Live tournaments Vs Online Tournaments

Hello i consider myself a fairly good Online player. I have been playing Online cash games and tournaments for about 6 months now for real money. I have read every Texas hold 'em strategy book/article i could find and know all the basic strategies of cash games and tournaments.

My problem is live games, i do very well online but when it comes to live games i play very poorly and lose often. There is a large live tournament in my town with a $50 buy in next week which i am going to play in. If this was an online tournament i would not be worried as i feel comfortable with my play, but as it is live and my past live games have ended poorly. Just curious if anyone has any tips or reasons as to why i play so well and win so often online, yet the exact opposite of when i play live, and any tips to help me take down this live tournament next week?

online is a totally different beast. I'm a live player, my main poker buddy is primarily online. Our viewpoints are different on optimal ways to play certain hands. It will come with experience.

Keep in mind live you get a lot few hands per hour, the levels are slower, and everybody can see you.

As weregoat says, everything will come with experience. I used to get nervous all the time on live games/tourneys, simple because I was used to play online.

Best thing you can do is apply your poker knowledge as you do on online tables, but with a little twist and sutile differences between both.

That's right. Experience is the best teacher for you to enhance your skills in playing live poker. In my opinion, the reason that you do well on online poker games is due to the fact that you are not playing face to face against your opponents, and nobody can guess your next move. We all know that there is a lot more pressure in live poker than online, and you have to properly use your bluffing skills and poker face in order to defeat your opponents.

But before you join that tournament, I suggest that you ask some of your poker player friends and practice playing the game and developing your bluffing skills as well as your poker face for one week. Maybe that's not quite enough time, but it will still help you to condition your mind before setting off on joining that live poker tournament.

Great advice, especially from Jacob. I also think you might have more luck if you play a bit cautious until you get a good read on the other players. I think online the play is faster and more aggressive and you risk losing quickly in a live game if you go out with your guns blazing.

Online play is faster and impersonal and it's what your use to. What were you doing in live tournaments to lose? If you could give some details, it would help.

Most people who havent tried both dont realize that there is a big difference between online and real play. For instance, if your online strategy includes a lot of bluffing, it may not work as well in real life because people can read your body language as well as other things. Keep this in mind!

I like reading Mike Cairo's articles. Maybe a book on poker tells and control are in order.

Many of the smaller buy-in tournaments have terrible blind structures. Even at casinos, the lowest level buy-ins aren't there to support a long grueling tournament to crown some champ. They want your money and a quick tournament.

Take a look at the blind structure if you can get a hold of it. If there are jumps that look like 150/300 to 400/800 w/ antes or only 10 minutes/level then chances are it will become a crap shoot at some point. What might be a playable stack one minute is all of the sudden < 10 big blinds!!!

There is also the assumption that you've probably played more online tournaments than live tournaments. That leads to a larger sample size, and if you are a winning player your results may reflect that.

Likminutz said:

Many of the smaller buy-in tournaments have terrible blind structures. Even at casinos, the lowest level buy-ins aren't there to support a long grueling tournament to crown some champ. They want your money and a quick tournament.

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^ this.

Even if an online tournament is over quicker, in terms of hands per level you've gotta start playing in some pretty high stakes tournaments before a live game structure gets better than an online one.

That being the case, make sure you've got a good short stack game and always keep track of how much you have relative to the blinds and antes. It can be really easy to lose track when you've just got piles of chips in front of you.

It might feel a bit silly at first too but try to conceal your tells. Don't look at your cards until it's your turn to act and when you're involved in a hand try adopting a consistent pose that limits the amount of information you give away - the one Chris Ferguson uses on TV where he clasps his hands in front of his mouth is pretty effective.

Good luck