Common-sense tips for improving your online game
Related Articles
I’ll start off this article by saying this: Hopefully, you probably know a lot of what I am about to tell you. At least subconsciously. This is meant to be a “common-sense” refresher for the casual or serious online player. Because knowing something and putting it into practice in reality are two different things.
In my experience, there are a lot of people who play poker both live and online who don’t take online poker as seriously as they do brick and mortar casinos. Certainly, the very best online players and a lot of simply decent players do take it very seriously. They dedicate themselves to doing well, playing well, etc., and set themselves up for success.
However, there are a great deal of online poker players who likely play very differently online than they do in real life; they do things they would never think of doing in a card room or casino, and they generally don’t set themselves up for success.
So why is this? And if you are one of them, what can you do to change it?
Multitabling
One of the biggest differences between online and live poker is the ability to sit and play at more than one table at a time. This can be a great thing if you know how to do it – it’s a great way to increase your hourly profit.
The key phrase there is “if you’re good at it.” My guess is there are a lot of players who play a lot of tables, or perhaps too many tables, when they shouldn’t. There are lots of players who multitable successfully, and make a lot of money by doing it. Are you one of them, though?
The only way to know for sure is to try to track your play when you multitable. Keep a spreadsheet or use poker tracking software to determine if you do better or worse when you play more than one table. Play a sample of ring games or tournaments when you play one at a time. Then play two, three, four tables at a time, or more, over a period of time, and see if your profit and play deteriorate at all. If you make money when you single table but you lose money when you are playing more than one, that’s a good sign that you either need to concentrate on one game at a time, or you need to learn how to successfully multitable.
Simply put, do whatever makes you money. Don’t feel bad if you can’t multitable and make a profit. It’s not for everyone.
Also, if you multitable, you should try to set yourself up hardware wise so you have the best chance to succeed. If you are playing on a laptop or a single monitor display, you probably shouldn’t be playing eight tables at a time. I am sure there are people who do it, and who can do it successfully. But it’s probably not the best idea unless you really know what you are doing. For a few hundred bucks, you can install a video card capable of supporting dual monitors and buy a second monitor. This makes multitabling much easier, since you can now see more of the action at once. Also, if you have a big screen TV at home, it’s generally not that hard to connect your CPU to that for display purposes.
Splitting attention
This is certainly related to multitabling. But it’s a bit of a different concept.
If you are sitting in a casino playing cards, you are likely devoting all of your attention to the game in front of you. If you aren’t, you are putting yourself at a decided disadvantage. Sure, you might glance up at a TV or order a drink. But for the most part, you are playing cards.
Playing poker at home, there are a lot more possible distractions. You have the internet, instant messaging, phones, TV, other people, and on and on. All of these things likely make it more difficult to play poker well.
Unless you are already a wildly successful player who can win thousands of dollars while changing diapers or cooking dinner, I suggest that you try to cut as many of these distractions out while you are playing online. Certainly you aren’t going to forsake all of these things. But if you are trying to take poker seriously, set aside time to play poker, and only play poker. Talk on the phone, watch TV, etc., during other times, not while you are playing.
Devoting your full attention to your play is certainly a good idea if you want to be successful. It also allows you to keep better track of the players you are playing against, take notes on them, etc.
The auto-action buttons
Almost all online poker rooms feature variations on these. Some people might differ on how these should be used, if at all. But I’d argue you should use them as little as possible – unless there is some kind of information (perhaps false info) you want to pass on to other players at your table.
Most of the time, people use these buttons when they are lazy or multitabling, and don’t want to worry about constantly flipping back and forth between tables, or having tables pop to the front. The “check” and “check/fold” buttons almost always convey weakness, or little interest in playing the hand. Obviously sometimes people will call a raise when they have the check button clicked. But generally insta-checking shows that a hand is not already made.
Some players use the insta-check to feign weakness, and induce bets. This is the time you should be using it…not as a convenience, but as a way to induce betting when you want it.
Look at it this way. Would you ever insta-check in a casino, unless you were trying to show weakness when you were actually strong? Probably not. So don’t insta-check online, either.
Playing tired
I think this is one of the biggest downfalls of online poker players. Most of us don’t have the luxury of playing poker for a living or full-time. We play it when we have time. A lot of the time, that might be after work, or after dinner, or some other time when we would normally be relaxing or sleeping.
If you feel like you are falling asleep, you probably shouldn’t be playing poker against a bunch of people who are wide awake and concentrating. You might make the mistake of playing tired at a casino, but it’s much easier to do at home, when your bed might be a few feet away.
And if you do want to play poker when you are tired, do things to keep yourself awake. Play music, make coffee. Don’t get lulled to sleep. This might even be a good example of when to multitable. If you have to concentrate on more than one table, you are less likely to fall asleep or get groggy.
Playing loose
This could be a problem that goes beyond online poker, and might speak more to problems in your play in generally. For example, do you call a raise and a re-raise out of position with A4o? If so, you need to learn more about poker period.
But I think there’s a tendency for players to leak more online, to play hands they wouldn’t normally play in a casino. Part of it is anonymity—people can’t see you , so who cares if they make fun of your crappy play? Playing crap hands might make you some money or get you deep in a tournament some of the time. But if you are playing tens of thousands of hands and hundreds of tournaments, this will come back to bite you in the ass.
There’s obviously lots of ways to play and be successful online. And being loose and aggressive is one of them. Think about how you play in real life, and how you play online, and if you are more successful in one or the other. If you play tighter in a casino and do better, consider incorporating your real-life style into your online game.
Tilting
Going on tilt can be much more dangerous online than in a casino. Sure, there’s lots of ways to tilt your money off in a brick and mortar establishment. But it might take several steps to do it (i.e. going to the ATM, finding a roulette table, etc.)
Online, it just takes a click of a button to put your entire bankroll into play. And you can be a hand of cracked aces away from losing your online bankroll.
If you feel like you are tilting, don’t do it with a lot of money. There are play money tables and freerolls you can play to get rid of your frustration. And some sites even have self-exclusion now, where you can tell the site to not let you play for a certain amount of time.
Basically…have a tilt plan in place for when it happens. Don’t blow a lot of money online when you can avoid it.
Be smart
Like I said, most of you probably know a lot of the things in this article. But how many of them do you actually practice? If you can implement some of the ideas here, your online poker game should improve.
