If some of you have never played in a live tournament, this is an example of what it is like. Here are a few hands from a recent one. I am really struggling to find anything playable at the moment. You just have to make do the best you can. I will try anything. Live poker is not internet poker. If you look at the following, and what I tried to do to win some chips, you will see why live is so different. Here are my best opportunities, and I have demonstrated what I tried to do to win.

Blinds are 50/100. I have about 6000 in chips. I have 82o in the BB. There are 2 callers. The flop comes 9 T J. I ever so slightly suck in some air and blow it out. I very very slightly shake my head and bet 300. I throw my chips in using that “oh I’ve got nothing but I may as well bet” sort of way, that signifies a massive hand. The first player looks at his cards, mucks them, and suggests what a massive hand I have. Thankfully this makes the other player think twice about calling and he folds. I do not show my “massive hand.” This is another thing you can do live if you have some experience. You just have to hope that your opponents have read up on tells and think they can read other players. If one of those players had any of that flop, of course I was in trouble. But it is the sort of flop that if players do not have any part of it, they do not want to get involved.

I had an AK in late position and a short stack player in early position had gone all in. I most definitely did not want another caller. The player to my right was fingering his chips. You cannot yell “DON’T CALL” although the temptation is there. But I started counting out the call amount from my stack. Thankfully the other player seemed to notice this and folded. Fingering your chips is sometimes a sign that you do not want a bet from your opponent, but this was a different situation. I just wanted to let the other player know I had a big hand.

Blinds are 100/200. I have a stack of about 6000. I’m in the big blind with T2o. There are two callers. The flop comes J J 2. I bet 400. Chances are I have the best hand here. There has been no pre flop raise so it’s unlikely someone has a pair. Thing is, I want to find out if I have the best hand. If I don’t, someone will soon let me know. If you bet your hand, you can choose the price for finding out the information. If you just check, first of all it shows weakness so it encourages others to bet. Secondly they are the ones who are setting the price for you to find out where you are. Not only that, you still don’t have any information until you reraise. By the time you find out, it can become very expensive. They both fold. Here is the advantage of being a tight player, that a lot of players don’t mention. If you play like this, when you bet, you are sending out a signal that you are strong. When you do this it gives you a much better guage for judging your opponents’ reactions.

Blinds are 50/100. I have a 5000 stack. 4 players limp in and I have 88 in the small blind. I raise it up another 350 and get one caller. A jack and two rags appear on the flop. I bet 800 into a pot of just over 1000. I get a call. Another rag comes of on 4th and I bet 1500. This shows I am pretty much committed to the pot and think I have the best hand. If I check it gives a free card. If my opponent bets I don’t know if he is doing so because I showed weakness or because he has a better hand. But I am looking at the guy and to me he doesn’t look like someone who thinks he has the best hand. This is one advantage that experience of playing live can give you. After looking at him I have a good idea I am ahead. He folds.

From the last 12 to reduce to 10 took over an hour’s play. Blinds went from 300/600 to 400/800 to 500/1000 to 600/1200. During this time I had a stack size between about 12,000 to 2000. I had AK 3 times and lost 2 to 8T hearts and AJ. I won one against 89 diamonds. I called an all in with 99 when we were playing hand for hand which would have sent us all to the finals table. The young lad was showing impatience and went all in under the gun. I had 99 in the BB. I could have folded but I decided I really couldn’t and still call myself a poker player. He turned over JQo and the jack hit on the second card of the flop. I went in once as underdog with AT against a short stack with AJ. I went all in with AJ and got called by T9. The 9 hit on the flop but I hit my jack on 4th. This still gave my opponent a ton of outs but I survived. It is really hard to get to finals tables when it runs like this. The second from last hand I played was when I had about 7000 in chips and called an all from the guy who had called my AJ all in with T9. He had gone all in with AJ and I don’t blame him for doing so. It was the right move but I had AK spades and really had to call. 4 blanks hit on the flop and the jack hit on the river. It left me with about 400 chips and no chance. Even my last hand all in of K5 was up against the chip leader with A5. It was just one of those nights.

To be successful in tournaments you really have to have a reasonable run of the cards. I lost 2 decisions where I was 70 per cent favourite. I lost the one where I was 30 per cent underdog and I lost the 50-50. If I had won just one of those it would have knocked out a player and meant we all go to the finals table. I won 2 of the hands where I was favourite, but they were when I was low on chips. It is really hard to win money with that sort of win rate so I was the last one out before the finals table. The really big ones though were the hands I lost, where I could virtually double through, knock out an opponent and make the finals table. I don’t think I made too many big mistakes. I consider the guy who called my all in raise with 9T to have made a mistake. He was the one that knocked me out eventually. Sometimes you can make mistakes and still win, but you cannot win in the long run if you play that sort of poker.

It was a really hard struggle all night. Out of the 12 or so hands I won in over 4 hours, there was not one single time where I was better than one pair. I won all my hands with one pair, a semi bluff, or an outright bluff.

This year marks the 10 year anniversary of the inception of online poker.  Back in 1998, planetpoker.com offered us the very first opportunity to wager real money against human opponents from all over the world.  Since then, the steamroller hasn’t lost a step.  Millions of people every day log on to their favorite site with the hopes of hitting it big.  Millions more are getting their “feet wet”  with the ultra-inexpensive games online sites offer.  Weather you are the fish or the shark, every single poker player has dreamed of finding themselves at the final table of a major poker event.  Dreams of millions of dollars, sponsorship opportunities, television appearances, and so on.  But in order to achieve this goal, at some point you are going to have to play some live poker.  You are going to have to show your face, feel the cards, feel the chips, be at the table, and thrust yourself into the world of brick and mortar poker.  Those who play both live and online won’t see a problem here and, for the most part, neither will the “test tube babies”.  The main problem will be when a “test tube baby” is identified at a live table.
These players stick out like a sore thumb to the trained eye.  Couple that with the fact that the online game is a much quicker pace and filled with inexperience and a “test tube baby” is going to find it very difficult to survive in the real world…  that is unless he/she makes the necessary adjustments.  Now the adjustments I am going to talk about here have nothing to do with actual game play, hold-em is hold-em,  but about the way an online player should “disguise” themselves as to not make it evident that he/she solely plays online.  Believe me, in a live game, players play “test tube babies” much different than they play their B&M counterparts.  So let me quickly give you a handful of suggestions as to what the online player should do to ease their transition into the B&M world.

1.  PRACTICE LOOKING AT YOUR CARDS.  You are going to have players very close to you, practice looking and covering up your cards as to not give any free peaks to your neighbors.  This may sound silly but if you have never played live before, you won’t think of it.

2.  PRACTICE WITH CHIPS.  This is the biggest giveaway in my opinion.  I can spot a test tube baby a mile away just by the way they fumble their chips.  Practice cutting and placing bets with your cheques (chips).  Fumble around too much and players are going to assume your inexperienced and play you accordingly.

3.  WAIT YOUR TURN.  You don’t have to worry about this online, just click the auto-fold and go to one of your other 50 tables.  Not here.  You are giving away valuable information by letting your intentions of folding be known.  Wait your turn before mucking your cards.

4.  WATCH THE OTHER PLAYERS.  It’s not too difficult to pick up on little silly things if you pay attention to the table, even when you aren’t in a hand.  Picking up tells is not as difficult as it’s claimed to be if you know what your looking at.  Remember, this isn’t online, you don’t have 50 other tables to worry about, all your winnings come from one table.  Maximize your potential.

5.  WATCH YOURSELF.  Remember, when you can see other players, other players can see you.  They are looking for the same things you are.  Just practice CONSISTANCY.  Always cut your chips the same, bet with the same speed, take the same amount of time on your hands, always look at the same place when in a hand (I personally cap my cards with a chip and stare at the chip until the betting round is over regardless of the circumstances).

6.  STAKES DON’T MATCH UP.  What did he say?  Let me explain what I mean.  When a new player starts online, he/she will usually start with the smallest stakes they can find until they gain some confidence.  Most sites have games starting at nickel/dime or less.  At your local casino, you rarely find stakes below $1/$2.  So in the live atmosphere, the newbies are all playing $1/$2.  Online, the $1/$2 games are very strong because there are likely 5 or 6 different games with stakes lower than this where the newbies will hang out.  In the casino, they are all at $1/$2.  So remember that the $1/$2 game live is going to have the same talent or skill level as a quarter/half game online.