Online Poker Sucks!
Not really but I thought that would at least get you to read a little farther into this post. As I have not really had the time to go to the casino lately I have been playing a little more online. I enjoy it but not nearly as much as live play. Also, because I don't really want to wire a bunch of money online I only put a few hundred in there and try to walk up the limits to get a game that I would like to play. So right now I play $5/10, $10/20 6 handed tables and try to run it up so I can play higher. That is frustrating in itself because the game is too small to make a difference and the play has to be much more straight forward as people can't lay down second pair, third pair, TP weak kicker, Ace high... you get the idea, you had better make a hand or you are not going to win. You just can't bluff at those limits. Not really that much different than a live game at those limits. It does take away some of the creativity of the game however. So why do I like live play better? Let me list some of the reasons....
Being Physically present allows you gather so much more information and influence the game. You can't pick up on physical tells online. There are some other subtle tells online but they really aren't that reliable. Are they taking a lot of time because they are slow playing a big hand, do they have a weak hand and are thinking about folding, or are they just Multi-tabling 3,4,5,12 tables and just can't react that quickly. I don't mind if players are multi-tabling that much as it means they really are not going to concentrate on one game and will give up a little edge by doing so, but when it really slows the game down it bugs me, just a little though.
You can learn a lot about a persons playing style by seeing what they look like and finding a little about who they are. Why are they playing? Do they need the money, do they dress nice, crappy, what do they do for a living? Are they there to gamble? Are they drinking? Are they young,old? Are they a woman, man? I have talked about this here before but people just play differently against women than men. You can pretend to be a woman online or vice versa depending on what your goals are. I think that if you are a good player and took the persona of a woman online you would actually make more money. Men just play harder at women and pay them off more. I would imagine that great women players earn more online than men. Just a theory, never tested it.
You can't really intimidate people or stare them down online. If that is part of your game, and you have a good physical presence, you can get people to do things differently than if they can not see you. As I mentioned before Aaron really uses this to his advantage with his table talk and comments. You just don't get the same reactions online. Another aspect I find negative online is that people will type crap they would never say live into the chat box. You see people swearing, telling you they want you to die, etc. What is up with that crap? You would never get away with that live. I would turn the chat off, but you do get some info that way, so I just ignore the crap. Sometimes I think that I am playing against a 12 year old, and because we are online I might be.
I have never really trusted online poker. I know this is unfounded, silly, and not true but it still sticks in the back of my mind. They are offshore businesses, and could just disappear with the money if they wanted to, and there is absolutely nothing anyone could do about it. There is also political risk that congress finally figures out a way to make it really illegal, as opposed to today which is just kind of illegal, and shut down poker sites to US based players. Now I think this has a pretty low chance of happening, but there are some bills moving through congress right now to limit online gambling. I think they die in committee before even getting to the floors, but it could happen. I think they should be doing just the opposite. They should stop fighting the online gambling and legalize it so they can tax the sites. Think of all the tax revenue they could make if it were legal. The the sites could come back to the US, lease up space in US datacenters and be subject to US laws, which would make me feel a whole lot better, and pay some taxes. Of course that is too obvious for our government to think that helping our economy grow, creating US tech jobs, and increasing tax revenue is a good idea. Instead they want use the issue as a political football to prove who has higher morals, GTF out of my life and focus on getting the economy on solid ground. I even mostly vote republican, but this is just a BS issue and the republicans should just drop the social issue shit and move on to more important stuff and stop wasting our time and money on this if you are not going to get on the legalize it side.
Another aspect to not trusting online poker is that it is really easy to collude. I know it happens, how can it not. It is too easy to pick up the phone and talk to your friends also playing online. The Zee Justin thing did shock me a bit. I would think the sites could be a little more diligent tracking down players with multiple accounts playing at the same time. This is not really that tough to detect with the right technology. These sites make enough money to invest in that part of the system. But if there is enough money to be made someone will figure out how to beat the system. I am sure there are a ton of Zee Justins out there that have not been caught One more reason to not really have that much money online and play in a big game.
Lastly, the bad beats seem to come more often. Now this is because of a few things. First, there are a lot more bad players that are calling down to hit all kinds of hands. They do get there and they do hurt. This should not hurt your overall earn rate but it will increase your variance a bit. Second, the hands are coming much faster as well, so the beats seem to occur more often, but not really any more frequent, just closer together in time because of all the hands you are playing.
I think this post has gone on long enough. I hope to maybe play next week live and will talk to you soon. Hope you are all winning....SJ
Being Physically present allows you gather so much more information and influence the game. You can't pick up on physical tells online. There are some other subtle tells online but they really aren't that reliable. Are they taking a lot of time because they are slow playing a big hand, do they have a weak hand and are thinking about folding, or are they just Multi-tabling 3,4,5,12 tables and just can't react that quickly. I don't mind if players are multi-tabling that much as it means they really are not going to concentrate on one game and will give up a little edge by doing so, but when it really slows the game down it bugs me, just a little though.
You can learn a lot about a persons playing style by seeing what they look like and finding a little about who they are. Why are they playing? Do they need the money, do they dress nice, crappy, what do they do for a living? Are they there to gamble? Are they drinking? Are they young,old? Are they a woman, man? I have talked about this here before but people just play differently against women than men. You can pretend to be a woman online or vice versa depending on what your goals are. I think that if you are a good player and took the persona of a woman online you would actually make more money. Men just play harder at women and pay them off more. I would imagine that great women players earn more online than men. Just a theory, never tested it.
You can't really intimidate people or stare them down online. If that is part of your game, and you have a good physical presence, you can get people to do things differently than if they can not see you. As I mentioned before Aaron really uses this to his advantage with his table talk and comments. You just don't get the same reactions online. Another aspect I find negative online is that people will type crap they would never say live into the chat box. You see people swearing, telling you they want you to die, etc. What is up with that crap? You would never get away with that live. I would turn the chat off, but you do get some info that way, so I just ignore the crap. Sometimes I think that I am playing against a 12 year old, and because we are online I might be.
I have never really trusted online poker. I know this is unfounded, silly, and not true but it still sticks in the back of my mind. They are offshore businesses, and could just disappear with the money if they wanted to, and there is absolutely nothing anyone could do about it. There is also political risk that congress finally figures out a way to make it really illegal, as opposed to today which is just kind of illegal, and shut down poker sites to US based players. Now I think this has a pretty low chance of happening, but there are some bills moving through congress right now to limit online gambling. I think they die in committee before even getting to the floors, but it could happen. I think they should be doing just the opposite. They should stop fighting the online gambling and legalize it so they can tax the sites. Think of all the tax revenue they could make if it were legal. The the sites could come back to the US, lease up space in US datacenters and be subject to US laws, which would make me feel a whole lot better, and pay some taxes. Of course that is too obvious for our government to think that helping our economy grow, creating US tech jobs, and increasing tax revenue is a good idea. Instead they want use the issue as a political football to prove who has higher morals, GTF out of my life and focus on getting the economy on solid ground. I even mostly vote republican, but this is just a BS issue and the republicans should just drop the social issue shit and move on to more important stuff and stop wasting our time and money on this if you are not going to get on the legalize it side.
Another aspect to not trusting online poker is that it is really easy to collude. I know it happens, how can it not. It is too easy to pick up the phone and talk to your friends also playing online. The Zee Justin thing did shock me a bit. I would think the sites could be a little more diligent tracking down players with multiple accounts playing at the same time. This is not really that tough to detect with the right technology. These sites make enough money to invest in that part of the system. But if there is enough money to be made someone will figure out how to beat the system. I am sure there are a ton of Zee Justins out there that have not been caught One more reason to not really have that much money online and play in a big game.
Lastly, the bad beats seem to come more often. Now this is because of a few things. First, there are a lot more bad players that are calling down to hit all kinds of hands. They do get there and they do hurt. This should not hurt your overall earn rate but it will increase your variance a bit. Second, the hands are coming much faster as well, so the beats seem to occur more often, but not really any more frequent, just closer together in time because of all the hands you are playing.
I think this post has gone on long enough. I hope to maybe play next week live and will talk to you soon. Hope you are all winning....SJ
posted by Seattlejohn at 8:52 AM
1 Comments:
I agree. I stopped playing online about 3 months ago, and my bankroll has thanked me for it. Nothing beats seeing the look on someones face when you check raise them and it's a total surprise. Besides, if I only played online, I never would have found myself sitting across from Bret Boone (Wednesday night at the 'shoot).
-DrC
Oh yeah - if you remember, I blogged about Colette. She and I exchanged emails, and she said she read my blog, even though I never gave her the website. Last night she told me she got it from Ryan, who found it from YOUR blog. The blogsphere tightens... LOL
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