Thoughts on Moving to a New Online Poker Site

One day, while perusing your favorite site for poker info, you notice an ad for an online poker room with an attractive deposit bonus offer. Having a little extra cash, you sign up, deposit, and start playing your regular game. Only thing is, while you crush this game at your old site, you’re taking a beating at the new one. What’s up? Well, while one online poker site might seem just the same as the next, there are a few things you should consider before sitting down to play:

1) You have no image at the new site. At the old site, players knew you, how you played, etc. this especially makes a big difference if you are an aggressive player, but regardless, image makes more of a difference than you might think. People fear a winning player, but at a new site, people don’t have the same reasons to fear you.

2) You don’t know the players. Even if you didn’t keep notes at your old site [shame, shame], you still build an intuitive base of notes in your brain area.

3) Each site, as odd as it sounds, has a different personality. It seems like play would be the same no matter where you go, but each site does have a dominant style – some are looser, some are more aggressive, etc. this especially applies to smaller sites, where the play of just a few individuals can set the tone for the whole site. It can take you awhile to shift to this new style, especially if you’re not on the lookout for it.

4) Just like it takes you a bit to settle into a new apartment, it takes a little bit to settle into a new room. The graphics are different, the buttons are in an unfamiliar place, etc – all of these things have a deep effect on your comfort level, which has a deep impact on your play.

All these things mean that you should probably hang back for a bit when you start at a new site, especially if you are an overly aggressive player. Take a day or two to get a feel for unfamiliar players and a changed atmosphere before you start tossing those chips around.

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