Beginner's Guide
How to Play Poker Online
2006-05-08 10:34:49
Playing poker on the Internet differs somewhat from the real, live poker experience you may be used to.
Registering at a poker room
First of all, you must choose one poker room from the hundreds that ar out there. Our poker room reviews are there to help you make your choice. When you have chosen a poker room, start by downloading their poker client to your computer and registering a poker account with the site. During registration, you will be asked to provide a screen name, that is, the name that shows up on the screen when you sit down at a table. Think of something you can live with for a while; changing names later on is often more or less impossible.
Learning to use the client
When you have created a poker account, you can go ahead and start playing. It might be a good idea to try out the play money tables first, to get a hang of all buttons and handles that appear in the poker client.
Note that in online poker, when it's your turn, you have a restricted amount of time to make your play. After ten or fifteen seconds, an angry alarm will sound, reminding you to play your hand. If you don't react, on most sites your hand will be folded.
Setting your personal preferences
To enhance your experience at the table, most poker rooms offer a number of settings that allow you to customize the sounds and graphics of the client. For example, you may want to play with a four-color deck where diamonds are blue and clubs green, thus making the different suits more easily distinguishable. A completely new concept when playing online poker is the capacity for 'multi-tabling'. Without having to clone yourself you may actually play at several tables at once.
Depositing cash
To play with real money, you need to make a cash deposit to the poker room. There are a number of ways this can be done, but most poker sites accept transfer from bank accounts, several bank cards, and payment services such as Neteller or PayPal. See our poker room reviews for more detail. And don't forget to use the signup bonuses you find on this site!
Customer support
If you need any kind of assistance, don't hesitate to contact the poker room customer support. All serious rooms have a strong support function that you can reach by phone or e-mail, often 24/7 every day of the week.
