Online Poker Player Tracking

The old adage to not judge a book by its cover couldn’t be more applicable when it comes to different ways to play the popular game of poker. Live poker and online poker appear, on the cover, to be the same: same deck of 52 cards, same rules, same result when you win a hand (more chips) and, sadly, same result when you lose a hand (less chips). You can bet, check, raise, tilt, rail, sweat, fade, chat, bluff, run good or run bad at a live room and at an online room alike. Yet despite all of those commonalities, the two experiences are actually much different. Knowing what separates online from live poker is an excellent starting point for knowing which version of the game is likely to be more profitable for you.

PATIENCE MAKES PERFECT

It’s difficult to overstate the premium live poker places on patience as opposed to online. Live poker is not an action game – the hands come slow, the players drag out their decisions, dealers change seats. Online poker allows players to cram in dozens of tables at once, should they so desire. New tournaments start every second online, and smaller starting stacks and shallower structures mean they end much more quickly.

How big is the difference? A typical live player sees about 30 hands per hour. An online grinder can easily see over a thousand hands in the same hour.

What that means for you: If you’re a person prone to a more jittery temperament or have ever self-diagnosed as ADD-afflicted, live poker is going to be a real challenge for you focus-wise. On the other side of the chip: if you enjoy the slow burn and leisurely decision-making process live poker allows (and the resulting deeper psychological dimension), you’ll be frustrated by the frenetic pace of online poker and the fairly clinical nature of the experience.

HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE… TO FOLD

Live poker, as suggested above, has an entire dimension that online poker essentially lacks – the social dimension. The interaction between human players in direct contact adds not only a new data set to the game, but calls into play an entirely new set of skills. Empathy is a critical skill for hand ranging, but you simply don’t get enough information about an opponent’s emotional state online to employ it. Creating a character that opponents will respond to can be crudely accomplished by typing a few lines in the chat box, but nothing rivals the intimate nature of live poker for creating what amounts to a bit of theater.

To wit: how differently do you think Phil Hellmuth’s live opponents would play against him if he were some unknown opponent they were facing online?

If you enjoy all things social, you’re likely to have an edge at live poker (one that might be worth giving up rakeback for). Social people tend to be pretty empathetic and also skilled at entertaining themselves in social situations – a critical skill for keeping your focus sharp and your attitude positive. If you prefer isolation (or relative isolation), online makes more sense as a venue. You likely view other people as a distraction (yes, you in the hat, sunglasses and massive earphones) and don’t know how to control your live persona to any real benefit.

DON’T PANIC

When you play live poker, you can really only lose one pot at a time. Even if you start tilting, there’s a built-in cool down period before you can tilt away chips again. Cards have to be shuffled, blinds have to be posted, hands have to be dealt, players in front of you have to act, and so on. Online, you can be playing a dozen other hands at the same moment that some jackhole two-outers you for your tournament life on the bubble.

Ah, the river.

If you’re a cool customer who can compartmentalize your emotions, then you don’t gain anything from the buffer live poker provides between your worse side and what’s left of your stack. However, if you have short fuse and tend to compound your frustrations, you have a real hurdle to surmount to succeed at online poker. The fact of the matter is that you’re going to have to deal with cascading failure at some point (sooner than later) and if you don’t develop a coping mechanism for righting the ship with a quickness, you’ll be sunk.

Poker is a strange game in that you play it in a much different fashion depending on where you play it. Let the amateurs think that the game remains the same – you’ll be able to get an edge on them by recognizing the arena that suits you best and battling them from there

Christopher is a poker writer who covers strategy, poker news
and bits of ephemera such as blogs and poker players on twitter for various magazines.