The poker craze keeps online parlors shuffling, but players need to know their limits

October 28, 2004

By DOUG BEDELL / The Dallas Morning News

Illegal or not, online poker rooms are changing the face of the game Mark Twain once lamented as "unpardonably neglected." Four of the finalists in this year's World Series of Poker earned their tournament seats by playing at PokerStars.com, one of more than 200 virtual poker parlors that have sprung up in gambling havens such as Gibraltar and Costa Rica.

PartyPoker.com

That's only added to the huge rise in activity that began with the 2003 edition, in which a Tennessee accountant with the unlikely name of Chris Moneymaker walked away with over $2.5 million.

Honed online

Mr. Moneymaker, it turned out, had never played a single game of "live" poker. He learned everything he knew about no-limit Texas Hold 'Em sitting at his computer.

The prospect of becoming the next Mr. Moneymaker is irresistible to millions of otherwise law-abiding Netizens.

PokerPulse, a Canadian company that tracks the industry, says virtual poker rooms pull in more than $3 million a day with their "rakes," or take of small amounts from each hand. That's up from about $300,000 in January 2003, before Mr. Moneymaker's championship.

In the last year, the amount wagered at the major poker sites has jumped from $54 million to $144 million. Players arriving at popular sites such as PartyPoker.com may be greeted by 40,000 or more rivals from all over the globe.

Players quickly learn that cyber poker requires a new mindset. To get an edge, many use analytical software. Others create robot, or "bot," players that use formulas and algorithms to dictate their wagers.

"In person, you can get a style and project that style," says Jim Bucci, a poker pro who coaches online players on PokerCoaching.com. "Online, it's much more difficult. All these young people who started coming through the last couple years, I don't know what some of them are doing."

Chances are, neither do they, says Dan Mezick, PokerCoaching.com's executive director. "People who think they have skills find out they don't have all they need when they get online."

Fast and furious

Games on a computer network are twice as fast and twice as dangerous when wagering real money. Seated at the green felt of a Las Vegas casino, competitors average about 30 hands an hour. Online, they sometimes play 60.

There's no time for deep thought. The network times each player to keep the game moving. Wait too long, and the game will rush right past you, grabbing your virtual chips.

There is no guarantee that any poker room is legitimate. The offshore companies running virtual casinos are poorly regulated – if regulated at all – by host countries. It's best, experts say, to stick with large sites where signs of crooked games or slow payouts are most likely to be detected.

U.S. Justice Department officials, concerned about money-laundering, have pressured credit card companies to decline transactions for real money play. Instead, U.S. players must pay a middleman service to add funds to online poker accounts.

The cheapest of these services uses virtual checks taken directly from a checking account. Some experts recommend setting up a separate checking account for gambling. That way, players can keep an accurate total of their winnings and losses.

"You have to know yourself and set limits in advance. I caution people that if they're not able to break even or make money, they should be training more," says veteran Jeremy Kraybill, an Austin software engineer who runs a poker blog, LoveandCasinoWar.com.

All online rooms have games where users bet play money and try out tactics.

Trouble signs

Mr. Kraybill says players should look out for opponents running scam games, using collusion to prey on the unwary. Playing large, multi-table tournaments can cut that risk, he says.

If patterns of play seem odd or predictable, you may not be playing a real person, Mr. Kraybill says. Poker software has advanced to the point that it can mimic a human, making bets using elaborate formulas.

"I've seen people thrown out of rooms for using bots," Mr. Kraybill says. "They have a stronger potential to ruin the game than collusion."

Even Hold 'Em amateurs may be well-served by simple software that helps calculate moves. Online Poker Inspector (pokerinspector.com) monitors your play and shows odds for each hand. Poker Tracker (pokertracker.com) analyzes text records of your games.

"I think it's an absolute must," Mr. Kraybill says. "You can learn a lot of interesting things about your game that aren't immediately apparent."