staying power and it is much more personal and competitive, compared to online play.
“I think there will always be poker nights,” Hammerling says. “I think most people still learn to play in someone’s basement with five bucks. … When you’re multi-tabling online, you’re just trying to beat the game for a good income. All the other players are just statistics that you read and interpret.”
Hammerling says he has more fun playing house games because he can experiment with new techniques because the stakes are usually lower.
“I also get to play with my friends, rather than a bunch of random assholes, which is a plus,” Hammerling says.
Hoppmann, who has found success online, rarely plays on the live scene anymore.
“Once a year I go to Vegas, during the World Series of Poker, to play a few events and hang out,” Hoppmann says. “A couple times a year I go to L.A. and play at a place called Commerce Casino, which is where you go to play big live games now.”
Sometimes Hoppmann returns to Canterbury Card Club, a Minnesota poker room where he played in high school, but since the biggest bet allowed is $60, he just plays for fun.
The traditional house game may have lost some of its appeal to Hoppmann, but he still thinks poker night will always be around, especially for amateur players.
“Playing Texas Hold ‘em in a small home game with friends for a couple bucks is a big bore now,” Hoppmann says. “It will always be fun to get together with some people and maybe have a couple beers and just hang out. … It might actually become more popular if online poker starts to show a dramatic slow down.”
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Playing online
Most poker players embrace the rise of the online poker, but the popularity of the new form has changed the game.
“Not seeing your opponents is certainly a disadvantage, but it’s honestly one of the smaller ones compared to live play,” Hammerling says.
Hammerling thinks the average online player is more skilled than the average live casino player at the same stakes.
“This may even be being generous to casino players,” Hammerling says. “Simply put, they are awful. They usually have no clue what they are doing and are just there to gamble and have a good time.”
Though the competition is harder, Hammerling appreciates the ability to play multiple games at once online.
“The players may be way better, but there is no substitute for playing 10 tables at a time whenever you feel like it,” Hammerling says.
Hoppmann says he adapts to the lack of physical “tells” online.
“There are other things to pick up on, though, such as the time it takes someone to make an action – checking or betting. ‘Timing tells,’ we call them,” Hoppmann says.But there are clues to pick up on during an online game. Hoppmann says he pays attention to how his opponents have been known to bet or raise in previously played hands and then applies the information to the current hand.
Playing poker online, however, changes more than the visibility of your opponents. Sometimes, an online player will encounter technical difficulties.
“A month or so ago, I was in the middle of a really big no-limit Hold ‘em hand where I had the nuts on the turn and timed out because my mouse froze when my opponent had made a huge raise,” Hoppmann says. “That probably cost me $25,000, and was the sickest I’ve ever felt before. I couldn’t play for three days.”
Another issue unique to online play is the use of “bots,” or computer programs posing as human players. Popular poker site fulltiltpoker.com was in the news earlier this year because of allegations they were using poker bots on their site.
“Everyone has small fears [about poker bots], but I have been very successful,” Hoppmann says. “As long as I keep my eyes out for certain weird-looking things and don’t notice anything shady, I feel pretty comfortable.”
As more people join the online game, more may try to cheat the system. The sites’ owners regulate activity to some degree, but Hoppmann would prefer unbiased regulation by a group independent of the poker sites.
“It would be nice if it was regulated by the government or something, so there was some oversight or consequences for any ill-advised activities on the part of the poker sites or players,” Hoppmann says.
Knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em
Today, Hoppmann says he plays predominantly limit Hold ‘em, along with mixed games.
“Mixed games have become relatively popular, so being able to play them all is important,” Hoppmann says. “Online, this new ‘7’ game is becoming popular, which is HORSE and no-limit Hold ‘em and pot-limit Omaha. Most of the bigger action these days is in mixed games.”
Because he has never had more than a few months to play seriously, Hammerling sticks mostly to no-limit Hold ‘em and hasn’t gotten past the mid-level games.
“That might be a good thing because playing for that level of money can be pretty stressful,” Hammerling says.
Hammerling says his biggest one-day win was about $1,500, and his biggest loss was $1,100, playing at mid-level tables.
But others, like Hoppmann, who says his biggest winning day was around $60,000, play for higher stakes.
Anyone who has seen televised poker probably wonders about those famous bad beats and exciting all-in moments. Hoppmann doesn’t see too many Casino Royale-style hands, since he predominantly plays limit Hold ‘em and he says there aren’t any “epic, huge all-ins.”
But Hammerling, who plays mostly mid-level no-limit Hold ‘em games, sees his fair share of intense all-in action.
“I’ve faced a huge number of ridiculous hands,” Hammerling says. “It’s hard to pick out any one hand because I’ve had things like lower four-of-a-kind versus higher four-of-a-kind happen more than once.”
Bad beats are more easily recalled.
“The worst poker night I ever had, I experienced a nut flush versus a full house, two higher full houses versus lower full houses, and one quads versus full house, all within five minutes of each other,” Hammerling says. “Naturally, I was on the losing end of all of those. I don’t think I played for a week after that.”
Beating the game
Though the cards have not changed, the increasing number of well-versed online players has made the game harder to beat.
“The biggest change is just the quality of the players,” Hammerling says. “Four years ago, at the peak of the ‘poker boom,’ you didn’t even have to be a good player to make money. There were endless drooling idiots who may or may not have even fully understood the rules just waiting to throw their money at you. Now, you actually need skill to win, and not only at the higher levels. Even the [lower level] tables take some small degree of skill to beat. If I was as good four years ago as I am now, I would have no student debt.”
Hoppmann says he would not recommend many people start playing online for profit, especially people his age.
“It can be very stressful,” Hoppmann says. “The games have gotten much tougher, and it is hard to become successful.”
But for those itching to try out the online poker scene, Hoppmann has some pointers.
“Start off playing smaller games,” Hoppmann says. “Get used to the software and the feel for playing online. I would recommend they play a little smaller than they normally play, and do as much as they can to avoid tilting, or getting very involved emotionally.”
Hoppmann says it is very easy to do foolish things in online games because you don’t physically have to handle money.
“It is just digits on a computer,” Hoppmann says. “So coming up with a strategy to control your emotions when playing is crucial to being successful playing online.”