Poker Fans amongst us?

[GAME05]

i'm free to admit i'm a loser at online play. i'm good at the tournaments, but don't have the patience to stay off the cash tables. i've tried a $100 deposit two times and lost both. i just downloaded a free site again, but am debating uninstalling it because it doesn't help my play to compete against generally bad players, and i'm susceptible to depositing money.

 

it's a little odd, though; i'm good at the live games, but it just doesn't translate to online play.

[PlayerHader]

I just think it is a lot easier to maintain focus and composure when playing in live games. Clicking a mouse is a lot easier that pushing out all your chips.

[lcbj68c]

I'd have to say that is a fair assessment, maybe. I tend to actually play a lot looser, not horribly loose, just looser when playing online because I can watch tv or whatever. I like to play a lot of hands during live action because it's just sitting there staring at each other in between hands. In online play, I can throw away that suited connector because I have something else to do (ie, watch tv, browse email), whereas in live play, I might play that hand more often, even from bad position because I've been sitting there getting nothing but crap pockets and I'm getting bored, therefore actually losing focus and composure playing live games....yet I win better at live games.

 

I don't know that there is a conspiracy theory out there, but I'm getting to be very suspicious of these computer generated programs that run the online sites. It's never more frustrating than watching the following. (9 person sit n go. 3 places pay out. 4 players left. Sitting on the bubble, yet within a big blind value of 3rd place. Raise with KK preflop with good position and watch 3rd place go over the top. Go all in and watch the 3rd place guy show Queen 10 offsuit. Flop comes K 3 4 rainbow...... with a quickness, the turn comes 9 of spades, and then all of a sudden, the computer slows down, way down, almost to a lull if you wish and then the river comes J to bust my set. It's like, why did the computer suddenly slow down prior to the river card. It doesn't happen on the other hands, why this one. It's almost as if it stopped to allow some cronie behind a computer to pick the card he wants so that it finishes the tournament faster so that the gambling company gets more participants moving more tournaments quicker? Is this something I'm making up, or has anybody else experienced this lull in play before the river card to be extremely odd.

[datrain711]

Besides the debacle at Absolute Poker, I have confidence that the other sites are legitimate. They have so much to lose that doing anything shady is not worth the risk to them. Especially in your above situation which is a sit and go. You already paid your rake before you started the tournament, so the site has no reason to manipulate the cards to give one person an advantage.

 

I remember when partypoker first became popular, and a lot of people were convinced that there were too many good hands being dealt at the cash tables. Although I don't think this is true at all, this is something that would benefit the site, because good hands being dealt at the cash table would mean bigger pots, which would lead to higher rakes.

[Gobias Industries]

Hmmm. I seem to be different than most here. I'm slightly down in tournament home games, ahead in a small sample in the casino limit cash games (very easy games), so I'm just a little ahead of break-even in a live setting. Online, I am/was a solid winner.

 

I can't take the pace of a live game. Soooo Slow. Online, I used to multi-table it, so anything less is a struggle.

[dadofandrew]

Full Tilt is regarded as a tough site, and Pacific was as loose as it gets. Those results are not strange at all.

[danzig6767]

I'm not questioning anyone's credibility here, but it's funny, almost everyone I've ever talked to about poker claims they're a winning player. Where do the losing players come from?

I'll buck the trend and say that I am a losing online poker player. Originally, I was very good. I used to use Pacific Poker and my first two deposits I put in $50 and cashed out $500.00 after about 3 weeks of play. So I was net +900 after about 6 weeks. Then the govt. decided to limit transcations with US banks and Pacific Poker shut down. I went over to Full Tilt and had nothing but losses after losses. I've probably lost -900 or so, maybe more. So I'd say in general, minus those first 6 weeks, I've lost, though it's taken me 2 years or so to lose it all back. I think that I play appropriately, I just get a horrible run of cards on most occassions.

Once the government got involved and made it harder to play, it lowered the number of newbie players that joined to give online poker a try, thus it mostly left the hardcore poker players on these sites. Now instead of the tables being full of new players that aren't really that smart, the tables are mostly full with higher quality players that are tougher to beat. That's a big reason i gave up on playing online.

 

I would bonus chase and used to play a lot on Partypoker because with all their advertising, the site was flooded with new players that made winning much easier than it is now. I most played the 25, 50 or 100 NL cash tables and often enough, there would be some bad players sitting down, if not, i'd leave and find a different table. At those lower limits, i wasn't exactly getting rich, but i'd guess i won around 4500-5000 grand in about a year and a half.

 

Without all the easy bonuses of the past and better players on the sites now, i know i'm not good enough to win consistently anymore and make it worth grinding out all those hours to win a little money or maybe end up losing a little. Plus, i was spending to much time playing, it was bad for my health. I smoke, but pretty lightly, about half a pack a day or less. When i was playing poker online for multiple hours every day though, i'd smoke like a chimney and be all cranky in bad stretches.

[GAME05]

I'd have to say that is a fair assessment, maybe. I tend to actually play a lot looser, not horribly loose, just looser when playing online because I can watch tv or whatever. I like to play a lot of hands during live action because it's just sitting there staring at each other in between hands. In online play, I can throw away that suited connector because I have something else to do (ie, watch tv, browse email), whereas in live play, I might play that hand more often, even from bad position because I've been sitting there getting nothing but crap pockets and I'm getting bored, therefore actually losing focus and composure playing live games....yet I win better at live games.

funny, actually the complete opposite for me. it's no problem for me to fold for 45 minutes straight in live games, but in my limited experience online, if another player takes 10 seconds to decide, i'm bored to death.

live games there's so much more opportunity (for me, at least) to study other players' habits, and just joking around with other players out of the hand makes it fun. and there's just something that makes you feel so incredibly good to pull a heavy stack of high-value chips toward you when you win a big pot. or knocking a guy out of a tournament and getting to see them slowly stand up and walk away--that feels great.

 

i've been doing that free bar-league poker once a week. i'm a little concerned that i might subconsciously learn some bad habits that i take to the casino with me, because the level of play at the free bar-league game is laughably bad.

[brewcrewreview]

I still don't understand why anyone doesn't play on wsex.com. You get a 75% rakeback every Monday. WAY better than any bonus you could ever chase.

[Baldkin]

I'd definitely be in for some poker games, as long as the buy ins aren't too steep!