Live vs Online Poker Strategy

Chapter 1
There are many well written books on how to play poker. These books provide exceptional information for live poker games, but are not as useful when playing online. You have no idea who you are playing online.

You may narrow it down with the techniques I will soon discuss, but for the most part the online poker players have no idea what they are doing. This is a very good thing for advanced online poker players.

Losing Online – Winning Live

I’ve heard of quite a few poker pros that are consistent winners in live games, but lose every time they sit down at a computer. Why is this? That fact is that most live games pros makes their money through their opponents tells. They know when to bluff and they know when to go big and take down an opponents stack.

The key to online poker as in live poker is a tight but aggressive style.  You do not want to give your opponent a chance to outdraw you. If you haven’t noticed already, online players like to chase down cards. You will use this knowledge to your advantage.

You know you have a statistical edge if they are chasing, so bet big. Either they will pay you off BIG or you will occasionally lose. I know, I know, it hurts to lose an all in to someone who had an inferior hand but this is what you want. You want to be heads up against a chaser because they will pay your mortgage for your house every month.

Another thing to remember is that a huge percentage of online players are suckers. They are just there to have a good time and they love to call.

You can’t bluff a sucker and that is one thing you need to imbed in your head forever. Yes, you can occasionally make some money from a bad player by bluffing, but the thing I see most in beginning online players is that they try to outplay a sucker. The sucker at the table has no idea what you are trying to do. The unbelievable play or bluff you just made might get a good player to fold, but not a sucker.

Looser Players Online

People play much looser online than live. The concept behind this is pretty obvious. It’s the same reason casinos use chips at the table.  Online poker takes this concept to an extreme as players don’t even have a tangible monetary object to hold.

Most online players are even less careful when their chips are converted to digital numbers on a screen. They are less likely to think about the consequences of losing a couple hundred or thousand bucks. This is one advantage of online play that outweighs the fact that there are not very many tells to take advantage of in online poker.

All you opponent has to do is click a button and their money disappears and they are quick to reload. This carefree attitude about money is what makes online poker so great and potentially very profitable.

………………………………..

<= Back to poker ebook index