Virtual card game
An online poker game
Online poker is the game of poker played over the
Internet. It has been partly 🌜 responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker
players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew
🌜 fromR$82.7 million in 2001 toR$2.4 billion in 2005,[1] while a survey carried out by
DrKW and Global Betting and Gaming 🌜 Consultants asserted online poker revenues in 2004
were atR$1.4 billion.[2] In a testimony before the United States Senate regarding
Internet 🌜 Gaming, Grant Eve, a Certified Public Accountant representing the US
Accounting Firm Joseph Eve, Certified Public Accountants, estimated that one 🌜 in every
four dollars gambled is gambled online.[3]
Traditional (or "brick and mortar", B&M,
live, land-based) venues for playing poker, such 🌜 as casinos and poker rooms, may be
intimidating for novice players and are often located in geographically disparate
locations. Also, 🌜 brick and mortar casinos are reluctant to promote poker because it is
difficult for them to profit from it. Though 🌜 the rake, or time charge, of traditional
casinos is often high, the opportunity costs of running a poker room are 🌜 even higher.
Brick and mortar casinos often make much more money by removing poker rooms and adding
more slot machines. 🌜 For example, figures from the Gaming Accounting Firm Joseph Eve
estimate that poker accounts for 1% of brick and mortar 🌜 casino revenues.[3]
Online
venues, by contrast, are dramatically cheaper because they have much smaller overhead
costs. For example, adding another table 🌜 does not take up valuable space like it would
for a brick and mortar casino. Online poker rooms also allow 🌜 the players to play for
low stakes (as low as 1¢/2¢) and often offer poker freeroll tournaments (where there is
🌜 no entry fee), attracting beginners and/or less wealthy clientele.
Online venues may be
more vulnerable to certain types of fraud, especially 🌜 collusion between players.
However, they have collusion detection abilities that do not exist in brick and mortar
casinos. For example, 🌜 online poker room security employees can look at the hand history
of the cards previously played by any player on 🌜 the site, making patterns of behavior
easier to detect than in a casino where colluding players can simply fold their 🌜 hands
without anyone ever knowing the strength of their holding. Online poker rooms also
check players' IP addresses in order 🌜 to prevent players at the same household or at
known open proxy servers from playing on the same tables. Digital 🌜 device fingerprinting
also allows poker sites to recognize and block players who create new accounts in
attempts to circumvent prior 🌜 account bans, restrictions and closures.
History [ edit
]
The "lobby" screen of Planet Poker, one of the early online poker sites, 🌜 in 2000
Free
poker online was played as early as the late 1990s in the form of IRC poker. Planet
Poker 🌜 was the first online card room to offer real money games in 1998. The first real
money poker game was 🌜 dealt on January 1, 1998. Author Mike Caro became the "face" of
Planet Poker in October 1999.
The major online poker 🌜 sites offer varying features to
entice new players. One common feature is to offer tournaments called satellites by
which the 🌜 winners gain entry to real-life poker tournaments. It was through one such
tournament on PokerStars that Chris Moneymaker won his 🌜 entry to the 2003 World Series
of Poker. He went on to win the main event, causing shock in the 🌜 poker world, and
beginning the poker boom. The 2004 World Series featured three times as many players as
in 2003. 🌜 At least four players in the WSOP final table won their entry through an
online cardroom. Like Moneymaker, 2004 winner 🌜 Greg Raymer also won his entry at the
PokerStars online cardroom.
In October 2004, Sportingbet, at the time the world's
largest 🌜 publicly traded online gaming company (SBT.L), announced the acquisition of
ParadisePoker, one of the online poker industry's first and largest 🌜 cardrooms. TheR$340
million acquisition marked the first time an online card room was owned by a public
company. Since then, 🌜 several other card room parent companies have gone public.
In June
2005, PartyGaming, the parent company of the then-largest online cardroom, 🌜 PartyPoker,
went public on the London Stock Exchange, achieving an initial public offering market
value in excess ofR$8 billion. At 🌜 the time of the IPO, ninety-two percent of Party
Gaming's income came from poker operations.
In early 2006, PartyGaming moved to 🌜 acquire
EmpirePoker from Empire Online. Later in the year, bwin, an Austrian-based online
gambling company, acquired PokerRoom. Other poker rooms 🌜 such as PokerStars that were
rumored to be exploring initial public offerings have postponed them.[4]
As of March
2008, there are 🌜 fewer than forty stand-alone cardrooms and poker networks with
detectable levels of traffic. There are however more than 600 independent 🌜 doorways or
'skins' into the group of network sites.[5] As of January 2009, the majority of online
poker traffic occurs 🌜 on just a few major networks, among them PokerStars, Full Tilt
Poker and the iPoker Network.
As of February 2010, there 🌜 are approximately 545 online
poker websites.[6] Within the 545 active sites, about two dozen are stand-alone sites
(down from 40 🌜 in March 2008), while the remaining sites are called “skins” and operate
on 21 different shared networks, the largest network 🌜 being iPoker which has dozens of
skins operating on its network.[7] Of all the online poker rooms PokerStars is deemed
🌜 the world's largest poker site by number of players on site at any one time.[8] By May
2012 PokerStars had 🌜 increased their market share to more than 56%.[9]
The year 2011 is
known as the infamous year of Black Friday, when 🌜 the U.S Department of Justice seized
the domain names of PokerStars, Full Tilt & Absolute Poker, effectively freezing the
bankrolls 🌜 of their player base.[10] Full Tilt was accused by the DoJ of acting as a
Ponzi scheme and scamming players 🌜 out ofR$300 million. On the other hand, PokerStars
paidR$1 billion in fines immediately.
In 2014, PokerStars became the largest publicly
traded 🌜 company in the industry of poker when businessman David Baazov initiated a
takeover bid costingR$4.9 billion.[11]
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted 🌜 in a massive
increase in online poker traffic. The pandemic is believed to have directed both
professional and recreational players 🌜 who normally prefer live poker to online
platforms due to the indefinite closure of most casinos and other live gaming 🌜 venues
worldwide, with even many unlicensed venues shutting down. In addition, the sudden
dearth of live entertainment options due to 🌜 the widespread disruption of the sports and
entertainment schedules around the world is believed to have resulted in more than 🌜 the
usual number of casual players turning to online poker as an alternative. Many
operators reported traffic of double or 🌜 more the previous volume, depending on the time
of day.
Legality [ edit ]
From a legal perspective, online poker may differ 🌜 in some
ways from online casino gambling. However, many of the same issues do apply. For a
discussion of the 🌜 legality of online gambling in general, see online gambling.
Online
poker is legal and regulated in many countries including several nations 🌜 in and around
the Caribbean Sea, and most notably the United Kingdom.
United States [ edit ]
In the
United States, the 🌜 North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill in February 2005
to legalize and regulate online poker and online poker 🌜 card room operators in the
state. The legislation required that online poker operations would have to physically
locate their entire 🌜 operations in the state. Testifying before the state Senate
Judiciary committee, Nigel Payne, CEO of Sportingbet and owner of Paradise 🌜 Poker,
pledged to relocate to the state if the bill became law.[12]
The measure, however, was
defeated by the State Senate 🌜 in March 2005 after the U.S. Department of Justice sent a
letter to North Dakota attorney general Wayne Stenehjem stating 🌜 that online gaming
"may" be illegal, and that the pending legislation "might" violate the federal Wire
Act. However, many legal 🌜 experts dispute the DOJ's claim.
In response to this and other
claims by the DOJ regarding the legality of online poker, 🌜 many of the major online
poker sites stopped advertising their "dot-com" sites in American media. Instead, they
created "dot-net" sites 🌜 that are virtually identical but offer no real money wagering.
The sites advertise as poker schools or ways to learn 🌜 the game for free, and feature
words to the effect of "this is not a gambling website."
On October 13, 2006, 🌜 President
Bush officially signed into law the SAFE Port Act, a bill aimed at enhancing security
at U.S. ports.[13] Attached 🌜 to the Safe Port Act was a provision known as the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA). According 🌜 to the UIGEA, "unlawful
internet gambling" means to place, receive, or otherwise knowingly transmit a bet or
wager by means 🌜 of the internet where such bet is unlawful under any law in the State in
which the bet is initiated, 🌜 received, or otherwise made. Thus, the UIGEA prohibits
online gambling sites from performing transactions with American financial
institutions. As a 🌜 result of the bill, several large publicly traded poker gaming sites
such as PartyPoker, PacificPoker and bwin closed down their 🌜 US-facing operations. The
UIGEA has had a devastating effect on the stock value of these companies.[14] Some
poker sites, such 🌜 as PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, continued to operate
and remained open to US players.[15]
Following passage of UIGEA, former 🌜 U.S. Senator Al
D'Amato joined the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). Part of the PPA's mission is to
protect and to 🌜 advocate for the right of poker players to play online. D'Amato's
responsibilities include Congressional lobbying. In April 2008, the PPA 🌜 claimed over
1,000,000 members.[16][17]
Other grassroots organizations, including the Safe and
Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, have formed in opposition to UIGEA, 🌜 to promote the
freedom of individuals to gamble online with the proper safeguards to protect consumers
and ensure the integrity 🌜 of financial transactions.[18]
On November 27, 2009,
Department of the Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben S. 🌜 Bernanke announced a six-month delay, until June 1, 2010, for required
compliance with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 🌜 2006 (UIGEA). The
move blocks regulations to implement the legislation which requires the financial
services sector to comply with ambiguous 🌜 and burdensome rules in an attempt to prevent
unlawful Internet gambling transactions.
On July 28, 2010, the House Financial Services
Committee 🌜 passed H.R. 2267 by a vote of 41–22–1. The bill would legalize and regulate
online poker in the United States.[19][20]
In 🌜 September 2010, the Washington State
Supreme Court upheld a law making playing poker online a felony.[21]
On April 15, 2011,
in 🌜 U. S. v. Scheinberg et al. (10 Cr. 336), the Federal Bureau of Investigation
temporarily shut down three major poker 🌜 websites of Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars, and
Absolute Poker, and seized several of their bank accounts. A grand 🌜 jury charged 11
defendants, including the founders of the poker sites, with bank fraud, money
laundering, and violating gambling laws. 🌜 The prosecutors claim the individuals tricked
or influenced U.S. banks into receiving profits from online gambling, an act that
violated 🌜 UIGEA.[22] The same day, former Senator D'Amato released a comment on behalf
of the PPA. He asserts that, "Online poker 🌜 is not a crime and should not be treated as
such." D'Amato made no comment on the specific charges raised 🌜 but promised a response
once the "full facts become available."[23] He responded in the Washington Post on
April 22.[24] The 🌜 actions by the Department of Justice were also criticized by gaming
law experts, including I. Nelson Rose.[25]
On September 20, 2011, 🌜 in response to
guidance requested by the states of Illinois and New York regarding the sale of lottery
tickets online, 🌜 the Department of Justice issued a memorandum opinion stating that the
Wire Act does not prohibit lottery sales over the 🌜 internet because it deals solely with
wagering on sporting contests. While this opinion does not address online poker
specifically, the 🌜 reasoning employed interprets the Wire Act in such a way that its
provisions don't apply to the game of poker.[26]
On 🌜 August 21, 2012, a federal judge in
New York ruled that poker is not gambling under federal law because it 🌜 is primarily a
game of skill, not chance. The ruling resulted in the dismissal of a federal criminal
indictment against 🌜 a man convicted of conspiring to operate an illegal underground
poker club. The judge relied in his decision largely on 🌜 findings by a defense expert
who analyzed Internet poker games.[27]
On April 30, 2013, Nevada became the first U.S.
state to 🌜 allow persons physically located within the state and at least 21 years of age
to play poker online for money 🌜 legally.[28]
In late October, Delaware launched its
regulated online gambling market. Controlled by the Delaware Lottery, the state offers
online casino 🌜 games in addition to online poker.[29]
On February 25, 2014, Nevada
Governor Brian Sandoval and Delaware Governor Jack Markell signed the 🌜 first interstate
poker compact, an agreement that will allow online poker players from Nevada to play
for real money against 🌜 players located in Delaware. The compact is limited to online
poker only, as that is the only game currently permitted 🌜 under Nevada law. Should more
states enter into the agreement, something that is provided for under the terms of the
🌜 compact, more games could be offered.[30]
Following an agreement between Nevada,
Delaware, and New Jersey governments to allow player pooling between 🌜 all three states,
a three-state online poker compact went live on May 1, 2024.[31] On April 7, 2024,
Michigan joined 🌜 the interstate poker compact as the fourth state.[32]
Australia [ edit
]
In Australia the Interactive Gambling Act was signed into law 🌜 in 2001. The act makes
it illegal for online poker providers to operate or advertise their services in
Australia.[33] The 🌜 intention of the act was to entirely prohibit online poker, but the
act itself only forbids operators based in Australia 🌜 from providing their service. It
did not prohibit citizens from accessing the online poker services of providers that
were based 🌜 overseas.[citation needed]
The Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill was
passed in 2024 in response to the failings of the 2001 Interactive Gambling
🌜 Act.[citation needed] This provided a significant improvement towards ensuring consumer
protection and responsible gaming in Australian citizens. This latest bill 🌜 successfully
forced the major poker companies[clarification needed] to stop offering their services
to Australian citizens.[34]
Although there are certain provisions in 🌜 the law which
allow licensed establishments to provide online poker services, there is no agency set
up to issue any 🌜 of such required licenses.[citation needed]
Profit model [ edit
]
Typically, online poker rooms generate the bulk of their revenue via four 🌜 methods.
First, there is the rake. Similar to the vig paid to a bookie, the rake is a fee paid
🌜 to the house for hosting the game. Rake is collected from most real money ring game
pots. The rake is 🌜 normally calculated as a percentage of the pot based on a sliding
scale and capped at some maximum fee. Each 🌜 online poker room determines its own rake
structure. Since the expenses for running an online poker table are smaller than 🌜 those
for running a live poker table, rake in most online poker rooms is much smaller than
its brick and 🌜 mortar counterpart.
Second, hands played in pre-scheduled multi-table and
impromptu sit-and-go tournaments are not raked, but rather an entry fee around 🌜 five to
ten percent of the tournament buy-in is added to the entry cost of the tournament.
These two are 🌜 usually specified in the tournament details as, e.g.,R$20+$2 ($20
represents the buy-in that goes into the prize pool andR$2 represents 🌜 the entry fee, de
facto rake). Unlike real casino tournaments, online tournaments do not deduct dealer
tips and other expenses 🌜 from the prize pool.[35]
Third, some online poker sites also
offer side games like blackjack, roulettes, or side bets on poker 🌜 hands where the
player plays against "the house" for real money.[36] The odds are in the house's favor
in these 🌜 games, thus producing a profit for the house. Some sites go as far as getting
affiliated with online casinos, or 🌜 even integrating them into the poker room
software.
Fourth, like almost all institutions that hold money, online poker sites
invest the 🌜 money that players deposit. Regulations in most jurisdictions exist in an
effort to limit the sort of risks sites can 🌜 take with their clients' money. However,
since the sites do not have to pay interest on players' bankrolls even low-risk
🌜 investments can be a significant source of revenue.
Integrity and fairness [ edit
]
Randomness of the shuffle [ edit ]
Many critics 🌜 question whether the operators of
such games - especially those located in jurisdictions separate from most of their
players - 🌜 might be engaging in fraud themselves.[37]
Internet discussion forums are
rife with allegations of non-random card dealing, possibly to favour house-employed
🌜 players or "bots" (poker-playing software disguised as a human opponent), or to give
multiple players good hands thus increasing the 🌜 bets and the rake, or simply to prevent
new players from losing so quickly that they become discouraged. However, despite
🌜 anecdotal evidence to support such claims, others argue that the rake is sufficiently
large that such abuses would be unnecessary 🌜 and foolish. Attempts at manipulative
dealing could face a risk of third party detection due to increasingly sophisticated
tracking software 🌜 that could be used to detect any number of unusual patterns, though
such analyses are not generally available in the 🌜 public domain.
Many players claim to
see many "bad beats" with large hands pitted against others all too often at a 🌜 rate
that seems to be a lot more common than in live games. However, this could be caused by
the 🌜 higher hands per hour at on-line cardrooms. Since online players get to see more
hands, their likelihood of seeing more 🌜 improbable bad beats or randomly large pots is
similarly increased.
Many online poker sites are certified by major auditing firms like
🌜 PricewaterhouseCoopers to review the fairness of the random number generator, shuffle,
and payouts for some sites.[38]
Insider cheating [ edit ]
Insider 🌜 cheating occurs when
a person with trusted access to the system (e.g. an employee of the poker room) uses
their 🌜 position to play poker themselves with an unfair advantage. This can be done
without the knowledge of the site managers.
Perhaps 🌜 the first known major case came to
light in October 2007, when Absolute Poker acknowledged that its integrity had been
🌜 breached by an employee, who had been able to play at high stakes while viewing his
opponents' hidden "hole" cards.[39] 🌜 The cheating was first brought to light by the
efforts of players, whose saved histories of play showed the employee 🌜 was playing as
only someone who could see their opponents' cards could.[40]
In 2008, UltimateBet
became embroiled in a similar scandal, 🌜 with former employees accused of using a
software backdoor to see opponents' cards. UltimateBet confirmed the allegations on May
29.[41] 🌜 The Kahnawake Gaming Commission announced sanctions against UltimateBet as a
result.[42]
Collusion [ edit ]
More mundane cheating involves collusion between
players, 🌜 or the use of multiple accounts by a single player. Collusion is not limited
to online play but can occur 🌜 in any poker game with three or more players. Most poker
rooms claim to actively scan for such activity. For 🌜 example, in 2007, PokerStars
disqualified TheV0id, the winner of the main event of the World Championship of Online
Poker for 🌜 breaching their terms of service.[43]
Differences from conventional poker [
edit ]
Online poker and conventional poker have several differences.
One difference is
🌜 that players do not sit near each other, removing the ability to observe others'
reactions and body language. Instead, online 🌜 poker players focus on opponents' betting
patterns, reaction times, speed of play, use of check boxes/auto plays, opponents'
fold/flop percentages, 🌜 chat box, waiting for the big blind, beginners' tells, and other
behavior tells that are not physical in nature. Since 🌜 poker requires adaptability,
successful online players learn to master the new frontiers of their
surroundings.[citation needed]
Another less obvious difference is 🌜 the rate of play. In
brick and mortar cardroooms, the dealer has to collect, shuffle, and deal the cards
after 🌜 every hand. Due to this and other delays common in offline casinos, the average
rate of play is around thirty 🌜 hands per hour. Online casinos do not have these delays.
Dealing and shuffling are instantaneous, there are no delays relating 🌜 to counting chips
(for a split pot), and on average the play is faster due to "auto-action" buttons
(where the 🌜 player selects their action before their turn). It is not uncommon for an
online poker table to average ninety to 🌜 one hundred hands per hour.[citation
needed]
Online poker is cheaper to play than conventional poker. While the rake
structures of online 🌜 poker sites might not differ from those in brick and mortar
operations, most of the other incidental expenses entailed by 🌜 playing in a live room do
not exist in online poker. An online poker player can play at home and 🌜 incur no
transportation costs to and from the poker room. Provided the player already has a
computer and an Internet 🌜 connection, there are no up-front equipment costs to get
started. There are also considerable incidental expenses at a live poker 🌜 table. Besides
the rake, tipping the dealers, chip runners, servers, and other casino employees is
expected, putting a further drain 🌜 on a player's profits. Also, while an online player
can enter and leave tables almost as they please, once seated 🌜 at a live table a player
must remain there until they wish to stop playing or else go back to 🌜 the bottom of the
waiting list. Food and beverages at casinos are expensive even compared to other
hospitality establishments in 🌜 the same city, let alone at home, and casino managers
have little incentive to provide complimentary food or drink for 🌜 poker
players.[citation needed]
In brick and mortar casinos, the only real way a player can
increase their earnings is to increase 🌜 their limit, likely encountering better
opponents in the process. In the online world, players have another option: play more
tables. 🌜 Unlike a traditional casino where it is physically impossible to play at more
than one table at a time, most 🌜 online poker rooms permit this. Depending on the site
and the player's ability to make speedy decisions, a player might 🌜 play several tables
at the same time, viewing them each in a separate window on the computer display. For
example, 🌜 an average profit aroundR$10 per 100 hands at a low-limit game is generally
considered to be good play. In a 🌜 casino, this would earn a player underR$4 an hour.
After dealer tips, the "winning" player would probably barely break even 🌜 before any
other incidental expenses. In an online poker room, a player with the same win rate
playing a relatively 🌜 easy pace of four tables at once at a relatively sluggish 60 hands
per hour each earns aboutR$24/hour on average. 🌜 The main restriction limiting the number
of tables a player can play is the need to make consistently good decisions 🌜 within the
allotted time at every table, but some online players can effectively play up to eight
or more tables 🌜 at once. This can not only increase winnings but can also help to keep a
player's income reasonably stable, since 🌜 instead of staking their entire bankroll on
one higher limit table they are splitting their bankroll, wins and losses amongst 🌜 many
lower limit tables, probably also encountering somewhat less skilled opponents in the
process.
Another important difference results from the fact 🌜 that some online poker
rooms offer online poker schools that teach the basics and significantly speed up the
learning curve 🌜 for novices. Many online poker rooms also provide free money play so
that players may practice these skills in various 🌜 poker games and limits without the
risk of losing real money, and generally offer the hand history of played hands 🌜 for
analysis and discussion using a poker hand converter. People who previously had no way
to learn and improve because 🌜 they had no one to play with now have the ability to learn
the game much quicker and gain experience 🌜 from free-money play.
The limits associated
with online poker range down to far lower levels than the table limits at a 🌜 traditional
casino. The marginal cost of opening each online table is so minuscule that on some
gambling sites players can 🌜 find limits as low asR$.01–$.02. By comparison, at most
brick and mortar establishments the lowest limits are oftenR$1–$2.
Few (if any) 🌜 online
poker sites allow action to be taken "in the dark", while this is usually allowed and
applied by players 🌜 in real gaming houses. It is also not uncommon for online poker
sites to not allow a player the option 🌜 of showing their hand before folding if they are
the giving up the pot to the last remaining bettor. This 🌜 practice is also typically
allowed in casinos.
Currency issues [ edit ]
One issue exclusive to online poker is the
fact that 🌜 players come from around the world and deal in a variety of currencies. This
is not an issue in live 🌜 poker where everyone present can be expected to carry the local
currency. Most online poker sites operate games exclusively in 🌜 U.S. dollars, even if
they do not accept players based in the United States. There are two methods by which
🌜 poker sites can cater to players who do not deal with U.S. dollars on a regular
basis.
The first method is 🌜 to hold players' funds in their native currencies and
convert them only when players enter and leave games. The main 🌜 benefit of this method
for players is to ensure that bankrolls are not subject to exchange rate fluctuations
against their 🌜 local currencies while they are not playing. Also, most sites that use
this method usually apply the same exchange rate 🌜 when a player cashes out of a game as
when he bought in, ensuring that players do not expend significant 🌜 sums simply by
entering and leaving games.
The other method is to require players to convert their
funds when depositing them. 🌜 However, some sites that use this policy do accept payments
in a variety of currencies and convert funds at a 🌜 lower premium compared to what banks
and credit card companies would charge. Others only accept payment in U.S. dollars. One
🌜 benefit of this method is that a player who constantly "tops up" his chip stack to a
constant level (some 🌜 poker rooms have an optional feature that can perform this
function automatically) does not have to worry about rounding issues 🌜 when topping up
with a nominal sum – these could add up over time.
Players may also make use of
ewallets, 🌜 virtual wallets that will allow players to store their funds online in the
currency of their choice. Using crypto poker 🌜 only platforms, like SWC Poker, allows
users to deposit and withdraw funds from poker platforms without worrying about further
currency 🌜 conversion and identity checks.[44]
Many online poker sites, particularly
those that serve the United States, began adopting cryptocurrencies in 2013 as 🌜 a means
of bypassing the UIGEA. The majority of these poker rooms accept deposits in Bitcoin
and then convert them 🌜 to U.S. dollars, performing this process in reverse when paying
out winnings. There also exist cryptocurrency-only operators who denominate their 🌜 games
in Bitcoin or fractions of a bitcoin, avoiding fiat currencies entirely.[45]
Various
software applications are available for online play. Such 🌜 tools include hand database
programs that save, sort, and recall all hand histories played online. Scanning the
active tables for 🌜 known players and displaying previous statistics from hands with
those players next to their name (known as a heads up 🌜 display or HUD) is a common
feature of these programs and is allowed by most sites. Other programs include hand
🌜 re-players and odds, equity or variance calculators. Some software goes as far as to
provide you with quizzes, or scan 🌜 your previously played hands and flag likely
mistakes.
Bonuses [ edit ]
Many online poker sites offer incentives to players,
especially new 🌜 depositors, in the form of bonuses. Usually, the bonuses are paid out
incrementally as certain amounts are raked by the 🌜 player. For example, a site may offer
a player who depositsR$100 a bonus ofR$50 that awardsR$5 every time the player
🌜 rakesR$25. To earn the fullR$50 bonus sum, the player would have to rakeR$250 in
total.
Many online cardrooms also have VIP 🌜 programs to reward regular players. Poker
rooms often offer additional bonuses for players who wish to top-up their accounts.
These 🌜 are known as reload bonuses.
Many online rooms also offer rakeback, and some
offer poker propping.
See the online casino article for 🌜 more on general information on
bonuses.
See also [ edit ]
