Internet has provided people the luxury to enjoy gambling without leaving the comfort of their homes. Due to this fact the number of poker players has dramatically increased .Online poker is much cheaper than the traditional poker. Online casinos have low overhead costs and players can play for much lower stakes. Also there are very little chances of fraud because everything can be tracked on the internet. Online casinos also offer tournaments where there is no entry fee at all. The first ever online poker game that used real money was dealt on January 1998, though before that free online poker was very popular from as early as the 90s.Many online poker sites offer satellite tournaments which actually help the players to win their way to real life prestigious poker tournaments. The winner of the 2004 World Poker Championship actually won his entry through an online tournament.

Though internet poker is the most widely played game yet questions about its integrity and fairness surface from time to time. Critics say that the operators of these games may be involved in fraud. On internet blogs, allegations about non-random card dealings are also common. Another issue under consideration is of insider cheating. This can happen when a person trusted with the access to the system starts playing himself without the knowledge of the administration. A few such cases have actually been reported when an employ has used his position to take unfair advantage. Another more common problem is collusion. This is when one player uses multiple accounts.

The online poker differs considerably from the traditional pokerstars.net. The major difference is between the thought patterns during play. In traditional poker players are sitting face to face and they can judge the opponent by facial expressions or body language, where as in online poker the players are not able to do that instead they start focusing on speed of play, betting patterns and reaction times. Another major difference is in the rate of play. In traditional casinos the dealer collects the cards, there is a certain time needed to shuffle and deal the cards. Chips have to be collected and distributed. On average in a traditional casino the number of hands dealt per hour is around 30. On the other hand online all these actions are automated and the average number of deals per hour is almost 90.

Playing in a brick and mortar casino costs more. The essential expanses like transportation cost, tipping the dealer etc., are non-existent for online poker. In traditional casinos the only way a player can increase his earnings is by raising his bet and he can encounter a better player than himself doing so while online a player can simply increase his earning by playing on more than one table because most online casinos allow this. In traditional poker the players are most likely to be from the same part of the world so there are no currency issues but in online poker rooms there might be players from around the world hence different currencies.

Most gaming sites accept US dollar and cater their customers who do not pay with US Dollar by providing currency exchange. In short online poker has given a whole new dimension to the game and increased its popularity to an enormous degree.