Online poker can seem like a completely different game when you first start playing compared to live poker.
Even if you make the transition from small stakes to high stakes the basic fundamentals of the game remain the same, but .
As you move up the stakes in either form of the game it becomes less about the rules and more about playing against other people.
Poker is a game that people play to win but also because they love the game itself. And who wouldn't? It combines skill, strategy, psychology and luck to create a mind sport unlike anything else in the world.
If you're just learning how to play poker you should check out our before you read on. Otherwise, here are some key ways online poker is different from live poker -- both in overall strategy and in the way people play.
No Deposit Bonuses (And 5 No Deposit Free Spins Bonuses) for January 20231) Speed of the Game.
The most obvious difference between online and is how fast the games are.
If you play at a full 9-handed table in person you're lucky to get around 30 hands per hour. With four players really paying attention the dealer will struggle to keep up with even half that.
Ways to Find Legit Online Casinos (That You Should Know)Action gets even slower if you like to play in smoke-filled back rooms where the drink waiter has to come over every 20 minutes to top up your whiskey.
While smoking and drinking are both banned at online tables, somehow, miraculously, the whiskey glass never empties.
Contrast the slothful pace of live poker to online poker, where you can play the same nine-handed game and get close to 100 hands per hour.
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Furthermore, most online players play one table at a time. It's not uncommon for "multi-tablers" to play four or five tables simultaneously without missing a hand.
This means they can see almost 500 hands per hour. For some online pros and they easily log 2,000+ hands per hour.
It might sound like a good thing to see more hands but in reality it's harder to make money the more hands you see. The reason is simply because the fishier players make mistakes less often the more they play.
On the flip side, though, it's much easier to build up a big bankroll playing online, mainly because the games are just so much cheaper. You can play live 1c/2c for a couple of hours with the pocket change you found behind the couch.
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Because online poker is so much faster, .
In live poker you can get into the habit of only playing premium hands because by the time you've had time to figure out an appropriate action the betting round is already over.
Online, there is no such luxury. With so many more hands, and so many more players playing too many hands, there are tons of weak cards that can be profitable to play in the right situations.
That being said, cheap online poker tournaments usually have lots of bad players who buy in for too much money and then limp trash into pots, bleeding chips for hours until they bust.
Don't be that guy.
Tournaments aside, the extra speed of online poker makes it a big player's game. If you're looser than you should be, or making a lot of weak calls, you're going to get bled dry in a hurry.
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2) Aggression Levels Are Higher Online.
Aggression is rewarded more frequently online. Playing aggressively does not suit every personality type. Some people prefer to sit back, smell the rosewater and wait for aces before they pounce.
There is nothing wrong with this kind of passive strategy as long as you don’t play it online. It just won’t work. Not against any opposition that knows what they’re doing, anyway.
Passive play is fine as long as you don't do it against decent opposition.
You’ll lose so much money sitting around waiting for aces that you’ll give up before you get a good look at the board. This is even truer online because the action is so fast.
In order to stay afloat you need to be seeing roughly 2.5x the number of hands you’re betting per hour. So if you bet on average three hands an hour, you need to be seeing seven or eight.
Otherwise you’re effectively throwing away the extra money your aggressive opponents are putting into the pot.
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Bet More Often Online
To put it another way: you need to be initiating action in order to win money.
Just sitting around waiting to spike a monster hand is only going to work if you’re prepared to call huge bets with very little. Most people aren’t comfortable doing that.
And although it goes against the grain for a lot of beginners, you actually want the other player to make that raise pre-flop.
From nothing, you’ve gone from having two live hands to having two dead hands.
With the rise of it might seem like tight play is making a comeback online, but even super-tight play requires aggressive play in certain spots to work.
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3) Hand Range Construction is Crucial Online.
When you first start playing online it can seem like your opponents are continually raising your best hands before showing you their dominating hands.
Although it may appear that way, what’s actually happening is you are raising your best hands and your opponents are raising theirs. When these two raised hands meet, one will always be dominating the other.
From nothing, you’ve gone from having two live hands to having two dead hands.
Think about your range when you're sitting down at the table. Your range is basically all the hands you’re going to play before you actually play them. For most beginner players, this looks something like this:
- AA-22
- TT-AJ
- AQ/AJs offsuit
- KQs, KJs suites
Queens and jacks are not mentioned because most beginners tend to fold them a lot of the time.
As you can see, it’s a very narrow range. Most of the time, when beginner players raise from early position, it’s going to be an ace or a pair of kings. Same deal from mid and late position.
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Now think about what your range looks like after the flop in a raised pot. All of those top-ranked hands are out of the pot or heads-up. From nothing, you’ve gone from having two live hands to having two dead hands.
steps on how to start an online casino in 2023Beginners who raise with T-T or A-Q in that environment are doing well to have a hand that’s ahead at the end of the hand, let alone one that can hold up long term.
Hand range construction is one of the toughest concepts for live players to grasp when they come online. In a live game it seems like you’re winning when you’re making rolls up with top pairs and big wrap draws.
Sometimes it feels like every time you get it in like that you win the pot. But that’s because . There are just far fewer big hands seen per hour in a live game.
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We've already talked about how important position is online, but it bears mentioning again.
Playing out of position against competent opponents online is a recipe for losing all your money in a hurry. It's not that playing out of position is great even with position, it’s just that being in position allows you to semi-bluff and make plays.
Being in position lets you make plays online.
Without knowing what your opponent is about to do you're left guessing and, more often than not, ending up with a large sum of money leaving the pot. That's not something many players are happy to see.
Out of position you are essentially playing a very weak game that consists solely of calling and listening to your opponent make mistakes and throw money in the muck for you to pick up.
Nice of him, but not really what you’re here for. Being in position lets you make plays; semi-bluffs, bluffs and various other kinds of awesome sauces.
Without being in position at showdown you’re pretty much forced to play a much tighter game with very few bluffs. Who wants to do that? Not anyone trying to make some cash online.
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Online Slots That Pay Real Money and Where to Play Them5) Bluffs Succeed Less Online.
Not only are there more fish online, they're also better at spotting a balance in your range than your local card room pro.
Sure, there are some dimwits who will be calling that bet on the river no matter what you show them, but for the most part people are aware of frequency and the math checks out.
In a typical local game it can get to showdown pretty quickly. Fold equity can persuade some players to fold out of the game, but often four or five players will see the flop and three or four to the river.
Showdowns occur quite infrequently in an online session. Of a 10-hand sample only two or three are likely to see showdown.
So when you're reviewing your hand history, fourth street isn't that far to the right of second. Meaning that frequencies don't shift dramatically from street to street.
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A Little Goes a Long Way Online.
Another aspect to consider is that it takes less bluffing online to find success. Since you're seeing many more hands online, even a small percentage of successful bluffs adds up to a significant amount of money won.
Frequency matters most.
Furthermore, beginners tend to over-value their hands on the flop in a local game. They'll throw in a few c-bets that get folds from the remaining players, causing them to conclude erroneously that top pair is a good hand to value-bet with from early position.
Online, where there is significantly less deception and more appreciation for frequency, players understand the power of blocking their opponents from seeing a following street.
Frequency matters most in poker; count how many times something happens and compare it to how many times a similar event occurs for your opponent. Do that enough and you'll be a winner in no time.
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Avoid Rag Aces Online.
Generally speaking, you shouldn’t be playing margarita ace in a strong way online. Let your opponent take the lead.
Unless you have some sort of ace kicker or a really good read on your opponent (something which is far tougher online), letting them take the lead is the safest play you can make.
California Casinos That Won't Break the Bank - Where to Go?Sometimes getting rubbing your eyes out of the list of excuses.
If they want to lead out from under you, from first or third position, for the third time in a row, take the free card. If they bet again on the flop, and you haven’t shown any signs of strength, chances are they’re going to barrel all the way to the river.
And since they’ve been betting into mostly air, they’re going to do it light. Light enough that you can make a nice semi-bluff to take down the pot.
Now, despite what I just said, you should have a real live ace. rag aces are rag.
online poker jobsThere is a big difference in playing Q♠ T♠ and A♦ 2♣. Neither hand is great but Q♠ T♠ can hit a ten or a queen, or flop a gutshot that it can chill with for multiple streets.
A diamond-high ace can get there, but it usually has to do so on the river.
Sometimes getting rubbing your eyes out of the list of excuses won’t save you. You will lose money taking the lead with a marginal hand like this. It’s much better to go along for the free show.
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Players Overestimate Their Hands in Poker
People, in general, tend to overvalue their hands. This is consistent whether you’re talking about local games or online sessions. Beginners believe that the pair of tens in their hand gives them the best hand more often than they should.
Experienced players know better, but still overvalue their own hands more often than not. In live games this can take some time to play out.
Free Slots You Can Play Online - Plus, 5 More Free Casino GamesLocal players are prone to overvalue their hands.
When someone bucks with eights under the gun, no one usually wants to call, so the tilted moron sees fits preserved more often than not. It happens slowly enough that it doesn’t even register in the grand scheme of things.
On the other hand, online players buck, get raised, and throw their tilty eights into the muck without a second thought. Local players win; online players lose. The hands are the same, the situation is the same, the only real difference is the speed at which things unfold.
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Opponents Overbet the Pot Online.
It’s true that you’ll run into plenty of fish online that overbet the pot. Sometimes spectacularly so. It’s difficult to resist the urge to just hit the call button when some poor Turkish shot-caller puts in a third betting on the turn while representing the nuts.
The numbers suggest you're making a mistake here.
Best Casino Bonuses in Indiana with No Deposit Required (2023)But the numbers suggest you're making a massive mistake every single time you do that. Sure, he's got to be laying you fantastic odds, but the numbers suggest you're making a massive mistake every single time you do that.
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Pot-Committed is a Different Concept for Online Poker
Understanding pot commitment is perhaps the hardest concept for local players to grasp when they come online.
In a local game it’s common to see players drag monstrous pots with nothing but a confident look and a slow-played monster. The local game is rife with these types of spots.
Online, in contrast, it’s rare to see such antics. Part of the reason is that the pots are much deeper earlier in an online hand.
There are simply fewer players seeing the flop, and the stacks are much shallower than the mountainous towers of chips you see in most local games.
Essentially, players are frequently more pot committed C-pre flop in an online game than their local counterparts are post-flop.
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7) No Smoking Online.
Most people enjoy playing poker in a smoky room filled with the smell of stale beer and rosewater. The ring of shuffling chips, the clink of ice in a tumbler and the deep rumble of Bob when he wins a big hand all add to the ambiance.
Smoking is thankfully banned online.
No Deposit Bonus Codes That Really Work (2023 Best) - Indivisible GamingThe one thing most people don’t enjoy however, is the smoke. Thankfully that crap is banned online. Not only are your clothes smelling fresher after your session, your lungs will thank you for it too.
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Don't Get Too Distracted While Playing Online.
Yes, you can multitask to your heart’s content while playing online. And yes, it’s pretty cool to take down a big pot while writing an essay on the war in Afghanistan.
Poker Hand Rankings You Need to Know | Beginner Poker RulesTry doing THAT in a live game.
But be careful not to spread yourself too thin. You might be able to write that epic blog post about the state of the online gaming industry while beating PLO high, but chances are the quality of both your play and your writing will suffer.
It's probably a good idea to pick one at a time. Any more than one complex task at a time will pull focus. Before you know it you’ve missed a critical steal, or failed to re-pop the right guy in the correct spot.
Mistakes you would never make when you're only playing one table will crop up all over your hand history when you try to do too much. Try to relax, stay focused and stick within your comfort zone.
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