from live to online

First - forgive me if I am covering a subject already covered, but I found some posts on going from online to live play but not for the reverse...

I've played small games with friends now for about 5-6 years. Always face to face and never more than 6-8 at the table. I have only recently started to play online and have noticed a few differences - perhaps the biggest is no ability to read a player's face or body language. This "talent" has led to good results in those face to face games. Now that I am online, I find myself looking for subtle hints in the timing or tracking several hands to get a feel for a player. This has produced mixed results...

At this point I feel like I should give up on trying to read players (other than the most obvious donkeys) and just play my game straight up - letting decisions to play tight or loose aggressive fall to the situation (early or late in a toruney, money or freeroll, # of players, etc.).

Any advice or support to my logic would be most appreciated. Again - just starting online play so please be gentle...he he he.

gotalljax

I think the key in going from online to live or live to online is having patience, when you go from online to live, you need to have th patience from the card dealing, when you go from live to online, you need to have the patience to wait for a good enough hand worth playing

Ageed - Paitence is a given and a virtue in either circumstance. But I must say I miss being able to pull the live read on someone...

patience is the most important thing. you have to wait for decent hands, especially in the beginning. using time as a tell is a pretty bad idea, some people just have bad connections. and sometimes online, you have to get lucky, especially on ftp

Just curious - are you saying that Full Tilt is rewarding the donkeys (or inferior hands in general) more than other sites?

I mostly play at Poker...ahem, I mean Joker Stars and Ultimate Bet. I just opened an account on Full Tilt and have only a few games experience to draw from there. So far only played $ games at Poker Stars...

I have been playing fulltilt for about 5 years and it is true about the site rewarding the donks,not so much on the cash games. but look at the bad beat thread to give you some of the examples.

i like live play much more than online. it is easier to read people live for sure. than people do play a lil crazier online for some reason. but like someone else noted, patience is key.

Other thing , than patience is not get nervous when you play during live events, that's th key .. if you think you have the best hand, go for it.. and you'll always win . Other thing always take the fist 10 hands to recognize your table, the players, their corporal movements, etc.. I think this is the main thing, because after that you're more relax and can see who is bluffing and who is not. Ok Guys ... Good luck and see you on the tables..
NICK.

You want to take every advantage you can. While you don't get to see people, you can use a program like PokerTracker to get more information on them. You can see exactly how often they've been playing hands, how often they bet after the flop, etc. The HUD will also show you players cards when they go to showdown yet muck. (These hands are show in the hand history, but the HUD digs them out and displays them for you). That way you can see what they were calling down with.

The best way to read people online is to see how they play what they do with what hands in what positions. Seeing their stats in PokerTracker can put you in the ballpark about what sort of hands they're playing.

The tells you were looking for are called "click tells." They are less accurate. It's basically looking for how long it takes people to respond. For example, if you raise, then someone waits a long long time to respond, then he shoves, he usually has a very big hand. But he could also be having connection issues, or talking on the phone, or distracted at another table (some people play 20 tables at a time).

I would say play your natural game for a while and get comfortable. After that and you feel you are ready to start looking for more. then start looking for betting patterns and how players use teir given time. I have found a lot of great information by simply doing a search using key words like "Online Poker Tells" and " How To read Your Poker Opponents". I read what interests me and then try to incoporate it into my game. If it works for me, great if not then I move on.

Just play straight up, in the lower limits; too many donkeys will call you down with anything; just so you won't bluff them out of the pot. Patience is key, and if your playing a full tilt, just look at the bad beats and a test of your character, and it will hopefully prepare you one day for the big game...

Great advice... Wish I had read just those two sentences six months ago.

I like the patience advice in this thread, because it is very very truthfull. As for the whole "full tilt rewards donkeys" I have to dissagree with that. Yes, I have taken my fair share of bad beats, and given a few too but I have played a lot of live poker as well and I have seen just as sick of beats there. What I'm saying is, be patient, play your game, and don't get caught up in the whole, "It's rigged! It's rigged!" phenomenon. Good luck with your bankroll man.