playing live poker

Live Texas Hold'em Poker

I'm better in person!

I played online for the better part of last week and lost $300 dollars. Online poker is apparently a much different animal than the live games I've come accustomed to playing over the last 4 months. I've been a winner non-stop for the last 4 months when I started keeping track. When I go to the casino alot of players know me and all the dealers recognize me. For some reason I decided two weeks ago it'd be nice to try playing Texas Hold'em online and I got it all set up for play this past week. I didn't expect to come to the conclusion that...

Jerry is an Online Poker Donkey:

Well maybe it isn't that bad. I have $300 dollar swings in a day at the casino and I still come out on top by the end of the month.(I track by months for the sake of keeping it all in my head) But jeez I certainly did feel like I didn't know what I was doing while playing online. But after discussion with a fellow live game player today at the Argosy I felt a little better.

I have a certain acquaintance who I play with regularly at the casino here in Baton Rouge. He's a young man like myself, college educated and a well rounded player. He's willing to gamble, tight, aggressive and not prone to do anything too stupid like myself. Well today I ask him about his online play and he says that he doesn't do great there but not bad. Because of multi-table play the players online tend to play a hell of alot tighter than live game players. They can afford(emotionally) to wait for good hands because they don't get bored. They're also more likely to gamble playing statistics and they're not at risk of getting the Phil Hellmuth treatment for doing something stupid.

unlucky online poker player?:

I guess its hard to tell but I can tell you where I lost $200 of the $300 total I had invested in this experiment.

Pocket AA's cracked. I raise to 5 times the blind and am called by J8o in the small blind. Flop is j97 and guy gets a straight
Pocket KK cracked. Once again 2 callers at 5 times the blind. nothing flop. bet the pot on the flop and turn. Guy makes a straight with 7,4 on the river.
AQ cracked. I raise to 4 times the blind in early position and am called by the button with pocket 7s. Flop is 7Q. Raise, re-raise, all-in by me. Of course he calls.

Best Poker Playing Strategy for me?:

It seems awful suspicious and I thought I may have been playing bad so I went up to the Argosy today and won another $140 in 2 hours watching the ball game. So thats 3 winners in a row at the boat for November compared to a constant, non-stop losing session at PokerStars. What did I do wrong? I'm not particular sure how I could've played better poker. I've heard alot of things about online poker and I do enjoy many of its perks. However I'm a winner in the brick & mortar so why change a good thing? I can't read people online and I definitely can't outplay non-stop tight play. I don't like to give up at anything either so maybe I'll have to contine playing hold'em online until I crack it. We'll see over time I guess.

- Jerry Odom
November 25, 2005

Update December 2005: - I bitch more about online poker and a better month in December here: Casino Live Poker.