Switching from small home games to online poker

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Hosscat

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I have been playing small poker games with my friends for a few years now and I'm pretty good as long as I only play against my friends and family but anytime it try to play online against other people I get picked apart something must be wrong with my strategy and I don't know what it is or how to find it I could really use some tips from a more seasoned and knowledgeable poker players please comment!
 
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spstevens

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Read , read, read there is a lot of advice and info here as well as many books available. As to the best four word tournament advice I ever used it was from Greg Raymer "fold more bluff less" . Hope you learn something from our forum and welcome.
 
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tcummo

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Post some your hands and people on here will tell you where you went wrong
or what you could have done in different situations.
Try playing some freerolls if you are not already doing so.
Study the game as much as you can.
Good luck m8.
 
MediaBLITZ

MediaBLITZ

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Welcome -

#1 - You will find your online opponents will be far more selective about what hands they start AND finish with. Many are just not interested in seeing the flop unless they feel they already have an edge. I am sure that is not the case with your friends and family who are much more interested in having a good time.

#2 - and this relates to why the above is true - Poker is a game of skill. Most online players treat it and approach it as such. Your friends and family may say that but they approach the game like a craps table. Get lucky and get on a run and you make money. They are constantly trying to put themselves in a position to be lucky - not so with those other guys - they are working to remove the luck factor as much as they can.

So first thing is to adjust the way you think about the game and then start your research. A good author to start with to get a foundation to work from is Phil Gordon. An easy read and full of foundational info. Just not his Gold Book which is way down the road for you.
 
soncheebs

soncheebs

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Welcome -

#1 - You will find your online opponents will be far more selective about what hands they start AND finish with. Many are just not interested in seeing the flop unless they feel they already have an edge. I am sure that is not the case with your friends and family who are much more interested in having a good time.

#2 - and this relates to why the above is true - Poker is a game of skill. Most online players treat it and approach it as such. Your friends and family may say that but they approach the game like a craps table. Get lucky and get on a run and you make money. They are constantly trying to put themselves in a position to be lucky - not so with those other guys - they are working to remove the luck factor as much as they can.

So first thing is to adjust the way you think about the game and then start your research. A good author to start with to get a foundation to work from is Phil Gordon. An easy read and full of foundational info. Just not his Gold Book which is way down the road for you.

What he said, you have to realize that online poker is much more difficult than live for most people. Just the pure amount of volume you see as far as hands go online, is enough to break most players...think about it: if the average player makes one crucial mistake per 4 hands played, he is making a significantly larger amount of mistakes playing online where you might see 10x the amount of hands an hour than while playing live.

Anyways, the point is if you're going to play online and be successful you truthfully have to take advantage of the tiniest of edges, and study the game fully to minimalize your mistakes so you can find that edge.
 
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Big_Rudy

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I have been playing small poker games with my friends for a few years now and I'm pretty good as long as I only play against my friends and family but anytime it try to play online against other people I get picked apart something must be wrong with my strategy and I don't know what it is or how to find it I could really use some tips from a more seasoned and knowledgeable poker players please comment!

Hi, and welcome. The above is a really good first step. realize you are not as good as you think you are and be willing to learn/seek knowledge. Don't worry. You're likely not as bad as you think you are, either. Everyone's gotta start somewhere. Just realizing that you do need to improve your game, and not letting your ego get in the way is a huge first step.

Welcome -

#1 - You will find your online opponents will be far more selective about what hands they start AND finish with. Many are just not interested in seeing the flop unless they feel they already have an edge. I am sure that is not the case with your friends and family who are much more interested in having a good time.

#2 - and this relates to why the above is true - Poker is a game of skill. Most online players treat it and approach it as such. Your friends and family may say that but they approach the game like a craps table. Get lucky and get on a run and you make money. They are constantly trying to put themselves in a position to be lucky - not so with those other guys - they are working to remove the luck factor as much as they can.

So first thing is to adjust the way you think about the game and then start your research. A good author to start with to get a foundation to work from is Phil Gordon. An easy read and full of foundational info. Just not his Gold Book which is way down the road for you.

^^This. So much this. All the above is really solid advice and reasoning. I second the notion of starting with Phil Gordon's "Little Green Book". It's nice in that he breaks everything up into small, easily understandable bits instead of just overwhelming you with everything all at once. You could easily read the entire book in an evening, and there is nothing wrong with that. Then, you are going to want to re-read it again, in bits and pieces, and work on applying those pieces to your game.
 
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Big_Rudy

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What he said, you have to realize that online poker is much more difficult than live for most people. Just the pure amount of volume you see as far as hands go online, is enough to break most players...think about it: if the average player makes one crucial mistake per 4 hands played, he is making a significantly larger amount of mistakes playing online where you might see 10x the amount of hands an hour than while playing live.

Anyways, the point is if you're going to play online and be successful you truthfully have to take advantage of the tiniest of edges, and study the game fully to minimalize your mistakes so you can find that edge.

Ok, I kind-of disagree with this, especially at first. You should be starting-out at pretty-much the smallest stakes possible online while you are learning the online game. At these levels, especially at first, you don't need to be searching out tiny edges. At the higher levels, yes. As a beginner, no.

Settle for just exploiting the big edges you'll often be handed. Trust me. That will be enough to ensure that you win at the lowest levels while you are learning the game. There is no need to try to find tiny edges which, by their very nature, means you will be facing close/difficult decisions in order to profit.

Close decisions of this nature will require some level of experience for them to consistently turn a profit. If you are just learning you want to optimize the times you are playing with a big edge and minimize the times you are forced into making close decisions. Work all that stuff into your online game later; after you become successful with the basics.
 
Daniel72

Daniel72

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There are so many opportunities to learn and get better at poker, there is no excuse for being a fish these days :)
- books, articles, e-books, magazines
- forums, skype groups, discussions with better players
- coaching sites, lots of free videos in the web
- observation of good online players
- hand reviews by better players / coaches
- experimenting with software like pokerstove etc.
- replays (on pokerstars), where you can see all hole cards
- interviews / podcasts with good players, where you can get tips
- good commentated live events
- blogs of good players
- the list is endless...
 
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Hosscat

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Thank you for all the great advice I will start studying and aplying the things I learn to my game I'm also going to post some of my hands online for advice on how I should have played them instead so please comment when I do and keep commenting on this thread if you have anymore advice for me
 
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