You're a Bunch of Factors

Damned shame it was only a $1 tourney...

well done orphaned gland, I can't get my head around online poker, I guess it is from playing practice games on the computer, where you know hands are set regardless of how or what you play, and so the end result doesn't matter. I prefer to play real people, get a read and a feel for their game, online, I can't see or read anyone ...

One day I might get better at it, but I see it as a harder game to play.

can I ask how often you play online compared to 'in the flesh' poker and what sort of record you have as far as tourney won, placings in finals, etc. etc... and what sort of standard you consider yourself at?

I just take an interest in people's achievements and love learning about what they want from this game ... Q9

I play online quite a lot, but lately I have been building my bankroll by playing 0.25/0.50 NLHE and PLO cash games rather than tournaments. About a year ago I was playing a lot of freeroll tournaments and came first about 4 times from fields of 2000+. I consider myself to be of a reasonable standard, I understand a lot of the concepts involved, however there are still aspects of my game to work on and fine tune. Earlier this week I came 3rd in the World Cup Australia Qualifier. Top 9 from two tourneys with 300 entrants were entered into an 18 player final, the top two of which were selected for the Australia World Cup team, and I am the reserve for the team (I should have finished top 2, but the short stack won 3 all-ins in a row with junk hands ). On sat I came 14th in the 1000 FPP satellite into the Sydney APPT, which had 100 entrants.

Now that I have turned $0 into $2k I think it's time to look more seriously into the tournaments, because they can be extremely lucrative. The only problem is that you need to try and find 6hrs straight of free time to be able to play tournaments, cash games are a lot more convenient in that you can quit at any time.

A lot of concepts are common both to live and online forms of poker, it's not really as different as you might think, and the approach should be fairly similar. However you do need to take into account the structure of the game you are playing. For instance the NPL structure normally sees most players at around 10xBB, this vastly changes the way you can or should be playing compared to in an online tourney where you could have 50xBB or more. I guess you might argue that actually seeing a person in front of you might help you to get a read in borderline situations, but in the online setting you can observe betting patterns, read hand histories etc to work out how each person is playing and use that to put someone on a range of hands.

Orphaned Gland wrote:Now that I have turned $0 into $2k I think it's time to look more seriously into the tournaments, because they can be extremely lucrative. The only problem is that you need to try and find 6hrs straight of free time to be able to play tournaments, cash games are a lot more convenient in that you can quit at any time.

Whilst tourneys are lucrative, there is a lot of pain between paydays. Not to mention the volume that you need to run at to make any kind of lucrative payday.

Had to looks this post up from PNW. Jay Seabeast Kinkade monday schedule for MTT's.

12:00 ongame 75K gtd
12:00 FT $109
12:45 Party 300K gtd
12:45 Stars Warmup
13:00 Stars $109
13:00 FT $75 6-max
13:30 FT 55 cubed
14:00 Stars 100+R
14:00 iPoker 250K gtd
14:00 FT Sunday Brawl
14:30 FT 22+R
15:00 Party $530 Highroller
15:00 FT $163
15:00 Stars $55 80K gtd
15:00 Cake 50K gtd
15:00 Ongame 100K gtd rebuy
15:15 Stars 55+R
16:00 FT 150+R
16:30 Stars Sunday Million
17:00 Cake 250K GTD
17:00 Stars 80K gtd
17:15 Stars $215 HU
17:30 UB 200K gtd
17:30 Stars $500
18:00 FT 750K gtd
18:30 Stars Second Chance
19:00 Stars 100K gtd
19:00 FT 40K gtd
19:05 FT Mulligan
19:30 Stars 100+R
19:30 FT 100 Cubed
20:00 Absolute 75K gtd
21:00 Stars 200+R
21:00 FT 100+R
21:30 Stars 80K gtd
21:30 FT 50/50

Over 3 or 4 different sites. Not to mention the cost of entries. Means he needs to place in about 3 or 4 tournaments to make any dint on it. If he final tables a few obviously puts the day into a positive spin. This is also one of the top online players for Australia.

By focusing on only one tournament online, it makes life a little bit harder because of the constant fold, wait for hand to finish.

There was another post in 2+2 about multitabling cash. The user had 12 screens up, and was averaging one click every 1 second. Keeps your mind sharper, and doubles by making a lot of decisions easier.

As to cash games. There are still lot more concepts that go way past tournament play. Fold Equity and expected value play a lot. Also being able to narrow down hand ranges and playing with numbers in pokerstove also adds to it. Few other programs such as pokertracker help keep stats which can help you work out the hand range if you are either a little bit lazy, or are multitabling.

thanks for the posts, I find this really interesting.. My husband plays online all the time (he does not work due to a disability) and has done since february as he was getting bored having stopped work 12 months ago. so he plays every day and multi tables and hold'em, horse and omaha - many formats too ...

but I don't have the patience to sit here and find that I am betting on pots that I should not even be in and all the rules I use for my 'real' poker, don't even come into consideration ... for example, I never consider my position in an online tourney, if I like my hand, I will play. and I play more hands cos the loss is only minor.

I suppose I will get my head around it one day, but for now, it is just not me. good luck with you games guys .... .Q9