Online Poker is a game of skill and strategy in which players wager against other real people, usually in increments of pennies. In addition, players can compete for satellite entries into live tournaments in the world’s top casinos. And all of this is accessible via a computer, tablet or smart phone.
A player must develop a solid understanding of the rules and strategies used by winning players in order to maximize profits with strong hands and minimize losses with weak ones. This understanding can be achieved through practice and learning from other seasoned players in online poker communities or reading poker books. It is also helpful to start with low-stakes games in order to gain experience and improve one’s skills.
In our study over a decade ago, we found that the most involved 1% of online poker players devoted significantly more time and money to the game than the other 99% of the population. The results were statistically significant for six of seven measures (Mann-Whitney U-tests, p values below 0.001). This result suggests that it is possible to become an active and profitable online poker player. However, these findings were based on a small sample size and it is possible that other factors may account for the differences in activity between these players. For example, it could be that players who spend more on online poker play are more willing to disclose their experiences to researchers than those who do not.