Live poker

I've been winning recently so decided to go play some live poker.

Live poker is very different from online poker, for some obvious and not so obvious reasons. In live there's an atmosphere, whether you like that or not. There's things to distract you, or things to excite you. There are people to talk to, or distract you. People can do things to put you on tilt, much easier live than online, or at least that is what I find.

One of the biggest differences is counting the pot is a bit more difficult, if you are used to online poker, counting bets, with say 4 players playing a hand can be tough.

When I went to play in a 50 seat deep stack there were some maniacs at the table.
One guy nearly went broke on the third hand with NOTHING. He was down to about 7 Big blinds, bearing in mind this was a DEEP stack. Next hand he doubled up with the quality starting hand of K6 when he hit it on the flop.

I wanted to get this person in the right spot. He had been over betting the pot, by sometimes 2 times, with nothing. I had 88. I hit an 8 on the flop, 5 players in. I bet half the pot. Then a 7 came. I think there was something like 2c 6c 8h 7s. He bets like 25% of the pot. I raise. He goes all in. I put him on either two pair, a flush draw or 59off or 45off. This was a BIG bet. I had trips.

Online I might fold. But with 8 other players giving you pressure to call or fold I made the rash choice to call. I had 10 outs to a full house. He had 4 5 off. So he had a straight. The river was a 9. I was out. I think I went out 2nd.

Compare this to my recent results of 2500th out of 55000 people, or 1st out of 166 people and I really notice I need to improve my live poker skills.

I guess all it takes is practice. Another difference is the price. This buy in was 10x the amount I normally spend on tournaments. I am going to try to find some cheaper games, and avoid the maniacs in the first few levels. Another lesson I learnt, just call when I am drawing to the nuts. It is better. Especially when playing against utter maniacs.