Back To The Trap House

Instead of boring you with my how I got into poker story I’m just going to say I learned poker playing live. For a very long time I always though online players were jokes and the live pros were far superior.

While in some cases, such as Phil Ivey, this is true the majority of the time online players outclass live. Why is this?

The answers seem very obvious and for the most part they are. I don’t know how many of you on here actually play live or are ever interested in doing so.

When I was in Vegas a few weeks ago I noticed something playing 1/2 NL. Actually, I noticed a lot I didn’t really notice before. But the main thing that stuck with me after getting smashed by the suckouts and coolers I endured was that these players aren’t stupider than me they’re just stuck in a time bubble.

Ok, so the average population thinks live players are better than online. Do I even need to explain why this is completely false? No, not really the answers are obvious but why do live players play like they do? First off, if you’ve watched or listened to a bunch of Tommy Angelo you know that they really are two different games and you have to do different things to be successful at both.

Back to the time bubble. I saw plays being made, such as the check in the dark OOP, being done that I hadn’t seen like 3 years! They are self correcting at a snails pace compared to an online 1 or 2 tabeler and are improving slightly slower than mass multitablers.

The information they get are from books from barnes and noble. The information we get are from online forums and training websites constantly arguing whats right and whats wrong. The correct plays online change much quicker than they do live. Information of course travels much slower live as well.

You also have the variable of live tells. I know many online players say they’re overated but I strongly disagree. I think a HUD replaces live tells and live tells replace a HUD.

While a HUD shouldn’t be used as your only way to make decisions neither should live tells. Just like you use your HUD, player Identification, and betting patterns to arrive at a decision online you have to do the same thing live. Just substitute your HUD for live tells.

Obvious Brag: My backer was impressed with the way I was able to pick off a couple live tells and RR people with complete air after they had flatted pre flop and then CR my CBETS. Everytime these players pretty much insta folded and I explained what I had seen, combined with player identification and their betting patterns. If I had ignored one of the 3 I wouldn’t have been able to make these moves.

So, when you sit at a live table remember this. These people aren’t stupider than you. I mean I’m sure plenty of them are successful in other aspects of life other than poker. Thank them in your head for not taking the time to advance their knowledge and take this opportunity to pound on them!! Also realize the game that they’re playing could be a few years behind yours and in some extreme cases 10+ years behind yours!!

Understand that human beings ARE creatures of habit and that they don’t want to change what works. So if some live drooler only remembers sucking out on a flush 7 years ago and winning a monster pot then he will attempt to Relive that moment over and over because it made him feel good.

They know nothing of EV decisions. Make no mistake, they’re self correcting but it’s just not as fast as you. And always remember at lower stakes live NL games that you should always have a default game, mine being TAG, to revert back to. This dumbed down style works great on the live felt.

The End