General advice on moving to online play
 

I have a home game that I play every Saturday. I track my results and, on an average buy-in of $40, I make $77 profit every Saturday. The sample size is roughly six months worth of Saturday so I consider it to be relatively sufficient.

At my home game I am acknowledged as one of the best, if not the best, player in the game. However, online I frequently get extremely bored playing and end up making silly plays and stupid mistakes that I never make in my home game. Playing bad hands out of position, trying stupid bluffs that don't have a payoff worth the risk involved and other loose, overaggressive play are all good examples. Other things that end up happening is that, again because I'm bored, I let my attention wander from the tables that I am in and go into other windows to read news or forums etc.

In the home game I have the company of real, physical people in the room to keep me occupied. Online I have nothing but a bunch of faceless players, many of whom fold dozens of hands in a row waiting for THE perfect hand to play. (Not necessarily a bad strategy, but definitely a dull one.)

Are there any tricks or mental exercises that people use to keep themselves focused and alert online during long stretches of play?

Re: General advice on moving to online play
 

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Are there any tricks or mental exercises that people use to keep themselves focused and alert online during long stretches of play?

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Porn LOL

Re: General advice on moving to online play
 

Wouldn't that be MORE of a distraction? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I tried that once and ended up busting out of a STT very quickly and very dramatically. The worst part was I did a bad push, was left with a crippled stack that I managed to hang around with for about 25 minutes while being trash-talked by the guy who called my pocket pair push with AJ. Yeah I pushed with 3s and it was a dumb push, but his call was worse. Ahem. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

I was kind of looking for general advice on when to take breaks, what dietary considerations to keep in mind, how long to play each day, etc.

Re: General advice on moving to online play
 

Here's my advice - play a few tables at once, and it won't seem like you're waiting forever to get a hand.

Also, the fact that you know what you're doing wrong is more than half the battle. You know what to do, so get some self-control and do it!

Re: General advice on moving to online play
 

Play more than 1 table. This will keep you from getting bored. If after a while you feel bored playing again, add another table, etc....

Re: General advice on moving to online play
 

Thanks guys. That's good advice. I'm going to try that. In terms of bankroll management, how much of my bankroll as a percentage should I be using on each of the tables that I am playing?

Re: General advice on moving to online play
 

I agree with the multi-tabling suggestion. And it doesn't need to be 14 tables, two is usually enough to keep the action happening. I also play 6max online, so the hands move pretty quickly.

Re: General advice on moving to online play
 

If you're playing NL, most people like to keep a bankroll of 20-35 full buyins for the particular stakes they are playing. So, if you're playing 100 NL, and you have $3,000, you're adequately rolled (and even overrolled in most people's eyes). You should not worry about what % of your bankroll each table represents, just play an amount of tables you are comfortable with that won't overwhelm you. The advice of playing more than one table is very good advice as the better hands come along more often because you are playing 3,4,5 or more times the hands per hour as you would at one table. Most everyone remotely serious about online poker multitables for this reason, as well as the fact that you can make more money if you're a winning player.

I hope my post helped some, good luck. One thing I have noticed, though, that I will leave you with: There are tons of fish online, but, in general, online is tougher than live play. That's not to say that you aren't a winning player at all, I'm just saying don't expect to run over the games online as you have your live games. Table selection is a very important part of your online career, and you should be aware of that as well as the other factors.

Re: General advice on moving to online play
 

All of the things suggested are good pieces of advice. I had a bit of bad luck my first time out (made the nut full house and lost to a straight flush, flopped a jack high flush with 10-J suited and lost to someone who flopped the nut flush with AK suited, flopped a full house and lost to four of a kind) but it definitely helped me stay focused.

Although I have to admit, all of those beats in the same night were a bit painful.

Edit: In particular the bit of advice on the general skill level of online players is pertinant. I actually expected online players to be LESS skilled than offline equivalent, and frequently they are, but it is impossible to really learn and read players online like one does offline.

Re: General advice on moving to online play
 

I have to disagree. You can make a ton of reads on oppenents online, but it's entirely based on you noticing betting patterns, believe me when you're playing 60 hands an hour at a table with a player you'll find'em. You just need to be looking for betting patterns. Also, You'll have the advantage of not seeing the same people all the time so you can pretty much stick to a gameplan when you sit down at a table. If you only wanna stick around and play the nuts, you generally can and still get paid off sometimes.