The Changing Face of Hold 'em

[Boopotts]

I was rained out from work today, so on a lark I decided to cruise down to Greektown and jump into a bit of 10-20. Aside from a little bit of play here and there I really haven't played much for the past year or so-- what with working on my website, family obligations, etc-- so I wasn't really sure what to expect.

Oddly enough, it seemed that the B&M game hadn't changed all that much. Most of the pots were under 6 BB's, and the game was filled primarily by studious looking middle aged men-- the type who do far more calling than raising, and who at least make an effort to play well before the flop. Overall, it was the same game I left behind in 2002. The faces may have changed, but the style of play seemed unaltered.

As an experiment I decided to sit down in an online 10-20 tonight. I'd heard plenty about the throngs of fish in the mid limit Internet games, and I had about a grand still rattling around in my Party account, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. At about 10 tonight I bought in for 500 and took a seat in a full 10-20 game, interested to see how it compared to the B&M game.

Jesus Christ. I've been playing for seven years, and I'm not sure I've ever seen so many bad players who thought they played well assembled at one table at the same time. There was absolutely no shortage of 'isolation three bets' with hands like 87s, flop capping with mid pair and a backdoor flush draw, and on and on. The play du jour appeared to be check raising a pre-flop raiser on a total bluff-- just to check and see if 'they had AK'. Probably 85% of the hands I played featured at least one completely illegitimate bet or raise, and not a few featured two or three of them.

As I watched this zoo game unfold, two things occured to me. First, for whatever reason the online game bears only the faintest resemblance to the casino games I've played in. And second, that a player who read HFAP would be completely unprepared for mid limit online play. I mean completely unprepared. If you have JJ online, and get three bet pre flop, your leaving all kinds of money on the table if you check and call on a 983 flop. 21st Century edition or no, Mason and David are going to have to rework that text if they want it to remain relevant. I learned a lot from HFAP, and much of the strategy did and still does apply to casino play, but the online game is just an entirely different beast.

Anyway, just some random thoughts now that the day has wound down. I'd be curious to see if anyone else has made these same observations, or if I just happened to stumble into the stupidest game ever played on Party.