Poker News

Ashley Adams

I mentioned in a column a while back that I had started to play on line with some money sent my way by the generous folks at Party Poker (Hey, if you’re the most successful on line poker site you can afford to be generous, no?). It was nice to play with funds that were, literally, House Money.I figured that, at worst, it would be interesting experiment in on-line play.

Well experiment I have - with low stakes Stud and Hold Em games, large tournaments and the one table variety called Sit and Gos. It’s been fun and remunerative.

But I’ve noticed some aspects of on line play that make it both different from casino poker and make it easier to lose money more quickly on-line. I’ve come up with eight examples of these differences, followed by an brief explanation of why these differences tend to deplete your bankroll, and ending with a short paragraph of how to address the problem. This article, Part I, starts with four differences. Part II, the next column, address the remainder.

1. On-line money is to live poker chips what poker chips are to real money. It’s easy to forget that you’re playing for real money and to become reckless and casual about your bets, clicking on the raise and call button just for kicks. If you’re not attentive, you can easily fritter away your entire bankroll on casual and mindless calls, or miss opportunities with automatic folds.

REMEDY: Literally pause for 5 seconds before every action. Your pause will give you time, albeit only a short time, to think about your action and what you are going to do with your chips. This will inhibit your bad habits and help you insert the more appropriate thoughtful action.

2. The computer screen is more boring than the casino scene. You’re more readily bored when playing on line because there is less to distract and engage you. This often seduces players into mechanical rather than thoughtful play, causing them to miss opportunities and risks that they would pick up on in person.

REMEDY: Play for only 15-20 minutes bursts, focusing all of your energy on the game itself while you are playing. This will help train you to focus only on the game in hand when you are playing. Eventually, you will be able to do this for longer sessions as your stamina increases.

3. Computer action is faster. More hands an hour mean, often, that a small error can be multiplied very quickly and become a major hole. There is more risk to your bankroll if you go on tilt - even for a short period of time.

REMEDY: Demonstrate to yourself how quickly you can run through a bankroll by getting into a play money game. Play with complete abandon and wildness for just ten minutes. To cure yourself, pause for five seconds before every action (even folding). Take frequent breaks and focus on the game at hand. These pauses and breaks should help train you to maintain a purposeful pace.

4. Game selection is greater. There are thousands of games within one click of each other. While this is a positive attribute of on line play-it’s only so if you are taking advantage of it. If you’re not, then you run the risk of regularly finding high quality players entering your game, changing the dynamic and taking advantage of your inability to adjust accordingly.

REMEDY: Don’t automatically play in the first game you see. Watch some games, surf around from site to site and game to game until you find one that meets your standards of a good game. Don’t be reluctant to get up and leave when you find the game is bad or that it has changed and is no longer good. There are lots of sites and tons of games. Keep moving into the best one you can find.

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