Sharing Player Pools Could Help Expand Online Poker in the US

Online poker is a game of skill where players from around the world compete to win cash and tournament prizes. Players have access to a variety of tools and resources to improve their skills and compete in leaderboards and rankings. Moreover, they can choose the stakes and game format that best suits their needs. They can play cash games, Sit & Go events or tournaments online, depending on their state’s laws and regulations.

Compared to live games, where the pace is much slower, online poker has a far faster action. This is due to automatic dealing, a shot clock, and shallower stack sizes (less chips to make consequential decisions). Moreover, most players play multiple tables at once. A typical player may be on several dozen tables at once, and some even exceed this number!

As a result, the average number of hands per hour online is significantly higher than in live games. This higher number of hands means that there are also more bad beats than in live games. A quick search of internet discussion forums will reveal numerous threads describing astoundingly bad luck that players experienced in a given hand. Often, these posts are accompanied by allegations of cheating on the part of the site in question.

After the resurgence of legal, regulated online gambling in the US, the possibility of sharing player pools emerged as a major topic of conversation. New Jersey’s WSOP and 888 sites have already started to share their player pools with Nevada and Delaware, while other states are discussing doing the same. This would dramatically expand the reach of online poker in the US, and could pave the way for interstate poker.