World Class Player Reveals Secrets

Hi everybody.

I'm a world class player who has been playing for over 30 years. I've seen it all, believe me. Yet, get this, I've never won a major poker tournament, okay, I don't play in very many, and, this is the important part, I am just over a break even player on line.

Reread that last sentence if you didn't get it the first time. Yes that's right. I'm admitting to one and all that I only make a pittance playing online.

First of all let me say that I average over 100K a year playing around the country in casinos. My best year ever was 560K, and I've had two losing years. They weren't horrible losing years, but I lost just the same. It's a living. Then I broke my ankle and was laid up for a while, so I took the plunge and tried playing online.

At the time 15-30 was the biggest game you could get into, so I played that. I played 30-60 once in a while, but it was a real bear to get a seat. I bought a couple of big monitors and started out playing two games and worked my way up to eight, and settled in at four. Four games at a time was my comfort zone--no more than four I should say, sometimes I only played two.

I got killed playing 15-30. Literally killed. I played no differently than in the casinos, but I just got crushed. So I switched to the 100 and 200 sit'n'gos. I did much better. I started recouping some of my losses, but I still stubbornly kept trying the 15 games with a little bit better success, but no great shakes.

I was enjoying playing at home and decided I would take a year off from the casinos and just concentrate on playing online. I jumped all over the place too. I played everything from .50/1.00 to 30-60. I played in a ton of tournaments, but never made a final table.

At the end of one year I was winning $15,000! What a joke! And it was very hard work! Needless to say I was fried. Completely [censored] fried. I went for all of the bonuses, and I got rakeback, but I just couldn't crack the code. I wasn't alone either. Friends of mine who are excellent players told the same tale as me. I guess we just suck as poker players. I beat the 80, 100 and 150 games year in and year out, but I can't win online. I wonder what my problem is?

The worst players I have ever seen in my life play on the internet and I can't beat them. I play with bad players all the time. I didn't start out in the big games either; I worked my way up the hard way. I'm used to loose, wild games. I know how to play with maniacs. I understand how hand values change. I know how to play the players. What I don't know how to do is win big playing online, and neither do a lot of other "world class players."

I've been lurking here four two or three months I guess and reading here and there. Not many losers on this site. I'd say ninety percent of the posters here are online players and they are all world class as far as I can tell. I've played a lot with David and some with Mason, hell I've played with just about everybody--even Ray Zee in the old days--but I got to tell ya the posters on this site are the best goddamn poker players in existence. They win and win and win and some of them win big! $100 and $200 an hour!

Of course, I don't believe any of it. There might be a couple of big winners, but that's about it. It's just not possible in my opinion to make it big playing online. I just don't see it. Sure you could crack a tourny or two, and I'm sure some have, but that's like winning a lottery anyway.

You see in a casino the bad players come and go, but mostly they go. The bad players contribute to the good players. Online the good players contribute to the bad players! You know what I mean.

Well my hat is off to all of you geniuses who are killing this online golden egg. All of you guys who quit school or quit your job, my hat is off to you too. Hell, in four or five years of grinding it out at four tables at a time you should have a damn nice bankroll built up. You're gonna need it, because you'll be so burnt out by then you won't know which way is sideways.

I quit playing online about four months ago. I just got back from Hawaii for two weeks, and I am pretty much rested up and rarin to go. I'm not going back online; I'm done with that. It's back to the casinos for me, where poker makes sense, you can see your opponent, you can hear what he has to say, and you can actually make some good money.

Who knows, maybe next year I'll give the WSOP a shot, but I've always concentrated on the side games. I wish you people luck in your online adventures, I really do. But just take it from someone who's been around the block a time or two--online poker is a fools folly and the only ones getting rich online are the sites raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars a day.

Oh I've got some more theories and such, but that's enough for now. I wouldn't want to burden my new friends with information overload right out of the shoot.

So in the meantime, don't forget to get your rakeback, your $100 for 700 raked hands bonus and your four big bets per hour. And when you get good and pumped up come on down to the Commerce Casino or head on over to the Bellagio and maybe we'll play a little sumthin. I'll be lookin forward to meetin ya. Have fun.

Ciao

[Reef]

skimmed most of the post..

but online is MUCH tougher than live games. 4/8 in a casino is about .50/1 online level.

[SoCalRugger]

[ QUOTE ]
You see in a casino the bad players come and go, but mostly they go. The bad players contribute to the good players. Online the good players contribute to the bad players! You know what I mean.

[/ QUOTE ]
Clearly, you are a brilliant poker mind. Hopefully the mods make this a sticky, so everyone can benefit from your world class advice.

[Tk79]

I dont get it..... What are the world class secrets?? That since you are unable to beat online games they are a "fools folly"??

Also if you can make 560k in a year why is it so unbelievable that.........you know what, I've wasted enought of my time on this one already.

[Equal]

Online limits are much harder than the equivalent live. 40/80 live is probably the same as 5/10 or 10/20 online.

[xniNja]

While I don't think the OP is correct in that it isn't possible to win online (since I am doing it)

I disagree with what many of you are saying is the reason why. In my experience, at least in California, 20-40, 30-60, 40-80, and 80-160 are much tougher games than an online game under the 100-200 level. This is an opinion based on my own experience & other people who I know play high limits.

I would guess the OP isn't playing as tight as necessary to beat the on-line game. (also guessing he wouldn't have a problem with aggression.)

[edge]

[ QUOTE ]
I got killed playing 15-30. Literally killed.

[/ QUOTE ]

OH MAN WELL YOU KNOW THE SITES ARE RIGGED AGAINST ZOMBIES

[Mike Haven]

From the content of your post I'm not quite clear how you can define yourself as a WCP, but even if you are a winning live player, your stating "I got killed playing 15-30. Literally killed. I played no differently than in the casinos, but I just got crushed" should give more than a hint to even a merely reasonable player where much of your problem lies; particularly when you also state "I started out playing two games and worked my way up to eight, and settled in at four."

Apart from the quality and game experience of the players, it should be totally obvious that live play and online play are two entirely different art forms.

Especially when online poker is fixed, which I suspect is the secret you were struggling to bring yourself to reveal to us.

[Baulucky]

A secret for you:

Pattern Mapper.

Shhhhhhhh.

[Petomane]

I've been making consistent money for 2 1/2 years now, 4 tables of 2/4 & 3/6, so I don't see your point and I don't care if you believe me.
I've met many B&M players who fancy themselves very good & make miniscule profits online. I've even offered to help a few of them, but they know what they know. They all declined the help.
I don't fancy myself very good, but I do make decent money - that's the beauty of online. And I try to improve all the time. Very few good online players have losing YEARS. Jeez.
Like most successful online players I started at 0.50/1 & work my way up, but slowly. Jumping into the highest limit online was foolhardy.
On the other hand, on the rare occasion when I play in a B&M, I tend to crush the game - isn't that something...