Live Poker Adjustments/Considerations/Tendencies (Discuss please)

[True North]

Interesting and insightful post as always, Bond.

Just something I thought was relevant, regarding point 5 on open-limping -- Ted Forrest wrote a bit on this in the Full Tilt Tournament Guide, in the section (Don't) Play Like Ted Forrest. One point was that open-limping has value if it helps to condition others at the table to limp as well. It also allows you to see more flops in the early going when stacks are deep, on the theory that if you open-limp (particularly from late position), you can call a raise behind you for a relatively small portion of your stack and use your superior postflop skill, whereas if you open-raise and get reraised, you usually have to lay your hand down.

[kenny7]

Very interesting and informative post....not that I've ever seen Bond post anything that is not,but I thought I'd say it anyway.....

I thought I'd throw in my two cents as well. I do play a fair amount of live poker and a few of the points in this post can't be emphasized enough,they are crucial adjustments that have to be made going fron online to live.Also,let me say that it is good this is posted in both forums,because there is a big difference between high and low stakes live poker and how it's been played,more so than online I think. The low stakes are a lot softer and more exploitable for good players.I play alot of tourneys in the $100 range and my comments are directed at those. I do occasionally play some bigger ones as well and although there are similarities,the bigger ones do sometimes play a little different.

Points 3 and 4,and I guess 18 and 24 as well....can't be stressed too much. Live is extremely tight!! Although a CO/button raise can be a steal,a EP/MP raise is not.ALso,you can really narrow down the hand here.They will hardly ever raise w a smallish pair,suited connectors etc.These hands will be limped but will almost always call a raise. A rr is almost a guarantee of QQ+/AK. Bond says restealing happens with a very low frequency,I'd say it happens so rarely that it can almost be ignored.

Of course,since their rr range is QQ+/AK,they will expect your to be the same. Ironically,that does not mean they'll automatically will fold to the 3bet.Infact,if they have raised with a hand like AT or a mid pp,expect to have your rr called a fair amount of the time,as they are looking to flop the A or a set.

I know this sounds kinda contradictory,it is supposed to be tight,yet they will often call your 3bet. It is something you'll see often though.It goes to point 6 about calling too loosely.Whilst the raising ranges are tight,the calling ranges are too loose.That is something to take advantage of,especially as they call way way too loose oop. They will hardly ever have a plan for the hand,other than hoping to flop gin.

Point 17 touches on another thing that is extremely exploitable live. You have oh-so-much more FE then you think!!! I cannot say how many times I've seen someone with 5x BB call off half his stack to a raise,only to fold after the flop.This happens all the time!! Don't think that just bc someone has put in over half his stack he's committed,he's not!! I could give dozens of examples,suffice it to say,FE!!! You always have some!!!

Betsizes. I see a lot of weird betting. Example. 2k in the pot after the flop...or turn for that matter,4 players,1 guy bets 300,everybody folds. This happens more often than you think.The reason for it is that there is very little restealing going on,if they don't have anything,they are more likely to fold to any size bet then actually try to take it away.I'm not advocating betting 300 into a 2k pot btw,I seriously think that's against my religion,but small bets usually means they are fairly weak,so this is definately a safe spot for a raise and take it.

There are a lot of other things I'd like to point out and discuss,but one thing that I think is crucial for online players to adjust to is the short stack pushing ranges. First of all,a live short stack is nothing like an online short stack.10bb is plenty,people don't start to panic until they are down to 3-4 bb. Infact,you'll frequently will see people w 10bb raise 3x and then fold to a rr. This obv means that their shoving ranges a extremely tight. Throw out all your normal ideas about callingranges for a shove. If you call as light as you would online,you will be losing alot of money.

ANyway,these are just a few of my ideas about live v online. One thing I'd like to say though,read Bond's comments to point no 6,I really think this is spot on.