Live Cash Games

Back in the day, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, we all played live poker. I started playing poker as a kid, after watching my Dad play stud, and as soon as I could I moved my game from my friend’s kitchen table to the felt at the casino. I watched as the internet poker boom took hold and listened as everyone told me what easy money there was to be made online. My first few forays into the online world of poker were mildly successful, but I quickly realised that if I wanted to dominate, I had to change my game a bit.

These days, playing online is second nature. For many of us, playing live is as foreign as it would be for my Dad (he’s 66 and can barely write an email) to play online. In a few days, I’ll be going to Las Vegas for the 2009 WSOP. And as I’m going there to play live poker, I’ll have to make a few transitions to be successful. There was a time when this article would be about making the transition from live play to online play, but that time has passed. If you’re one of the millions that plays mostly online and you’re thinking of sitting down at the felt, then there are several things you need to consider.

Game Selection

One of your most important online tools can be taken away from you when you play live. If you walk into a casino that you aren’t very familiar with, it’ll be very difficult to quickly figure out which game is the one you want to be in. On top of that, if you want to play $10/$20 no-limit hold’em, there might only be one or two games. You may be forced to change stakes or play a different form of poker so that you can play in a juicy game. This is just one of the many reasons to learn all forms of poker.

Balancing Your Range

If you regularly play online, you’ll need to balance your range if you want to be successful. The more you know about your opponents the easier it is to play against them. The same is true for your own game, so balancing your range is critical. Online, you see thousands and thousands of hands. If they are paying attention, our opponents will have more information about the way we play than they ever thought possible.

When you play live, information is so incomplete – instead of eight tables, we’re only playing one and instead of thousands of hands, we’re lucky to see a hundred. There is really no point of balancing your range when you play live. Leave this weapon at home. Most of the players you play against won’t be paying enough attention or be good enough to take advantage. Have you ever heard of the saying, ‘a little bit of information can be dangerous?’ This very much applies here.

The only times I balance my range when I’m playing live is when I play hours upon hours with the same guy and he’s good. Even then I’m specifically balancing my range against him and only him.

Fancy Play Syndrome

I’ve always defended live play and I still do to a degree, but even I have to admit the competition is generally much tougher online. That being said, leave your fancy plays at home.
Unless you really know your opponent, there’s little reason to five-bet bluff after he has shown strength. Most of the complicated moves will be lost on your inferior live opponents.
I’m not a big fan of advertising. I don’t think you need to, but against some weak-minded opponents, you can make a fancy play or two early on in your session and reap the benefits for the next few hours. You never know the fancy play may work and if not, you’ll develop a table image that you can use to manipulate your opponents.

Chill Out And Relax

If you play online and you multi-table, you are constantly making decisions. One of the few things I remember having to change when first playing online was my focus. Staying focused and engaged while playing online was ?a challenge.

I decided to play more games at the same time and take notes on all my opponents. I noticed that this was enough to keep me engaged and my results improved. Rarely are you sitting there bored and if you are, you probably will join another table. This is obvious, but really important. Playing at one table with a human doing the dealing, however, can be painstakingly slow. You can’t let this put you in a frame of mind where you are tempted to play more hands than you normally would.

On top of that, if you play six-max online, you’re playing a lot more hands. If you play live, you could be playing against nine other opponents. There could easily be a time where you don’t play a hand for 45 minutes.

Six-Max to Full-Ring

This is probably the most significant transition to make. When you’re playing six-max, you’re often playing against only three or four opponents. The average winning hand is much weaker than in a full-ring game. It goes without saying that you must adjust your starting hand ranges, but more importantly you must adjust the way you play after the flop. If I’m playing against four opponents online and I raise under the gun and get re-raised, my opponent’s range is vast. He ?could be isolating me with a pair or a big Ace or could be balancing his range with 5s-6s.

I’ve found that when I play live, my opponents’ holdings are much more obvious. You have to be wary of the internet player who hasn’t made the transition, but on the whole if I get re-raised after my under-the-gun raise, my opponent is telling me he has a monster. If I’m playing at the kind of table where four players are routinely seeing the flop, I’ll have to make an adjustment as well. Instead of winning lots of small pots, I’ll be aiming to hit a big score with one big pot. Basically speaking, the more players at the table, the less you play and the less you bluff. As usual, none of these rules are steadfast. If the situation calls for it, feel free to play every hand.

Stack Sizes

Something that seems effortless online can take a bit of observation when playing live. If you’re a successful player, you know how important it is to know how much money is in front of all your opponents. How deep a player is can often make a decision for us. No point in calling to hit my set if my opponent can only pay me 4/1 on my money.