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As mentioned in one of our recent articles, live dealer online casino's are taking the online gaming industry by storm with some of the top names in the indusrty like Party Gaming, Sportsbook.com and many others now offering all the popular casino games like Blackjack and Roulette online with live dealers (for a list of the top live dealer online casino sites I'd suggest that you check out www.liveonlineblackjack.net). This recent surge in popularity leaves us to wonder when/if the online poker industry will follow suite any time soon.

You will find a few smaller sites peppered throughout the web that are already offering live dealer online poker but none of the big names are offering it yet. The only slight exception I've found to this online is 888Poker offering a web cam version of their online poker client but their version is still run with the normal RNG (Random Number Generator) driven software and just the players are viewable via web cams. This is definitely a nice option for recreational players looking to be more social or for those sharks out there looking to gain that extra edge via body language and other tells but it still isn't the same as having a live dealer shuffling the cards.

One of the main reasons that I believe that live dealer online poker would pick up pretty quickly and why the big name poker sites should begin to offer it is due to all those skeptics out there who don't trust the integrity of the RNG software that the online poker rooms use. With players being able to watch a live dealer shuffle and deal each hand, live dealer online poker would effectively turn most of those skeptics into active online players while also giving peace of mind to players who just aren't sure about the RNG's but continue to play anyway.

Along with the upsides mentioned above, of course there are downfalls to live dealer online poker like the fact that the game speed will drop dramatically. On average, a professional poker dealer will deal around 25-35 hands per hour while most online poker software is able to deal well over 100 hands per hour. Besides the fact that players who are used to this faster game pace may not like the slower game speed, the online poker rooms are probably also looking into this fact from a business standpoint as well. Less hands per hour equals less rake generated and of course the dealers will also have to be paid. These lower income numbers are probably the main reason that the big poker sites have yet to incorporate live dealer games but if they continue to offer the normal RNG games in combination with the live dealer games I don't see how it can affect their bottom line by much.

So other than game speed, I don't really see any other downfalls to live dealer online poker from a player standpoint besides the fact that it is not currently offered by any established poker sites. I really hope to see some larger poker rooms pick it up in the near future but its still up in the air at this point and we'll just have to wait and see but as mentioned above, the lower income numbers are the most likely culprate for the larger rooms shying away as of yet.