Should You Play Online, or Should You Go to Vegas?

If you like to play poker, and you want to win some money doing so, it's easy to play online. If you do that, you can play from your home or office, anytime of day or night. You can go to Vegas, too, but let's take a look at both and compare the differences.

If you play online, an online casino will let you play with "play" money. If you go to Vegas, you can't simply practice. You have to play with real money. You CAN play with real money online, too, once you've gotten familiar with online poker. You simply have it deposited into your account.

In addition, you have the benefit of playing all kinds of online casino games, just like those you can play in Vegas. You can play, for example, blackjack, slots, craps, Texas hold 'em -- basically, anything you can play in Vegas, you can play online. Now, of course, Vegas does have atmosphere, and a lot of players like to go to Vegas particularly for that reason. However, if you would prefer to play online in the comfort of your own home, then playing online is probably for you.

You're not going to have to pay for travel expenses and you can gamble only as much or as little as you like. Just by sitting in front of your personal computer, you can play any time, day or night. It's also great that online casinos often offer "free rolls" for actual money. With this, most games start with a lot of players, but if you're good at poker, you can win a seat at a higher money game. You can even win actual cash so that you can deposit it to your money account. And in fact, many players start with play money, but then move over to the free rolls as the next step before they begin to play with real money.

The online casino lets you win big money, in other words, without having to actually make an investment of your own. That's something Vegas casinos simply don't do. And a lot of people have become good poker players and have actually made poker their careers once they've learned how to play -- through, yes, online casinos.

In fact, there are players out there who have never traveled to tournaments except for those that they have actually won seats for. It's also true that while these tournaments are held in Vegas, it's usually the first time many of these players have been there, and they learned how to play poker at an online casino. Because online casino games are so available, you can learn how to play through one if you really want to.

Most online casino sites tell you how to play the different games and have specific instructions on how to do so. In addition, because most of them also offer the ability to play for "play" money, you don't have to worry about losing real money until you're ready. Again, that's something you simply can't do in Vegas. If you are truly an avid poker player, of course you should go to Vegas at least once. The atmosphere there is something that has to be experienced first hand, with the charge and the thrill of being there right in the thick of it.

It's also different to play with "chips" on the computer versus hefting the real thing; on the computer, of course, your chip amounts are simply tallied and you pick dollar amounts to bet, versus actually throwing physical chips in the middle of the table, right in the middle of Vegas. It's different to play live than it is to play on the computer.

There are advantages to doing both. Why not try your hand online first, and then once you've gotten good at what you do, take a trip to Vegas and try your luck there?