Poker is perhaps the most mythical card game on the face of the earth. Books and films have popularised the game's finer points to the degree that Texas Hold 'em is now the most popular card game across the world, either online or in traditional brick and mortar casinos. The universality of broadband access has meant that literally anyone of gambling age can join in the most famous community card game on the planet, but as many new players discover there is an art to making the online casinos work for them.
Perhaps the most advantageous facet of playing poker online is that it is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Shift workers or those who pull unsociable hours can play from the comfort of their own homes, knowing that they can make good money from it. Having selected an online poker room, and often with the bolstered bankroll of a sign-up promotional offer, players can dream of emulating the famous players that have entered the cultural consciousness of the sport and its followers, such as Chris Moneymaker's triumph in a $39 satellite tournament that saw him walk away with the WSOP bracelet in 2003.
That triumph for Moneymaker did for poker what the creation of the Premier League did for English football. Making headlines across the globe, amateur players now realised that this new world of no-deposit casino games could open doors they never thought possible during their weekly card games in their best friend's garage.
Having selected a gaming provider through a directory site, canny players hone their skills through the free games that many casinos offer. They use this experience to distinguish the differences in the online version to the traditional game. Without being able to see their opponents, players look for “tells” - signals of an opponent's hand and their true betting intentions. This experience separates the great players from the good, and those who get rich out of poker to those who scrape a living. Tuning in to their opponents and their betting habits is the only way to truly second-guess how an opponent will bet.
Those players who attune to their opponents quickly will inevitable emerge from the contest victorious, but it will often be those players who are humble in both victory and defeat. Bragging or goading opponents is likely to turn a whole table from opponents to enemies, and such negativity can scupper a promising player's potential. Keeping one's own council earns respect rather than animosity and all but ensures that a player can clear up at the table while remaining a gentleman and leaving with his head, and his chips, held high.