Live dealer online poker is one of the latest crazes in poker. Many experienced live poker players are intigued by the convenience of playing online, but wary of entrusting the dealing duties to a random number generator which, in their opinion is too open to exploitation and may not always be truly random. The debate has been raging since the dawn of the online era. ‘Is online poker rigged’? ‘Does the house deal action flops to generate more rake’? These are the types of questions the skeptics ask, and live dealer poker goes a long way towards addressing their concerns.
How does Live Dealer Poker Work?
The concept is simple. Players join the table just like they would at any regular online poker site. The only difference being at the live tables, players will see a video window overlayed on the table which shows the dealer dealing out the cards in real time. The dealer deals hole cards for each player in the hand, face down onto an RFID card reader which sends the hole card data to each player allowing them to see their hand. The dealer then deals the flop, turn and river face up, which can be seen on the video screen and also in graphical format on the virtual table. All of the betting is carried out through a normal online poker style interface and the software takes care of awarding the pot to the winning player and keeping account of stack sizes.
What do you Need to Play Live Dealer Poker?
You don’t need any specialised equipment to play live dealer poker. A good internet connection which is capable of handling the live video stream of the dealer is the only requirement. There are sites which offer webcam poker, where you can see and speak to the other players at your table, for which you would need a webcam, but no sites offer both live dealer and webcam games as yet.
How is it Different from Standard Online Play?
The main advantage of live dealer poker is that you have the peace of mind that a real live dealer is dealing the cards and it is not left to a random number generator in a computer which may or may not be trustworthy and reliable. On the downside, human dealers are much slower than computer dealers and consequently the game moves more slowly, although it is still much faster than normal live play due to the software handling the betting and enforcing a time constraint on all players for their actions.
Where Can I play Live Dealer Poker
At the moment, only a few online poker rooms offer live dealer poker but we expect this market to grow rapidly as there is a strong demand for the games. For the moment, you can play poker with a live dealer at Poker Espresso and Lucky Live Casino.
