B&M to Online

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

I have a couple questions about transitioning from B&M cardrooms to online poker. I just moved from California, where I normally played 3/6 either at the local cardroom or when I went to Vegas and I'm a profitable player at that level. Now that I live in Colorado, I play 5/5 (the state's max on wagers is $5, so it can't be 5/10) instead of 2/5, although I've only played it once since I've been here, so even though I think I could beat the game I was at, one game is hardly enough of a sample size. I've got a decent library of poker books at home (I'll have 10 once my latest order comes in any time now), including the standard beginner books (a few Sklansky, Jones, Caro, Vorhaus's online book), so I've been doing my homework and I'm an intelligent guy who can handle the math and strategy concepts involved.

Anyway, my main question is what game I should start out playing and what level I should expect to be able to play at. I play for play money now at several sites to check them out and I realize the game's faster online than at the B&M. It seems a bit ridiculous to me to play for 10/20c or even $0.50/$1 - I played for quarters on hockey trips when I was eleven. Is that actually the level I should be starting at? How does a B&M 3/6 game compare to an online game? I'm not going to come in here and claim to be the master, but I think I'm pretty solid for my relative lack of HE experience (about a year in the cardrooms).

Secondly, if I do come in at $0.50/$1 or even 10/20c, how good is it really for me to adapt to winning at that level? Is it as far off of a 3/6, 5/10, etc. game in terms of quality of play as I'm thinking it's going to be?


Thanks for any help,
Patrick

ps. Who's got some good deals for me to sign up through them? Anybody have any warnings on affiliates not to sign up through? You can PM me with this - no need to jack the thread.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

One more thing that I might as well keep in my 'hi I'm a newbie' thread: any comments on Neteller or Firepay? I assume they're both pretty much equally good and trustworthy. Is there any reason to go with one over the other and have you guys had any bad experiences with either? How do they make their money - do they take a cut when I deposit or withdraw from the account? Are transfers to and from poker sites immediate?


Thanks again,
Patrick

[ewile]

Neteller is completely trustworthy. As far as I understand, they make their $ from the Poker sites, not from fees to you and me.
Deposits to the sites are immediate, while cash out's generally have some delay. Most sites get the money into your Neteller account within 24 hours. One glaring exception to this is Pacific Poker which takes like 3 days. But Party/Empire, 24 hours or less.
I've been playing online for about 2 years and have made numerous Neteller deposits and withdrawels and have never had a problem.
As for game selection, my inclination would be to check out the Party .50/1.00 games for at least a little while to get used to online play and if you do well, take it from there...
Good luck!

[Webster]

ditto ewile.

You might find online play slightly tougher but it depends what kind of games you are playing LIVE.

In Wisconsin LIVE games are 70% flops 10/20.

Start low at Party and go from there I ould say!

[ChicagoTroy]

I'm in a similar boat and would appreciate some guidance. I'm a winning $5-10 player in Chicago who has been planning on moving up in stakes. I started talking to a mid-limit poker coach who suggested I give online play a shot. Adapting to online play (only two weeks) has been very painful, partly because 95% of my experience is playing in a tighter game than the $3-6 & $2-4 games at PP. I understand intellectually that passive games with six players seeing the flop require playing more multiway hands, but in practice I'm having difficulty fleshing out the strategy.

My plan was to multi table at PP and beat up on lower limit games, and use the profit to finance online & B&M play at $10-20. Since I am a losing player at these lower limits /images/graemlins/blush.gif, however, I need to make some adjustments. Any advice would be appreciated.

I can ask this in a new thread, but since this was pretty closely related to the original poster's topic I thought I'd toss it out here.

[bicyclekick]

from my personal experiance, the .5/1 game on party plays slightly worse then the 2/4 game in b&m here at canterbury in MN.

The party 2/4 game is similar I think to 3/6 or 4/8 live, and the live 8/16 game is a lot like party 3/6.

/edit I use both neteller and firepay and am happy with both

[nykenny]

depending on your bankroll, start at a comfortable level. as long as you minimize your chance of ruin, you should be fine.

if you have been killing the 3/6 live game, why not start at 3/6 online? this way the swings are familiar and tolerable.

Kenny

[Steve S]

As long as you have a bankroll around 200BB, you would be fine w/ the 1/2 games. If you are a winning player, these games are definitely beatable. Getting comfortable playing on-line is more relevant than the playing ability of your opponents at these levels. Once you get more comfortable w/ online play, you could move to 2/4 and go from there.

Steve