The live poker to online poker transition is important with casinos and poker rooms across the country shutdown.
If you’re a regular live poker player and you’re ready to make the jump to online poker, here are a few tips to make live poker to online poker transition a little smoother.
Stick to established US poker sites
The online poker world isn’t the wild west that it used to be, but you still want to make sure you’re dealing with a regulated and reputable poker room. Check to make sure the poker room you’re interested in is reputable.
All the poker rooms we review and recommend are licensed. For example, Ignition Poker, our top recommended book is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission.
Keep a close eye on your bankroll
When you’re playing at a casino or brick and mortar poker room, your bankroll can often fit in your hands or pockets. And your stacks of chips are always right in front of you at the table. Your bankroll is a number when you play online poker, which can go up and down quickly. This is especially true if you’re entering multiple events and tournaments or playing at multiple tables.
You have the option of playing in multiple events, tournaments, and multiple tables at the same time. You can’t do that at your local casino. Make sure you don’t bleed your bankroll too quickly by entering too many events at once.
Start out with lower stakes in live poker to online poker transition
Online poker offers some very cheap stakes that you’ll likely never find at a casino or brick and mortar poker room. The tables can be as low as $0.01/$0.02, which don’t exist at a casino.
You don’t have to play for penny pots, but you also don’t need to immediately jump onto the high roller tables either. Whatever stakes you’re comfortable with start one level below that.
This will give you time to get comfortable with the online game without breaking your bankroll. It’s always better to go up a stake level because you’re cashing in than it is to drop down one because you lost your shirt.
Prepare for the fast pace
At the casino poker tables, the cards are dealt, the hand is played and someone collects the pot. Then there’s a short break while the dealer collects the cards, shuffles up and deals out the next hand.
When you’re playing online, there are no shuffle breaks. One hand ends and the next hand is dealt out right away, less than a second later. You can go through more hands in a few minutes online than you can in an hour at the casino. Prepare yourself for the fast pace and adjust your game if needed.
Know your deposit options
When you play at the casino or card room, you take your cash or card to the cage and collect your chips. Playing online is different. You can still likely use your card depending what’s in your wallet, but there are many other deposit options as well.
At Ignition for example you can use your credit or debit card, or if you have bitcoin, they also take deposits and do withdrawals through cryptocurrency. Bitcoin users can also get free money on their first deposit through Ignition Poker’s Bitcoin Welcome Bonus.
Make your first deposit using bitcoin and Ignition will give you a 200 percent match bonus, up to $2,000. Whatever poker room you choose make sure you check out and fully understand all the bonuses and promotions available in your live poker to online poker transition.