The term online casino games refers to every type of game

Until the advent of online casinos the term casino games was generally understood to refer to the games we could play at our real casinos, which as far as Ireland was concerned usually meant roulette and blackjack. Our casinos are generally relatively small and therefore only have the floor to accommodate a few roulette tables and a similar number of blackjack tables. Irish casino games fans were of course aware that many casinos elsewhere in the world did offer other traditional casino games such as baccarat, backgammon and craps, but they were not generally available here in Ireland and were therefore not uppermost in our minds when we heard the term casino games. The introduction of online casinos however has completely changed our understanding of the term casino games, and we now tend to use it to refer to every type of game we can play online including the huge variety of slots games featured on almost every online casino site. To be honest that is probably rather lazy because people living in countries with larger casinos would still generally only use the term casino games to describe the traditional games they could play in a real casino. Whether or not you approve of our habit of using the term casino games to describe any game we can play online, there is no doubt that Irish casino games fans now have considerably more choice than ever before. Ever since the big bookmakers began to add a few gambling games to their original online sports gambling sites, the number and variety of games we can play online has continued to increase. We have also recently seen an increase in the number of online casino sites we can access here in Ireland, which in turn has increased our options still further. Most online casinos now offer well over a hundred different casino games for their customers to enjoy and a few of the bigger sites feature considerably more. The vast majority of these online casino games are of course variations of slots games, but there are still a large number of online casino games enthusiasts who prefer to play the more traditional games. Almost every online casino features several slightly different versions of roulette for example, and blackjack is still popular. Both of these traditional casino games can also be played in the live casino mode at most online casinos, with real dealers and a real roulette wheel. The game of baccarat is also available at many online casinos in the live casino mode.

The fact that we can now play baccarat online has had an interesting effect on our perception of this particular traditional casino game. Because baccarat was rarely if ever available in Irish casinos meant that for many of us our opinion of the game was mostly based on its appearance in popular films, particularly some of the Bond films in which baccarat appeared to be very complicated and was played for very high stakes. In reality of course we now know that online baccarat in particular is a very easy online casino game to play because the game is totally controlled by the dealer and therefore the player does not even need to know the rules of the game. There are only two hands dealt in a game of baccarat and all we have to do is choose which of those two hands will win. A tie is possible but very unusual and rarely backed by experienced players, so for most of us the choice is no more difficult than calling heads or tails on the toss of a coin. Of the other traditional casino games which have become accessible since the introduction of online casinos, only the game of backgammon requires any skill or experience to play successfully. Although backgammon is still a game of chance in that the number of moves is decided by the toss of a coin, how a player moves his checkers around the board will usually decide who wins in the long run.

There is of course one other traditional casino game in which it is generally recognised that skill and experience provides a player with a competitive edge, and that is the game of poker. Of all the traditional casino games we can now access online, the game of poker has undoubtedly seen the biggest surge in interest. In Ireland certainly poker was rarely available in our casinos and had therefore become very much a game with minority interest. The introduction of online casinos has however totally transformed that situation, and not only is poker now one of the most popular games played at our online casinos, there are even specialist online poker sites where serious poker enthusiasts can play against other like-minded people from all over the world. Texas Hold’em poker in particular has attracted an enormous amount of interest among casino games fans, and that interest has led to a resurgence in applications for a seat at almost all the big poker tournaments around the world. Texas Hold’em poker is popular because it uses five community cards which in addition to their two hole cards are available for every player to form their showdown hand. Each showdown hand is therefore formed from the best of seven cards rather than five so that they are likely to be higher ranking. There is also a new betting round after each community card has been dealt, greatly increasing the final pot for every game. The chance of better hands and higher pots is the main reason why Texas Hold’em poker has become so popular among serious players, but it is also the reason why skill and experience has become such an important factor in this particular online casino game. Any of our readers who are considering starting to play poker online would be well advised to gain experience by learning to play poker at an online casino against the house before trying their luck at one of the specialist online poker platforms. You never know how experienced your opponent may be.