Poker is just one of the most interesting and widely played games today. Poker may be played either within the casinos or on online venues.

Online Poker definitely refers to the game played online. It has been accountable for an extraordinary increase in the numbers of poker players worldwide.

According to the research group River City some 1.5 million people play poker online regularly for real money and that the number is growing by 100,000 a month.

Online poker isn’t an issue that you play by yourself. Even though you may be sitting at home all alone, you are connected to a game server via the internet. Every Online Poker Game has at least two real people, while most have 8 to 10. The larger tournaments have several thousand people all playing at once (at different tables, of-course).

Whenever you play Online Poker, you aren’t playing against the “house”. You don’t make bets with the poker site. You make bets with the additional people playing poker. The house (that is, the poker site) makes money by collecting a small fraction of each pot before awarding it to the winner. The house never gambles at all. This is very different from an “online casino”, where the player as well as the casino are natural enemies. In the example of online poker, the home is a neutral third party.

Here’s how it works. The ingredients are:

the poker web page – in which you can find details about the games hosted by the site, the guidelines, promotions, upcoming events, and also the place from which you download the poker client.

the poker client – the program you install on your own PC. It has a graphical display of the poker game showing the players and cards and it has buttons you use to bet and fold. When you run it, it connects to the poker game server.

the poker game server – the central computer that hosts the poker games. The game server runs a computer program that acts as a dealer (shuffling and dealing cards and awarding pots), floorman (helping you locate a seat) and cashier (handling chips and money). The game server ensures that all rules are followed correctly. The game server will be the hub for all communication with and between the players.

the players – people who are playing poker with each other. Each person is sitting at their own computer, running their very own copy of the poker client, lms.cime.edu.mx blog post linked to the poker game server via the web.