online poker vs live game psychology

**QuickLearner** · 03-21-06, 11:44 PM

You've asked an interesting question, which points to an important idea that a lot of people miss.

First, the answer. I feel that when playing onlne, the only reliable "tell" is betting pattern. Most online players are fairly predictable when it comes to the way they bet. Either they always slowplay a good hand or they always bet it out. You can extend the same thinking to other situations: They always bet primary draws, or they never bet a draw...etc. If you put what you know about your opponents' betting patterns together with what you know about their hand selection habits you can get a pretty clear idea of where you are. Most of the time.

I feel that you can safely ignore everything else. How fast they bet, how long they think before they call, what they type into the chat window, everything. Ignore it all.

Here's the other thing I was talking about. Online poker isn't live poker. They're two different games. Just like NL is a different game from fixed limit. You can waste a lot of time trying to figure out ways to bring your live game to the online table. I think it's easier and probably more profitable to just treat them as separate skill sets.

**bostonceltics13** · 03-23-06, 05:23 PM

Great question and one that everyone (myself included) must think hard about. I played live in Vegas while living there. I would pick up tells and betting patterns easily. Online there are a few drawbacks and benefits. It's harder to read a bluff, but then again, it's harder to be read by another player. There's no face to a name so memorizing their patterns is often harder, but online you can write it all down. It depends on the strengths and weaknesses of your game. I like live poker and mainly stick to that since it fits my strengths better. I completely agree with what QL said, they are different games. Online for me is purely recreational and will remain so until I improve those skills more fully. Good luck