Texas Holdem Press

After a few stutters and non-starts, the small download file (479KB) took under a minute to process and I was ready to play. But, though I chose ‘Poker’ from a menu bar at the top of the screen, the page I was taken to didn’t see to have the games I wanted. It was an entirely different interface. They weren’t that interested in getting me ‘seated’ at a table it seems, rather they seemed to want to expose me to the wide variety of gambling opportunities they offered.

The Poker site at Sportsbook.com is part of a larger online casino gaming site – which allows you to bet on horses, boxing, baseball, basketball – you name it. You can find your way, fairly easily, to the Poker area, but when you get there it may not be what you expected.

Note that when you first log-in, the system defaults to the “Play for Money” version. You have to click on “Play for Fun” to get to the free game play area.
But if you do choose to play for ‘fun’, be advised that the fun here is, well, different from most of the other sites. Sportsbook only offers (from what I can tell) a limited number of games, including a casino version of Texas Hold’em. You won’t find the usual tables if you try out their Hold’em: instead you’ll play the casino dealer, one on one. And because its you against the ‘house’, everything is a little different. The pace of play. The betting. It’s interesting, but I am not sure how relevant it is to the learning process. Of course you do see a lot of hands – and that may help teach you which hands to trust and which ones to flop..

So I played the house, and at first the house – ala the Wicked Witch of the West, flattened me. But gradually I learned the nuances of this ‘casino’ version, and began to bet a little more wisely, to fold before the flop with more frequency – and for a time I was up. But when the cards are against you in a one-on-one game, it can be brutal (nowhere to hide, so to speak). I guess one trick in a one-on-one casino game, is to play only as long as things are going well, and not stay too long when it isn’t? Does that make sense? Duh!

Even when you do select poker, and choose to play ‘for fun’, you still aren’t taken to a site that is explicitly poker. Rather again you have choices, and this time you should choose “Table Games”.
And then, exasperating by this point, you are offered a list of what they term “21 games” (variations on Blackjack), or “Other”. Choose Other and you are shown another list, including “Carribean Hold’em Poker”, and “Texas Hold’em Bonus Poker”. Both are played on a casino table – you against the dealer.
I am not saying that its not fun – it is fun. Its just different from the other sites, which try to emulate the experience of an actual poker game, down to the felt, the sound of players rapping their knuckles on the table to indicate ‘check’, and even allowing for ‘chatter’ between the players. Some of that doesn’t work too well, but all of it is designed to teach you how to play ‘for real’.

I have to note as well that the only site that crashed during my time online, was the Sportsbook.com site. It didn’t seem to have any technical issues. Up the point it crashed it was working smoothly. And after it crashed I was able to get right back to it a moment later.