Online poker has become so big in the last five years, that there’s a whole breed of very capable poker players who have never played a real-life game away from their computer. These people have no idea just how exciting offline poker can be.

There are two main reasons why online poker is so much more popular than offline poker – convenience and speed. It is obviously more convenient to just switch on your computer and start playing whenever you feel like it, and you can also get through a lot more hands online due to computerised dealers and less thinking time being permitted.

However, there are several reasons why offline poker can be just as exciting as online poker, if not more so.

Firstly, in the real world you can actually socialize with other players. Poker can become a social event, and more of an enjoyable experience than playing on your computer which can be quite a lonely existence. The chat facility just doesn’t compare to actually talking to other players at the table in live games.

Another benefit is that actually being able to see your opponents makes it much easier to identify how strong or weak an opponents hand is, and whether they are bluffing or not. This is because you can get valuable information from subconscious tells that other players make. In the online world, of course, you cannot see who you’re up against and can only look at the betting patterns and frequency of the other players to be able to identify bluffs and make informed decisions.

Also another thing that offline poker has going for it, particularly in poker clubs or casinos, is the atmosphere and the sense of occasion when you are involved in a tournament. This is especially true when you reach the final table of a tournament when the eyes of the casino are on you, and if you can actually win then it’s an amazing feeling winning in front of so many people.

This just doesn’t happen in online poker where if you happen to win a tournament, you get a great feeling winning the prize, but it’s largely an anonymous win as no-one knows who you are, and to them you’re just another random username.

Finally, it’s the little things that you notice when you first start playing live games away from your computer. Things like handling real chips, verbally announcing your decisions, and dramatically announcing ‘I’m all-in’ as you stand up to await your fate, all add to the enjoyment of playing offline poker.

So if you’re one of the many online players who have yet to experience the excitement of live games, I can strongly recommend you leave the comfort of your computer and give offline poker a chance as it can be even more exciting than online poker.

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In today’s world it seems like everywhere you turn there’s scammers trying to find their next unsuspecting victim. Well, this is no different than poker. Even online poker has it’s fair share of people waiting for someone to fall into their trap.

Poker is a huge trust game and it’s best not to trust anyone especially when playing online and especially when the goal of the game is to take other player’s money. I’ll share some of the most common online poker scams going around today so you can try to spot them and avoid them should they ever come your way.

There’s one scam going around called the side-bet scam in which a player hovers around different tables trying to make private deals with other players. They’ll hop from table to table and they will bet players for $100 that they’ll win and if the player loses the scammer gets $100 and in the other case if the player wins, the scammer just acts like it never occurred.

While that is just an example and not every side-bet scammer bets $100, it’s common enough in games and a lot of people will fall for this especially new players. Another common scam is referred to as the all in on the first hand scam. This one is easy to avoid by using common sense. In this particular event a player would suggest to his opponent that he and his opponent both go all in the very first hand. While sometimes his opponent would usually just ignore him or argue with him, sometimes he would agree and put all his chips in and if the scammer didn’t have a great playing hand, he’d continue playing like normal. This isn’t as much as a scam as a trust issue and basic common sense can be used to avoid this.

The next one is a pretty rough one that’s been seen around a lot and a lot of money is lost by this scheme. When a scammer asks you to pay $10 in hopes of being payed back $20 the next day, you are most likely being lured into the Ponzi scheme. In this scheme, the scammer will build your trust by asking for money and will actually pay you back and continue to pay you back raising the limit on the amount he’s asking for higher and higher each time. Once he has earned your sincere trust and attention because hey.. you payed him before and he payed back, he’ll continue to pay you back right? This is not merely the case and once he has you in his grip he goes in for big money and runs.

These people are usually the friendliest posters and some times one of the biggest contributors and most active of people. In today’s world, especially in online poker it is best to think ahead and never to trust a random player offering to return you money or make a private deal with you, as this will save you a lot of money in the future and headache.

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If you win $50,000+ from an online poker/gambling site based outside the US, is there any way to cash out the money without having to pay taxes? If not, can someone explain how taxes would work?

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