There are so many factors that go into playing poker that it takes years of experience to figure them all out.  There is math, psychology and common sense all put into one subject.  It doesn’t matter if you play poker online or offline, you are still playing poker.  The difference lies in the way you think about the game, and how you play it.  There are many differences and all the same similarities in the two.  Depending on what type of poker you play and why you play has a lot to do with the difference between online and offline poker.

Just for the sake of this article we are going to assume that we are talking about playing in ring games (cash games).  The game of choice is going to be Texas Hold Em (Limit or No Limit, doesn’t matter in this case).  We are also going to assume that you want to play poker to make some serious money, and you are also a somewhat of a serious poker player.

The number one most obvious difference in online and offline poker is the fact that you are not playing face to face.  There is no physical body that you are playing against when you are online.  You here many times that body language is a good way to get a tell on someone.  Well, if you are playing online you can obviously not get anything out of body language because it doesn’t exist online.  This makes it so you have to use other ways to get reads on your opponents.

Another difference is that with online poker, you can play as many games as you want at the same time.  The majority of professional players, play at least six to twenty games at the same time.  This allows you to make a lot more money and get a lot more going.  Needless to say, you could never do this offline.

When you are playing offline, you are completely focused on what every player is doing and with every detail of what is going on.  This is crucial in an offline game because opportunities are scarce.  When you are playing online in twenty different games, it is a different situation.  In this case, opportunities are not scarce and the playing style is completely different.  While you do want to get as much information about the players in the games as possible, it is not as important then in an offline game.

Playing online is more of a mathematical game straight forward game, when you are playing multiple games at one time.  You play by the odds most of the time, and do not really play any other way.  If you play by the odds, you will win most of the time.  At the end of a session online, you will have lost a lot of money, but you will have won even more.  You may go through $10,000.00 in losses, but have come up with $15,000.00 in wins.  This is all because you went with the odds.  You play good hands, and you fold bad hands.  You raise when you have a raising hand and you fold when you have a folding hand.  When you play offline it is not the same.

While there are many differences in online and offline poker, they are still poker.  It is still the same game with just some different twists.  Most poker players specialize in one or the other.  Most do play both, but make the real money with either online poker or offline poker.  It is hard to make the transition from one to the other, but many players do it.