Bridging the Realism Gap with Online Poker Just Like Being at the Casino

February 22nd, 2012

Bridging the Realism Gap with Online Poker Just Like Being at the Casino

Online Poker is uniquely positioned to be the highest growth computer game over the next decade. Now, the emergence of the crucial interpersonal elements at work in live casino play promise to make the online game an unstoppable force well into the next decade and likely beyond. Basically, the cutting edge versions of free online poker with Face Up technology will allow for a player to actually read opponents physical movements and body language.

No longer will online poker be in essence a different form of the casino game, but rather will become a more convenient version of it. Moreover, even online poker tournaments are getting more popular than off-line ones.

In the last few years, the total revenue generated worldwide by online poker sites has eclipsed 1 billion dollars on an annual basis. With still a great many people in the world yet to get online access, and poker shooting upwards in popularity as both a participation and spectator sport, there promises to be much more excitement for the players and sellers of the online game.

One of the persistent criticisms of online poker by some players through the last decade, was that it still felt completely cut off from the casino driven essence of the game. That is, the ability to view your opponent in person has always created the allure of real energy and guile being traded in a subtle cat and mouse game.

Many players who came up playing exclusively off-line, and then play online, miss the necessity to read body language, cues, and physical tendencies. Online poker doesn’t lose the analytical
and you might say, odds-dictated aspect of the offline game. But many have said that it is limited to a very robotic and for lack of a better word: computerized skill set needed to excel.

As noted in a recent feature on the online game: Online players are required to focus more on betting patterns, reaction time, speed of play, and elements of opponents’ fold/flop percentages, rather than physical reading of opponents’ facial cues, twitches, and even breathing patterns.

By some estimates, online poker has brought millions and millions of new players to the game over the last decade by taking away the intimidation of the casino environment and the large percentage of more experienced players found there. Using the online game, players can learn at their own pace with players of varying experience, and do it anonymously without any embarrassment or shame.

Still, it might have been the movie “Rounders” where it was said, “if after 20 minutes, you don’t know who the sucker at the table is, it is you.” The game of poker is at it’s best when you can marry the analytical skill aspect with the almost super human power of reading and understanding people and tendencies.

Emerging online versions known as Face Up gaming offer the convenience of online, with the most realistic version of the game as it was always intended to be played: face to face requiring the full arsenal of skills from each player.