Suggestions for experienced live player contemplating playing online.

I need advice from some of the more experienced online players.

I currently do very well as a live 2/5 regular. I can beat the 2/5 pretty easily and consistently. That part of my game is fine. I'm thinking of switching some of my time to online play for the PLO scene. I'm not opposed to playing holdem online, but from my experiences in the past I get bored playing it online for some reason.

I need to know what you guys suggest I do. Below are my goals and issues. Any help is appreciated.

• I would like to get in on the money that is available online. I never really play it and feel like I am missing out.
• I enjoy the action of the plo games online, and don't like the action of the holdem games iv played so far.
• I know that I don't know what i'm talking about with the holdem games. Are there good action games online? If so, at what stakes?
• I cannot play micro stakes. Its just not possible. I dont have the patients to play for nickles and dimes.
• I don't like tournys or sit n goes.
• I have poor bankroll mangaement and would much rather play in a bigger game with fewer buy ins than a 100 buy in philosophy or what ever some of you rocks suggest.
• I have a decent live bankroll and could spare a grand or two to play better stakes.
• I have had a few people suggest playing heads up for cash, but haven't seen that on PS.

my first response... don't bother stick to live

if i had a large selection of live games available to me... u would never see me online.

the one thing i would say specific to your situation: if a player can beat 1/2 online he can most likely crush 2/5 live... so u could possibly consider playing 10/20 online with a positive ROI.

The biggest difference is the amount of hands that will play. you will see double the hands per hour that you would live.... so you can be more patient. Even though you don't like micor stakes, play low limits to familiarise yourself with the differences between online and also just to familiarise yourself with the onlne environment. you get very little time to make a decision, so it needs to be pretty much automatic. Play full tilt or pokerstars, because they have the most players.

hope this helps, if u do decide to dabble... good luck

I would stick with live play, you are about to have a rude awaking, I barely ever lose in live play, online I get crushed, and its very simple, online sites are freaking greedy as hell, they stack the deck so all these monster hands come out and you lose all your cash on the river, seen it time and time again, and I dont buy that crap argument about well you see more hands in online play, my brother has only got 4 of a kind in about 40 years of playing poker, online I got got 4 of kind 4 times in one day, full houses coming out so many times I lose count, so screw the that BS crap about more hands being played.

With online poker they penalize good players, they make it so you have a monster hand and pop here comes the river for that one in a million miracle card and you lose your cash, I have noticed that it is very common on big pots, that is were they make their money, buy juicing up the cards so you think your ahead, both players go hey I have one hell of a hand and bet more, well someone is going to come out the loser, and its usually the guy who had the better hand pre flop. Dont get my wrong I love playing with my CC members, they play a hard and tuff game, but when you get into money games, oh my god the calls some of these idiots make and win with it will make you go insane and say what the hell is going on, this does not happen even remotely close in live play. So you have been warned. If I had a place close by I could play live, you would not see me that much online either. Make sure what ever you do, read the bank roll management section in the cards chat forum, it really helped me out to actually not go broke in online poker. So best of luck to yah.

Can't speak to PLO, but relative to holdem - the average $0.25/$0.50 online regular is generally better than the average $2/5 fish at a casino, and may be as good as a $2/$5 live reg. I used to play live, primarily $2/$4, and had to make a lot of adjustments to play online - and am still only playing $0.50/$1.00 after several months.

$1/$2 is an action game on PS - heavy 3betting/4betting pf, alot of postflop action. I have never tried higher stakes, can't speak to those.

On PS, you can find HU games by setting the "Holdem Ring Game Filter" to "1-on-1". HU games are action games (sick action in my mind ).

No question that PLO is an action game, enjoy.

I won't bore you w the standard BRM discussion, but if you ever get interested, there are a ton of good posts and articles here on that topic.

I don't understand why you would even consider playing for real money online if you believe this. Please don't bother explaining why you do this, it's none of my business and it's a free world etc., but it seems pretty silly.

If your great, you could play shortstacked, it's easy....
If i do a shortstacked game i could play a .25/.50 game, with my BR where it is at right now.
But shortstacked only works if you know how to play it, you should stay with in your BR..
The fish are easy in PLO...

i can't speak for playing at the higher limits, but as for the transition to online poker, you do have to be more patient. something about the fact that people are just clicking with a mouse instead of pushing real chips into the pot makes them play much looser in general, and make ridiculous calls. i guess they also think that they can lose and buy back in with a few clicks, and not feel the money leave them... that's something i'm just now starting to realize.

I don't follow your logic here at all.

If u cosistently win live V online,u will make a lot more cash online,it is worth giving it a bash.

start playing .25/.50 to get a feel for the speed of the game and as u progress,there will be more direct and spesific quesions u can ask the CC member.

also remember if it is too slow for u, then play 2 tables.just be very carefull of your BR managment.

Hope this helps a bit.

Lazmansa

PS:THere is no reason for the poker sights to cheet u,they make there money from the rake and the rake only ,so it does not affect them who wins the hands.it would be better for them if there were no bad beats online so no 1 would get upset and leave the sight.

Good luck and hope u win it all.

Cant say much about Pokerstars since I dont play there, but the PLO action at FullTilt never ceases. You wont have any trouble finding an action game at any of the small/medium stakes on there. The only advice I give is be prepared. If you are going to jump in to mid stakes PLO make sure you are versed knowledge-wise and be prepared for the money swings. There are PLO regs at the $.5/$1 level that are excellent players. Any levels higher than that will be pretty tough. And even though you are bypassing the BRM part of the idea, still be prepared since online PLO swings will be FAR worse, even at small to mid stakes, than live 2/5 holdem swings. Other than that good luck, and run good.

Sorry, but this is one of the most ridiculous things I've read. Like slycbnew said, it's none of my business and it wouldn't help to debate it for the umpteen zillionth time here, but since the OP asks valid questions I feel like I need to steer him completely away from nonsense such as this.

It never ceases to amaze me some of the conspiracy theories I read about online poker -- always from losing players -- that defy common sense and logic.

I'm in a similar situation and that's probably the reason I'm even at CC. I've played live in a 30 person club for the last 3 years and have been the dominant player. At some point I want to expand my game but never played online. Signed up at FTP but haven't made a deposit yet. Played a NL 6 person SNG last night just to get the feel of the clicks and how fast the game goes versus live. Also did PL by mistake.

It seems you have it laid out pretty well but if you're like me, I just need to dive in and figure out how to get established without losing much in the beginning. The third bullet from the bottom is where you might want to focus. Just a suggestion. Good luck!

So you get crushed in online play because it's rigged?

I'm skeptical.

I think you should stick with live if you are doing good. Online is crazy if you are not strong and if you tilt easily the online scene is not for you. Like others have said the craziest hands I've ever played have happened online and good play rarely gets rewarded. Play low stakes and find out and save your money and stick with live play. Gl.

I always do better live than online but from where I live its a good looong drive to get to a poker rooms so I can't just pop in for a game.....online is fun and I play to pick up a little extra $$$ for monthly "BBQ supplies"....the action is faster with less time to act and alot of the nuances are missing in online play that you are probablly use to in live play and that makes a big difference and takes some getting use to.BRM is a plus unless you have deep pockets and don't mind redepositing onto a site.If you are going to play online you should get set up with a rake back program for the site(s) you are going to play on.another suggestion is to checkout some of the smaller sites and networks too...not as many players but still good action and money + deposit bonuses and rake back programs too.

I facepalmed at least 3 times reading this thread, holy shit.


Ok well OP, you should play 50nl probably if you can beat 2/5, deposit like $1500 or so should be a good buffer for that. If you want to play higher you need to deposit more, if you wanted to play 1/2.... well i wouldnt advice it as you may get destroyed, its nothing like 2/5 live, if you did want 1/2 you should deposit about $4000-5000.

Same with PLO, play .25/.50 with about 1.5k if you try to play higher you may lose your money very quickly, plo is a swingy game.

Pretty sure this statement contradicts itself.

Thanks so far for all the suggestions and info. It is helping.

A buddy of mine set me up with $25 in my pokerstars account and I have been experimenting with it. I downloaded the new version of the poker tracker and have been playing the micro stakes NLH full ring games. I got a few questions because its a very different game than live.

1) Pot size: I find that I am winning lots of small pots but find it hard to build and win big pots. I am losing too many of the bigger pots. It could be a run of bad cards because of my small sample size. Or it could be something I'm doing wrong.

2) The HUD: How is this thing useful? I multi 4 tables at a time and tile them. I can pay attention pretty well to whats going on. The HUD though distracts me. I some times turn it off. I don't know how to use it.

Below is how I use it. Please feel free to correct/add to it.

VP: This tells me how loose a player is. The higher the number here the less credit I give to his hands.
PR: This also helps me with hand ranges. If a player with a low number here raises I give them credit for a big one.
AFq: This I'm not really sure how to take. This could be that they try to buy pots a lot, or it could just be that they bet a lot. I use it to see how much I'm gonna have to commit to the pot.

My numbers so far:
1700 hands at .01/.02
Up about 6 dollars.
16bb/hour

(how do I get my HUD stats from PT?) I would like to show them to get ideas about them.

So far, I am pretty happy. I was down a lot compared to the stakes at first. My first thousand hands was just lose lose lose after the money went in. I don't like the stakes, and am waiting to get a few more dollars before moving up. There are bad players. More than I expected. So many people continuation bet bad boards. I also find a lot of people like to fire on the flop and then check the turn when weak. Any suggestions are still appreciated.

On-line players are better as a whole. There is tracking software. A huge field of players worldwide. You will be up against pro's at the 2/5 level for sure. If you get bored at NLHE on-line you might try multitabling. This helps me keep from getting bored and playing random trash hands for excitement. There is money to be made online for sure. IMO the amount of buyins you start with should be a based on your ROI%. My suggestion is go ahead and deposite 4-5 buyins for the level you want to play and play it. Think of it as recreation or a learning process. If you don't bust then play on. If you do then maybe start at the lower stakes like everyone will recommend. Good luck with it either way.

yes for all the people criticising my post... it should be the other way round.... where good at 2/5 live means u can crush a lower stake online.... many apologies