poker website
where you can find information about the games hosted by the site, the rules, promotions, upcoming events, and the place from which you download the poker client.
The Poker players
The people who are playing poker with each other. Each person is sitting at their own computer, running their own copy of the poker client, connected to the poker game server via the internet.
play online poker
For play money or real money. When you play for play money, you are just playing for "play chips" or "free chips". When you first sign up you start out with some number of play chips. If you lose them all, you can simply ask for more, though some sites limit how often you can get more play chips. When you play for real money, you are betting real dollars, euros or pounds. Real money stakes range from tiny (in some games you can bet as little as a penny) to large (in other games the minimum bet could be several hundred dollars). The sites make their profit by collecting "rake" from the real money pots, but they are happy to host the play money games as a promotional expense.
Where real money is involved, the obvious first question is whether the site is trustworthy. Before you can play real money games, you have to deposit money with the site. How do you know you will ever be able to get that money back? Some sites have established track records of 5 years or more and have earned the confidence of thousands of players. But others have failed and gone out of business without returning the players' money. We'll show you how to choose a site with a solid reputation so that when it comes time to cash out you won't have any worries.
the poker client
The program you install on your own PC. It has a graphical display of the poker game showing the players and cards and has buttons you use to bet and fold. When you run it, it connects to the poker game server.
the poker game server
The central computer that hosts the poker games. The game server runs a computer program that acts as a dealer (shuffling and dealing cards and awarding pots), floor man (helping you find a seat) and cashier (handling chips and money). The game server ensures that all rules are followed correctly. The game server is the hub for all communication with and between the players.
