Online Poker Information

Table of Contents

III. Online Poker

1. How much money can someone make playing poker online?

This question gets asked a lot on the forums. In reality, it's just like real life, where higher skill equates to higher pay. The top online professionals are making upwards of $100,000 a year playing online poker, while there are many other regulars who make over $40,000 a year playing poker. Most of these players remark that they are playing 40 or more hours per week, so it is indeed a full-time job. The online $5/10 game is the borderline game between the casual player and the professional player, especially since players may play multiple tables at once.

For the casual gamer, the standard measurement of a good win rate is to win 2 big bets (2BB) per hour over the long run. That means if you play the $3/6 game, your goal should be to make $12/hr playing poker. There will be highs and lows, but after you've put in the time, you want it to even out around there.

2. On average, are online players better or worse than casino players?

On average, I'd say that most online players are worse off than the types you would find in a casino. This comes with a caveat however. Online, there are many more low limit games where the bad players can hang around and press their luck. In a casino, you probably don't see as many bad players because the penalties for playing badly are more amplified by the limits in real life.

So, the level of the play will really depend on the limit you are playing at. In a B&M casino, the play starts to get normal usually at the $4/8 level. Online, the play tends to get more normal around the $3/6 level, although it's still pretty wild depending on the table. The $10/20 and $5/10 tables respectively will be where you should see sensible play.

3. What limits should I start playing poker at?

I always recommend you start out low. While the low games are wild and unpredictable, if you can't beat this type of game over the long run, then you shouldn't be playing poker. Online, depending on the site you play at, the play won't normalize until you reach the "mid" online limits (and by mid, I mean 2/4 or 3/6), but depending on your bankroll, you want to minimize the cost of your initial poker lessons if you can. If you're used to the B&M games of $3/6, $4/8 or $5/10, then I'd probably say go ahead and start at the $2/4 online, but just remember that the online games go about 1.5x to 2x faster than in real life.

4. What is the rake online compared to the B&M?

The rake rates for online poker are generally much lower than in the B&Ms. Each online poker room should have a rake fee structure listed on their site somewhere, but for the most part, the rake ranges from about 3% to 10%. At some of the lower limit ring or tournament games however, the rake can go from 10% to even 20%, so be careful not to play in a game where the casino will burn you on rake. One of the nice parts about playing on line is the need not to toke (tip), so that does save a bit of money. In the B&M, the overall rake + tip comes out to around 15%.

5. Can you give me a listing of good resources where I can learn about poker?

One of the best places to start is the RGP Faq. The RGP FAQ covers many topics that are included in this FAQ and then some. Although the RPG FAQ is great, I wouldn't exactly recommend RGP anymore. Two Plus Two has become the forum of choice for the serious players, since it is filled with much less junk and spam than RGP at the moment.

Like a lot of Internet surfers, you'll probably want to find all of your information on the web and hunt down every nook and cranny looking for advice. I think the best advice however, is to head to the bookstore or Amazon.com and pick up some books. On a web page, you can get at best a page or two of useful information. Then you have to hunt for more information again - and it's certainly not organized. If you simply put down the investment (I say investment because that's what it is) and buy a good poker book, it will help you are far more in the long run. I always tell people if you're willing to lose $100 in a pot, you can at least pay $20 for a book that will stop you from losing that $100 the next time around. If this doesn't compute, than poker isn't meant for you.

6. What are some good poker books?

Books that I like recommending are (Amazon links):

• Winning Low Limit Hold'em by Lee Jones
• The Complete Book of Hold'em Poker by Gary Carson
• The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky
• Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky
• Championship No-Limit and Pot-Limit Hold'em by TJ Cloutier, Tom McEvoy
• Middle Limit Holdem Poker by Bob Ciaffone, Jim Brier
• Pot-Limit and No-Limit Poker by Stewart Reuben, Bob Ciaffone

Books that I recommend reading but not buying if for various reasons are:

• Super System by Doyle Brunson
• Caro's Book of Tells by Mike Caro

7. What is RGP?

RGP is short for rec.gambling.poker, which if you are unfamiliar with the rec prefix, means that is is an Internet newsgroup (Usenet). Newsgroups in the earlier days of the Internet were pretty much 'the' forum for discussion related to that specific group. As in much of the early Internet days, it took dedication just to get an Internet connection, so many users were also the same - dedicated, enthusiastic people. RGP was formed and had a lively community of people all helping each other out and discussing poker. You can even see many professionals still post on RGP, such as Gary Carson, Lou Krieger, Mike Sexton, Howard Lederer, Daniel Negraneu and other famous names. The list is really a who's who of poker.

However, as the Internet grew more popular however and Usenet spamming (advertising) became too common, RGP seemed to lose a lot of it's attraction. In it's current state, there are still a few good posts made on the board, but it has become a circus in terms of complete trash and spam that gets posted on a regular basis.

7a. What is with all the promotions and bonus offers on RGP?

This is the delightful spam of the poker affiliates at work. You can do your best to ignore all of this crap on RGP. Even if the offer sounds good, it's probably too good to be true. Poker affiliates are in the business of marketing at all costs (ie, spam) and will lie and steal their way to profits through any means possible.

I host my own PartyPoker bonus page here of course, but going to the level of a spammer is a big no-no.

7b. Who is Russ Georgiev or NewGCA and why do they post so much on RGP?

The jury is out on Russ and NewGCA and crew (if they're not all the same person), but I personally like to think he suffers from some sort of schizophrenia and self-delusional paranoia that managed to find the poker newsgroup. Russ has made thousands of posts, most of which accuse every major poker player of cheating at one time through their life. Supposedly, Russ was once part of a highly organized poker cheating ring that spanned across Vegas to California and thus knows the 'inside'. That's his claim anyways. Supposedly, he's not even a bad poker player, but his ability to go on his lunatic streaks and barrage of postings is just annoying.

8. What is 2+2 or Two plus Two?

Also known as the "Zoo", Two Plus Two is the publishing house for all of Mason Malmuth and David Sklansky's books, among others. They also have a very lively forum that is separated into all sorts of categories, from small stakes to big stakes and internet poker to short handed games. The conversations are usually very on topic to poker and the quality of postings is generally very useful.