Top 10 reasons to choose online poker
Of course, with the current COVID-19 pandemic, options for a live game are extremely limited with most casinos and poker rooms closed, and many people turning to online poker.
Even still, live poker surely has plenty of benefits if its own, but if you are considering which option is better for you, let me share with you my thoughts about the advantages of online poker.

In online poker rooms you will be able to play almost any game that you like. (photo by Flickr)
It does not come even close when comparing different game options in live and online games. While in a live setting, you will mostly only find Texas Hold’em or PLO games, while in online poker rooms, you will be able to play almost any game that you like.
From Seven Card Stud to Razz or Five Card Draw, and many other options, you can simply find everything in one place. And even if you are not regularly playing these games, having the ability to jump into one of it and have some fun or relax after the session is undoubtedly a benefit on its own.
9. Various formats
You will not only find a wider variety of games online, but you also can play multiple formats or even both cash games and tournaments at the same time. You can also find plenty of options for heads-up games, various sit & go’s, and even some of the new formats in almost every poker room online.
This is not only fun and convenient but can be very useful if you play a session of tournaments but lose most of them and are left with a single table for the rest of the night. If that is the case, you can quickly launch some cash games or sit & go’s along your MTT and increase your dollar-per-hour rate by playing more games.
8. Better bonuses
On top of more games in one place, you will also find much better rewards to go along it.
While live casinos do not care to give you any additional incentive to play in their room, online poker rooms are often competing to attract new players by offering them lucrative rake back deals, first deposit bonuses, and various loyalty programs.
This can actually play a significant role in your final $/hour number, so getting additional benefits or some money back from your paid rake, is a good deal for the players.
7. A better place to learn
You may wonder why everyone says that online players are better with strategy knowledge than their counterparts in live games? Well, because that is a fact if we compare players from similar stakes.
The thing is that online players play a few time more hands in the same timeframe, so naturally, gain more experience, which leads to a stronger understanding of the strategy behind various plays.
On top of this, their competition is also stronger when compared to live games, so they just have to progress along or will be left behind, which makes online games a much better place for improving your skills.
6. Convenience
There is no doubt that online poker is way more convenient than playing live. You do not need to prepare for the trip, drive to the casino, wait in line for the games, and do all of the crazy stuff just to sit down at the table.
All of this is just a click away when playing online. On top of that, you can easily control your environment and get as comfortable as you want, which is not very likely to happen in a live game.
5. More resources for improving
To add to the previous points, poker players have more poker training resources to improve their play. While this is only partially true since live players can also join training sites and access other resources, online players just know how to do it in a better way.
On top of that, they can see their own statistics and learn from mistakes that they make at the table, which is particularly hard for live players.
It is very unlikely for a live player to know his 3-bet % from various positions or range distribution when deciding to bet on the river, so it is harder to see when you are actually making mistakes.
4. Access to additional information
On top of all available training resources, online players also have access to various programs that can help them while playing.
The most useful and common one is tracking software that lets you see how your opponent plays and identify their mistakes in real-time. This is almost impossible to do in live games with any accuracy.
While you can see that player is betting too often on the flop by merely observing him, the software can tell you on what kind of boards he is betting too much and when he is playing too passively, which you will not be able to notice in live games most of the time, just because you do not play enough hands.
That is just one example, as the list goes on and on with many tools helping online players get the upper hand.
3. All of the stakes in one place
Another significant advantage of online games is the offer of various stakes, so you can find games running no matter what you like to play.
If you are playing low-stakes and want to find a game of $1/$2 in your local casino, you likely will be able to do it without any struggle. But what if you want to play a $50/$100 game or higher? Well, unless you are living in a few places on earth that has these games running, you will have a tiny chance to find it.
And it does not even need to go as high. A lot of the time, regular rooms only feature games up to $5/$10, so you will surely have more luck founding alternative stakes online.

Online games offer you the ultimate freedom. (photo by Flickr)
On top of the previously mentioned advantages, online games offer you the ultimate freedom. If you choose to play in a casino, you will be very limited when you can play, and even more so, with the length of your sessions.
No one will go to a live game to play just for an hour, so a lot of the time, you will force yourself to play even when you are not performing at your best, and that can be very costly.
Contrary to this, when you are playing online, you can do whatever you want. If you see that you want to end your session, you can step away from your computer, even if you just started playing. On top of that, you can play when the time is suitable for you, so you can plan poker around your day, not the other way around it.
1. Option to multi-table
While you can only play one table in a live setting at a time, you can play as many as you can handle online.
Of course, it might not be a big deal if you are just playing for fun, but even then so, you can get much more action on a couple of tables then waiting for a playable hand and folding for hours in a live setting.
However, if you are playing seriously, then multi-tabling opens a lot of possibilities and lets you play in many good games at the same time without having to sacrifice the value, which once again leads to a higher $/hour.