Posted by Big Donkey | Filed under Bloggers Corner
I admit it – I’m a horrible online poker player. As much as I may protest this fact in public, in my heart I know the truth. I can’t ever seem to win at the virtual table.
Why this is, I don’t know. I feel like I play solidly and make the right moves at the right times. Of course, as my results unfortunately show, I’m not. The kicker is, however, is that my style online isn’t much – if at all – different than my live style, but my results are decidedly dissimilar.
How do I know? Well, I play a lot of live poker. More than most people, probably, as I’m often in my card room at least two nights a week. There, I walk away from the tables with more money that I started with more often than not. Sure, I lose occasionally, but nowhere near as often as I do online.
So what’s the difference? I’m not completely sure, but I’ve been developing a couple of theories. First, I think I’m simply better at reading my opponents live than I am online. I don’t really look for physical tells or anything along those lines. For me, it’s more of a feel thing. If someone bet differently or took more or less time to make a decision, I can sometimes pick up on that.
For some reason, I also find it easier to follow the story when I’m playing live than I do online. It’s just easier for me to tell if someone’s bet makes sense when I’m playing live than it is online.
Another possible difference between my live and online results has to do with fear. Not fear of losing a pot – I’ve done that often enough that I’m more than comfortable with that result. Unfortunately. No, the fear I’m talking about is when an online opponent makes a big bet or raise in the middle of a hand.
There are many times when I’m sure I’m good, but there’s a little nagging thought somewhere in the back of my mind telling me that yeah, he really could be playing 4-5 on a board of 3-6-7 and that my two pair really is no good. Or that my opponent is sitting on a house when I’ve made my nut flush. I just know the impossible cards are out there waiting to kick me in the junk when I put my money in the pot. That’s my fear.
I don’t experience this same kind of dread playing live. Sure, it’s just as possible that my opponent is sitting on the nuts and that I’m betting into his made hand, but for some reason, I can deal with that possibility much more easily at a live table than I can online. Again, maybe it has something to do with being able to look my opponent in the eye and pick up on something that I can’t really even describe. I don’t really know.
While I’m trying to figure out why my results are so different between live and online play, I guess I also have to think about the fact that in live play, the money in front of me is much more tangible than the money I’m playing with online. Sure, I know those numbers represent real cash, but there are no chips stacks in front of me that I can watch increase or decrease depending on my play. There’s a certain reassurance I get in a live game when I see that pile of red or black checks continue to grow throughout the night. It’s comforting in the way that watching a number on a screen just isn’t.
So, what do I do to change my results? Good question. And my answer is… I don’t know. Maybe I have to change my online strategy and start playing differently than I do in a live game. Maybe I should play more pots with a bigger variety of hands, sort of like Erick Lindgren advises. If I miss, I can get away. If I hit, I’m likely to confuse the hell out of my opponents when they don’t see my trip 8s coming on a an A-Q-8 flop.
Like most everyone else, I’m looking for answers. If you’ve got suggestions, throw them at me. If you think I’m just a big donkey, well, tell me that too. I’ve heard it before. All I know is that I’ll keep logging on until I figure this damn game out. And as long as I’m financing my online losses with my live winnings, then I’m happy enough at the moment.
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