Live play vs. Online play

Live play vs. online play differ a ton whether it be reading players or reading patterns. When you are sitting on the felt with other players it is a lot easier to tell where they are in a hand because you can pick up on patters or tells that they give out on previous hands. The key to being successful at live play is paying attention to every time a player shows a hand down. When they show a hand down you should retrace everything that they did throughout the course of a hand, and keep it in mind if you play a pot against them later on. When you are sitting at a computer and playing online your strategy should change because players’ online try to keep consistent bets and patterns. If you want to read them you have to get them to show hands down, and also pay attention to their action before the flop, and on every street. If you can figure out by one or two hands if they are a loose or an aggressive player you will be better off in the long run, and can make calls or plays against them that you wouldn’t of made otherwise.

When you are sitting at a computer as opposed to on the felt you have less of a chance to see who you are playing against. A player could be 20 years old or an 80 year old, and your view of them would be different, but since you cannot see them your reads will go more on previous action and betting patterns. That is why when you are sitting at a session for the first time you should be paying attention to anything and every piece of information they give out. If you can figure things out within a half an hour you can then progress and start making plays. If you can see who the fish are in an online game or a live game in the first half hour that means one thing, you are not the fish. If you cannot figure out what players are doing then that means you are the fish. If you feel uncomfortable playing against players then stay away from them unless you have cards that play themselves like big pairs.

When you are sitting on the felt you should apply similar rules to playing online, but the main difference is that you can see who you are playing against. Most of the younger crowd of players will play aggressive, and see a lot more flops. Older players will play tighter most of the time and just limp in to hands or over bet when they have the nuts or big pairs. The one age range that is hard to pick up on is the middle aged players. Some of them in general have played a lot of hands, and will take shots at pots if they feel they will win. How to play back at middle aged players is to pick up on previous hands they played. A lot of the time players will not fire three shells at pots with nothing so that is something to keep in mind when playing live. If you do have a big hand and the player has bet twice to you it is correct to fire a shell on the river instead of checking to them.