Live: Keeping track of your position (button, UTG, etc)

When I played live, I found it much different than online. You had to keep track of the pot amount yourself. You had to know when it was your turn. You had to look for the dealer button. It was more to keep track off.

You want to play more when you are playing late. To help me remember this, once I was BB and SB, I reminded myself that I would be in late position for the next few hands, so wake up. Once those hands passed, I was less alert on marginal hands, since I was then in early or mid position.

After you're the BB and SB, you're in early position. Pay attention for chances to call.

Sit down with a timer and deal flops, turn and river giving yourself 3 seconds to analze each sitation. this will help you see the possibilities in a live game.

It's a learned skill, something you get used to, much like anything else.

There's a bit of extra work in tracking the pot and stuff, but you also get more time to make your decisions to it evens out.

I have played a ton live and online. There a few concepts that don't carry over that well to live games.

First of all don't worry to much about exact pot size. Count what is in on the flop and go from there. Round down to the nearest $5 because of the rake. If you lose track the dealer will spread the pot so you can count or estimate whenever you ask. A lot of people will make bets like 12 or 23 which puts a bunch of small chips in the pot. I usually act with bigger chips and get change so I can count the pot easily. I like to buy in with $25's for that purpose.
A lot of small stakes live players don't really know about bet sizing. In 1/2NL there are small bets(<$10) and big bets(>$10). Also, so many dumb asses habitually over bet pots($15 in a $6 pot). Pay attention to these kind of players because knowing their over bet range is extremely exploitable.
Paying attention to position is important as always. Just find the button. There is also some blind/button etiquette. Don't leave when you in one of those positions it messes up the blinds causing multiple people posting blinds in weird spots.

Don't have the opportunity to play live, but position is just as important online.

Ladybugger said:

Pay attention for chances to call.

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I'm not sure what your getting at with looking for chances to call. Calling is often the worst of the three choices. You should be coming into pots raising most of the time.

I agree with you live poker is much different than online poker. You can get a much better read on the players in live poker, and feel for the game. In online poker, the random generators are cold, and impersonal, more mathematically oriented. Online poker is definitely for players that have little to no people skills, or it's a matter of convenience in some cases. As far as keeping track of the pots in live poker. I always just rounded off, close is good enough!

nomadnative said:

Also, so many dumb asses habitually over bet pots($15 in a $6 pot). Pay attention to these kind of players because knowing their over bet range is extremely exploitable.
.

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What are you supposed to learn from this?
Don't call a big overbet, since it's probably legit?

Ladybugger said:

What are you supposed to learn from this?
Don't call a big overbet, since it's probably legit?

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Depends on the player - it may represent an overpair, top pair, middle pair, or air.

I felt the same way when I played live for the first time. I remember being in spots with the dealer staring at me and I was like "oh thats right I am in the blinds or "oh yeah sorry its my turn". I got better though. I had to pay more attention and actually watch the button go around the table. I was thinking if only there would be a beep or something just like online! Maybe the dealer should start saying BEEP BEEP BEEP!

nomadnative said:

Pay attention to these kind of players because knowing their over bet range is extremely exploitable.

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Loonbat said:

Depends on the player - it may represent an overpair, top pair, middle pair, or air.

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Great point! Some players, for instance, always overvalue a drawing hand. If you observe that in their betting when heads up, then your middle pair might have gotten a little more valuable, for instance.