My foray into online poker: Advice requested

[Arc]

As of yet i have not played a single hand of online poker and am here to get a little advice. I am only considering online poker now because i may be moving to Germany in a few months for a year or so and have found that the games there are almost non-existant.

Along with the high unemployment rate and no live poker i may need to transition to online play so i don't completely wipe out my savings and bankroll in Germany. So here's some basic information.

-I have played HE for about 9 years (all in Southern California). The first 7 years i played LHE grinding it from the 2-4 to the 15-30. For the majority of the time i was a successful player winning roughly 2BB's an hour (i had one bad year at 8-16 but that's it). Unfortunately i got pretty burned out working full time and playing part time so i quit for about 8 months.

-I returned and got hammered my first three sessions at 8-16 (guess i was rusty... i guess). So i decided to try out the 1-2 NLHE. I haven't looked back since. I quickly transitioned to the 3-5 NLHE (after 3 sessions) and i play both the 3-5 and 5-10 and have done fairly well the last 2 years or so.

-I do not consider myself a very good player, per se. I am very mathmatical, and have read many books and have logged tons of hours so i do know the game. The only real edge that i feel that i have is my discipline and knowing my limitations. I play very, very disciplined and with the aggressive nature of many live players in the NL game (thank you WPT) who overplay many hands i make good consistant money. I still find it hard to believe that players continue to pay me off who know my style of play.

-Weaknesses: I can be run over, i am not very creative,can be outplayed by good players easily, and if i had to rate my heart on a 1-10 scale it would be a 3-4. I make my money off the players not smart enough to stay away from me when i have the better of it.

For example: I reraise a $30 bet to $120 and you 3bet to $240 and i go over the top for $800 more and i have only played premium hands and you have KJs what should you do? That's how i've made most of my money. I play a very solid game and if you are smart you really won't lose money to me. And in case you're wondering the guy called.

So now that, that's out of the way, my questions.

1) What limit should i transition to? I really have no desire to go back to LHE. I really have no idea what online players are like. I hear they are much looser but also that the quality of players are also better online at the lower limits. So i'm not even sure where i should get my feet wet.

2) Do i need to adjust my style? If so, how? With all the information that can be kept on opposing players i don't see people paying me off like many live players do. I think one of the main reasons i haven't entered online play because i feel that i may not be a winning player online. All i hear is, "bad beat, bad beat, bad beat", from everyone.

3) I read the FAQ and am starting to read this forum, but i'm still kinda lost. Bonuses, PT, statistics like xx/x/x about a person, aggro, what sites are better, what sites seem "more" rigged than others, etc.

4) I notice alot of the games seem to be 6max. Are there many full ring games because obviously at a B&M they are always full.

Anyhow i'll probably have more questions later but i'm actually late for a lunch appointment. Any response would be appreciated. Thanks.

[threeonefour]

there are plenty of full games online. if you can beat 5-10 NL live. you can probably beat 1-2 (200$ buyin) on party. that is probably where you should start. if you want to do limit i would suggest 3-6. 5-10 maybe.

online poker requires a very different skill set.

learn to multitable. start early.

get pokertracker. learn how to use it.
get PAhud. learn how to use it.
find a good site. party/stars are solid choices.
you should probably be clearing some kind of bonus/rakeback/or some kind of promotion while you play. almost all sites offer something. keep that in mind when you pick which site to play at.
don't tilt. for some live players it hard to treat online chips like they are real money. of course is this true of many players while playing in a live setting. just play good poker i guess.
good luck

[RunDownHouse]

When you transition to online, realize that 1) the games are not rigged, and 2) you're going to get a ton more hands in than you would in a casino. Even on the smaller sites, the games are not rigged. It may seem like you keep seeing "action flops" and bad beats left and right, and so on, but really, you're just seeing so many more hands per hour it makes it seem like they're coming more often.

Honestly, the best thing to do is head over to the affiliates/rakeback forum, find someone to set you up with a signup bonus and a rakeback deal on Empire/Euro/Absolute/wherever, put some of your live roll online, and experiment. You sound like you're experienced enough to be a fairly quick judge of what the games are like and where you stand with respect to the games.

Also, try limit again. You might like it online.

EDIT: also, don't worry about learning to multitable right away or pokertracker or anything like that. Just get your feet wet, get acclimated, judge the games. You'll want PT fairly soon for record-keeping purposes, but there's no need to psych yourself out with a ton of other concerns when you haven't even been introduced to online poker.

[threeonefour]

yea he is probably right. you might have to take a week or so just to get down the logistics. but i think you should learn the stats/pokertracker/software side fairly soon. once you get comfortable with the mechanics of funding an account/withdrawing and clicking the raise button i guess.

[solucky]

we have poker in germany. If you move to westfalen look to the casino in Hohensyburg they have games over the weekend also other casinos in germany

[Arc]

Thanks for the posts guys, you've been very courteous and informative. Just got back home from a sickengly long session from 3:30 PM til 7:45 AM. I hate it when i get stuck(-1100 at one point). Fortunately the table got short-handed and i actually turned a small profit.

Rundownhouse - whats funny is that i was talking to a player tonight and he said i should start playing Limit again as well. I might look into that.

[RunDownHouse]

Don't tell anyone, but the 6max games are a blast, and should let you cut loose a little bit more than you're probably used to doing at full NL.

Nasty swings and it takes getting used to, though.