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Went to the local casino last week to play some live cash....dont know why...just fancied a change from grinding hu online everyday...fair enough i guess...lasted an hour before kinda just relizing i had no edge in the game and i left break even.....by no edge i mean...... 5x+ was the usual open size, 3+ callers in everypot, the odd crazy squeezer who could have any two cards....just kinda struggled with the fact i had no idea what anyone's range consisted of ...and to play a pot i was going to have to invest 15% of my stack to kinda hope i got lucky and flopped a draw or better...all in all it seemed like pure gambling compared with what i play online.

yet theres money to be made without doubt...any ideas how to approach playing live coming from a mainly online background, any stratergy tips or advice welcome also .

Thanx

Steve

Live poker at the lower stakes is all about proficiency in multiway bloated pots. Just make sure you get all the money in with significant equity edges in large pots and the money starts flowing your way.

Getting a feel for ranges is just going to take a while.

yea that makes sense....so thats gonna mean pretty decent roll required...poss more than online ?

What would you think about sitting down 100 blinds deep as opposed to 250 + in general ?

I'd almost always sit down as deep as possible because the players tend to be really really bad in big pots.

yea that makes sense....so thats gonna mean pretty decent roll required...poss more than online ?

What would you think about sitting down 100 blinds deep as opposed to 250 + in general ?

I don't really think you need a larger roll just because usually live players aren't that great. It just seems like there is a lot more variance because you play a lot more MW pots and a lot fewer hands. I've some pretty extended streaks both with winning and losing sessions but like Shuttle said if you can play MW pots well, you should do very well.

You will see stuff that will boggle your mind. If you play HU online and have little to no experience playing live, you'll have to keep in mind that you've never played against players so bad. I think you're wrong about having no edge in these games. If you make a few adjustments, your edge should be huge. I also agree w/ zachd2323 that you don't need as big of a bankroll live. The game moves slower and the players are a lot worse. GL

thanks Guys for the replys, much apreciated, yea i think im gonna give it a few more shots and see where it takes me ....some good stuff to think about tyvm.

thanks Guys for the replys, much apreciated, yea i think im gonna give it a few more shots and see where it takes me ....some good stuff to think about tyvm.

One other thought: If you're playing HU online, the pace of a full handed live game will likely make you suicidal. Think of it as a great opportunity to practice patience

ahhh yea i was getting a lesson in that last time out lol , i think online suits me tbh...as it does probs most of us ....but if i could come home a few buy ins richer for an evenings work its a price im willing to pay lol....maybe just even thinking like twice weekly...maybe mon/tuesday as hu online aint exactly booming early part of the week.

I like to raise bigger in a loose game pre flop with my stronger hands because it creates bigger mistakes when you get more than 1 caller. Also page 14 of Small Stakes Holdem talks about playing in loose games.

Hand I played last month 1/3 Live NL.

Hero UTG 44 limps, whole table calls.

Flop 334 hh, SB Bets 20 I call, MP calls, BTN calls.

Turn 9c, SB bets 35, I call, MP folds, BTN calls.

River Th. SB says out loud F@@#$k this s!@#t and checks, I bet 40, BTN min raises 80, SB cusses again and folds her 3, I tank/hollywood/'recheck hole cards/ shove. BTN chastises himself for not just calling my bet tanks forever he obviously has a flush, and calls. Long story short I win a big pot because all the callers come in and wont fold. Villain had nut flush.

Wait for a hand. Raise/bet big. Get called by worse.

Live poker is about patience more than anything else. Valuebet and fold well, a la online micros, except you can raise 10x pre and still get called by A4o.

i play pretty aggressive in 50/1 from the start and show down some junk in small heads up pots.

people at my table then don't believe i ever have anything or have a clue what im doing (partly true!) so once i actually have the goods they are willing to get it in with top pur

BI for a 150-200bb stack to compensate for larger open sizes

Wait for a hand. Raise/bet big. Get called by worse.

Live poker is about patience more than anything else. Valuebet and fold well, a la online micros, except you can raise 10x pre and still get called by A4o.

I don't know how it is in vegas/atlantic city or other live poker areas, but at my casino, unless the villain is one of the worst players there or rather drunk, raising preflop and then betting big post flop with one pair hands (e.g. TPTK or overpairs) will cause you to fold out all the hands you are trying to get value from or valuetown yourself most of the time. Obviously this has implications for bluffing turns and rivers with huge bets, something I intend to start experimenting with.

But the moral of the story is to pay attention to your competition, because there's a reasonable chance that most players are super loose preflop and super MUBSy post-flop, meaning you have to make your value bets a lot smaller in proportion to the pot than you do online.

Another thing I have been playing with is running some silly bluff in a small pot in your first couple of hands and showing it. Like say 4 guys limp, you make it huge like $22 with T3o, you will get folds most of the time. Show the bluff, and people will think you are bluffing them and will start calling down like online fish. Two things I don't like about this though is that a) if you don't make any hands you can't take advantage of your image and you will end up losing most pots because your cbets won't work and by the time you do get a hand it could easily be a few hours and everyone could have forgotten about your image or left the game already because of how slow live poker moves and b) you don't really know how *everyone* at the table perceives you and it's hard to figure it all out when you only get like 40 hands and hour and when there are 9 other players, so if you get raised by someone you don't have a strong read on, it's hard to know if they are playing back and if you should go broke with a hand like TPGK or if they are not trying to adjust at all.

i play pretty aggressive in 50/1 from the start and show down some junk in small heads up pots.

people at my table then don't believe i ever have anything or have a clue what im doing (partly true!) so once i actually have the goods they are willing to get it in with top pur

ahh this is just what I was talking about above lol