Online Poker

Table of Contents

Online Poker

Author: American Gambler Staff | Last Updated: April 24, 2023

US Online Poker History

In the not too distant past, poker was a game for hardened gamblers who frequented the tables in Vegas.

And many of the other poker venues across the US were seen as intimidating to your average gambler; their interest in playing the game thwarted by a lack of suitable venues.

Today it is open to everyone with a laptop, tablet or phone, with high or low stakes games open any time of the day or night.

Online poker was available free of charge in the late 1990s, with real money games available as early as 1998.

The online development of the game was gradual, but by 2010 there were around 545 online poker websites worldwide.

In the US there were many hurdles for the average gambler to clear to gain access to the online game. North Dakota was one of the first states to see the potential of online poker and legalized the practice, the proviso being any online site physically located their operation in the state.

However, the State Senate threw the ruling out after the intervention of the US Department of Justice. They stated that online gaming €˜may’ be illegal and the legislation €˜might’ violate the federal Wire Act.

Many of the poker apps then created alternative websites offering poker schools, effectively playing poker for fun rather than for money. The legal challenges continued and it wasn’t until 2013 that Nevada became the first US state to allow persons physically located in the state, and at least 21 years of age, to play poker online for money.

Delaware followed soon after, then New Jersey, and in 2014 an agreement was reached for interstate gambling. Nevada and Delaware signed to allow online poker players from Nevada to play poker for real money against online players in Delaware. A three-state deal involving New Jersey went live in May 2018.

Playing Online Poker for Real Money in the USA

There are numerous poker sites online and the most popular game across all sites is Texas Hold’em. In Hold’em you are given only two cards, and you try and combine them with five community cards to make the best possible hand. Simple to learn but difficult to master, and a great introduction to online poker.

Before you take the plunge read up about the rules of Texas-hold’em. The great thing about online poker is that you can play for as little or as much as you want, and many sites offer free games for you to hone your skills. Other online poker games include Pot-Limit Omaha, 7 Card Stud, and 5 Card Draw.

When you feel confident enough you can then look to enter online poker tournaments the cheapest way to potentially win big money. Many sites offer access to $10 buy-in online tournaments, some offering first prizes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

You pay your buy-in and receive a set number of chips. Once you’ve bet all your chips you’re out.

Other types of tournaments include Sit & Gos, SNGs: smaller games which start once enough players have entered. It is worth your while reading up on strategies for playing poker tournaments like Sit & Gos.

Simple cash games are also popular where you buy in with a certain amount of cash and receives chips with a real monetary value. Each game will have a minimum and maximum amount a player can have on the table the amount related to the size of the blinds at that table. The blind is the forced bet the player to the left of the dealer must make.

You can cash out at any time during cash games so you can play for ten minutes or ten hours.

It is always worth reading up about the game and even watching some of the professionals to see how they play and, more importantly, when and why they fold. ESPN shows live poker tournaments.

Poker After Dark

Also available from PokerGO, Poker After Dark features some of the biggest names in poker. The iconic show was resurrected by PokerGO with some of the original stars of the mid-2000s show. Big pros compete at the cash tables in a battle of poker skills and psychology.

Check some US gambling sites that offer online poker betting options.

What is a straight and a full house in poker?

A straight in poker is five sequential cards in order, non-suited. A full house in poker is when you hold both a pair and three of a kind in your hand. For example, suppose you playing at 888 NJ and you have JhTh. If the flop comes QsKdAs, you have flopped a straight. If you hold the same cards and the board comes JsJdTc, you have flopped a full house. A suited straight is what is known as a straight flush and is so powerful that it can only lose to a royal flush, which is a straight flush with cards ranked from ten to ace.

What beats a flush in poker? Explain some basics, please.

A flush in poker is a very strong hand that almost always wins due to its great strength. However, a flush every so often will lose to a full house or four of a kind. Due to the board cards involved in making a flush, it will rarely (yet will) lose to a straight flush or royal flush (also occasionally called a royal straight flush).

Online poker hands: what beats what?

The rank order of poker hands goes as follows, from weakest to strongest:

  1. High card. Example: AJ on 943T7
  2. One Pair. Example: KQ on QT876 or J9 on 225K8.
  3. Two Pair. Example: 98 on 98AQJ or KJ on JTT27.
  4. Three of a Kind. Example: 22 on AK2Q9 or A9 on 998J2.
  5. Straight. Example: JT on 98732.
  6. Flush. Example AsKs on Js9s4hQs2h.
  7. Full House. Example: 55 on 5KJ44 or 99 on KKK84.
  8. Four of a Kind. Example: AA on AAKJ4 or A8 on 8889K.
  9. Straight Flush. Example: QdJd on Td9d8d4h4s.
  10. Royal Flush. KhQh on AhJhTh6d4d.

How to calculate poker odds and convert them, with examples?

The first step in calculating pot odds is knowing which cards you need to complete your hand. The simplest example of this is when you flop a flush draw. If you are playing Hold’em on 888.com and have two hearts in your hand and there are two on the board, that means that you have know that there are nine hearts (outs) remaining in the deck that complete your flush.

13 total suits 4 exposed suit cards = 9

Now€¦with the other remaining board cards that don’t help you, you have knowledge of five cards in the deck. You now know that you are looking for nine hearts with 47 cards left. You then divide your outs by the remaining cards in the deck.

9 / 47 = 0.19 or 19%

Round that figure to the nearest five percent and you get 20%, which is also expressed as 1 out of 5 or 4:1, which is how pot odds are normally expressed.

How and where to play five-card draw poker online in the U.S.?

The only place to play online draw poker for real money is on PokerStars NJ. You must be a resident of New Jersey to play here, although there is some hope that Nevada residents will soon be able to enjoy the PokerStars experience within the next couple of years.

That being said, draw poker is not commonly played anywhere in the world anymore, much less so for higher stakes. You are much better off learning how to play Texas Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha if you hoping to make any money at poker.

How many chips do you start with in online poker?

The number of chips you start within poker depends on whether or not you are playing a cash game or a tournament. In a cash game, the amount is determined by both the minimum and maximum buy-in. Most commonly, if you were to buy in to a $5/$10 online game at Black Chip Poker, for instance, the minimum amount would be $400 and the maximum would be $1,000. If you wanted to play the same game at Global Poker, the maximum would be the same, but the minimum would be $250.

As for tournaments, the number of chips you start out at is predetermined for all players, but is normally between 2,000 and 10,000, with the exception of deeper stacked events, which will often be between 20,000 and 50,000.

What is angle shooting in poker? How does it work?

Angle shooting in poker is when someone deliberately does something unethical and intentionally deceptive in a live poker game (note: this is not possible online) that gives them an unfair advantage by eliciting a tell on another player. The targeted player is usually someone with less experience, and thus, more susceptible to an angle shoot.

How to get free chips on World Series of poker?

The only way to get free chips on the World Series of Poker would be to win your way into the event. You can do this through satellite events on virtually any online poker site. For instance, the landmark win of Chris Moneymaker began when he won a super satellite with just $40 on PokerStars.

What is a 3 bet in poker?

What constitutes a 3-bet in poker depends on which version of game you are playing. In Limit Texas Hold’em, a 3-bet is just a simple one unit reraise. In NLH on William Hill NJ a 3-bet is a reraise that is at least doubling the previous bet all the way to the amount of the smallest stack in play. In pot limit games such as Pot Limit Omaha, a 3-bet is a reraise that is maxed out to the size of the pot.

What is a dead man’s hand in poker?

The so-called €œDead Man’s Hand€ in poker originally comes from the old game of draw poker where the famous wild west outlaw Wild Bill Hickok was said to have been holding a two pair combo of aces and eights in draw poker on the day he was murdered during a poker hand. The Dead Man’s Hand’s definition has been altered slightly over the years, but remains relevant in Texas Hold’em, particularly when a player is holding exactly an ace and an eight on Pala Poker for his or her two card combo, or alternatively if someone holds any two card combo where the board will read two pair, aces and eights.

Is poker just luck?

This is a frequent question that gets asked. Over the course of a single hand or session, and sometimes even a group of sessions, luck will be the deciding factor in poker. While there are elements of luck in poker, over the long term, it is skill that will eventually dominate. The main distinction is that poker, as opposed to other games of chance, is played against other players, rather than the house. The simplest way of explaining this is how your average good player values his hands. Newbies at the game will often play any two cards, as they don’t know the percentages of how various hands match up, nor do they realize that such a concept even matters. Yet anyone with experience knows that 87s will continually lose money to pocket aces, as it wins only 22% of the time. Bad players will also chase draws when they don’t know the odds of making their hand, and over time, these bad plays will cost them money, even if the draws sometimes hit.

A simple way to know whether or not this is true is to compare it to other games of chance where there are elements of decision making, and then asking yourself if it is possible to lose. For example, in blackjack, you do have the option of taking a hit on a 16, a 17, or even a 20 if you are suicidal, as there is nothing to stop you from taking more cards as long as you have less than 21. However, if you are playing a game like roulette, no matter how you shuffle your chips around the table, you can not prevent the wheel from hitting your spots. Likewise, when playing a slot machine, you only have the option of choosing how much to wager, and therefore skill plays no role.

What’s the difference between online and live poker?

There are many differences between the two versions of poker. First of all, if you plan on playing no-limit hold’em in a live casino, the games are going to be much softer. People tend to play more loosely and passively in a live setting, often because they have traveled far to play and folding every hand just isn’t as fun. Also, since unlike playing online, they don’t have the option to play multiple tables at once. This naturally makes the games play looser.

Online, since the action moves much faster, players are more inclined to play tight. Since it won’t take one to minutes to get more cards, only the loosest players at the table will be playing a hand like 64o under the gun. Secondly, online players tend to be much more aggressive, at all stakes. It is not uncommon to see an online pro-3-bet a hand like QJs, but seeing 3-bets that aren’t premium in a live setting is rare, except at perhaps the $5/$10 level and above. Open limping tends to be unusual and continuation bets with nothing are the norm. Lastly, if you play online and choose not to bet on the flop, you should expect that another player will try to take the pot away from you.

What online poker sites are legal in the U.S.?

The answer to this is a two part question, as there are regulated and unregulated markets currently operating in the USA.

For regulated markets, let’s focus on New Jersey, as that is the largest one and all sites operating within will soon be expanded to other regulated states, particularly if there is the predicted shift of combining player pools from other state markets, like Nevada and Delaware (already in the works with 888). Players from PA and WV should soon be expected to play legally from their home states.

  1. PokerStars NJ
  2. Partypoker NJ
  3. 888 NJ
  4. Pala Poker

The joke is kind of on the players from regulated states, as players outside those zones have better options (read: more traffic) that are strictly forbidden for NV, NJ, and DE residents. For those of us €œlucky€ enough not to have been bit by the regulatory bug, we can play at Global Poker, Ignition Poker, America’s Cardroom, GGPoker, Black Chip Poker, the Chico Network, and Intertops Poker.

Again, please note that if you live in a regulated state, you must abide by the rules of the land and only play at those sites that are regulated.

American Gambler Staff