Live Poker v Online Poker

I played in my home game last night, where a group of us get together around someone’s house and play some pokaaaa. It’s a standard no limit texas hold’em, but with a healthy dose of cigars, chat and alcohol thrown in too.

Sometimes the pots get pretty big and some of the players are pretty good, but it differs from the online microstakes grind as follows:

Much more players seeing the flop
More open limping and / or calling raises
Less 3 betting
Smaller bets in relation to pot size as we get to the turn and the river.

Player types are the same as any game, a couple of TAGS, a maniac, and lots of loose passives.

So do I play this game for any competitive / learning point of view……? Well a bit. I certainly do not go for the expectation of winning loads of cash. I just want to catch up with my friends and get a bit pissed. However, live play in poker is important for all of us because it introduces the 3rd dimension to the poker table as follows:

Betting patterns and tells in relation to the physical presence of the player (highly overrated in my view)
Verbal clues (more relevant)
Table chat (getting used to it with friends is good for when you sit with a bunch of wankers you don’t know at some random casino MTT, don’t let them intimidate you)
Ability to deal with pot size and bets (in my view one of the most important aspects of live play. Its such a giveaway when you have a monster and you can't easily push that pot bet in without it looking like you have the nuts)

I could go on.

But why bother learn live poker, when its all online for you. Well if you like online poker, and you get good at it, you are going to slaughter the live cardrooms, I guarantee it. 25nl plays like 200nl live. 100nl plays like 500nl live. At least from my own limited experience.

Try it and see.