Don't miss one article! Subscribe to the Full Feed RSS or get NPA in your inbox.
Many players who play primarily online occasionally go in for a live game or two in a cardroom. While ostensibly the games are the same, online players need to learn some live game ...
If you find this article helpful please support the site to help keep the poker strategy tips coming.
physical tells are overrated in my opinion, anyone can fake them, that’s why they aren’t reliable.
see ya
Online is boring?! You aren’t playing enough tables in that case. In my opinion, online is a more pure form of poker. Your bets do the talking. After all, NL is a game about betting sizing.
” A more pure form of poker? ” That might be a bit of a reach. Tougher games? Different skills more important than face to face? Less overhead? More lucrative? More convenient? Better smelling ( depending on your own hygiene and housekeeping ). These are all claims you might make, some are arguable,some aren’t. Some are correct no matter who you are, some are correct for some people and not others.
But a more pure form of poker? I don’t think any competetive activity is made more pure by removing the face to face element. I’m not sure what you mean by that statement actually.
play4fun, not all tells are the stuff of movies (oreo cookies, eye twitches, etc). Sometimes tells are the things people do or say when they think you are not paying attention. For example, often times it is possible to scan a table and see who is eager to bet. 90% of the time if I get a hunch that the person on my left is going to bet, they do. This can really help when you have a marginal hand out of position. I get none of that info online every out position bet is a total shot in the dark on the flop. Sometimes something someone says in casual conversation out of a hand gives me a good insight into how they play or more importantly how they think they should play the game. Online you simply don’t get this information. I can’t even see what you look like, so I can’t make a profile based on appearances. Sometimes these profiles are correct and profitable and sometimes a lot of mood clues will give plenty of useful information. Is the player risk averse or do they have some gamble in them? That might be enough information to decide on whether you want to make a bluff against them. A tell is never really specific, but more of a general sense that can add weight to a specific decision.
But in a certain sense you are right most decisions shouldn’t be made absolutely based on a tell. But a tell can provide much needed additional information when a decision is close. And sure faking is entirely possible but that stuff is pretty easy to spot because it is difficult to remain consistent. And besides if some one throws a specific false tell my way and I turn out to make an incorrect read that lets me know that they are a relatively sophisticated player and I can make effort to avoid them in future hands.
I just feel at the end of the day the extra information I get in live play makes the game easier for me. Perhaps I just suck at online poker.
…snip…
I just feel at the end of the day the extra information I get in live play makes the game easier for me. Perhaps I just suck at online poker.
…snip…
You absolutely 100% do get better reads live. Those reads are valuable.
1-2NL live absolutely 100% is way softer than 1-2 online. 1-2 live games are way easier to beat than 1-2 online games.
…snip…
online is a more pure form of poker
…snip…
Poker is poker. Live, online, straight, draw, shared board, stud, high, low, mixed, limit, nl, pot limit, spread limit, wild cards, royalties, Indian. Figure out the game’s weaknesses, adapt, win pots.
Here’s another thing to watch out for:
Protect your cards!
I’m always careful to drop a chip on top of my cards, but the other day at the Bay 101, I was in a 3-way all-in pot. I was sitting in the 1-seat, right next to the dealer. I had all of my chips in the pot, so didn’t have a card protector. I also (stupidly) didn’t have my hands on my cards, and the dealer, who clearly wasn’t paying attention, scooped my hand into the muck. It ended up being a $600+ pot and I had the nut flush vs two sets.
Live and learn.
I’m intrigued by testimonials of softer live games than on the internets. Four consecutive years of in the black web play and in the red live action play have me thinking I just can’t overcome those $5 chips disappearing down the Binionhole. After this long, it couldn’t just be variance could it?
Skipatore,
I doubt it’s the rake that’s doing you in. I generally agree that live games are softer than online ones, but hand reading can be very different between the two. In general, I’ve found live games to be looser preflop, but tighter for stacks. If you don’t adjust to the new conditions well, then that could be a problem.
And so could good old-fashioned running bad.
What’s the protocol for tipping? I’ve read that after every hand you win in a casino you should tip the dealer. How much?
lacey: see here. Or any of the 50 million tipping threads on 2+2’s Brick and Mortar forum.
Now tell us how not to get raped and cheated in online poker. I have had muck more consistent and positive results in live play than online play. I suspect it has to do with the fact that my style really depends on live reads. Also I tend to get distracted when I play online whereas I am much more focused in a live game.
But sometimes I swear things are uncanny online. I would be hard pressed to say there is cheating, but then again. And I just feel more comfortable playing in a casino when I can see people’s faces. Why all the talk about taking the game from online to live, why not the otherway? Online feels like a total disaster to me.
Thanks for the thoughtful posts.