... i wrote this. Enjoy

Applying online poker skills to the live game

A lot of online players find it difficult to make the leap from playing in their underwear whilst in bed on their home laptop to playing in proper brick and mortar card-room. Often I'll be watching the WSOP, WPT, EPT or similar event on the telly only to be told by whoever is running the commentary that 'So and So is a great online player but this is his first time in a live poker environment' or words to that effect. I always think these players are crazy. Imagine playing a live tournament for the first time in a massive event like the WSOP or WPT. Live play is a whole different ball game compared to playing online. Although the actual mechanics of the game are exactly the same, the environmental factors make such a big difference to how you perceive the game and ultimately how you play. Most first time live players feel uncomfortable playing in a big live tourney for the first time, and who can blame them, after all there is nothing more comfortable than sitting in bed in your undies. I hope to give a few tips to anyone thinking of playing live for the first time in this article. (as a side note, most brick and mortar card rooms do not provide beds and have strict dress codes)

Be prepared to feel nervous. Most card rooms are daunting places. They are packed with regular players who play poker their week in week out. They've formed a nice clique for themselves and you're not part of it and they will let you know. There are a number of other factors that will add to your nerves. The fact the whole experience is new to you will make you nervous. Handling chips if your not used to doing so will make you nervous. Being asked to deal if the tournament is self dealt will make you nervous. If you know these things are going to make you nervous you can prepare for them. If your not confident in dealing ask someone to deal for you. Count out all your bets before you make them and most importantly concentrate on your own game.

Concentration on your own game is imperative, especially since now there are a whole range of distractions. Online poker distractions are few at the table. Live, almost everything is a distraction. First time live players may find it hard to block out these distractions. Waiters taking drinks orders, players shuffling chips, players chatting. It may take some time before you can engage other players and still concentrate on the game. One of the biggest distractions are the other players. There are no 'ignore' buttons live. If someone is annoying you then that player is going to annoy you for the duration of the game. Concentration on the game becomes key.

Strangely the tells live are pretty much the same as online tells. Online you are told to look for betting patterns. The same is true of live poker. I find the best tell on anyone is their betting pattern. Until you become more experienced then i would not try and pick up on physical tells. When i was getting to grips with live play using 'knowledge' i had picked up from reading articles online just confused me. The deluge of information you get live can be quiet distracting. People will be doing all sorts with their hands, feet and heads. Until you learn what these mean (and learning these things will only come with experience) then its best to just ignore them.

As i said before the mechanics of live poker are exactly the same. You can set traps, bluff and value bet to your hearts content, only now you can't jump around the bedroom yelling 'WHAT WERE YOU CALLING THAT FOR YOU ****ING IDIOT' or 'Your dead here mate, I've got the stone cold nuts' (well you can but i wouldn't recommend it). I would suggest simply look at the pot and try to ignore the speech play of people around you. Play your own game, you know it works because it works online. It will work here too.

-Will 'Monkier' Claringbold

Great article Monkier.

Thank You

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good one but you can add some more tips about online game.
bye

That would be for a different article . If you have any questions or need specific pointers feel free to PM me.

One tip I'd give - from experience: Use the fact you are an unknown to your advantage. I had 'em all convinced I was a super tight donk. I got people to shuffle for me, I asked if I'd won hands. They lapped it up. I won.

Enjoy it as it won't last lol (once they suss you out)

I presonally find it interesting that Kevin Saul -belowabove (Bellagio Cup III winner) and Annette Obrestad - Annette_15 ( WSOPE winner), were both ranked in the online poker players top 10.

It proves that you can learn to play and play very well online and take it to the live games and be successful.

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I still have to savour the joy of live play. I can't imagine that i would play any different to online because it's the only way I like to play. The one thing that would bother me most would be bet sizes. I generally like to bet a percentage of the pot on the flop and of course online I can see the pot size and place the amount I want in seconds. Playing live there won't be the magic digital numbers on the felt so I imagine you have to mentally track the pot size right through to the river. I also think it would be hard to stop the hands trembling the first few times

The bet size adjustment isn't that hard, you make a best guess.

trembling hands are a sign of strength, not weakness. Keep that in mind. I like to dress warm so that my hands don't shake as much. It has been one of my biggest tells, especially early on in a tournament.

All that being said, I'm playing a WPT event next week and I already want to shit my pants, lol

It takes a little while to adjust, but once you do, it's just like playing online.

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lmao Nation - take spare pants.

Trueform - you wait - the 1st time you sit at a proper table (i.e. strangers) - trust me, you wait and see - you play like an idiot for a while. You forget everything you have learned and are 100% distracted by what's going on around you. You'll be trying to focus one second, but the next you'll be thinking , "is it me next? did he raise? god they are throwing all the chips in the middle - how can they tell what's what?! - feck! - I'm gonna have to ask if it's me to call now, they all chucked in so fast I lost track..., Shit these chips don't look like much! - I've only got 8 chips!. God, I just folded because it was 4 of my 8 chips, but wait, they are only 25's - doh!!" etc etc etc. Through all this you end up not playing your normal game. I folded everything at 1st - seemed easiest :-p

I'm a very confident person but I was plently distracted, and still am some. There is a magic tension at a table of strangers all paying cold cash and all after each other's money. I got into my stride and played a proper game once I was at the final table. We had a dealer then, and previously I'd found self dealing to be a total disctraction. I wanted to watch the players and evaluate my cards, but over a third of my time I was shaffling cards, cutting decks, or dealing. Any spare time was spent trying to evaluate people's chip stacks or pull off a good chip twirl (disaster! sticking to chip shuffle)

Only when It got down to about 5 of us I stopped dead in my tracks and thought, "Wait a sec!! you are the chip leader by a large margin, stop dicking about and start playing big stack poker" - at that point I played just like I do online and the rest was easy.

Praying next time I go (will be my 4th time) I'm more relaxed again.