With the explosion of poker in the 21st Century, players have numerous options for where to get their poker fix. If youre lucky enough to live close to one, youre probably getting your poker action at a casino, and you may be playing online as well. Which is better? That depends on the individual player, but here are a few distinctions that may help you decide.

The first thing you might consider is incidentals. These are expenses outside of your bankroll that you may incur while playing. Incidentals are the reason many players prefer to play online rather than in a live casino. Incidentals include the cost of transportation to and from the casino, food and drinks that may be purchased outside the home during your time in the casino, parking fees, and tips. Online, you dont have to go anywhere, and there is no one to whom you give a virtual tip. At the casino, although you are not obligated to tip anyone, you will be expected to tip your dealer every time you win a pot, and your cocktail waitress at a minimum. Parking attendants, floor people and chip runners can also provide better, friendlier service when tipped. These small amounts can add up over the course of the evening.

Another plus of playing online vs. at the casino is the facility of data management. After a casino session, you probably have a good enough memory to remember the highlights, the main things you did right or wrong, certain patterns of certain of your opponents that were important, and things like that. You probably wont remember the exact play of every hand, and if you play frequently, you may not be entirely sure what you knew about a certain opponent if you play them again. Online, you can input notes on your opponents that will be there the next time you log in to play. You can also request detailed hand histories that will tell you exactly how each deal of the cards went, from opening bet to showdown. This information can be an invaluable tool in ones poker arsenal, and said information is much easier to acquire in online play.

Weve seen some of the advantages to playing online as opposed to in a live casino, but what about the other side? Why do many people prefer the casino experience? For one, when you play at the casino, youre not at the mercy of your internet connection. Nothing is more frustrating than getting dealt those pocket aces, trying desperately to click in a bet, and seeing that your connection is experiencing delays, or worse, lost entirely. This can be irritating during an online cash game, but during the late stages of a tournament, can be fatal. Even if youre not losing your connection entirely, slow connections can hold up a game, frustrating you and your opponents; playing live, of course, presents no such problems.

Also, there is the matter of physical tells. While online betting patterns and speed of betting can give you some clue as to your opponents holdings, there are no physical mannerisms to observe in order to help discern whether your opponent is strong or weak. Some people see this as an advantage to online play, they may fear that they themselves have some obvious quirk that will let everyone else at the table play against them as if their cards are face up. In most cases, this is not a realistic fear. Poker is a game of information, and the more information you can get and effectively use, the bigger an advantage you will have. If you become good at spotting physical tells, the advantages you will gain far outweigh anything you might be giving away most of the time. Most of your live opponents are far more concerned with what they are holding than what you are, and wont pick up on a tell unless it is brutally obvious, which most are not.

If you are capable of playing both online and at a live casino, you should try both to see which you like best. Some people prefer the sights and smells of a live poker game to sitting in front of a computer screen, others enjoy betting and raising from the comfort of their favorite chair. Find out which is for you, and then get into the action.