The nature of the beast.

Wow, a flurry of posts here. Ok, so I was thinking about posting some specific hands. There are, however, plenty of well-read forums for that sort of thing. I don't know what the others are planning but later on I probably will post some hands here. For the moment I think it would be more illuminating to talk a little bit about online poker in general.

If you've ever played poker at a live casino you probably played $1/$2 no-limit hold'em ($200 NL). That means the big blind is 2 bucks, small blind is a dollar, and the maximum buy-in is usually between $200 and $300. A fairly typical hand looks like this:

The first player limps for $2 and a couple guys fold. Somebody raises the pot to $12 and another player, along with one of the blinds and the original limper, call the bet to see the flop. The flop is dealt (we'll not worry about what cards it brings). It's checked to the original raiser who bets $15 into the roughly $45 pot (a few bucks have been dropped for rake at this point). Two players folds and the other calls to see the turn. Again it's checked to the original raiser, who again bets $15, this time into a pot of $70. His opponent calls again. On the river the original raiser yet again bets $15 and his opponent calls. The original raiser flips over his hand and his opponent looks twice at his cards before throwing them in the muck. The final pot is about $100.

Now let's look at a fairly typical $0.25/$0.50 ($50 NL) online hand:

Everyone folds to the button (the last player to act before the blinds) who raises to $1.50. Both blinds fold and the button picks up the blinds worth a total of $0.75.

In short, online games are much tighter and more aggressive than your typical casino or home game. Even at so-called micro stakes like $25 or $50 NL the player pool consists of relatively skilled and experienced players - even some professionals. Blind stealing, re-stealing, bluffing and semi-bluffing -among other things -are important parts of any winning player's strategy. If somebody sits down and starts playing like a typical live player (limping in to see flops, betting much less than the pot, calling a lot of bets, etc.), well she sticks out like a sore thumb. At one point in the movie Rounders Matt Damon's character says something to the effect of, "If you can't spot the sucker during your first half-hour at the table, you are the sucker." The truth is, in an online game, if a sucker sits down everyone else knows it after two or three hands.

So why, you might ask, would poker professionals choose to play online instead of live? Well there are a lot of reasons. (I'm a gonna make a list 'cause I'm a too lazy to write this into a coherent paragraph).

1. Convenience. Most parts of the country do not have live card rooms within driving distance.
2. The rake. Live card rooms typically rake 10% of the pot and you usually tip the dealer when you win one. Online poker rooms have less overhead and more tables, so they can afford to rake the pot much less (typically about 5%). And of course here is no dealer to tip. Therefore to have the same win-rate online, you don't need to outplay your opponents by the same margin.
3. Multi-tabling. This is the big one. More tables mean more hands, and more hands mean more profit. Most if not all online pros play several tables at the same time. In this household, I'd guess that most of us average 8-12. I know of several players who do 24 at the same time. In a typical hour I play over 300 hands. Contrast that with a typical live game where I would guess 30 hands an hour is normal.

So I think that pretty much sums up my thoughts on the subject. Peace and goodwill to you and yours.

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