Hello everyone,

I've been playing online poker now for a few months, and recently decided to play at the casino. The first time I was far too tight with the hands that I would play, and was very easily frightened by any bets.

The second time I adjusted my play style, and actually saw a few hands through to the end. Although exhilarating, I was extremely nervous as the pots got bigger and more of the money I had earned at the table was being put at stake.

Does anyone have any suggestions or similar experiences that they've overcome? Or is continuing to expose myself to the situation the only course of action?

Thanks in advance, hope I posted this correctly as it is my first on in this forum.

Originally Posted by rari458

Does anyone have any suggestions or similar experiences that they've overcome? Or is continuing to expose myself to the situation the only course of action?

I have similar problem. Online, I am not really nervous, but live I get nervous even on home games from time to time. For me there are 2 reasons of being nervous I think:
1. I can't follow situation on the table that easily (stacks, pots, action etc.),
2. I am not confident about my play.

And of course 1. makes 2. more probable . For the first one, I guess there is no need to do anything in particular, it gets better over time. But for the second (which is main problem for you as well if I understood correctly), there are probably many underlying reasons. I won't be able to help you myself, but there is great book called The Mental Game of Poker, which I am reading right now and it helps me a lot. It addresses all the problems at the poker table like fear, tilt, lack of confidence etc. and helps out finding underlying problems. One of the greatest advice I found is to try to work on weaknesses more than on new things. So after playing poker, I am trying to figure out all of the situations when I was nervous and I try to figure out, what exactly caused my uncertainty and to work on that parts of the game. And it definitely helps much more than learning new things on my level. It helps a lot to take quick notes about the hands as well.

i literally just posted a thread almost exactly similar to this one !
Have you found any tips that have helped you since posting this because i understand completely

When I play live, I like to have one drink and engage in conversation with others at the table. Not about poker, just sports, weather, news (not politics). I find it makes me feel more included with the group and not like everyone is there to get me. ( I mean they are, but I am there to get all of them too.)

I also find this helps my opponents make looser calls against me.

Easier said than done but I think the biggest thing is playing smart, especially the first few times live. Don't try and make any wild bets or bluffs; getting caught will only serve to diminish confidence. Play within your means and take down some pots while you have the goods and it will start coming naturally.

I think it's easier to find a weak player in a casino. You also need to play your game calmly, not to bluff, wait for the opponents ' mistakes. If you play cash game.

Just takes time and experience.

Work on your game hard away from table and then build good exp at the table.

When switching from online games to face-to-face games it can be very intimidating at first. And not just for any single reason, but for a multitude of reasons. Here's some of the ones I've noticed and for some, ideas on how to combat the anxiety you may face.

• The difference in format may be a big problem for some. If you're always used to playing tournaments online, but then go to a casino and play in their cash game, then obviously you are going to have anxiety about that because both games have different skill sets.
  • When going to play face-to-face, be sure you have experience in the exact same game as you have online. Cash for Cash, SnG for SnG, MTT (# of players) for MTT (# of players).
  • That last one can be tough because if you are used to a huge field with a huge number of payout places, then playing in a 60 player field, while counter-intuitive, would be more anxiety causing because you only have 6 places paying.
  • If you are switching from tournaments to cash game then there is a massive anxiety causer. When in a tournament you have chips. When at a cash game you have dollars. Playing for cold hard cash instead of tournament chips is something you have to overcome, quickly, to be good live. You need to convince yourself that you are not playing with money, you are playing with chips. If you can't do that then you'll never be as good (or at least as anxiety free) at cash games as you are at tournaments.
• The difference in stakes can also be a major source of anxiety. Are you used to being able to pick and choose your online stakes, even playing .25/.50 whenever you feel like it? Well, face-to-face you don't get that choice. If you're not used to playing $1/$2 for hours on end, or if you're not used to buying into a $95 tourney with a $5 dealer appreciation addon then you you're simply playing out of your league. You either need to get used to the higher stakes online before you start playing live (where other factors can be mitigated, making the transition easier) or just bite the bullet and work through the anxiety live.
• Something that can also be jarring is the duration of time between catching good hands. As you learn poker, there is an internal clock that knows about how long it "should" take for you to catch a good hand. You may have noticed yourself getting on-edge, or feeling like you need to play *something* simply because you haven't caught a good hand in so long online. It's because subconsciously you have a timer of how long it should take to catch one of those feel-good hands. When playing live you catch good hands much more slowly than online because you are playing so fewer hands per hour. When switching from online to live you really need to overcome the thoughts of, "I'm having a bad day because I'm not catching good hands" or "it's just one of those days so I need to open up my range some."
• Then there is the "intimidation factor". When playing online, you get to choose who does or does not intimidate you. All you're looking at are pixels on a screen so why be intimidated at all unless you want to have some sort of healthy respect for the big stacks or the crazy all-iners. When playing face-to-face it is a much different story. Players will actually build personas and even dress certain ways all to intimidate you, or worse, make you think less of them as a player than you should. Whether it's sunglasses to hide their eyes, you a lack of sunglasses to peer into you, or the $10K diamond ring being worn by the guy who looks like he can barely afford rent. There are a massive number of ways face-to-face players can intimidate you that just doesn't happen online.
  • I'm a fairly shy person myself, the way I overcome this is by thinking of the "players" as "bots". They're not people, they're just bots designed to take my money away.
  • A more effective way of overcoming this would be to take on a supreme arrogance. Force yourself to believe you are better than all these wannabe's. Hard to do, and I can't, but if you could it would be majorly beneficial.
• Another thing to think about is, you're an online troll. OK, that was harsh, but think about social media trolls. The people who want to burn your family alive online, but face to face wouldn't be able to look you in the eye. When going to play live, you're sort of that troll. You're willing to make moves all day online, bully people, steal pots, but when it's face-to-face suddenly there is a feeling of personal responsibility. A feeling that you don't want to get these people mad, you don't want to hurt them, because they are people and not just images on a screen. To overcome this, you need to start playing online like you are playing against real people who can see you. If you can convince yourself that online people are real people and not just some anonymous online target then you'll be a step closer to playing less anxious when playing online.
• The build-up can also be anxiety driving. When playing online you flip open your app and start playing. When playing live you have to take a shower, get dressed, get in the car, drive to the game, often wait for a seat to open. This entire time you're building expectation and maybe anxiety. You need to find some way of pushing all that built-up emotion out of your mind before you sit down to play your game.
• Anxiety vs. excitement and anxiousness. Anxiety can feel a whole lot like being anxious or excited to do something. Consider that maybe it's not so much you feel fear about doing this, but that you're feeling "like a kid again" where everything is new and exciting. However, either way, all 3 of those emotions can cause your play to suffer if you give in to them. Find some way of identifying which emotion is happening and then some way of calming them all down.
• Ultimately, what you need to overcoming is a form of shyness. As someone who was phobically shy growing up, it was easy for me to identify the feelings of shyness and have ideas on how to overcome them (my methods probably wouldn't work for anyone else, so I won't go into them here). But if you were never shy then it may be harder for you to realize that is what you are feeling. Google some info on how to overcome shyness and you'll be surprised at how much it can apply to playing face-to-face.