Beginning to play poker online on sites such as 389poker, is quite a bit different than when you played it live. To such an extent, players often find it frustrating when they begin to play online and struggle more than they are used to.

What are the differences you can expect to experience playing poker online, and are they differences you will be able to accommodate in your playing style?

It is convenient — The only thing you need to play poker online is a computer, a tablet or a mobile phone. You can then play poker from anywhere you happen to be and at any time. Even at 4am or on Christmas Day if that is what you want to do. Try doing that offline, as it is just not possible unless you live in a city with a casino close by.

Playing more than one table — The big difference between playing poker live versus online is you can play more than one table at a time online.

Skilled players take advantage of this, and could be playing five or more tables at the same time without you knowing.

The playing speed — Playing poker online is a shocking experience the first few days you play it simply because of the speed in which each hand is played.

Online poker players are much faster than those you have played with live, so you will find yourself playing three, four or five times more hand online than you could ever play live.

The variance rate is higher — As the speed of play is faster and you play more hands, this makes the variance rate much higher as well. It becomes even higher again as edges online are so much smaller.

This also means, if you do get into a downswing, an online downswing can continue for much longer than one you experience when playing live. In some instances, you could find you get stuck in a downswing for months.

Good players rise quickly online — If you are a good player, however, you will also find you rise much faster online than you ever did offline.

This will allow you to get into higher stakes games much faster and to have access to other levels you would not have access to offline.

No physical tells — Unlike when playing poker live, where you can see your opponents, you cannot see any physical tells when playing online poker.

This means you have to compensate by keeping a close eye on all your opponent’s betting patterns in order to be able to guess what they may do next.

Bluffing happens more often online — Bluffing usually happens more often online as it is not possible for one player to see another player’s face. This means people bluff more as they know their chances of getting caught are lower.