Tips For Live Poker

If you are one of the many people who started out their poker life as an online player, then you may find making the transition to live poker difficult. Playing online is very different to casino poker. The poker rules may be the same, but there’s more to playing in person than just handling real cards and real poker chips.

For starters, you can’t have a notebook by your side to track your thoughts about the people you are playing with. You’re also open to a lot more analysis, so if you grit your teeth, blush when you lie, or just plain can’t keep a straight face, you’re in trouble.

Remember that when you are playing online poker, people are generally more aggressive, and tend to call more. You can use this to your advantage. Take the confidence you developed online, and apply it to real games. People can’t hide behind deceptive names and the anonymity of chat when they are playing online so you’re more likely to see the real player, and the real person. Of course, this means you can’t be hiding either, but you developed a thick skin while you were playing online, right?

Live poker is a great place to start trying your more clever and creative plays. If you’ve been playing at a low stakes table for a while you’ve probably wondered how you can beat people who are willing to go to showdown with a weak hand, and will hammer call at every opportunity. Well, that’s the way low stakes online poker is often played. Many real life games have more nuances, and are more similar to higher stakes online rooms.  Dust off some of your more interesting bluffs and tactics, because you will get to use them.

The best thing about playing against people you can see is reading their tells. Most people have some pretty obvious ones. It takes years to train them all out of yourself – be it a twitch, a change in the eyes, or just the way that you sit. Get used to looking over your opponents, and learn to control your own body language too.