Adjustments Online Poker Players Must Make in Real Life Casinos

After playing poker for 2 years online on many different online poker sites, I finally decided to try out the real life poker room. I used to live a couple hours from a casino, but my new apartment is less than two hours from a great casino with a quality poker room.

Last month I played over 100 hours (including a 22 hour session!) of live poker play. I realized these two adjustments every online poker player has to make in order to succeed in the brick and mortar poker room.

1. Playing less hands

Many online poker players including myself are used to playing 3 or more tables at the same time. Obviously, that's not possible in a real life casino. Also, because of the time it takes to shuffle the cards and deal them out, you'll get about half the hands per hour in live play. Whereas an online table will have 60-70 hands an hour, a live play dealer will only deal 20-30 hands an hour.

Therefore, if you play 3 tables simultaneously online, you could be playing six times as many hands per hour online than offline!

If you're a tight, solid player, you'll have to be much more patient in live play. Some hours you'll only play 1-2 hands. This may feel like you're not playing enough hands. However, don't loosen up too much and lose your edge. The slower pace of offline play means you won't see as many good hands as you would on the online poker sites.

If the slower pace causes you to be impatient, do something to occupy yourself. Talk to the other players, eat some lunch or dinner, or practice your hand reading skills on the hands you're not involved in. The pace is so slow offline I've seen players read books while playing.

2. Playing worse players

When playing offline, get ready for some bad beats because offline players are much worse than their online counterparts. Offline players will call a raise with 33 and then call down a board of AQJ8. Just don't tilt when the river is a 3 and cracks your AK.

You have to prepare your mind for the crazy bad beats that often come because bad players will play bad cards and chase long shot draws. Remember that for every bad beat, there will come a time when your pocket Aces hold up and you scoop a big pot.

Also, since you're playing worse players, you can play more speculative hands like suited connectors and suited Aces and Kings. These hands play well in multi-player pots. And if you hit your flush or straight, you'll probably have a lot of callers, which will win you a huge pot.