online play

[Trapper]

i've decided to give online play a try. Does anyone have any tips as to what online site is good to play at? Paradise seems to be the one i've heard of the most. What about the others? Is there any difference? What about rakes?
Also would like to know where i could get access to tips about playing strategies for online play. Are they the same as live play (i would think so?)? Any suggestions or tips would be very appreciated. Also, can you make $$$ in the low limit online games? ............. If not i won't waste my time as A.C. is an hour away. Thanks.

[Bob T.]

You can definately make money at on line play. It isn't that different then live play, but the games are a usually somewhere between a little and a lot tougher than the same limit of live play. But that should be expected, because you are playing a lot more hands per hour, so if you make a certain amount per hand, you can make more money an hour at online play, than you could at live play. Which will draw stronger competition.

Because you get more hands in per hour, you get to large numbers of hands more quickly, and if you are a winning player, I think it might be a little more stable than live play. This means you might be able to play a lower limit for the same earning potential with lower volatility than in live play.

The big advantage of online play is the convenience. The cardroom is about a mile from my house but it still probably takes about 15 minutes to drive, park, and get in a game during nonprime time, but I can be online in about a minute, and if I have a short time to play, I can just jump on for 20 minutes, or a half an hour, and then go onto whatever else I have to do.

The rakes are typically 5% which is less than most live casinos charge for live lowlimit games.

Online play also spreads microlimits, that a live casino couldn't economically. So you can practice, and build a bankroll at $.50/1.00. The lessons are a lot cheaper when you can make your mistakes at those levels.

I play on several different sites, and the games on each site have a slightly different flavor, in terms of aggressiveness, looseness, and trickiness. I would try more than one until you found a game that you are comfortable with. I like playing at multiple sites, because I think it makes your game better if you can adapt to multiple styles, because each individual game goes through phases where the games style changes and the better you adapt, the better you play.

In addition to Paradise, Pokerstars, Ultimate bet, True Poker and Party poker all usually have tables going at some low limit level. I haven't played at Americas' cardroom but have heard that they usually have games also.

Good Luck,
Play Well,

Bob T.

[eMarkM]

Try the archives as this question as been asked a lot. I can't comment on others sites, I've only played at Paradise. Typically--but not always--a 3/6 on a site like Paradise will play like a 10/20 at a B&M. Often even tougher. Get up to the top level 20/40 on PP and you'll often find yourself playing pros that play 80/160 in Vegas, so that's going to be much tougher than your local 20/40. At 5/10 and up feel lucky if you have maybe 1 or 2 players who are fishy as the rest are usually fairly solid. Keep in mind you're playing with folks from all over the world, so it's a large pool of talent that gathers at these sites. Of course there's plenty of fish from around the world, too, so game selection is vastly important. You have to learn who the bad players are and get in their games before they go bust. Which, in some cases, can be a matter of a couple of hours, as the vultures descend on these characters very quickly.

At the 3/6 at PP I play at nearly everyday, I'm used to the frequent blind stealing/defense situations in games that can be awfully tight. Yesterday, I was at a casino for the first time in a couple of months playing 10/20 and I think there was 1 blind steal and 1 chop in the whole six hours I was playing. Seriously. There was always some fish sticking his chips out there with 53s (one called a TT open raise of mine with exactly that and flopped a str8 /forums/images/icons/mad.gif). That's unimaginable online even at the micros, let alone the 10/20 level. Playing online certainly toughens you up for live play, IMHO.

Obviously online tells are limited, you mostly can only go by betting patterns. Most of the sites have the same rake structure. PP for 3/6 and up is 5%, $3 max. Much cheaper than B&M, however with the increased number of hands, this can still add up quickly.

My advice is try is to mess around with $200 or so at the micros and build a bankroll to play at the higher limits as you get used to online play.