Live poker?!

[gerhardt]

Has anyone here on rakeback ever played in a live poker game?
Be it at a casino, or even better, any poker tour..

[bsg]

A few home games purely for fun. I have been to the casino for poker twice. £5 rebuy (£10.50) (30-40 odd pp, 3-4hrsl) tourney was very good value for learning experience. Better of not talking when I didn't know anyone. baseball cap don't work for me, prefer sunglasses I can read my opponent while hiding my tells. Don't play AA too fast, don't hmm and ahh or any hollywood. Respect new players first hand on your left. after the break, don't get comfortable even with AQ, I cbet half my stack away.

Second was a £20 double chance freeze out (£42) (50ish ppl) made a deal with the final 4 ppl. also made a deal when final table (10ppl) so every1 got £20 at least. I've learned not to make generous deals when chip leader, some poker players are really sneaky off the table too and can be charming but in reality they are not your friend, they want your money, your child's inheritance lol. Got to be dragon Den ruthless. So after 7 hrs or so of grinding I was pretty pissed off coming first, I walked away with a token gesture rather than a lion's share even with a dominating chip lead. on the bright side it was still more than second place finish. Though I'm not gona let anyone talk me down and stand firm on what to offer. There was so many egos. However, it was satisfying to stay quiet and take most the money.

So that's my limited live experience, a pretty good ROI for two games lol.

[gerhardt]

Tx bsg.
I'm still a student of the game, hence my inquiry. Love to hear more of you're live experiences.

[C8H10N4O2]

Has anyone here on rakeback ever played in a live poker game?
Be it at a casino, or even better, any poker tour..

A bunch of us have. In fact, I'd think very few rakeback members who post regularly on this forum are exclusively online only players.

[liladypokerpro]

I've played more live games than I can keep up with. Family, friends, casinos, local pubs, you name it. I started playing in a free game at a local pub a few weeks ago... generally there are around 30 or 40 people that regularly play.

Of 3 games, I've cashed 2 of 3 times. My finishes were 6th, 2nd and 3rd. The only way these games are legal here in our state is that there is no buy-in and no cash prize. So when I cashed in 2nd and 3rd place I was given coupons for a free pizza lol
(GAMER4LIFE, YOU SHOULD MOVE HERE AND "PLAY4PIZZA" TOO LOL)

The cool thing is, however, that if you regularly finish in at least the top 5, they take your name and phone number because you qualify for a larger tournament, in which you can win an all expenses paid trip to Vegas and buy-in to the WSOP. Looking forward to that opportunity next year.

[gerhardt]

Sorry to say dew , but I have never played in a live game before, not at home , bar , or any venue whatsoever. Still learning, and it should happen in the future for me.
Lilady, you must move to South-Africa..We have total freedom to make our own dicisions, but nice to hear you at least have a chance to play on a live tour event, and have a free pub lunch.

[MikeyEl]

There are several BIG differences I've noticed live, some of which are difficult to cope with if you have only played online. Let me start off by saying a little about myself. I consider myself an average -> below average online poker player, I have played here and there for the past 5 years, and I have probably netted $2 profit. That's a hell of an hourly rate I have taken up online poker as a money making hobby recently, and find myself more comfortable playing SnGs. I feel like I am more successful at those over the long run than I am in cash games, but I am still not making a lot of money. However, I have played live in AC approximately 20 times, and have never lost, I don't always win, but I have never lost money. The worst I have done is profit $3 (If you hear a loud knocking noise, that is me knocking the hell out of some wood right now) That being said, here are some major differences I noticed when playing live in a casino cash game:

First, the players tend to be a lot looser in my experience. I have only played 1/2 NL in Atlantic City, and I always sit down with between $100-$300. The standard raise at a 9 handed table was 7-10 dollars from ANY position, and with what seemed like ATC. Most recently, my second hand at a table was AA, the pot was raised 3 times before it got to me. Sitting there with the best hand in poker and 150BB, I reraised from 50 to all in, and no one called. I probably got a little overly excited with AA, but the pot was already up to $100+ and any post-flop action would have had me pot committed. No one called, obviously. To battle live player's looseness, you must ALWAYS be conscious of your position, even with your monster preflop hands. Try not to get involved into a lot of post flop action OOP with a monster preflop hand, that turns into an above average post flop hand. (More on this later)

Second, big difference is obvious. You can see your players. Which has several implications.
The biggest, and most difficult for me to deal with is table banter. Talking about non-poker related stuff IMO is okay. But, expect to be asked about your hands ALL the time. When someone folds to you, they are going to say "You have the Ace?," or "High pockets?" etc. etc. 99.99% of the time I just reply, I had you. But, it's tempting to divulge hand info. DONT GIVE IN! Also, regulars are trying to form opinions on every player at the table (think TAG, LAG, etc.), and completely innocent brags such as, "I won xyz tournament at Full Tilt last week" let everyone at the table know two things: You play online, AND your preferred style is tournament (probably). Last time I was in AC, I watched this guy, we'll call him Mike, talk back and forth with the player next to me. He told the guy that he played mostly online, I didn't think too much of it at the time, all I was thinking was "I am glad I didn't engage him when he was talking to me" "Little does he know, I am a 95% online poker v. 5% live poker player". Over the next hour, Mike chipped away at this guy's stack, until he ended up going all in to one of Mike's raises with A5s; against Mike's A10o. After our game was over I talked to him a bit, and told him I was an online poker player. To which he responded, "I wish i would have known that in the game" He went on to tell me that is because most online players are so timid and transparent. Fold to any bet in the blinds that isn't a premium hand. If an online player bets, even in late position, he usually has a PP, or two high cards. It was an interesting conversation, and very enlightening. I was glad to leave that table with 25BB profit, given that he was on the button when I was BB.

Another thing about seeing your opponents is Physical tells (overrated, but not useless) - Humans have a unbelievable ability to detect BS, you might not know why you feel they are bluffing, but sometimes you just have to trust your gut instinct and call. No shame in lying down a marginal hand to a big bet, your opportunity will come.

Speaking of laying down a marginal hand. Try your damnedest to exercise pot control. Say you're playing 1/2 NL and you have AK, and flopped TPTK, and someone is calling your 1/2 - 3/4 pot bets down to the river, then 3 bets you. He probably has you beat. Not 100% of the time, but chances are he has you beat. And if you are new to live poker, chances are that this is one of the biggest pots you've ever been a part of. Remember, (at least in my experience) that the pot started out bigger preflop. For example, say you had 4 callers to your raise to 8 dollars. There's ~$35; say you bet $20, and one called. Now we are talking about $75 at the turn. A bet of $40 and call puts the pot at $155. Finally the river card comes, and you don't improve. You are still sitting there with TPTK. Your hand probably rated best pre flop, but 5 cards and three bets later, you are wondering what have you gotten yourself into. If you had sat down with $300, and this is your first hand, your stack is down to ~$230. If you fire another bet of $80 bucks, you have $150 left, and the guy calls you all in. Uh-oh. Chances are you are beat, but will you have the discipline to lay down AK to a reraise on the river after you've put half of your stack into the pot? All you know about this guy's hand is that it was good enough to call you all the way down to the river, then 3 bet you. Not A LOT of information, and not a decision I want to make on a regular basis for all my chips. You have to work some checks in there, and learn to get away from a hand that could have you beat. (You might also be thinking throughout this entire example, "try not to get involved in big hands out of position!!" which I completely agree with!).

These are all of the observations about differences between online play and live play I can think of at the moment. I apologize for the lack of organization to this post. I pretty much wrote it as the ideas flowed through to my hands. I hope this was enlightening, and I would be really interested to read other's opinions about the differences they noticed.

[grndizzle]

I've played in a couple live MTT's at a bar here in town. I managed to cash in one to give me a net profit, but not that much. I play most of my poker online because the closest casino to my house is about an hour away, and with my job it's a lot more convenient to play on my computer.

Unfortunately I can't play poker online while I'm at work.