Question about Online Poker - Specifically Pacific Poker

[Sorak]

Hello,

First of all I want to say that I am a complete and total newbie to Hold'em. My friends and I all decided to start playing poker and we knew a few people who loved the game so we chose this one. I have however read all the documentation on this site and have read the entire forum here. I just wanted to say thanks and that it has been extremely helpful!

Now onto my question. I have been playing the demo version on PacificPoker.com. Now I know how many feel that learning on a "play" money system promotes bad play but I am not ready to bet real money online. When playing and the betting round has finished after the river was shown I sometimes see more than one hand but usually I only see the winners hand. The question is, why is that? I know that the "showdown" starts with the person to the left of the last caller, or I believe it does. However I don't seem to see all the hands leading up to the winning hand even if there is more than one hand between the caller and the winning hand. I am just confused by this.

As far as my play is concerened I am trying to play fairly tightly. Someone here graciously provided a link that has recommendations for starting hands based on position and since using that I am even after approximately 4 hrs of play. I know when to fold a bit better now. I eventually plan to read up on it but right now I am just enjoying seeing a bunch of hands played. I think as I see the hands vs position and just how the board lays out I gain confidence to move onto the $.50/$1.00 tables.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

Sorak

[Adamm]

Hi, and thanks for all your interest in this site! As far as the showdown goes, the players show their hands in order starting with the player to the left of the last player to call. After that person shows their hand, the next one only has to show if their hand is better. If their hand is worse than the best hand showing, they do not have to show it. This continues around the table until each player has a turn to show or muck their hand. Hope that clarifies everything!
One other thing!...as far as graduating to real money play, there are some "freeroll" tournaments around which let you test your mettle against a mix of players who are taking it seriously and players who treat it like play money. Either way, there's usually a cash payout. Look through the tourny search feature to find some. (the link on the left that says "Online Poker Tournaments") They're a nice way to play for free without dealing with the shenanigans of play money tables. Enjoy!

[sully2112]

I've been playing at Pacific Poker for about a month now. I started playing with play money then I decided it was time to get real. I opened an account with Neteller, deposited $50 and then opened a real money accout at Pacific Poker. I received my login info and went to the site to deposit some money to play with. To my surprise there was already $20 in my account. :D I never asked the folks at Pacific Poker why it was there. I assumed it was a sign-up bonus. So, I started playing. Very low limit games first $.25-.50. I "graduated" to the $.50-1.00 tables and have not looked back. I now have over $200 in my account. 8) I read their policy on "bonus" money and it seems that once if you bet 20 times the bonus money it's yours. Anyway, I would try and open account and see what happens.
A little advice: The very low limit tables are similar to play money. Very loose and nearly all bets will be called. At the $.50-1.00 tables there is more of a "real" feel to the games. Most are still loose but more fun. You can tell people are betting with their money and it's for real. I think I learned alot from playing these games.

I try to learn what I can while playing these games. Soon I'll be playing for the big bucks!
Good Luck!

[Dave B]

I started playing holdem at a card club near my home. Just a month or so ago, I tried playing online. All I have to say is this: either people online are stupid or rich. For a typical holdem 10 handed table, there might be 2-5 hands worth playing. The sites that I have been playing have 7-8 players calling the big blind every hand.

Like the previous poster said, as you go up in value people play more true, but even up to 15/30 tables people play much looser online. My only thought is this, when you buy a $100 chips at a casino-you see your stack go up or down each time. When you click, a number changes-big deal, This doesnt have NEARLY the pyschological effect as seeing a large stack dwindle to nothing.

[Devedander]

People who are willing to go to a real poker room will of course take it much more seriously. First it costs a little more cuz you have to toke the dealer. That might actually be an incentive to loose though so you don't have to, but I doubt it.

Then you also have to worry about people actually seeing you do it. Win enough pots with rags and someone will be waiting for you in the parking lot. But more likely you will get taken by the sharks, and you will feel an idiot and people will SEE you in person doing it.

On line, like anything else, poker is taken less seriously because you are in your home, and you have anonymity on your side. Everything is less personal and you are risking less (in terms of tokes, even though you will pay more rakes per hour due to faster play).

And considering how often bad gambles pay off and pay off big, it's just enough to make people want to keep doing it, like slots.